Beware the ultra cheap wedding package deal
These days you can see offers to film your wedding ranging from as low as £200 but beware!  Is that cheap wedding video deal just too good to be true? I’d have to say the maxim of ‘you get what you pay for’ really does apply here.

If you see an offer for all day wedding video coverage and several wedding videos for £850 or less, with extras like drone or raw included, the alarm bells should really immediately start ringing.

Okay, you may just happen to strike it lucky and get someone really good, who’s charging less, but generally I would be really suspicious of anyone offering wedding filming at such a low price, if you care about getting a high quality video of your day. Your wedding is a one-time thing, you’ve spent thousands of pounds on it, and you can’t go back and re-shoot it, which is why it’s so important to be sure you’ve chosen a professional videographer for one of the most important days of your life.

Why should you be wary of cheap wedding deals?
A professional wedding videographer will be spending a lot of time on you and your wedding. They’ll spend time getting to know you, and find out about their wedding, prepare a shot list (call sheet) of your wedding day, and if it’s a new venue for them, they’ll do their research on it, so they’re fully prepared in advance of the day.

The week and the day before, they’ll be checking and double-checking all of their filming equipment as well as the schedule of the day, as well as checking in with you to check if there have been any changes since you booked them.

As well as travelling to your venue and spending possibly 10 or more hours shooting the day, they’ll be spending even longer editing your wedding footage. Even the shortest video you’re likely to see, an instagram trailer or teaser, can take a day to produce, and longer films take much much longer.

Video equipment is expensive, and it’s not just cameras, videographers have often invested years of their lives and a small fortune on quality gear, including lenses, audio equipment, software and training to be able to create top-notch videos and under pressure. Their computer hardware and back-up system has to be able to cope with huge video files, and the processing of them, especially for longer films. Why would you expect them to film your wedding for almost nothing – it just doesn’t make sense…

After the wedding day, all the footage has to be backed up and reviewed, and the best bits cut so they tell the best story of your day, and  work with each other, as well as the music for your video, as well as being synced with high quality audio, colour corrected and graded.I always leave the video and come back to it and fine-tune it as I want it to be totally perfect. So it’s not surprising some wedding films may take weeks to finalise.

So, someone offering you a really cheap video simply cannot offer you this and you run the risk of getting a terrible wedding video, or maybe no wedding video at all.

You can’t get your wedding day back. Ever again.
Almost everything you buy for your big day will be gone when the day is over, or shortly afterwards. The food, the flowers, decorations,  your make-up and hair – they’re all gone forever. You may keep your wedding dress, but actually your wedding video and your photographs are the most lasting reminders of one of the most special days of your life. If you pick the wrong videographer, you could end up with no film at all, if they don’t turn up or lose the footage, or a terrible video, if they’re not competent at filming. I’m not sure which would be worse, nothing or a really cringe-making bad bad bad video.

Help! How can I avoid being disappointed with my wedding videos?
Personally I would just simply cross off any supplier offering a wedding video deal that is priced at less than £1250 for the shortest wedding highlights film if you want a professional quality edited wedding film, especially if you’re looking for a videographer based in or near London, or in the South or South-east of England.

Once you’ve narrowed down your choices and checked out their work on their website, the best way to protect yourself is to contact your wedding videographer and find out more about them, how they work, and what they’ll be including in their package.

Art of Life Films.
Wedding filming specialist, covering the South-East of England, including Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, London, as well as weddings further afield within the UK,  and destination weddings abroad.