Destination wedding? Take a homegrown videographer with you …
“Waking up at five thirty is not usually my strong point. But today I do so with ease…
“… Not a moment to lose. It’s going to be a long day with a morning of preparations, a late afternoon wedding ceremony when the sun’s rays soften and then the most amazing party in wonderful surroundings, which no doubt will go into the early hours.”
Extract from my journal while filming at Chateau Challain near Bordeaux in September 2015.
There are many reasons why more and more couples are choosing to have a destination wedding.
The unpredictable weather in the UK.
Combining wedding with honeymoon.
The have wonderlust in their soul.
Or just to be different.
But it probably won’t be to make their lives easier, especially in the planning.
Most couples find their dream venue and, with that, comes a planner who can take any hassles away from the organisation.
It may be that the wedding planner is English, with lots of local contacts.
Or they could be local to the wedding venue and speak good English and also have lots of contacts.
And, for sure, it makes total sense for couples to book many of their suppliers locally for a variety of reasons.
But I’d say in many cases the couple will find their Wedding Photographer and Videographer from the UK and take them with them.
I’ve also been booked by Amercian brides who want to get married in Europe as it’s not financially feasible to bring across suppliers over from the States.
But the simple truth is a Wedding Videographer is NOT something you need to book locally.
In fact there’s really only one reasonable explanation for doing so.
And that’s the anticipated additional costs in expenses for travel and accommodation.
But the reality is usually very different.
Trust me, these days it costs next to nothing to get cheap flights abroad from anywhere in the UK.
I have a wedding in the South of France this summer and it’s costing me, or should I say the couple, peanuts.
I’m not travelling first class or even business class and I’ll be sharing accommodation with the wedding planner and the photographer.
I’ve also got a wedding in Sorrento and even one in South Africa. The costs of travel and expenses for all of my destination weddings are not nearly enough reason for the couple to look elsewhere, once they’d fallen in love with my films.
Admittedly a lot of wedding videographers will charge a premium for a destination wedding and perhaps add on a supplement for days lost working in travel.
This is something you need to check with each individual videographer, as this might sway a final decision.
However, there are many – such as us at Story Of Your Day – who do not charge a premium for filming abroad and simply ask that their expenses are covered on top of the cost of the commission.
But it really does depend on your priorities.
With any videographer the quality of the wedding films you get will be reflected by what you pay.
It’s like anything in this industry.
So it is worth doing your research thoroughly to be clear on exactly what you’re paying for and any additional expenses.
Now think back to my journal from filming Clare and David’s wedding in France last year.
Not only was I filming from first light on the day of the wedding, I was also filming the day before the wedding while the venue was being set up for the celebrations and the guests enjoyed a picnic on a nearby riverbank.
I am pretty sure that a local wedding videographer would show up on the morning of the wedding and may even leave after the first dance.
After all that’s what I do when I shoot weddings in the UK.
That’s absolutely the norm, but taking a videographer from the UK will almost always mean they will arrive at least a day before the wedding so they can ensure they have some amazing ‘establisher’ footage for your film.
I worked with UK-based wedding photographer Paul Atherton on Clare and David’s wedding and both us of were working in the days before and after the actual wedding.
While a local videographer might understand and speak English, if the audio visual language in your film is important for you then it goes without saying that your story will be more beautifully told by a videographer whose native language is the same as yours.
And finally. Just as in the planning stages, where communication is easy, the same applies for once the wedding is over.
Unlike many other suppliers, whose work is done as soon as your wedding is over, for photographers and videographers our work has only just begun.
I spend weeks in post production and sometimes work quite closely with my couples. There’s clear advantages of us being able to communicate and understand each other more clearly.
“It is important for us to be able to communicate easily with our videographer, as with a lot of the French companies we have used for our wedding we have had to use our wedding planner as a translator, but as she is extremely busy with the other weddings she is helping with, it meant responses were not always as quick or accurate as we would like,”
Says Eve Hartshorn, marrying in France this year.
In the end. You don’t have to make this more complicated than it has to be.
If you fall in love with a videographer’s work then approach them directly and see what their destination wedding policy is … you never know YOUR wedding just might be on THEIR ‘bucket list’ and then they’ll move heaven and earth to make it happen.
Good luck in your search.
Emma
Creative Director | Story Of Your Day
