What to expect from your wedding videographer - after the day

Whether you've already booked your dream wedding videographer, or you're thinking about having a wedding video, then you may be wondering how videographers deliver the all-important product. Luckily, videographer (and bride!) Rachel from Veiled Productions, is here to explain how it works...

Image credit: Monty Steedman Photography

You’ve experienced one of the happiest days of your life and married your true love - congratulations! You also made an excellent choice to have your wedding filmed. So, what happens to your wedding day footage now? Here are my tips about what to expect from your wedding videographer after your wedding day.

Footage is backed up in multiple places

I occasionally hear of photographers and videographers having technical failures and couples never seeing their wedding footage. It's heartbreaking.

Losing your wedding day footage would be so awful and it’s something professional videographers will do their best to avoid. Backing up your wedding day footage in lots of different places helps prevent complete loss or damage.

The only time I only ever have one copy is on the day itself. When I leave a wedding I put the SD card holder in my pocket. My logic is that if anything happens to me they will take me to the hospital with your footage in my pocket and it won’t get lost! Once I am home safely I back up the footage to two different hard drives at home plus a drive that’s kept off-site. Having three copies means if something goes wrong with one copy then I can fall back on the other copies.

You decide which music you would like the footage to be edited to

Music is so personal to each couple. I think it’s really important you love the music when you watch your wedding film back in years to come.

It’s important to note that for videographers to use music on their wedding films, they must buy a licence. This grants them permission to use the tracks, and pays relevant fees to the artists. I license the music used in the full-length wedding film using a Limited Manufacture Licence from PRS music. This grants permission for me to use the song, as long as the film isn’t available in the public domain. As a result, you can share the films with your family and friends and the artists will receive the recognition and relevant royalties.

For the highlights and sneak preview film, I use a music library. This licences use of the music for films in the public domain, which are then available to watch online. 

Your ceremony, speeches and first dance are edited seamlessly with the multi-camera angles

Now, this will vary depending on the videography package you’ve chosen. However, I think it’s really important you receive the ceremony, speeches and first dance in full. You can then watch back every word and relive the emotion you felt on the day. I always film the formalities with multiple cameras because I think it makes the edit more engaging, as it cuts between them and you can see the reactions of your family and friends.

However, never just assume this will be included, because some videographers don’t include edited films of the formalities in their packages.

Image credit: Veiled Productions

The preparations, afternoon reception and evening footage are edited to the music you’ve chosen

Some videographers will do a shorter edit and not necessarily edit it in chronological order. Prior to booking your videographer I always recommend watching example films and checking what they include in their packages.

Most modern videographers do edit the footage to music though. Films edited to the beats of the song are really emotive and help tell the story. I think editing the full length film in chronological order is important because you can watch the day as it happened.

The footage is colour graded to make it look the best it can be

This part of the process makes the footage look amazing. Colour grading is similar to when your photographer edits your photographs. They will check the highlights, shadows and colour temperature of the footage. The style each videographer uses in their edited films will vary greatly. Some use a cinematic look, others go for a vintage look or some prefer a modern, bright look. Chances are the videographer you have chosen will be based on your personal preference, so their style should work for you. 

My editing style is modern so I choose a light and bright colour grade to reflect this.

The natural audio is edited to make sure you can clearly hear every word

Like the video footage, the audio sounds best when the videographer edits it. Audio edits include improvements to the levels, background noise removal and transitions between the different microphones. You won’t notice well-edited audio when watching, but bad audio is very noticeable!

The edited film is exported and delivered to you

Some videographers offer digital downloads of your films, some films can be streamed from their website or video hosting sites and some will send physical copies on a memory stick or DVD. I offer a mix of both. The full length film is delivered on a memory stick and the highlights and sneak preview films are delivered online for streaming and downloading.

It’s definitely worth checking how long they will keep the edited copies for and what will happen if you lose the copy sent to you as well. I recommend uploading all the edited films to your private cloud storage so that you will always have a copy if a device breaks and you can access it anywhere with an Internet connection!

I hope these tips are useful for choosing your wedding videographer, and I promise you won’t regret having your day filmed. Have an amazing wedding day!

Thank you to Rachel for her fabulous advice! You can find out more about Veiled Productions here, and see her advice for before the wedding and on the day here.