Ceremony to Reception: Your Wedding Videographer

It's showtime! But what does that mean? Where is your videographer? What will your videographer be doing while you're walking down the aisle, taking post ceremony photos, and dancing the night away? Let's dig in and see what they'll be up to and how you can create space in the itinerary of your day for your vendors to come together to make it magical. Timing and coordination are everything!

Ceremony:

While you're taking a breather and prepping to get started, your wedding videographer is placing a mic on the groom or officiant and exploring site set up. Your videographer will be working away, getting detail shots of all of the things you handpicked to make this day your own.

By the time the music starts, your wedding videographer will be set up and ready to capture candid footage of the setting, the audience waiting, everyone's walk down the aisle, and of course most importantly, the bride's walk down the aisle. Once the ceremony has started, wedding photographers and wedding videographers will be moving around as needed to capture it all.

Hint-- linger on the kiss, and don't be afraid to stop at the end of the aisle for a dip or second kiss;) 

Post ceremony family wedding portraits:

Typically, directly after the ceremony, everyone gathers to take family photographs. Coordinate with your wedding photographer on this one, provide a list of important people who you want in each portrait, and enlist your lovely maid or matron of honor and best man to wrangle stray guests to standby for their photos. Your film crew (at least in our case and with our style) almost never needs any of this footage--we move along to the reception site to capture detail shots (your decor and setup). The only thing we need to know is time and placement of your grand entrance so we can be set up and ready. Ideally, your emcee will be announcing your grand entry. Wedding videographers and wedding photographers will be ready and waiting!

Reception:

Your wedding videographer will be setup to best capture your grand entrance and audience reaction. After this, your crew will need to move lighting to the location where toasts will be given and take a few minutes to place mics on whoever will be giving toasts. We may need to re-set up in different locations for each of the reception mini-events, like bouquet toss and cake cutting, depending on where in the reception area they are occurring. That means we are adjusting lighting, switching lenses, and adding mics to capture great audio. Building a few minutes into the schedule between the reception events helps us quickly and quietly get to where we need to be. At this point, bride and groom are hungry, thirsty, perhaps in dire need of a cocktail, and likely making the rounds to speak to guests. But before you totally settle in for dinner, toasts and speeches, your wedding photographer and videographer will probably sneak you off for a special photo session.

Sunset photos!

One thing to keep in mind is the limited amount of golden hour you have for your sunset session. Your film crew wants in on these! We get glorious footage from this and trust us- you want it in your wedding film!

While it's hard to leave the excitement of the reception now that the nerve-wracking part is over and the party is starting, stepping away can be peaceful! It's a great way to regroup post-ceremony and you will absolutely value having this footage in your wedding film. So many amazing shots come from a thirty-minute session during golden hour.

Reception events (cake cutting, bouquet toss, toasts, first dances, sendoff):

Okay, now you can party! Lighting and mics are placed, and toasts can be captured before moving on to first dances, bouquet toss, and cake cutting. There will be moments where your wedding videographer directs a few minor things -- only because of the experience in getting fantastic footage! Give your videographer a few minutes reposition that cake table where it will have a beautiful backdrop. Same goes for bouquet and garter toss. We might take a few minutes to discuss with you and your photographer the best place for you to stand and direction of the toss. Give your wedding videography and photography teams time to curate your lighting. In ten minutes or less we will have it set up in the most flattering way and your footage will be amazing for it. If several of these events are going to be in the same area, changes are minimal. With a heads up and time to setup for dinner time, toasts, bouquet toss, garter toss, cake cutting, and first dances, your footage is going to pop! Having at least a few minutes scheduled between each event will be plenty of time for your wedding videographers to get themselves (and their lights) to where they need to be.

A few things to keep in mind:

Sometimes your itinerary doesn't go as planned. It happens! Your wedding videographer is guaranteed to be there for agreed upon hours, and in our case, we offer up front to stay longer for additional charge or until the last reception event. You can always request on the day of to expand your package and add additional time. But having a day-of coordinator can mitigate time crunches and extra cost—- provided you keep the coordinator in the loop and follow his or her guidance! 

Lastly, all of the wedding day events can make for a tight schedule that becomes hectic and stressful.  We’ve seen jam packed itineraries where brides or grooms appeared overly stressed trying to squeeze it all in and manage a schedule, and they didn’t seem to enjoy their day. You don’t have to do every single “event,” but can choose which ones are the most important and how much free time you want in order to keep your day relaxed. We look forward to seeing you on your big day!