Wedding videos: can you afford NOT to hire a wedding videographer?

With so many services vying for your precious wedding planning dollar, wedding videography is often one of the services that gets the chop. However, says Ben Whimpey, the question shouldn’t be whether you can afford a wedding videographer, it’s whether you can afford not to have one.

Ben, a professional videographer and owner of Wedding Movies, has more than 15 years’ professional shooting and editing to his name – as well as a life-long passion for film-making which has inspired his mission to change the way people think about wedding videography.

“Generally, people consider a quality videographer as an afterthought, after they’ve organised their photographer and their venue and their dress,” he says. “But a wedding is usually the most expensive event people will ever hold – and it’s one worth preserving for posterity!”

“Couples put so much time and thought into organising their big day,” he adds “and video is the only way to really capture every last word and smile and tear… live.”

“And, the fact is, after your wedding day, all most people really have left, aside from the lovely memories in your head, are the rings, the photos and the dress,” he says. “But, if you have a wedding video, you can actually relive the key moments of your wedding, so we think video is something people should attach a lot more importance to.”

Ben, who has a Masters in Screen Business and Producing and picked up his first camera aged seven, started Wedding Movies with the aim of taking wedding videography to the next level. He brings film-quality equipment and technique to wedding videos, and the result is stunning, cinematic-quality creations.

“People will tell us they don’t have the budget for a good videographer, but we think having a good quality video should be one of their first priorities, not the last.”

At Wedding Movies, they use multiple cameras so they can, for example, simultaneously shoot capture the groom’s face while the bride is walking down the aisle.

“We fully edit our videos as well,” explains Ben who has shot more than 1000 weddings in his time behind the camera. “We don’t just hand over eight hours of raw footage. After all, what is a couple going to do with that?

“We also produce a two-to-three minute highlight clip within a few days of the wedding, for the couple to share on social media. Couples LOVE that!

Shortly after, Ben says they deliver a seven-15 minute clip, which really tells the couple’s story. Our philosophy is this: even a total stranger should not only get a sense of the couple’s love, they should feel like they truly know the couple!”

Naturally, they also get a full edit of the wedding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgR6_WhyWgY

Ben says getting a wedding video right requires a lot of preparation.

“We always make sure we know exactly how their day is going to unfold,” he says. “For example, if someone is singing a solo as the bride is walking down the aisle, then we will need a third camera to make sure we can capture it all.

“We really want to tell their story,” he continues. “One groom proposed with a poem in New York so we got him to read the poem out and we worked it into the story.”

Ben, who shot Easy Weddings’ new TV commercial, says they also use experienced editors to edit the videos, which makes a huge difference to the finished product.

“We’re not just adding backing music to some clips, we are making a professional film,” he says. “Some people ask themselves if they can afford a videographer. I always say, can you afford not to have one?”

“The funny thing is,” says Ben, whose just finished filming his first feature-length movie, Arrowhead, “it’s easier to shoot a film than a wedding.

“After all, on a film set, you can always call ‘cut’ and re-do a shot – but you can’t ask a bride to walk down the aisle again or have the couple re-say their vows!”