Last minute Videographer?

I posted this yesterday about daughter's experience in response to a similar question:

Daughter always wanted one, but it didn't initially fit the budget so she resigned herself to not having it. About a month before the wedding, she received an unexpected Christmas bonus at work and with SIL's blessing decided that's what she wanted to spend it on. With four weeks till the wedding, she didn't have a ton of options, so for the first time in the entire planning process she looked on Thumbtack and sent messages to videographers whose work she liked. She ended up finding a couple (who were GREAT) who happened to not be booked for her date (it was mid-January, so off-season). They charged $100 per hour to record and that included all the unedited video. Separate from that they had several levels of fully edited highlight videos that could be purchased separately. (The editing is super time-consuming, so that's typically a big part of the cost of videography.) She ended up booking them for 7 hours and purchasing a 6-7 minute highlight film for $800. So, for $1500 she got pretty much everything she wanted. (When she started looking at the beginning of the process, most videographers were in the $**** range and there was no way she was going to spend that.) Now, nine months after the wedding, she is VERY glad she had a videographer. Does she watch it every day? Of course not, but she's watched both the highlight and the six hours of raw footage several times. The raw footage is actually pretty cool, because in addition to the full ceremony and all the speeches, etc., there is tons of candid conversation/interaction between the B&G and members of the wedding party, fun footage of the reception and dancing, etc. The number one thing brides say in their BAMs is that "the day went so fast," "it's all kind of a blur," etc. With the raw footage, daughter gets to see stuff she missed at the time or was so in the moment she couldn't really remember much after. She has no regrets about that $1500 (which was about 5% of the total budget). Good luck!

Some of my friends have only watched theirs once or twice aha or not at all. I wanted mine more than photos so I think as long as you've got something to capture the moments for you then it's all good

We diy’d the Vidrography by ordering 2 📹📹 and had two guys record for us.

This way, we had the footage at the end of the event.

DH will merge and them for the final result.

We paid for a full ceremony & speeches video, then a recap of the whole day. If we paid for all the unedited footage, it would be around 16 hours (two people there for 8 hours) and personally I think that would be too much to sort through. Not having a videographer wasn't an option for us though, our ceremony was super personal and I wanted it recorded.

We just had a friend record the ceremony. I didn't care about having video of the reception, I was there - and pictures are fine. So for me it would not have been worth it. But everyone is different!

We hired a videographer last minute too (6 weeks before our wedding) and it was the BEST decision. Honestly, will we watch it often? Probably not. We’ve watched it once so far lol. But having it is honestly priceless. Even if we won’t watch it all that often, it was sooo worth it for me. It really lets you relive the day in the way that photos just can’t. I would’ve regretted it so much if we didn’t have one and I’m so glad I recognized that just in time.

I had a wedding video 23 years ago. I have never watched it once.

Do it!! I vote for less time and edited footage. Do you know how (and have the patience) to edit raw footage? If not, getting a finished product will be so worth it. It’s great to see the day and hear your, your spouse’s and your closest friends/family on video once the day is all done and passed.