Wedding Wednesday: Videographer!

I have always known I wanted a videographer to record our wedding day. Growing up I always had a video camera in my hands. Me and my friends spent a significant part of our middle school days in my mom's basement making videos. I was also a film major for a good chunk of college. Film is  passion of mine and an absolute necessity for my wedding. I know that often videography is one of the first things to be cut from the budget, but for me this was just as important as photographs. I would walk down the aisle without flowers if I could have a videographer, so we made sure to work it in to the budget. We are so lucky because we have met some amazing people through Coffee Buzz who are in the wedding industry. It has made picking a lot of our vendors super easy, but we have no connection to a videographer. I had to start from scratch on this one.

I started by searching Wedding Wire and TheKnot and from there just browsed websites, looked at sample videos, checked out pricing and e-mailed different videographers. Some videographers charged $6,000! How is that possible?! I am in the wrong business! From the probably ten e-mails I received I narrowed it down to three companies whose videos impressed me but also fit in to our budget. I met with all three and they were all completely different. They had different shooting and editing styles and also had completely different "sales pitches," which I find so interesting.

One company was WAY above the others when it came to their initial meeting as well as their finished product *TIP* ask your potential videographers to send you a sample of a FULL wedding video! It's easy to put the best highlights on their website, but seeing a video from start to finish is a completely different story! There was one company I loved until I saw their completed video. Anyways, eMotion Media was the only videographer to actually bring samples to the meeting. They brought a laptop and portable DVD player so that I could see examples of all the different options and add ons they have to offer AND they sent me the full start to finish wedding day video. They were super interested in the wedding day and even pulled up the websites for the church and reception site and looked at pictures so they could show me where they'd set up and how they would film the ceremony. I left the meeting without any questions and complete faith that they would capture our day beautifully!

They also gave me a pretty detailed form to fill out about the day, including space to choose which songs we want the video set to, seems obvious but not all companies give you this option....seriously. One other company actually went on a small tangent about how strict our church is about where videographers can shoot, she even told me "That church is by far the most difficult." Um, way to get my business lady....trash the church I'm getting married in! Seriously?

Anywhoo, none of that matters because I have found the perfect team of videographers for me and J. I am so excited to have Dan and his team there for the wedding to capture the ceremony and speeches and all those moments that go by in a flash!

Here's a sample of their amazing work! So excited!

eMotion Media Wedding Films 2010 from eMotion Media on Vimeo.