In this demo my goal was to capture the emotion, magic, and love that is always a big part of the wedding day. A huge thank you to all my great clients who made guest appearances in the video!

(Sigh). This is definitely not the first time I’ve received a call like this. It really saddens me when I hear about these situations… clients who went cheap on video and received something that’s almost unwatchable.

A big part of my job is to educate clients and potential clients about the importance of hiring the right video professional because in this business you usually get what you pay for. Often, however, (like in this case) it seems to fall on deaf ears because many people can only see a “price at the end of the tunnel” so to speak. This is understandable. I mean, we all have our budgets to maintain. However I think many people are finally waking up to the idea that video should be put at the top of the list.

I’d like to share a few blurbs from other clients and a wedding coordinator who would also have done things differently if they had known better!

This is from a bride’s post on Wedding Wire who opted to save money by having a friend do the video for her wedding, rather than hire a professional:

It’s been a year since my wedding, and after not having a videographer, I’m finding it’s the ONLY big, giant, horrible wedding regret and mistake I have made. We bought an expensive HD video camera before the wedding, gave it to a friend to record the ceremony, and they set it to camera instead of video, and we didn’t get anything but a single crappy snapshot. I get SO sad when I think about it, to the point of tears. The ceremony had such amazing moments for both of us, and I’m sick over it that the memories are going to fade over time. SO GET A VIDEOGRAPHER!!! PLEASE!

This next post is from a wedding coordinator who suddenly discovered the importance of wedding video. (interesting to note that a lot of wedding planners are trained to tell people to “skip video” if their budget is tight, but many of them are now singing a different tune, which is good!):

As a planner, I used to say skip the video if your budget cannot afford it since there are alternatives. But, four years ago my father passed away suddenly. While going through the attic, my mom found some old VHS tapes she figured were vacations, graduations, etc. To her surprise, one was their wedding video. She converted them to CD and played it for us (I have three siblings) and we all just sat quietly, staring at the screen, watching my dad come back to life. It was priceless to see our father the way he was, they way he held my mothers hand and laughing on their wedding day. A picture is worth a thousand words, but hearing your husband’s voice who has since passed is like music to your ears. So now, I tell all of my clients they should put video at the top of their list!

Before the wedding, they got ready at the Omni Hotel right across from Merchants Exchange. They picked a perfect day for their wedding… this was Labor Day Weekend and the Bay Bridge was closed, so downtown SF was like a ghost town! I couldn’t believe it when I pulled up at the venue Sunday morning and found a parking spot right in front! That’s unheard of in San Francisco.

Anyhow, here is a highlight segment I put together of the bride and groom prep and part of their photo session before the ceremony. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s only drawback is that is has limited record times… 12 minutes at time. So while it’s not a practical camera to shoot an entire wedding, it will definitely be great for getting specialty shots throughout the day. It will be perfect for shooting things like engagement shoots, bride/groom preps, pre and post ceremony photo sessions, cocktail hours, and dancing at the reception, etc.

I will post some sample footage on here as soon as it becomes available.