6 Tips To Choose The Best Wedding Photographer or Videographer for You
The Right Human. The Perfect Ring. The Best Dress (or Suit). You’ve made some of the most difficult choices thus far in your journey together. But how do you choose the right Visual Team to document the first step into your “Happily Ever After? Here are six tips on how to best memorialize your perfect day after all that planning, hard work, prepping, and those pesky stress breakouts.
Hire photographers and videographers with whom you feel connected.
Some of our team with a happy bride and groom after their wedding
Dressing room shenanigans, private moments with your closest friends and family members, and those intimate moments with your partner will be captured by the artists you choose. For these reasons, among the other obvious ones, it's very important to have a connection with and to feel comfortable around the person or persons you choose to capture your beautiful day. Make sure you and your partner have time to meet with your potential artists in person (or via zoom when necessary in this new age of social restrictions, or if distance prevents an in person meeting before the big day). Visual storytellers are people people and they are experienced in how to bring out the best in their subjects. They will take the time to learn what you value and exactly what kind of wedding you’ve planned. The goal is to make sure you feel relaxed and as comfortable as possible around them so your reactions and interactions are genuine and truly representative of the relationship you share with your partner. Speaking of feeling comfortable…
2. Choose visual storytellers who are comfortable with each other.
Our team getting equipment together
Your wedding day is comprised of many priceless moments that need to be filmed in a small window of time, and confined spaces.Your photographer and videographer will need to capture the same key scenes: dressing, the first look, ceremony and vows, toasts and speeches, etc. while staying invisible to the others lense. In order to pull this off successfully coordination is imperative, so aim to hire a photographer and videographer who have worked together before. A pair who have a positive personal and professional history and excellent communication. They will likely have an existing plan in place to make sure those special moments are well covered. Ask around for recommendations or have your photographer suggest a videographer (or the other way around) for a worry free wedding day, as far as the filming goes anyway. Even better, find a company that provides a power duo of film and photography.
3. Make sure your artists are familiar with shooting your venue type.
We love what we do!
Getting married on the beach? A cathedral? Or in a ballroom? The venue setting of your ceremony and reception are important factors to consider when choosing your film team. If you find a photographer you love but notice that all of their films and photographs were taken indoors and you’re getting married outside, make sure you probe into their equipment, skills, and abilities. Raise the question to the filmmakers before you hire them and be positive they’re comfortable shooting in your setting or settings. Propper lights and reflectors, lenses, and audio equipment are required for indoor or outdoor settings, and if your wedding or reception are at night, or if you have a combination of these, then your photographers will need to be prepped to capture the best content in each environment. Professional teams will automatically ask these questions during the consultation in order to be best prepared, but as the client you should always have an idea of what to ask and expect from your artists.
4. Don’t feel like you're restricted to choosing artists from a specific area.
Dustin our co-owner getting the right angles on the bottom left!
If you aren't planning an elopement or destination wedding, it makes sense to hire florists, caterers and officiants from local vendors where you reside. Knowing that not all artists are created equal, however, can possibly persuade you to be open to finding the perfect team by searching outside of your city. Don’t allow yourself to be constrained by location when choosing your videographer and photographers. While filmmakers do need specific and sometimes elaborate equipment (depending on the setting or settings you've chosen), it isn't usually more than they can take with them on a plane or in a car. Every artist or production company has a different policy regarding travel, but if you fall in love with someone who isn’t from your area you should still reach out. After all, love knows no bound-aries!
5. Find someone who matches your wedding video style preference.
One of your most fun weddings of the 2022 season
While researching your lens crafters, you will be presented with a lot of example footage and photographs. Pour over these. Educate yourself on the different styles. Start a list of the films that move you and show the artists your favorites from their portfolio. What did you love? Be specific. What would you want done differently for your personal love story? Just like Hollywood movies, wedding films vary a ton. Different styles of both filming and editing will come together with the specific couple to be a unique creation tailored to that experience.
Some films feature staged scenes of the dressing room, bride and groom moments, and other personal interactions, while some have a lot of candid or documentary style coverage. The reception and dancing can be made to feel like a music video. If you want a more cinematic feel to your story some filming might even take place before the wedding day. Some wedding films will feature only instrumental music. Some couples opt for paid copyrights of “their” song. Still others contain the vows, speeches, or voiceovers of love letters written to each other that you keep private until watching your movie together for the first time- reliving that day from a completely different perspective makes you fall in love all over again. (awwwwwwe!)
6. Understand what’s included in your package.
One of our full wedding videos including Speeches
Photography will always be a great basic choice to capture a split moment in time, but the value of reliving your most memorable day is worth the investment. You have spent countless hours pouring over every detail, and someone spent countless hours earning the money used to pay for every one of them. But all too soon after the nuptials the honeymoon is over. (Literally, hopefully not figuratively.) The glamorous venue will clean up your beautiful decorations. The delectable cake will be devoured. Your flawless makeup will sweat off and your lustrous hair will return to its day to day state. Your glorious dress will be in a bag somewhere collecting dust and that blissful day you worked so hard to plan has gone in a blur. But that's ok, because you wisely chose to add the film package with your photographer and you can just hit the “play” button again. And again. And again. And…Yeah. Again.
Newlyweds love sharing and reliving their entire wedding day, rather than being restricted to just viewing a few snippets in time. How can you possibly choose only a few moments to highlight from your day? We are living in a video centric world right now. Every app is geared towards streaming and sharing video, and because of this wedding films have increased in popularity, and so have the film package options and the terminology. Know what packages your filmmakers offer, and be clear on the definitions in them (social media clips, trailers, full edit, all footage). If the visual teams website is not clear on the pricing for these packages, you should take the time to make a list of all the different options and ask what each includes, but also ask what is NOT included. Understanding everything that comes with each package will help ensure you aren’t disappointed. Wedding photography and filmography isn’t just something you're purchasing for the day, it’s an investment for the rest of your life, like your vows. It will grow in interest as sentimental value with each passing year. Professional visual artists keep this in the forefront of their thoughts while capturing and editing these moments so the right team and package really should be one of your top priorities of The Big Day.
The wedding photography you’ve been dreaming of and envisioning can be achieved when the artists behind the camera have taken the time to learn and practiced honing their skills in film and editing. Professionals will have invested heavily in their business to provide a reliable and quality service to you. Passion about their work with photography and filmmaking, as well as investment in you and your wedding will be transferred into your love story. Hours will be spent in post production curating and editing that magical movie of your day. In return for you investing in them, your visual curators will pour their dedication, creativity and artistry in you.
So how do you choose the best photography team for you? Choose to book the artists whose work moves you. Who instantly captured your attention? Did their photos and movies give you the chills or teary eyes as you imagined yourself in that couple's place? Did you just say ‘yes’? (again!?) Great! That wasn't so difficult then, was it!? Now repeat after me. “I do!”
