19 Jul Five Tips From A Wedding Videographer
Once in awhile, I come across a post that others in the wedding industry post on their blog that’s just plain good reading. And rather than try to re-create the wheel, I’d rather share the advice and offer props to good writing. In this case, Campbellicious Video Productions out of San Diego shares the top 5 lessons learned from last year’s weddings . . . from a videographer’s point of view of course.
– Jamie
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As the 2013 wedding season begins to kick into high gear for Campbellicious Video, we have begun to reflect on last year’s season and realized there are so many things that went right for the weddings we’ve covered. Of course, there were a few gltches we’ve witnessed too…and because of this we want to share the lesson’s learned! We’ve compiled 5 tips to make your wedding awesome, as seen from a vendor’s perspective.
Tip #1: The importance of a wedding planner/coordinator
As a vendor we get to see “behind the curtain” on what it takes to make a wedding day special, and we had no idea weddings were such complex and highly orchestrated days. Remember this is YOUR special day, let someone else throw the party for you. The last thing you want to do as a bride/groom is worry about timelines, vendors and crisis management. Every wedding will have a few glitches (yes, every wedding), but a good wedding planner takes care of it without the bride/groom/guests ever knowing. Choose a professional; having a really organized friend coordinate the wedding is risky because they may want to party with friends in attendance and things can go sideways quick. When budgeting your wedding, we recommend putting a wedding planner at the top of the list right next to photographer/videographer.
Tip #2: Don’t sweat the small stuff
Planning your wedding is exciting yet can be very meticulous. So it can be easy to get caught up in all those details you spent so much energy/time in orchestrating. But when something doesn’t go as planned try not to fixate on it, your guests won’t notice the small mishaps like if the table settings weren’t setup correctly. And ultimately years later when you reflect back on your wedding you may not even remember that. If a small mishap festers with you and happens right before a special moment like a cake cutting, it shows on camera that you weren’t enjoying yourself.
Tip #3: Document the day
Yes we are videographers encouraging you to hire videographers, but we have seen and heard first hand how couples tell us their special day goes by SO FAST. Aside from hiring a professional photographer, it’s important to hire videographers because not only will a video team capture the look and feel but more importantly they will capture the emotion of the day. It’s those inbetween candid moments that may have been missed by the flash of a photo but not the camera that’s rolling the entire day. When you’re old and grey and celebrating your silver anniversary you can compliment the staged photos with video that will conjur up the emotion of the day.
Tip #4: Embrace the awkward family moments
Everyone has interesting/unique family dynamics to say the least, so there is bound to be some awkwardness. Our suggestion is to embrace it and don’t let it spoil your day. Obviously do some prep work to negate the drama by perhaps sitting feuding family members at separate tables, but beyond the pre-planning, once your day is here, let it go. We’ve seen couples worry about family issues…and in the process forget to be in the moment or even worse let it spoil a moment. Ideally this day will only happen once, and you want every moment to be sweet.
Tip #5: Dance
Yes we’re pointing to you rhythmless grooms. It’s the one day your future wife really wants to dance and she needs someone to dance with. We recommend to put that “security blanket beer” down, set aside your shame and dance the night away with her. It makes for sad video to see a bride dance alone because the groom is uncomfortable. And standing next to her while she dances doesn’t count…it just looks awkward on camera…so shake those hips and enjoy the music. 🙂