Top 3 Things You Should Look For In A Wedding Videographer Before You Inquire About Their Services

Are you looking to book a wedding videographer for your wedding day? Do you know what to look for in a videographer before hiring them? Are you overwhelmed by your choices? Your wedding day is a big day. A day you only get once. So it is imperative you make the right decision in hiring your wedding videographer. After all they are one of the most important vendors whose job is solely to help you preserve your memories of your once in a lifetime day.

This blog is apart of our #WeddingWisdomWednesday series and in it I am going to give you the Top 3 Things You Should Look For In A Wedding Videographer.

One of the first things you should keep in mind when researching your desired wedding videographer is are they local or will they need to travel? This is an important component to search for at the very start. If you can't afford to help pay travel fees for a videographer who will need to travel out of state it wont be worth you time looking too far into them. In fact if you fall in love with that videographers work just to find out they will need to fly in to work your wedding, it will be a lot of time, energy and excitement wasted if you can't afford to help with those accommodations. This realization can be a real wedding planning motivation killer as it often times leads to disappointment and discouragement. On the other hand if you do have a budget to accommodate with travel fees the next thing to consider is how far will they need to travel to be able to be there on your wedding day? Will travel fees consist solely of a mileage fee? Will they be able to drive in and stay at a hotel? Or will travel need to include flight, hotel, car and food? While this can't always be determined before you inquire with them it is something to keep in mind and ask them if you do decide to reach out to them. Also keep in mind that every videographer will have different policies when it comes to travel and what fees they will ask you to help cover. For example when I fly out to do a wedding I charge the couple for the flight, hotel and car. I don't charge them to cover my food because I will typically book a hotel with a free breakfast, stop at a fast food place in the airport and will eat at the wedding. In fact the only food requirement I have for my couples is that they make a meal available to me at the wedding. But that is for all of my couples not just those I travel long distance for.

Keep in mind that not just out of state videographers will have travel fees. Videographers may still charge travel for in-state travel if it will require a long drive or possibly a nights stay in a hotel. In this case that videographer will have a plan on how many miles they are willing to go before initiating a travel fee. So it's important to remember just because you are booking someone in the same state as you does not necessarily mean there will be no travel fees. Though the travel fees will still be much less than videographers who are out of state.

The last bit of advice I can give you on travel is some videographers may give a discount or waive fees if your wedding is taking place somewhere they have never been before. In some cases if the videographer would like to market to this location or if the location can add value to their portfolio, they may be willing to work a deal with you.

I flew out to Portland Oregon and drove to parts of Washington for this sweet couples wedding

The second thing to consider when looking for a wedding videographer is what is the videographers wedding video style/genre? If you don't understand or know about different wedding film styles and genres please check out my blogs or videos on Understanding Different Wedding Editing Styles and Top 2 Wedding Film Genres. While you may not know the exact style you are going for you can still determine which films resonate with you and which ones you can imagine for your wedding to emulate. There are a lot of components that go into a wedding film style. For example if you want a story driven, light and airy highlight film you may not want to inquire with a videographer who has only documentary, moody highlight films on their portfolio. Though keep in mind while the videographer may not have examples on their website of exactly what you are looking for doesn't mean they wont be able to accommodate you or have a package that fits you. Often times long-form videos lasting more than 10-15 minutes won't be shown on a website but can be shown to you upon request. So if you are on a wedding videographers website and what you see mostly fits what you want but you aren't seeing a full length ceremony film or a longer than 10 minute film it can still be worth reaching out to the videographer asking if they offer those or if they just offer what you see on the website. Going to the first example of a light and airy story vs a dark and moody documentary style. If you see dark and moody and are wanting light and airy it might be worth moving on to someone who shows that specific style consistently on their website.

The Third thing to consider when looking for a wedding videographer is: How does their audio sound and is the quality consistent? One of the main reasons I tell couples that a videographer is worth the investment is because of the audio. It's an element of video that photography will never have. As my mentor Parker Walbeck would say "Audio is half of your viewing experience" So if the audio in the videographers films are muddy, hard to understand, overpowered by music, clipping or have any other concerning values it might be wise to stay away especially if its in all or most of their recent films. Now not every scenario at a wedding is perfect. If the wedding videographers films have good clean audio consistently with maybe one instance of wind that couldn't be fixed or another spot that stands out against their work, I wouldn't necessarily hold that against them if the majority of what you have been viewing has been good. Rather if its concerning enough for you I would make a note of which film you heard it in and ask the videographer if they wouldn't mind explaining what happened. I have had times where the wind was so bad I could only get the audio cleaned up so much with out completely ruining the audio. It was nothing I did wrong but the circumstances in which I found myself in that were uncontrollable. However if you are on a wedding videography website and some films have clean audio and others don't and they aren't showing much consistency in being good or bad with audio, that might be a good indication that they are still learning audio or just don't have a reliable and consistent field of practice when it comes to capturing or editing audio. The main word here is consistency. You want consistency. Whether it's good or bad. If the videographer is exhibiting good strong audio consistently then they are more than likely a good option for you. If the videographer is exhibiting bad or poor audio consistently they may be someone to either stay clear of or be a least cautious of. Something to consider asking when inquiring with a wedding videographer is how do you plan to capture audio and what backups do you have? If you would like more information on what questions to ask your videographer I will be releasing a blog and video on this soon so stay tuned.

Lastly I would recommend when researching wedding videographers that you look for consistency in all aspects of their work. Whether it be audio, style, length etc.. Does their work demonstrate constant quality in the work they exhibit? Does that work resonate with you? If so I would reach out and find out more.