Top 9 Things To Ask Your Wedding Videographer

Can you film us both getting ready?

Both of my wedding videography packages come with one videographer as standard, that’s me! I obviously can’t be in two places at once, but if you and your partner are getting ready at the same place, or around a 15 minute drive apart, this can usually be incorporated. I’m happy to go through it with you, but if it’s possible, I’m always happy to capture the groomsmen preparations as it’s a lovely balance to the bridal footage. If it’s not possible for me to capture both, I can also organise a second videographer to make sure we can cover both locations for you. If you are both getting ready at the same venue, then I can usually film you both getting ready!

How long are you there for on the day?

I don’t want my couples thinking about the time on the day or worrying about how much longer I’ll be filming for, so I don’t have a set number of hours. When you pay for a for a premium service I don’t believe that’s something you should have to worry about or manage, that’s my job and I’m there for as long as it takes me to capture everything I need for a beautiful film(s). As a rule of thumb though, I typically arrive in the morning to film around 2 hours before the ceremony and am usually with you for around 10 hours.

Do you need a meal?

It’s always lovely to have a warm meal whilst you and your guests sit down for the wedding breakfast but it’s purely optional, I am more than happy to order something from a bar menu or if that’s not possible I would leave the site for a very short period of time.

When will our film be ready?

Editing is the unseen part of the wedding video process, it’s the last step and it’s undoubtedly the one that takes the most time. It’s a creative process whereby I strive to tell your unique story, and that requires a lot of care and attention to detail. My lead times vary throughout the wedding season, but I always try to ensure your film(s) are with you in around 8-12 weeks.

How do I know the footage is safe after the wedding?

Your wedding footage is safe with me! The first thing I do when I get home from a wedding is back everything up, I always look to have 3 copies of your data until your film is delivered, I hold two copies on site at my studio and one privately secured on the cloud. I also keep all your wedding footage for at least a year from the wedding.

Do you charge for travel?

My couples regularly take me all over the country from Scotland to London and across to Wales too and it’s great, I love to visit new places. I travel anywhere up to 100 miles from my office near York for free, and any additional travel on top of this is charged at 45p per mile.

Will you need an overnight stay?

If travel takes me over 2.5 hours, then would usually require accommodation the night before the wedding, so that I’m there on time and avoid any timely traffic accidents etc. This is something I’m happy to source and a hotel on the motorway is always perfect.

Do you film elopements and destination weddings?

Yes I do, I love to film elopements and destination weddings, I would need to charge extra for travel and accommodation for anything overseas, but this is purely at cost. Take me with you!

Are there any restrictions with the music we can have for our wedding video?

Sadly there are, I have to license every piece of music I use for your film and this rules out chart music as it costs £10,000’s, and should we use the music and not license it, the record label who own the music could take action through court proceedings. I also want your film to be a timeless piece and so for that reason alone, I also don’t use chart music as it immediately dates your film.

Music plays such a large role in my films, it sets the tone, drives the pace of the edit and any tempo changes typically move the narrative forwards too. The song choices can easily make or break a film, and so it can sometimes take hours to find the perfect track. Rest assured though, from getting to know you both and taking note of the style of music that’s played on the day, I get a good feel for what you like and what would work well for the film. I use a range of professional music libraries for my weddings, my favourite being musicbed.com, for which I pay a license fee for the music, these costs are always included in your package.

If you have any questions about me, my work or even how to choose a wedding videographer or would like to get in touch about your big day, I’d love to hear from you!

Wedding Video Digital Delivery

The one thing I value most about running a business in the wedding industry is the client experience, it’s always at the top of my priority list when I guide my couples through the wedding videographer process from enquiry through to delivery of their films. I want to make sure my couples enjoy the overall experience of having a wedding videographer, on the day itself but also before and afterwards. I also believe the process should be simple and stress free, as couples have many suppliers to book and if the process isn’t easy to complete or understand they will likely move on. If you’re considering a videographer, read my blog post here about 5 Tips On How To Choose Your Wedding Videographer.

Each year I look at my process during the ‘off season’ and in 2018 I introduced online contracts through Signable, avoiding the need to print documents, sign them and post them back, this saved so much time and was a lot safer and more convenient for my clients, thus improving the overall experience.

Back towards the start of the wedding season in 2019, I took the time to do another evaluation of my wedding videography service offering and see how I could make things a little better for the client. At the time the feedback from couples was great, the customer experience for booking was great, the workflow was simple and the service itself was great as well so it was difficult to analyse and see where to improve, but I targeted the delivery as an area that I could offer more value.

I’m a big fan of tech, I follow the trends and also invest in tech companies I really like, like Netflix, the online streaming service everyone knows and loves. It dawned on me at that moment that I hadn’t bought a DVD or a Blu-ray in a long time, why, because that tech was outdated and cloud streaming and IPTV is the future. My packages at the time included USB delivery as standard and I offered discs on request from clients. I made the decision to remove discs from my offering and make digital delivery, the standard within my packages, with UBS as an add-on. Since then I’ve tried to explain to all of my couples the benefits of digital delivery and the longevity of it, discs can last 10 years, digital files last forever (if backed up avoiding data loss).

So I went away and researched various digital delivery platforms and there were some really good options but I ended up choosing Wedflow for their range of features, premium design and the quality of the streaming on their platform. Digital delivery is the best delivery platform for my clients and I also feel the best option for today’s wedding market, you can:

• Access your films anywhere whilst you’re connected to the internet

• From a phone, tablet, PC or even smart TV

• Your wedding is instantly shareable with friends and family.

• It was also remain as private as you’d like it too with access only via links or even specific email addresses.

• Downloads are also included, so if you don’t have Internet access or just want to make a backup of your files (I’d always recommend doing this!) at home to watch offline .

• It looks incredible and is much more of an enjoyable experience than plugging in a USB into your computer or TV and opening the file.

Here is an example of how our new delivery platform looks:

CLICK HERE TO SEE IN YOUR BROWSER FOR YOUR PHONE, TABLET OR PC

A year on and I’m really happy with the service and my clients love receiving their galleries and sharing with friends and family and my favourite piece of feedback has been ‘the digital delivery is perfect, we can access our films anywhere we go, we don’t need to remember a USB and it looks like what you see when you used to put a DVD on but it’s all online and at your fingertips!’

Get in touch if you’d like to know more.

Yorkshire Wedding Videographer | The Yorkhshire Wedding Barn

I love being a Yorkshire wedding videographer.

We’ve got some incredibly venues all across the county and one of my favourites has to be the Yorkshire Wedding Barn, it’s a beautifully modern venue with incredible views over the Richmond landscape, perfect for the drone and the owners are always expanding; in 2019 they opened a new 12 bedroom hotel and have plans for a bridal treehouse on site as well which sounds amazing! I am biased though, ever since I first filmed at the Yorkshire Wedding Barn a number of years ago, I knew it was somewhere that would be high on the shortlist when I finally asked my now fiancée to marry me and in January we booked it for 2022!

Enough about that though, lets talk about this wedding back in September of 2019; this beautiful couple, Chloe and Adam tied the knot on what can only be described as a golden autumnal day! The sun shone all day, they had a wonderful outdoor ceremony and partied long into the evening, watch their film below:

Who doesn’t love drone footage?

When I initially spoke to Chloe about her Yorkshire wedding videography, like with all my clients I like to find out what they like about my work and what I can do to make their film perfect for them. One thing Chloe really loved and wanted including in here film was drone footage that shows off the venue and the surroundings. Take a look at some examples below

More on Chloe and Adam’s big day, I usually tell my brides that I will start filming with them around 2 hours before their ceremony, sometimes a little earlier if there is a drive involved, but this gives me enough time to introduce myself, have a chat with the bridal party and for them to get used to me being around, film some lovely candid footage of the morning preparations, the hair and the make-up and getting into the dress. I always arrive earlier than the time I give to my brides and the reason for this is so I can have a walk round the venue and capture some of the lovely scenic shots that you can see in my films, get the drone up in the air when it’s quiet and also scope out some great spots for couple portraits later in the day.

What’s also great about the Yorkshire Wedding Barn is that they have so much accommodation on site (with HOT TUBS!), the groom can get ready here too, much to Adam and his best men’s delight:

So naturally I always look to capture the groom and his party getting ready in the morning too, as it’s something the bride won’t see and makes for a really nice contrast to the bridal prep when editing the films. If you’re reading this and planning on having your groom filmed in the morning, take into account the distance/travel time between locations.

After filming Adam chilling in the hot tub and getting suited and booted, looking all suave and sophisticated like something out of a magazine, it was time to head back to equally beautiful Chloe who was getting the finishing touches completed on her hair and make up before getting into her dress.

Outdoor Ceremony

Following the theme of wanting to make the most of the venue and it’s surroundings and views, Chloe and Adam chose to have an outdoor ceremony and it was great fun to film, I can be more creative, we’re less restricted by space and for the guests it’s a lovely experience. There are a lot of things to consider for an outdoor ceremony, the weather, logistics, accessibility, outfit and timings but on days like this when the sun is out, there’s not a cloud in the sky and no-one needs a jacket, why not?

The reception was a vibrant affair filled with plenty of drinks, laughter and good vibes, and also a lovely portrait shoot around the grounds whilst the guests headed inside for the wedding breakfast and speeches. Once inside the venue dressing for the wedding breakfast looked incredible, and I’ve already been asked numerous times by my fiancée if I can ask where they sourced things from.

The speeches were perfect as well, I’m always excited when speeches have some really emotional moments in them, they’re always really genuine and sincere and are great to include in my films. Chloe’s twin sister, Nikki, set off the proceedings and naturally as a twin they are close and it was lovely to listen to the kind words she had to say. The two best men also gave Adam a good ribbing which is also good fun for the guests but they also finished with some really lovely words about Chloe too. The grooms speech is the one use most in my highlights films and Adam's didn’t disappoint, there were some emotional moments, funny stories and some real heartfelt words for Chloe which made their films.

Following the speeches and the wedding breakfast, the evening reception followed but not before another short portrait session during golden hour, that perfect time between the sun setting and it going dark where the light is orange and red and generally just makes everything look ace. They finished the night with some music in the barn and some epic fireworks over the lake.

It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of Chloe and Adam’s day and am thankful that they chose me to be their Yorkshire wedding videographer.

If you’re considering booking me as your Yorkshire wedding videographer, please do get in touch using the form here, I’d love to hear from you!

Miriam & Matt's Summer Wedding in Cheshire

Want to book a Cheshire wedding videographer for your special day?

Miriam and Matt’s summer wedding in Cheshire was one of the hottest days of the year, absolutely glorious weather to be outside celebrating the marriage to two very special people who met 14 years ago on a family holiday in Turkey. This wedding was also a bit of a whirlwind for me personally, read on to find out more about that!

The morning began with bridal preparations at the wonderful Titanic Hotel which has some spectacular views overlooking the waterfront. The room was spectacular, some really nice features and plenty of space for everyone, and the sun was streaming through the windows too, which offered some amazing light and shapes within the room for me to film. During the morning Miriam also got some lovely heartfelt gifts from her family which she opened and I captured from a distance; some really emotional and candid moments.

After hair and make up was completed, it was time for Miriam to get into her dress, and what a stunning dress she had (see below), a Hermione de Paula piece with her wedding date and initials embroidered onto the sleeves. If you watched the film above, you’ll have seen just how amazing the dress looks when it catches the light, it just highlighted every detail and was so much fun to film. I know us creatives do bang on about light, probably far too much, but this is a great example of how much of a difference ‘good light’ can make to a scene or a shot.

Miriam’s Hermione de Paula dress.

Miriam had her initials and date embroidered onto the sleeves.

I had captured some lovely content for the bridal prep and was excited to see the church and get set up and meet Matt and his groomsmen party, the only problem was that as of 8am on the morning of the wedding I didn’t have the itinerary for the day, I didn't know where the venue was or the church. Yes, this is crazy, how could I not know this stuff I hear you say!

I was booked at 9pm the evening before the wedding!

Having spent the afternoon talking to Miriam and Matt, discussing their plans, making arrangements and finding out what was important to them with their film and their day, we signed the contract and were ready to go. So with that away I went to iron my shirt and get packed for the following day and cancel the plans I’d made for the weekend.

Luckily my batteries were charged, SD cards clean and ready to be used, lenses cleaned and bags packed as I had an early start on Monday for some other video work. Having everything ready to go incredibly useful, it saved time, ensured I wasn’t rushing and could spend that time with the couple and get to know them a little more so they feel comfortable on the day. They loved their film and so do I so everything worked perfectly! Ever since their wedding, every weekend regardless of whether I have a wedding or not, my kit, my clothes and I am ready to go at short notice!

So there I am sitting in my car, about to head to the church and there is an email from the lovely Charlotte Elise Wedding Planner, she gave me absolutely everything I needed to know and away I went to Liverpool city centre for the ceremony. It’s also worth mentioning here how great Charlotte was all day, cool calm and collected all day which can’t have been easy with me coming on board with less than 24 hours to go!

The ceremony was beautiful, Miriam’s mother walked her down the aisle, Matt was beaming from ear to ear, it was lovely to see the love shared with the couple and their families and friends. Following the ceremony, there were a mini drinks reception on the lawn at the church, then a short ride on a red bus to a boat that would take the wedding guests to the venue in Chester.

Myself and Emilie White Photographer took the couple for a portrait session in Chester, this was something we spoke about the day before, Miriam and Matt wanted a small part of their wedding to resemble the architecture from Denmark where Miriam’s family are from. So we picked a beautiful quiet little street in the centre of Chester that was perfect, so we spent 15 minutes capturing some beautiful candid shots of the two of them. I also love filming couple portraits during ‘golden hour’, this is the period of time between the sun setting and it going dark. The light during golden hour is as the same suggests, full of red and oranges tones and gives a really lovely warm feel to the footage. The light during golden hour is what we film nerds call ‘soft light’, this basically means that it makes you look super beautiful, the light is low and shadows are less pronounced and the edges are smoothed.

Golden hour portraits!

So the guests arrived at the venue by boat, greeted my Miriam and Matt on the jetty and to be honest, it was pretty epic! The receptions drinks soon followed and people mingled and enjoyed the summer sun before heading inside for the wedding breakfast and speeches.

Miriam is Danish, so naturally there were a few Danish wedding customs that formed part of their day, a brudevals (the bridal waltz) must be danced before midnight and the wedding party using scissors to cut the grooms socks, this is considered a really personal touch for Danish weddings.

The evening party followed with the first dance and some traditional Danish dances and music and finally some fireworks to end the night!

Looking back I had an great time filming this wedding, the weather was perfect and the light on the day was incredibly nice to us. Miriam and Matt’s down-to-earth, chilled out, elegant vibe to their day meant capturing them was a dream. There were so many elements to their day as well I think a special mention must go to Charlotte Elise, the wedding planner as well. This wedding was just a rollercoaster from being booked the day before to being taken back by the many moments of unadulterated joy, I felt privileged to have been a small part of it all.