4 Tips for Picking a Wedding Videographer

For a lot of people, picking a wedding videographer or photographer can be a daunting task, and one more thing on the to-do list of endless wedding prep. Today, I’m breaking down from a videographer perspective 3 tips that can help guide your search for the perfect wedding videographer whether that’s me or someone else! There are many different videographers out there when it comes to wedding films, and it’s important to take some time to understand what you want as far as style and content delivered as well as getting to know your videographer.

1.) Know what end product(s) you will be receiving.

There is tremendous variety when it comes to the kind of end product you will receive from various videographers. Some document your whole wedding i.e. ceremony + reception in a long documentary style, unedited product while others do an actual cinematic film that can vary in length. Still others do a combination, for example here at MGW Productions what I offer is the ceremony straight through along with a 3-5 minute cinematic highlight film of the entire day. This can incorporate the audio - both voice (speeches, letters, officiant, etc.) and music along with the visuals of getting ready, the ceremony, beautiful golden hour shots and reception content. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide exactly what coverage you want for your day and to understand exactly what you are getting from each videographer that you talk to. Also, understanding the turnaround times for each final product is another great thing to ask.

2.) A wedding video should evoke emotion in you.

After all, this is like the biggest day of your life, right? Weddings are emotional events, and it’s important to have a videographer who can take the uniqueness of your relationship and capture it and tell it in a way that evokes emotions to you and the viewers of your final wedding film. This tip would apply more to the cinematic, highlight style of films, but still is something that you should think through. There is a huge difference between documenting a wedding and capturing the emotion and loveliness of the day. The video should evoke an emotional response in the audience - this is just good storytelling. So in watching demo work of videographers pay attention to how they are capturing the different events of the day…does it move you? Is it beautiful and unique?

3.) The music shouldn’t annoy you in a wedding video.

To go along with the last point, part of creating a great wedding video is picking good music. Because weddings can be an overdone category in videography, there is a tendency for the music to be very clique - like the over-dramatic piano chords or quaint acoustic vibes. Music for a wedding video is huge! It should be as high quality and tasteful as the visuals, fitting the mood and the couple. So as you are shopping around keep this in mind - how does the music flow and transition? Does it move you? Is it tasteful? Is it annoying or beautiful?

4.) Pick a videographer with great communication.

With all your wedding vendors, it’s important to pick ones with great communication! This can help you avoid unnecessary stress within the process and on the wedding day. There’s nothing worse than having an uncommunicative vendor leading up to the wedding to make the stress level go up! The more communication the better in terms of how quickly a videographer responds to you (should be in 24 hours if possible). Sometimes this isn’t always possible, but shooting for prompt communication is best on the part of any wedding videographer so this is good to keep in mind! Also, discussing things especially as it gets closer to the day like timeline, special requests and answering questions are also aspects of great communication.

In conclusion, these tips can really guide your process in picking the right videographer for you out of the plethora of options that are out there to choose from. I hope they are helpful to you and can ease the process of crazy wedding prep!