Amidst all the chaos of wedding planning, hiring the right vendors, and booking your ideal venue, the last thing you may think about is a wedding videographer who will capture your day. But hiring a wedding videographer could be one of the most important decisions you could make!
Details, venue, food, and flowers are all great but are often over-invested in, while photography & videography take a budgetary hit. As a result, after your wedding day, you may look back and wish you had someone who captured all the magic, emotion, and essence of your love story & your special day. Someone who could take all those details and package them for you to enjoy not only for one day, but for forever. Luckily, we can help with that, but we’ll talk more about that later.
If you’re reading this and we caught you at the right time, the sweet spot of wedding planning where you are either just researching how to get started with planning, or may have just locked in a venue or your first vendor, and you’re now thinking “I should hire a videographer for my wedding” then we want to share the 3 things you should look for in a wedding videographer.
While we’re talking specifically about videography, because, well, we’re videographers, these things can generally apply to every other vendor. If they don’t check these three boxes, then don’t move forward! It can be tempting to hire talent while sacrificing personality or simplicity, and trust us, they are all important and shouldn’t come at the cost of another. So, read on and hire the right videographer (or vendor) and you’ll thank us later!
1. A Helpful, Collaborative, Considerate Personality
So many couples hire vendors just based on their end product and while the end product is extremely important (and one of the main reasons why you’re hiring them) it shouldn’t be the only reason. Personality will make or break your pre-wedding, day-of, and post-wedding experience.
How? Well, think about it. We’re all humans working together to make your day the best day ever, while also capturing it, so that day lives on forever. That involves a lot of flexibility, collaboration, and consideration for one another. If you have a videographer who is not any of those things, then you can imagine the frustration: because they need to “get the shot” they ignore the photographer's needs, derail the wedding timeline, and never consider how you are doing or what you need. Thankfully at Chase & Fellow, we do, and you can learn more about that here.
Inversely, if you have a videographer who is all of those things, then you can imagine how fun, smooth, & stress-free the day is. You’re not thinking about the stress of the timeline, the vendors playing nice with each other, or anything else, you’re thinking about you, your soon-to-be-spouse, and saying “I do.” As we mentioned above, personality should be the first thing you consider for any vendor. But it’s not limited to just how they treat you, you also should consider how they work with other vendors.
2. Responsive Communication & Thoughtful Recommendations
We all have those friends that when you text them, they don’t respond for at least 3-4 business days. Let’s be real, that can be frustrating and especially stressful if what you’re talking about is important or time-sensitive. That’s why responsive communication & thoughtful recommendations is our second suggestion of things to look for in a wedding videographer.
Planning a wedding (even when you have a wedding planner) is stressful enough. The last thing you want is for the vendor you hired to ghost you for a week or a month at a time. That creates even more stress and unpredictability, and the truth is, you don’t need any more of that.
Ask the vendor or wedding videographer that you’re planning to hire what their average response time is and hold them to that. At Chase & Fellow, we typically respond to all inquiries and emails within 24-48 hours, unless it’s a weekend, but if it has to do with a wedding that is a month out or closer, we’re even more intentional about getting back to you because we value your peace of mind! Learn more about our process here.
Thoughtful recommendations is another layer on top of communication. Is your videographer or vendor pushing you to the highest package for seemingly no reason? Red flag! Any quality vendor or videographer should guide you in your decision making so that you can make the most informed decision based on your needs and budget.
3. A Seamless, Organized, Stress-free Process
The majority of videographers out there are only concerned about one thing: making you a great wedding video. And that is absolutely important, but that should only be one of the many factors you're considering when looking for a videographer.
Think about it this way, your wedding videographer, or any vendor, is with you (actually present) for one day. The rest of the time, leading up to the wedding, or leading up to the delivery of your video, you deal with them through email, texts, calls, etc. If your videographer or vendor doesn’t have a seamless, organized, and stress-free process, then all of that time surrounding your actual wedding day will feel chaotic, disjointed, and stressful.
Our process involves a hybrid of automated communications to give you helpful recommendations, suggestions or reminders, mixed with one-on-one, face-to-face video calls so that communication stays crystal clear, nothing gets missed, and everything (contracts, invoices, questionnaires) all get organized into your own portal.
Find yourself a videographer who has a proven process and you’ll save yourself a lot of time & stress. Or, just work with us.
If your videographer or vendor checks those three boxes, then you’re off to the right start! Having a well-mannered, considerate personality, communicating clearly, and having a simple process are normal expectations in every day life - so why would you look for anything less for your BIG day?!
We hope you found this blog helpful for planning your wedding. If you did, we invite you to share it on social media or with your friends. If you’re looking to work with us, click or tap here.
