FAQ

Talking through expectations in-person or over a video call is a great way to make sure we are a good fit for your event. Your videographer will be with you all day and it is important that we gel. We work directly with each of our couples to gain a better understanding of their relationship so we can tell their wedding story authentically and artfully.

Believe it or not, that’s a really challenging question to answer. I would like to believe we have our own way of doing things. We really focus on people being able to be themselves and capturing the day as cinematically as possible. For us, that means framing, lighting, camera movement, and lens choice.

The balance is to let the situation happen naturally, where it doesn’t feel staged. For example, you’re going to put on your dress – it’s going to happen anyway, but we’ll work with the photographer to suggest an area that would work great for lighting.

The short answer is, we do but with your input. Your pre-wedding questionnaire includes questions about favorite genres, artists, and songs, and we use these recommendations as a starting point when researching legally licensed music for your film. Music licensing and copyright issues have become very strict so we are very careful to select music that fits the film perfectly and is legally licensed. What this means for your film is that we most likely will not be able to use the specific songs or artists you request.

Your package starts with eight hours of coverage, but depending on your schedule you may need more. Here are some general guidelines for how we determine the amount of coverage you may need.

We recommend starting at least an hour and a half before the bride gets dressed. In addition to the ceremony, the “getting ready” can be one of the most emotional parts of the wedding day because of the personal interactions with your closest family and friends.

We recommend staying late enough to capture 30 – 45 minutes of party dancing. Our goal is to film enough dancing to give a feel for the party. Even our longest wedding films only include a minute or two of party dancing.

The raw footage is not included in any of the packages, but is offered as an add-on called “unused raw footage”. This means we will take all the footage not used in your film, the ceremony, or speeches, and “lightly edit” it to make it more watchable. We lightly edit it to remove any of our camera mistakes. (Shh, don’t tell anyone.) And we apologize in advance if there is any embarrassing footage! Our job is not to censor the footage, only clean up any really bad camera work! Please reference your contract for the price of the unused raw footage.

We have a drone, but we currently do not use it for weddings. We think drone footage is pretty sweet, but our style focuses more on people than places. If we have the choice of capturing an epic church exterior or a special moment between you and a grandparent, we go for people first.

Around six to eight weeks before your wedding we’ll send out a questionnaire, using Google Docs, that covers a lot of the information relevant for videography. After sending the questionnaire we’ll set up a phone call, video call, or in-person meeting to talk through all the details. Most importantly we’ll review the schedule, locations, and start and end times. (Hint, having a Gmail address makes this much easier.)

The only time we light during the wedding day is for the speeches and formal dances. Everything else is natural light.

Relax and have fun. This is easier said than done, but the more you can focus on having fun with your friends and family, the more authentic your wedding film will turn out.

No, it’s totally up to you. Depending on the schedule, seeing each other before the ceremony is great, but isn’t mandatory. Most couples choose to have a first look if their ceremony and reception are at the same venue.

No, you don’t have to talk on camera, but natural audio is really powerful. Capturing you candidly talking with friends and family, or telling us about the significance of a special detail of your day can really enhance your film. Some couples have been adamant that they don’t want to say anything and that’s no problem. Your wedding should be fun and the last thing you need is for the videographer to be pushy about something they feel is important, but unfortunately makes the couple feel totally awkward.

It’s your day and you don’t have to do anything. A lot of our films include it, but not everyone does it. It’s completely up to you.

The key is finding a balance between capturing what you’re expecting us to capture and not be “in the way.” We’re part of the event, but we don’t want to be an obvious part of the event. People expect there to be photographers and videographers and cameras, but we don’t want to make a scene with it. We try to be low profile with how we do things, but we have to strike a fine balance with that.

We do require a vendor meal in the contract. And each venue is different on what they consider a “vendor meal”. Sometimes it is a guest meal; sometimes it is completely different.

We definitely recommend you talk with the venue and find out what the vendor meal is. We’re going to be with you starting early in the day and usually skip lunch so a warm dinner is greatly appreciated.  The last thing most of our couples want is for the venue to give us cold-cut sandwiches, an apple, and potato chips. Yea, not our first choice for dinner!

During the ceremony, we will ask the groom to wear two small microphones to capture the vows. Why two? One is a backup. We’ll also place mics at other locations to capture the officiant, musicians, and reading. During the reception, we’ll work with your band or DJ to connect directly to the sound system to capture the speeches. All other audio is captured with the cameras.

We are currently delivering the completed wedding video files by digital download as high-definition mp4 files.  The digital files allow you to easily watch, share and save your wedding video.

Your involvement is essential for helping us customize your film. There are two opportunities to add specialized requests.

• A couple of weeks after the wedding you will be invited via Google Docs to share special moments or people you want to be included in the film as well as not-so-special moments you want us to omit.  Before we begin to edit the film we’ll send a reminder email for your edit requests. There is no charge for special requests provided before editing starts.
• After editing is complete we’ll send you an online version to watch while we complete the rest of your wedding package. While edit requests at that point are rare, we encourage you to chat with us about anything you want to be changed. An hourly edit fee will apply for custom edit requests. Custom edit requests are any edits that are personal preference; not fixing mistakes.

Each contract is going to have a four-month target completion date. Earlier in the season, April and May, it’s going to be much quicker. If your wedding is later in the year, it’s probably going to be closer to four months.

We don’t focus a lot on the specific types of cameras, because our style focuses more on storytelling than technology. But having great cameras is definitely a bonus!
We use high-definition Canon cameras, and depending on the venue we’ll decide if cinema or mirrorless cameras will work best. Our cameras are amazing in low light, such as receptions, which means we don’t need a lot of extra gear to light up the reception and kill the ambiance.