Wedding Videography
Today’s guest post is from Matt Stambaugh of Matt Stambaugh Media about wedding videography:
A wedding film and photography are the most important aspects in capturing your wedding memories. A wedding film will help you relive one of the happiest days of your life. Photography captures instances of great emotion, happiness and joy, and a wedding film will provide you with clean audio and a story of your day!
In hiring your wedding cinematographer and photographer, here are a few tips that I would recommend so that you have the most pleasant experience along your wedding planning and day.
In planning my own wedding for June, 2013, here are some tips that I've found I would like to share!
1. Start your search early!
Hiring your wedding filmer, photographer and DJ is one of the first steps that you should take. Wedding professionals book their schedules up to a year in advance and sometimes more! Some businesses also only photograph one wedding a day, or one wedding a weekend so being in contact early is important.
2. How to search?
In today’s world, brides and grooms are able to search for filmers and photographers almost everywhere! Wedding photographers and filmers sometimes advertise on websites such as The Knot, Wedding Wire, Style Me Pretty, The Wedding Channel, so starting starting your search online may be the first step for some. It's nice that some websites provide reviews of the vendors for starting points!
You will also be able to ask family and friends about who they used for their weddings, or any of the reputations they’ve heard. You can ask everywhere for recommendations! And if you have a wedding planner that’s an even better resource!
Wedding shows are also very popular in searching for your wedding filmer and photographer. Look at the quality of the booth, the appearance of the vendor / owner and talk to them! Try to find some common ground to make chatting easy. It's nice to be able to "click" with who you will be sharing your wedding day with!
3. Price!
Planning my own wedding, I 100% understand that price is a determining factor in choosing who you will use for your wedding. However, I will say that in my experience, you get what you pay for in some instances.
If you are looking at three or four different wedding film or photography businesses, don’t check everyone off the list based on just their price. You may want to compare the offerings for different packages before you make any decisions. Also meeting with each vendor is great! You are able to put a face to the business and see you who might be working with on your wedding day. Make sure you ask questions! Wedding professionals love meeting and working with new bride's and groom's!
4. Style, style style!
Are you looking for a documentary style, video journalistic style, a wedding film (cinematic style)? There are many different options and each one may fit a different couple better than another! Vimeo and Youtube are great resources to use to find a film style you are interested in having for your wedding day!
Some vendors capture the video and create a full-length documentary style that will be a long running film, while others focus more on story telling! Only you as a couple can think about what you would like to have!
5. Check their professionalism
Does the filmer fit the style and professionalism are looking for? The website is often the first representation of the business and company. Don't always judge a book by it's cover, but the website is a great way to start.
Professionalism may set your experience apart from one another. You may want to find out the history of the photographers filmer’s business and or company. There are businesses that are new in relation to others in the area. Ask how many wedding’s they have filmed or what experience they may have. How does the filmer or business capture audio throughout the ceremony, vows and toasts? Is there any back up equipment? What will you do with my wedding footage when it’s all over?
6. Check your costs and contract!
While the first question you may want to ask is to check to make sure the date is available, you will also want to check with the filmer or photographer on costs.You want to make sure that you understand the complete package you are purchasing and that there are no hidden surprises. Ask questions, and read!
Know your filmer and photographer, their business and become their friend. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Pre-wedding day planning will often help your day run smoothly!
:)
Last but not least, have fun
Your wedding day is one of the biggest days of your life and you want it to be a day that you will remember forever. Photography and videography are great methods to help relive your day again and again!
About
– Matt Stambaugh Media focuses on providing the best and most unique service and telling the best wedding stories. Using audio clips throughout the day, MSM uses these to help tell the story of the day. Documenting all important events and details, they work with each couple to determine their wants and needs to tell their story. For each trailer, a custom song is composed by Ryan Nicholls, a musician out of Lancaster, Pa that is created to match the style, feel and personality of the couples wedding day. Focusing on the emotions, expressions, laughter and fun, Matt Stambaugh will help create and share the story of your wedding day for years to come.