Our last wedding video tip is all about integrating your style and story into your wedding video.  I’m sure you don’t want your wedding video to be a copycat of all the others you’ve seen.  After all, this one is about you!  As such, it should reflect your style and personality.  Here are some tips to ensure that your wedding video is unique to you:

1.  Find out your style. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the fairy tale-princess-slow motion wedding, and 10 being the rocker-MTV wedding, where would you rate yourself?  Every bride pictures how they want their wedding to be.  If you can see it clearly in your mind, that will help you know what your style is.

2.  Meet and Communicate with your videographer. Wedding planning can be crazy and busy. In this age of cell phones, email, and the internet, it’s so much easier to plan everything online or over the phone without having to drive all over the place meeting with people.  But there’s no better way to convey your style and personality to your videographer than meeting with them in person.  If we can get a better sense of who you are, then that’s going to come out in the video.  Don’t be afraid to mention specific things you want (or don’t want) in the video.

3. Music. We discussed this in length a couple weeks ago, but we’ll mention it again briefly here.  The music sets the tone for the video.  So once you’ve found out your style, make sure your music selection matches that.

4.  Date/Love Story Film. We love to do the date and love story films.  They’re fun and casual and much more effective at bringing out your style.  They showcase the spark between you two as a couple.  If you’re unsure about which one is right for you, you can read an earlier post here discussing the differences and how to choose between the two.  Below is a great love story we did that captured the couple’s personality:

Tip # 1–How to choose your videographer

Tip # 2–Music Selection

Tip # 3–How to look your best in your wedding video

Our job as videographers is to show you at your best.  But there’s definitely some things that you can do to help us make you look even better.

1.  Act natural and interact with each other. You don’t have to wait for the professionals to pose you and tell you what to do.  This is your day, so let us see some of what you’re really feeling, not just how we want you to look.  We prefer to get a more candid look of your day, so it’s great to get some real interaction between you two.  We’ve also noticed that it’s sometimes hard to act natural or lovey dovey with your mom or dad standing right there.  It’s okay to tell them to go away, in a tactful way of course.

2.  Relax. This is a wonderful day, the best day of your life, but it’s very easy to get caught up in little things, especially those that you have no control over.  If you’re stressing out about time or the weather, it’s going to show in your demeanor and attitude, which we are capturing on film.  Obviously we’re going to cut out shots that aren’t flattering, but it’s so much easier to make a great video when there’s better shot selection while editing.  One of our favorite videos that we’ve ever produced was on a day in April, probably expected to be a pleasant day by the couple.  But it was snowing and sleeting and windy and cold.  Instead of complaining and worrying about the cold, they kept their spirits up, enjoyed the fact that they were now married and turned what could’ve been a stressful couple of hours into a time of celebration and fun.

3. Outward appearance. I think every bride is gorgeous and glowing in their own unique way.  A lot of time and effort goes into your appearance on your wedding day, from the dress and accessories to the hair and makeup.  Don’t hesitate to ask your hairstylist or makeup artist to come for touch-up work after the ceremony.  And please don’t ruin a perfectly good shot by chewing gum!  I know you’re staving off hunger and want to have nice breath for your new spouse, but it’s very unflattering to see someone chomping away on a piece of Big Red.  Use breath mints if you really need to.

Next week’s tip: Integrating your style and story into your video

Tip # 2: Music Selection

Tip # 1: Choosing Your Videographer

One of the biggest parts of what makes a wedding video great is music.  Music has a way of connecting with people on many different levels, so it’s so important that the music you pick for your wedding video does that for you as a couple.  Here are some good general rules when trying to choose the perfect wedding soundtrack:

1. Lyrics–Pay attention to the lyrics of the song.  On many occasions, We’ve had couples choose songs that are not appropriate for weddings.   Many songs can have a great sound and beat, but with closer inspection of the lyrics you can find that rather than a song about love, it is a song about breaking up, cheating, or even someone dying. Sometimes the best lyrics are no lyrics at all. A powerful instrumental track can be just as meaningful as a  song with lyrics, and it will allow more of the natural sounds and voices of your wedding day to shine through.

2. Pacing–This is really important in the editing of the video.  I would advise against choosing a song that is really slow all the way through.  Just makes for a really dull video, even if it’s great footage.  Listen for good beats and speed changes.

3. Avoid trendy songs.  These are the songs that you love when  they first come out, but a few months or a year later, you feel like ripping out your ears if you hear it on the radio.  There are songs out there that tend to stand the test of time, so go searching and find one that you connect with.  It may be a classic, or something more current.

4.  Variety. Not every song has to be by Michael Buble.  Change it up with songs from different genres and tempos for different sections of the video.  It makes the video much more enjoyable if there’s a change of pace and mood.

When we ask for music from our clients, we prefer to get at least 10 songs of varying tempos from the couple, and then we’ll choose what works best for each section of the video.  Obviously if you have a particular song that is especially meaningful to you both as couple, and important to the theme of the wedding, be sure to make that known.  We also have a suggestion list that we’ve put together to help out couples that are having a hard time thinking of songs beyond those that they’ve just watched on other wedding videos or heard on the radio.  Feel free to email us if you’d like to take a look at it.

Next week’s topic: Wedding Day tips to make you look good in your wedding video.

Last week’s tip: Top 3 rules for choosing your videographer

We love great wedding videos! It is the best way to truly remember all the sights and sounds of your big day. A good wedding video not only helps you remember how things looked and sounded but also how you felt on that day. We would like to share some tips each week this month, to better help you have a great wedding film. Starting with choosing the right professional videographer. ( which may or may not be us)

Tip #1:     Top 3 rules for choosing your Videographer:

1. Their Personality

You would not invite a total jerk to your wedding, so why hire a person to film your wedding that you don’t like? Your videographer needs to be someone that you actually like and feel comfortable around. If you are not happy with the person behind the camera, your wedding video can really suffer.

2. Their Work

Next, check out their work.  Every bride has a different style, and so does every videographer.  Make sure you find someone that matches what you want in your wedding video.  When watching recent work of different videographers, pay attention to the quality of the video–the shot selection, lighting, editing, and overall professionalism–not to the song selection or the couple in the video.  Remember, the wedding video is more about emotion, and not just pretty shots.

3. Their Price

So you like the person, you like their work, now what’s their price?  Make sure your wedding video budget is accurate compared to the current pricing trends.  Producing a quality video takes hours of work, and most full time professionals charge more than minimum wage. In Utah’s current market, you can plan on spending at least $1000 for a good quality wedding video.  Most importantly, don’t wait until the last minute, when your wedding budget is so depleted that all you can afford is a $50 Craigslist slideshow.  If wedding video is a priority, reflect that in your budget.

Unfortunately, most couples have this list upside down.  They find a videographer that has a really great price first, later to find out that their work isn’t that great and they didn’t enjoy working with them.  Your wedding video experience deserves to be awesome!  Don’t settle for anything less.

Next week’s tip: Selecting music for your wedding video