Finding a good videographer for your wedding is certainly a bit harder than you expected. You immediately go through various questions in your head:
"What do I have to look for when choosing the right wedding videographer?"
or "How do I make sure that I will like our wedding film?"
After all, a wedding film is the most precious memory that you keep from this day. For months you have prepared everything with great attention to detail. Some of your friends and family travel far distances just to share this special event with you. You spent countless hours thinking about the table decoration, flowers, wedding dress and much more.
Your wedding film is all you got when the day passed.
You will not only share it with your guests and friends, but you will certainly watch it again and again.
A rainy Sunday evening, the atmosphere is romantic and you want to reminisce?
A wedding film is intended to arouse emotions in you, it should move you and the people around you. Your love story is the reason for this wedding and this story should be told in your wedding film.
You've already decided to hire a wedding videographer and you're way ahead of many couples! How so? Believe it or not, there are couples who invest all their fortune in their wedding. Everything has to be perfect ... and then buff, the day is over. Unfortunately it’s over very quickly. Now you have put all your money, the time and effort into this one day and everything went so fast that you could hardly enjoy it.
You can not imagine how many times I have heard from married couples: "We decided against a wedding videographer because it was too expensive for us. Today we know that was a big mistake.” This is a mistake that unfortunately can not be undone. The train has left, the wedding has happened. All that remains are some nice photos and possibly shaky live video footage of some relative's cell phone.
But since you have decided on a wedding film, you can enjoy this day, its emotions and highlights again and again in a very intimate way - and as often as you wish.
There are endless pros for a wedding film. But there is only one contradiction - and that is the costs. "A wedding videographer does not fit in our budget". Those who do not have that much money and organize a low budget wedding probably have a hard time squeezing a videographer into the small budget. I understand that. If you have doubts about whether a wedding film is worth your money, I can tell you with the utmost certainty: "YES - every single penny". You certainly will not regret engaging a wedding videographer.
Where do I look for a wedding videographer?
1. Comparison websites for weddings:
There are online platforms where I can search for photographers, videographers, caterers and other service providers.
My personal favorite is the German platform weddyplace.com.
But if you are from the U.S. or the United Kingdom you may have heard from weddingwire.com or weddingwire.co.uk. On these platforms you can see a great selection of pre-selected service providers including prices, reviews and availabilities. By stating your budget, you can even see if and which service provider fits your needs. In addition, you can safely and easily make your booking and payment through the platform.
2. Ask for recommendations on Facebook:
Posting on Instagram or Facebook often works wonders. "Does anyone of you know a good wedding videographer in Mallorca?" Or "Do you know someone who makes beautiful wedding films in Germany?"
This often provides you with a great list of different options.
3. Did you hire a wedding planner?
If you can and want to afford a wedding planner, you probably have less trouble finding the right service providers. If your wedding planner does a good job, you can count on him or her to provide you with a great selection of top professional service providers. You're only spoiled for choice. However, it may be that you are not satisfied with your planner's choice or that the wedding videographer you’d like to book is no longer available. Then I invite you to read here how to find a great wedding videographer yourself.
4. Your photographer also offers wedding movies?
Meanwhile, many wedding photographers also offer wedding movies in their packages. It is impossible for a single person to film a wedding while taking high quality photos for many different reasons. That’s why you have to work in a team and with several people.
Which means the price would be the same as hiring an external videographer.
There is something you need to find out: It’s whether the photographer is just offering the wedding film as a service to potentially make more money, or if the photographer and his or her team are actually passionate wedding filmmakers. When filming and editing it is particularly important that the service provider carries a good deal of emotion and passion. You do not want to have a boring, callous documentation of your day. A pure documentation without tension, feeling and professional pictures is something you probably only look at once. The film will die in the dark archives of your cloud and yes, that was certainly not worth the money.
5. Wedding movies instead of Netflix series:
Research is essential. To know what you want, you just have to watch countless wedding films from all sorts of videographers. Until you can no longer look at them anymore!
No, of course not. I recommend you to watch the films of some of the best international wedding videographers. This will provide you with an eye for quality and you know what you want. Now you can tell the videographers of your choice all wishes and ideas in advance.
6. Reviews
Ok, this is not really a surprise to you. I know. Reviews are an important reference but shouldn't always be trusted since they can be faked. The portfolio will tell you, how much you like the videographers work. Having a meet up or phone call will make sure you also feel comfortable with this person on your special day. Sympathie for each other is important to create a great wedding film together.
Can you choose the background music in your wedding film yourself?
I often get this question:
“Can I choose the background music?”
Ok, at this point I have to be completely honest with you:
The background music is, in my opinion, the most important element in your wedding film. With the right selected music, emotions and certain highlights can be emphasized even better. I spend several hours choosing the right background music for my clients' wedding films. Why? Because I want to make sure that the music fits the wedding, the people and the experience. The background music should reflect what I feel when I think about the couple.
Even though you kissed for the first time on Celine Dion's "My heart will go on", unfortunately I can not use that at all as background music for your film. My wedding films have a certain style. Part of this style is above all the carefully selected music. That probably also convinced the couple to book me as a videographer.
Nevertheless, I am of course very open to new ideas and inspirations and listen to all my clients wishes. However, there is never a guarantee for me to consider the desired music. If I notice when editing the wedding film that the song doesn’t fit, I have to reject it unfortunately.
It’s really not a good sign, if your wedding videographer says yes to every single wish. That just tells that he or she has no exact idea of what he wants to create for you.
How much does a wedding videographer cost? Are wedding movies expensive?
On average, couples spend about 1500,- EUR on a wedding video.
However, as with any service provider, quality matters. Experienced wedding videographers are usually more expensive than newcomers. That does not mean that they are necessarily better.
Newcomers may be talented and could have more passion than the oldies. In addition, other factors also play a role:
Do you want drone shots of your wedding location? (This especially makes sense if you have booked a stunning location such as a castle or something similar)
Which package do you choose?
Do you want a highlight film (4 - 10 minutes) or a report (more than 20 minutes) or even both?
Does your package include a team of several videographers on site?
Does special equipment have to be borrowed to meet certain expectations? (e.g., a camera crane or lights)
Have you already found a wedding videographer? Or are you still looking? Let me know your experiences and additions in the comments below.
Would you like to get a quote on a wedding film? Contact me for a free consultation today and save 10% on early bookings.