Unfortunately, many brides view the videographer as one of the most expendable vendors for their wedding day. A few of the more common reasons couples forgo having a professional videographer is:
(1) They have a friend or family member who has a video camera.
(2) They have a photographer, and don’t see any reason for a videographer.
(3) They aren’t going to watch a video of their wedding day over and over.
Too often, couples don’t think about the fact (until it is too late) that professional videographers are trained and experienced, and take their profession and the medium seriously and absolutely love what they do. The combination of training, experience and love will show in a beautiful finished product.
So you have a friend or relative with a video camera. Sure, you can have Uncle Joe with his home video camera — but it will probably be blurry, wobbly, or on a tripod the whole evening with no closeups (BORING!) He only has the microphone which is attached to the camera, and when that baby in the back pew with mommy starts to cry during the vows the mic will only pick that up. Even if there are no crying babies, it will be very difficult for him to clearly record your voices, as well as your readers and vocalist. He will start and stop the camera at the wrong moments, so your processional music will sound like someone continually changing radio stations without stopping to listen to any one song — and he won’t know how to dub in sound to fix this either. There won’t be any editing, so the finished product will look like a cheap, home video (which is what it is) and no one will ever want to watch it, including the you.
Of course you’ve got your photographer to take lovely photos on your wedding day – but stop and consider what having your wedding professionally recorded will offer. It is important to remember that videography is a vastly different medium than still photography, and its purpose is not the same as still photography either. Think about what video offers that can’t possibly be reproduced by still photography – the ceremony music, grandma’s voice, the laughter of your guests as they’re enjoying your reception. Photography captures a single instant, a fraction of a second, while videography captures the events themselves. One of the most common complaints from a bride after her wedding day is, “I don’t remember half of what happened on my wedding day! It went by all too fast!” Having a video of your wedding day will allow you to see and hear everything that happened so you don’t have to miss a thing.
While you probably won’t watch your own wedding video, why miss out on a precious family heirloom? If you’re wondering “who’s going to watch that video?”, ask yourself this – if you had access to a video of your parents’ or grandparents’ wedding day, wouldn’t you want to watch it? Your wedding videography, especially now with digital technology and DVD’s, will last a life time. Wouldn’t a beautifully recorded and edited wedding video (or DVD) make a wonderful edition to your family history?