I have been in the wedding industry since 1992. In that time, there have been many different evolutions to various products and services. The one service that seems to have changed pretty drastically has been Videography.

Videography is considered by many Brides to be a luxury until after their wedding when they wished they had a professional shoot their wedding. The idea of Uncle Joe, their Brother, friend or relative shooting their nuptials and the party with their hand held camcorder sounds great until they get the video back several months later and half of the video is of the floor or some silly stuff which is of no consequence.

Were a professional Videographer to simply use the same equipment, you would see a night and day difference. You would see them capturing the important moments like the moment the first tear comes down the Brides face (or even the twinkle in the eye of the Groom when he sees his Bride for the first time in her dress). They know things like lighting, they understand the personalities involved and they know weddings in general because this is what they do all the time.

If you add the fact that their equipment is better than the typical consumer brand and will show more vibrant colors along with better lighting in places that a consumer camera will not, you can start to see the value of what they do.

A typical Videographer will have 8-10 hours of back end editing to every one hour of shooting. Each wedding is a full week's worth of work. With their training (and most of them who belong to the Professional Videographers groups go through several trainings a year) and their experience, they are more able to best capture your day than would even a person who is "good" with a video camera, but lacks the training and the experience.

One of my Videographers once shared this story; He was doing the table interviews with the Relatives. He got to Grandpa and Grandpa gave a very eloquent, touching greeting to the newlyweds (which was uncharacteristic for him). Turns out, this would be Grandpa's last time on video. He passed on shortly after the wedding. When the Bride received the video and saw for the first time Grandpa's touching words, she cried.

It is my advice to make room in your budget for this very important service.