Wedding Planning Tip | When to Book a Wedding Videographer

The common wisdom on when to book your wedding videographer is around the same time as the photographer. 12 - 18 months ahead of the big day is recommended for best chances of hiring the videographer that you want. It depends on how important your wedding videography package is to you.

How Important is Videography to You?

Top-end wedding videographers with a strong brand presence are in high demand. These wedding videographers will typically take bookings up to two years in advance. Their production values will be outstanding and their packages will usually include additional videography team members and sometimes photographers too. These types of videographers are highly sought after by clients who place a great deal of importance on their wedding videography package.

Videography might not rank as highly on the scale of importance for some clients. Usually considered as a nice-to-have, as opposed to a must have. Opting only for coverage of the ceremony and vows or a short form highlights video. For this type of booking, you can usually book much nearer to the wedding day, within around 6 months or so.

Our Average Booking Time

Our bookings have been from between 4 months up to nearly two years out from the wedding date. The average time has been 9 months from booking to the wedding. Our package ranges from coverage of the ceremony and speeches up to short and long form cinematic wedding films. You can learn more about our packages and pricing by following the link.

The True Value of a Videographer

The bottom line on when to book your wedding videographer depends on how much value you place on your wedding videography. If your wedding video package is your most valued memory, we would recommend contacting your preferred videographer as early as possible to check their pricing and availability. If wedding videography less important to you then it is OK to leave booking till much later. You can even shop around for a newer wedding videographer who is building their portfolio and save some money. If you take this approach, please be aware of the inherent risk in using low cost vendors. (Tax, Insurance, Professionalism etc) One of the most common regrets for newly married couples is not hiring a videographer. Wedding videography these days is an art form in itself, combining stunning visuals with audio design and music for a truly priceless memory. We would recommend budgeting at least as much for your videographer as you have for your photographer. The true value of a wedding videographer is not in how much they cost to hire, but in their experience and ability to provide you with priceless memories that you’ll treasure forever.

Limited Availability & Pricing Changes

The majority of wedding videographers tend to book only a set amount of weddings per year. This is especially true if they're doing all of their own editing such as we do. It pays then to make your enquries earlier rather than later to ensure that your preferred videographer is available for your date.

Another good reason to book your wedding videographer earlier is to secure them at a lower price. Wedding videographers will review their pricing in line with their increased demand, business costs, style and quality. They will increase their prices to reflect increased demand and maintain their limited availability throughout a year. This is especially true of new but talented videographers building a portfolio.

Editing a wedding film takes time and dedication and is where the majority of the work is done. Most wedding videographers are creative and diligent in giving each wedding film edit the time and dedication it deserves. This is great for the client as it ensures quality. Wedding videographers will often only book up to a set number of weddings for a given year, particularly during the peak months for weddings. If your wedding is coming up soon and you haven’t even thought about a wedding videographer. It is always worth checking availability with your first choice. If they are booked they’ll usually be able to recommend other videographers of similar style who will be available.

We tend to aim for around 20 weddings per season. This ensures that we do not bite off more than we can chew. Each wedding gets the time and attention it deserves and we are also able to maintain other commitments. During peak wedding season it’s non-stop editing for us. But we like to maintain creative control over the editing and so we don’t outsource our editing. Editing is a big part of the process of wedding film-making and we enjoy that side of it almost as much as the wedding itself.

If you think that we would be a good fit for your wedding and would like to know if we’re available for your wedding day, pop a few details in our contact form and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Wedding Planning Tip | Unplug Your Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Planning Tip | Unplug Your Wedding Ceremony

What is an Unplugged Wedding?

An unplugged wedding is where you request that your guests unplug from the world and refrain from using their phones for photos and video. There are a few main reasons why you might want to do this. They have to do with your use of professionals to provide the visual package, social media and your guest experience. Unplugged weddings ceremonies are becoming more and more popular. But if you haven’t considered having an unplugged wedding or even heard of one, then this tip is for you.

You have Hired Professionals

The first reason is that you have already hired a professional wedding videographer and photographer whose job it is to capture those key moments with professional equipment. Your guests should feel free to relax and be in the moment with you. Let the professionals worry about getting the perfect angles and framing for your wedding memories. Guests can easily hinder the professional coverage and even unintentionally ruin one-time only shots. It’s better if they were to take the experience in live and let the professionals worry about covering the memories.

Be in Control of What Goes Online

The second main reason that you might want to consider having an unplugged wedding is because of social media. When guests are taking photos and video throughout the day, they’re unlikely to go to print for an album or canvas. Those images will more than likely be uploaded to Facebook and Instagram on the same day. Maybe you’d like to be a bit more selective about what images of your wedding go online immediately. Not only that but you don’t have to wade through hundreds of notifications at the end of the day or the next day when you finally go through them. It’s great when guests are documenting their own experiences of your wedding day and sharing the fun they are having. That’s probably best left for cocktail hour after the formal bit is out of the way.

The Guest Experience

You don’t have to insist that guests unplug for the entire day. The ceremony is the most important part of the day. It’s when your guests and groom will see you for the first time in your beautiful wedding dress. Rather than have them leaning out into the aisle and potentially obscuring the view of the videographer or photographer, have them take the moment in, with all eyes on the two most important people at that time.

How to Request an Unplugged Wedding

It’s really easy and polite to request that guests unplug for the wedding ceremony. Most guests these days will come to expect it, but they will need reminding or else the temptation to get a quick snap or short video clip will become too much. It is your wedding after all, you should be able to have it go exactly as you’d like. Trust your professional wedding videographer and photographer that they will capture the best possible angles they can and have your guests be with you in the moment. It’s rare that the guest photos and video will match the quality of the professionals but even if they did, it makes it harder for us to capture a quick candid of their reactions when they’re concentrating on getting their own photos.

All you have to do is ask the celebrant/ officiant to politely remind the guests that for the wedding ceremony, photography and videography is the sole responsibility of the professionals hired to do it and that they should relax and take the experience without using their phones.

You can also buy or make a low cost sign to politely remind your guests that you’d like an unplugged ceremony. It’s a nice touch and another way of gently reminding your guests that you want them there to experience the wedding and to leave the videography and photography to the pros.

From Our Point of View

As professional wedding videographers, we take great care over planning our shots along with the wedding photographer to make sure that we have your memories covered. We don’t mind guests taking photos and video throughout the day to document their own experience of the wedding and give you some images before you receive your professional images. We would agree that it’s a good idea to unplug for the ceremony. We want the best shots for your wedding film, we want you to relive that moment of walking down the aisle with guests beaming and watching you in your stunning dress. We don’t want to see them arms up with phones in front of their faces. We’ll make sure that we capture that and we guarantee you that our shot will be beautifully composed, steady and it won’t be vertical video. That’s why we would recommend having an unplugged wedding ceremony.

If you’re still not convinced. Check out this awesome blog post from Your Perfect Wedding Photographer.

23 Reason to have an Unplugged Wedding!