Video a wedding, film, microphone, wedding videography cost

To Video or Not To Video

You’re busy planning the biggest day of your life. You and your fiancé are awhirl discussing food, music, and guest lists. Everyone, from mom to co-workers to Aunt Sally, is giving you advice, and your budget is rapidly disappearing before your eyes. It’s time to make every moment and, more importantly, every dollar count. Now your decision is, “Do we pay to have a professional videotape our wedding, or not?” You basically have three options.

OPTION #1 – YOU DON’T HAVE ANY VIDEOGRAPHY FOR YOUR WEDDING

The main advantage here is that you save money. Professional videography can cost anywhere from $500 upwards to over $3,000. You are, however, paying thousands of dollars for your wedding, and if you don’t have a video of the day, you will miss out on much of it and your money will be spent, to a degree, in vain. When the day arrives, you are going to be busy; you are going to be occupied with details and situations; the day is going to fly by without you seeing or experiencing much of it. Without videography, you will not see your parents and grandparents seated at the ceremony. You will not see your attendants walking down the aisle or your guests arriving. You will not see the cocktail hour. You will not see much your friends having fun at the reception (you can’t be everywhere at once). But most importantly, you will only have pictures to preserve the visual memories; you’ll have no live action and sounds to preserve the flavor and emotions of the day.

In addition, you won’t be able to relive those memories 25 and 35 years down the road. You won’t get to show your children their parents dancing, or how their grandmother smiled so sweetly during one of the songs, or how their uncle choked up during a toast.

OPTION #2 – YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER VIDEOTAPE THE EVENTS

The only benefit to this option is that you save money. The downfalls, however, are numerous and serious. First of all, the sound will be severely lacking in quality or even lacking altogether. These people do not have professional microphone systems to pick up the vows, songs, and other parts of the ceremony clearly. Built-in microphones on consumer camcorders are meant to record small room events such as birthday parties. They cannot possibly pickup voices and sounds in churches and reception halls.

Secondly, family members do not know how to get excellent shots. Your video will have lots of fast zooms, blurry pans, jerky movements, shaky footage. Professional videographers use camcorders for a living. They know exactly what shots to get, how close to get, what angle to shoot, and what settings to use for different lighting, etc. They know how to make your video look good. Comparing family-shot video to professionally shot video is like comparing photos taken by a family member’s disposable camera to those shot by a professional photographer.

Another downfall is that you get an unedited video. Your finished product will have shots of the lens cap (which they forgot to take off), shots of the floor and rug, people’s feet, backs of chairs, the ceiling, and various other building and body parts from the operator forgetting to put the camera on standby. In contrast, the professional videographer will present you with not only a flawless video, but one edited with romantic effects, appropriate musical backgrounds, title screens, and credits.

OPTION #3 – LET A PROFESSIONAL CAPTURE YOUR DAY ON VIDEO

You can’t go wrong here. Get referrals from people you know and interview different videographers. Then, just as you have done with every other part of your day, turn your videography over to a professional. You can now relax, knowing your day will be captured in a pleasing, expert, and tasteful manner, and you will be able to sit back in the comfort of your home and enjoy every moment of that day …forever.