It’s. Two part answer, short answer no. Another answer yes, if they’re as good as me with cameras. I’m Jason Monroe, owner of highway 61 films in Chicago. We’ve been making wedding films since 2009. You can have a family member document your day if they’re good with cameras. Like, meaning if they’re professionals. But if they’re not, they’re generally going to not get professional sounding audio. They’re not going to have microphone equipment, small lapel microphones. They’re not going to be able to choose angles that are the most flattering or the best position, maybe during a ceremony or toasts. Sometimes you have to be very strategic about where you are in a room to get good toast, knowing how to not cross anyone’s line of sight, not to be in anyone’s way. And then ultimately, you want friends and family members that you invite to not have to work on the day of your wedding. You want them to be able to enjoy it. There you go.
Should you have a friend or family member who’s really good with a camera film your wedding? My knee jerk answer to that is God, no, and not for the reason why you think. Hi, I’m Cindy. I am co owner of Harborview Studios. I own Harborview Studios with my husband Sean. We come across this often, often, and here’s what I usually say. If video is important to you, if it’s in your top eight, those memories are really important to you. Have a professional do it. If you can afford it. If you’re going to go into debt, like wild amount of debt, whatever is good is fine. But really what it is is when your friend or family does your video, they aren’t a professional, so they are also an attendee. When you are an attendee, you’re doing half jobs, so you’re half an attendee and you’re half the documentarian. So you get excited. You want to dance, you want to drink, and you forget to do things like hit mute, hit the audio, hit record, hit play. And a lot of moments that you didn’t think were significant, things that you didn’t think you’d be like, fine, it’s fine. And then when it turns out you didn’t get it, then you’re pissed and it’s gone. It’s done, it’s over. And then it’s not just that whoopsie, you don’t have it. If that happens with somebody you’ve paid and don’t have a relationship with, listen, you’ve legal options. They’re going to probably refund you. You’re going to have all sorts of different options when this happens with a friend or family member, oh, that makes relationships dicey. And is that really what you want? No, I highly suggest please don’t.
Here are some tips and tricks to film a great video that stops the scroll:
You’ve got 3-5 seconds to stop the viewer’s scroll. Be creative… start with a phrase like:
We’ll put your name and bio in the title and links, so you can say something more general like:
Give them your hot take, and don’t hold anything back.
check out how Sal nailed it in this video and so did Megan in this one and Nichole told it straight (from her car).
Do you feel like the industry charges more “because it’s a wedding” and they know it’s an emotional purchase?
Do companies think that they can charge more for weddings since the bride and groom may be willing to spend more on their dream wedding?
Hey wedding pros – is this higher price tag justified? Why? Do you charge more for your service if it is a wedding?
This is a taboo topic, whispered but not discussed… until now.
Welcome to The Uncorked Project!
2 comments
I have been asked this so many times... does the wedding industry inflate prices when they hear it's a wedding?
Here is my honest answer (as a former wedding photographer)... NO. Did I charge more for a wedding than a 50th birthday party or a family portrait session? Yes, absolutely. I charged A LOT more for a wedding.
Was I taking advantage of the emotional sell? Absolutely not.
The main reasons I charged more for a wedding were: the unseen amount of work involved in the 12+ months leading up to the wedding, the skill level needed on the day, the INTENSE pressure to create perfect "portfolio level work" no matter what the reality of the situation- but mostly it is to compensate for the time AFTER the wedding in post production.
Little known fact about wedding photography - the real job is sitting at a computer editing photos. Photographers spend many hours behind the computer carefully selecting and editing photos. They make adjustments, crop, and adjust colors to ensure each image it's best. Don't forget the time it takes for batching, renaming, importing, exporting and uploading the photos and preparing them for delivery.
Do you think this justifies why photographers charge more for weddings than for other types of shoots?
Couldn’t agree more! And on the videography side its an absolute ton of data + editing discipline.
Its a double sided coin- weddings are extremely high pressure but also high reward when we nail it.
Our products (photo video) in particular are the only thing that genuinely will last forever . Having fun and ALSO nailing the product is worth the price of entry and frankly more.