Ask The Experts: Wedding Videography for Beginners – Creating a Great Wedding Video

As well as planning your wedding to perfection, actually capturing it on the day is SO important. Who you choose to photograph your wedding is one of the most important wedding planning decisions you can make. But have you considered a wedding video?  Wedding videos are a great way to capture all the emotions and details of the day, from the couples first look, to the speeches to the last dance of the night. Capturing all those important details that you as a couple may have missed through the day. They are also great for sharing with friends and family who couldn’t be there.

photo by  Sarah Larae Photography – full wedding here 

How to create a great wedding video?

Now, you can choose to either hire a professional videographer (something that we here at Boho strongly recommend) or ask a family member or friend to be your videographer. That will depend on your budget and planning. But, you also need to pay attention to how you want the video to look.

4 Tips to Help You Make Your Wedding Video Even Better

You’ve sent your wedding invitations, and are now waiting for the big day? There are a few things to keep in mind when creating your wedding video to ensure it turns out just the way you want it to. Here is a few wedding videography for beginners tips that may be helpful.

photo by D&A Photography – full wedding here 

Make sure you choose the right camera… or videographer

Generally, hiring a professional videographer would be the ideal choice. They already have the necessary equipment and experience, and you can trust them to do a good job. But, these videographers tend to be expensive, and if you don’t have the budget for it, you will need to hire friends or family to shoot the videos.

Here’s something to keep in mind. Indoor wedding halls are not always great for shooting high-quality videos. You will need good lighting to ensure you get the best shots, but inside the hall, you won’t have a lot of options to choose where you want to place different lights. You will have to make do with what is available. In that case, the best option would be to rent a camera with great low-light performance.

These cameras are specially equipped to deal with low light, so you can end up capturing awesome-looking videos without having to worry about the lighting. Of course, this will only be necessary for certain wedding halls, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Tip – If you’re hiring a videographer, you should definitely inform them whether it’s going to be an inside or outside wedding. This way, they can bring the right equipment without any hiccups during the wedding.

photo by The Rose Reflective – full shoot here

Use a separate mic to capture audio

While the video itself is important, audio also plays a vital role in wedding videos. No one wants a video that has patchy audio throughout. From the bride and groom reading their vows to the toasts made by guests, the audio needs to be captured well.

One mistake that many amateur videographers tend to make is using the same camera equipment to capture audio as well. But, the truth is that most cameras are not great at capturing audio. And the thing is you only get one chance to record any moment from your wedding. If any audio is missed, corrupted, or patchy, you’ll likely never get it back. Even putting it through the best wedding video maker software will not salvage the audio.

This is why it’s always important to set up separate equipment to capture audio specifically. You will at least need one mic set up alongside the videographer to capture all the friends and family moments during the wedding.

You will also need a lavalier mic attached to the person officiating or someplace on the throne to capture the audio from there. You can still record audio from the video equipment as well as a backup for any audio misses.

Photo by Vow Collective – full wedding here 

Plan your shots beforehand

Planning the moments you need to capture early on is vital, especially if you’re not hiring a professional videographer. There’s a lot that goes on during a wedding and chances are some of the key moments may be missed if the videographer is not ready for them.

Also, you may want the final wedding video to look a certain way, and for that, you will need very specific shots to be taken. These also need to be communicated and planned beforehand so that none of them are missed. Professional videographers would already be experienced enough to capture all of these, but if you’re planning something special or unique, you should inform them early on.

If you’re planning a rehearsal dinner, that would be the icing on the cake to ensure that you get all the necessary shots. To help your amateur videographer out, you can use shot planning software to make sure every shot is captured.

photo by Tayler Ashley Photography  – full wedding here 

Post-production is key

Once the wedding is over and all the videos and photos you need have been captured, you’re more than halfway through completing your wedding video. Now comes the second most important part – the editing. Even poor footage can be saved using proper editing skills or software.

Don’t skimp out on the editing process. Trust us, you don’t want to DIY yourself through this part as you will most likely ruin the entire video. Now is not the time to be searching for the best snipping tool for Mac or the best audio converter for Windows. Those searches scream amateur editing, and the final result will reflect that.

Instead, hire a professional editor to complete the work for you. Even using a wedding video maker app or other software to do it yourself is not recommended if you don’t have the proper skills for it. You don’t want your wedding video to end up looking like a bad high-school montage, do you?

Give the editing process the time and effort it deserves and your final wedding video will turn out a peach!

photo by Miranda Rose Photography – full shoot here 

Your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and you only get one chance to capture it in all its glory. Granted, without a professional videographer, we cannot promise that this process will be easy. But, with some research and practice, the person you choose to film the wedding can do a pleasant enough job. So plan everything early and practice beforehand, and you should end up with a great wedding video that you can re-watch for the rest of your lives.

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