You’ve said your vows and danced until the early hours. Your wedding day may be over, but push those post-wedding blues to one side. You still have the excitement of receiving your wedding video and reliving all those precious moments.
Although it is now thoroughly expected that brides and grooms will hire a photographer to capture their day, fewer employ the services of a videographer. However, the results can be tremendous, and oftentimes a lot easier to share than hundreds of photographs in an album. But, once you’ve decided to have a videographer film your wedding, how long will it take to get the film back?
Editing
Many videographers work around the fact that most couples go on honeymoon immediately after their wedding. The average honeymoon period is eight days, but many couples will set aside up to two weeks or more to recover from their wedding antics!
So, be sure to discuss the time frame and your expectations when booking your videographer. It is important that you and your chosen videographer are on the same page to avoid any confusion or disappointment.
With you and your new spouse on honeymoon, your videographer has the perfect opportunity to work on your special video without distraction. We’re all guilty of a little email now and again aren’t we? “How’s the video looking?”, or, “When do you think we’ll receive the final edit?”
Making a good-quality wedding video is a long process with many stages of editing. We have outlined the basic schedule that most videographers will follow when creating your DVD.
Uploading
Depending on the format and amount of your wedding footage, the videographer will very likely spend a portion of the day after your marriage uploading the captured film to their computer. For your peace of mind (and theirs), they will back up all of the content multiple times. Phew!
The rough cut
This is a process that depends to an extent on the lifestyle of the videographer, or the volume of clients that the videography company has to deal with! Expect a wait of between 2-3 weeks for your rough cut to arrive.
Sorting the wheat from the chaff
Your videographer will break down the footage of the day into several clips. From here, they will sort out what can be used and in what sequence for your final film. It’s a long, thought out process, with attention to detail being key. Put your trust in your videographer and allow them to work their magic. Besides, you booked them!
The rough cut is a basic edit of your wedding, missing out transitions, complete titles and filters, and most certainly does not represent the final product. The videographer will include the vast majority of the useable sequences captured on the day, which will be narrowed down as they ascertain which clips you want to keep. Videographers will use these rough cuts as a basis from which to get vital feedback from you. This is a crucial stage, where you must ask yourself a few questions about how you want your wedding video to turn out:
- Is there any particular style that you want your wedding video to match? Quick cuts, slow fades? Do you want your video to have a particular feel? Discuss this with the videographer.
- Are you happy with the general order of sequence in which the clips of your wedding day have been organised?
- Which clips are most important for you to keep? Are there some any clips that you would like removed?
The videographer will provide the rough cut either in DVD format, online services such as YouTube or Vimeo (if this is the case then the video will probably have to be split up into multiple parts), or even presented in person. Discuss on booking your videographer their preferred method of working so you are both on the same page.
Second cut or not?
Once you have shared your feedback, then it’s down to the videographer to get on with finalising your product! Some videographers will come back later with a second draft, perhaps this time with some basic DVD menu functions in place. Others will just plough on and create the final DVD for you. This will probably take between 1 or 2 weeks. Remember good things come to those who wait!
Providing music
If your videographer has a licence to include music in your wedding DVD, then they may ask you for a list of preferred songs to play in the background. Expect to provide slow and romantic songs for the ceremony and first dance, then some upbeat music for everything else!
We have a little advice for when you are selecting your wedding video music playlist: ensure it is as close to the tracks that were played on the big day as possible. Chose classic songs to ensure you don’t tire of them and, lastly, ensure the music is emotive and means something to you and your other half.
The big viewing
Finally, you’re home from honeymoon, bronzed, relaxed and excited to start the next chapter of your life together. You push open the front door to find a small, perfectly formed package from your videographer lying on your door mat. Well, pull up a pew, pour a brew and sit back and enjoy! You could even invite friends, family and the wedding party over for a exclusive viewing. What a brilliant welcome home!
Moving forward, your wedding video will most likely become a key part of your anniversaries, reminiscing at the wonderful memories over a shared bottle of wine and some delicious food. A wedding video is a must have for your big day. Add it to your wedding budget spreadsheet now… we mean it, NOW!
The whole process can take just under a month to complete, depending on the videographer involved. But throughout this whole process, you have to remember that it is your wedding video, and it is advisable to communicate fully with your videographer in order to arrive at a finished product that you are completely happy with. Just bear in mind that your videographer ultimately understands their limits in a given time frame.
