Did
you know that the average bride spent $19,000 on her wedding in 1999? Of that
nearly 20K, about 6% of her budget went to photography and videography - that
means she spent an average of $1,140.00 on pictures and a video of her wedding!
I
don't know about you, but that seems a bit crazy to me. I mean , sure, a video
of your wedding is a pretty nice thing to have, but let's face it, who really
watches this video? Your family may watch it once after the wedding is over,
and you and your future spouse may bring it out on your anniversary every year,
but other than that the most public viewing of your wedding video will probably
be at your 50th anniversary party (and by then you will have had to pay a couple
hundred dollars to have your video converted to the latest format. ex. DVD)
I
think a great way to save a thousand bucks is to ask yourself and family before
your wedding, "Who owns a video camera that I know?" "Who do I know who has
a hobby of videotaping?" Maybe you know one person who owns a video camera but
hates to tape, and another person who has the patience and artistic ability
to video, but doesn't own a camera. Voila! You have your own videographer, if
both parties are willing to play their part (and I think you will find that
almost everyone is willing to help in whatever small way they can to help make
your wedding a success). Of course, it would probably be a good idea to lay
down some rules for your "videographer" since they are using someone else's
camera (such as, keep the camera with you at all times and don't let anyone
else use the camera, etc.)
For
our wedding, we set a video camera that my father owned on a tripod at the front
of the church. We asked a trusted friend to turn it on when the music began
20 minutes before the wedding and to turn it off after everyone had the left
the sanctuary following the wedding. Then, we also asked 2 other friends to
video the wedding from wherever they were sitting in the sanctuary. This worked
out very well, because the camera at the front caught only Matt and I, but could
see our faces fairly well. And, while one of the friends forgot that we had
asked them to video, the other friend sat at the back of the sanctuary and got
virtually everything else that the other video did not. Now Matt and I have
2 videos and the option to have them professionally edited together someday
in the future when we feel we can afford it.
