In many cases, what you actually like about a company’s demo’s is not the way the wedding was shot – it is also how it was edited – style, music, effects, etc. We do all of our own editing – we never sub-contract work out, as some companies do.

The truth of the matter is if you give five editors the exact same video to edit, you get five different videos.  Sometimes very different videos!  It is the edit that really separates a good video from a great one, and you want a great editor that edits in a style that speaks to you.

When you interview videographers for your wedding, ask who the editor was when you are shown a video that you particularly like.  Also ask if that editor still works for that company and would he/she be available to edit your video.

How many weddings is your videographer doing on your wedding day? Reasons this is important – time, resources, focus.

Is the videographer you are interviewing the same person that will be shooting your wedding? In our case, yes. My husband Don and I run our company together. If we have 1 wedding your weekend, we are both there if you have selected our feature film coverage or our Deluxe Feature film coverage. If we have 2 weddings, we each lead a crew with additional camera persons.  Don does most of the Highlights packages himself.

So why is this important to you.  Well, other videographers hire camera persons based on how many weddings they can book for that day.  Some have one or two videographers on staff and if they can book a third wedding, they just hire someone off of Craigslist!  You get someone you have never met, who may or may not have ever shot a wedding before, that may or may not know or care about the rules of the church, and who may or may not shoot video to the same standards as the demo the company showed you.

With us you get Don & Miriam.  We care about your wedding and making the best possible video for you, no matter what package you selected.  We are international industry leaders, speaking at wedding video conventions five times and subjects of several industry articles.  Miriam was selected to be a judge at our industries wedding video competition a couple of years ago.  We know wedding video.

And when we need help we have two more videographers, both that have attended conventions with us, shot many weddings with us over the past 8 years, and edited a bit for us.  They know us and they know our style.

A wedding video is more than a guy with a camera.  Know who is going to be behind that camera!

Their ceremony was in the chapel at the church, and was just the right size for their guests – I think it is cozy and more intimate when the sizing is right.  I hadn’t been to the new Embassy Suites before, and it was very nice – and the food was fantastic!

Erin & Mike chose our new “Modern Bride” package – we did a Same Day Edit of their ceremony, and they opted for reception coverage added to that package.  Normally, we would deliver 50 DVD’s of the Same Day Edit that evening, to be handed out to the wedding guests as party favors, but Erin had already told me she planned to send them to members of the family that couldn’t attend the wedding – so instead, we will include the reception on the DVD’s and will get them to Erin & Mike when they return from their honeymoon.

I do have to say the most humerous moment of the day for me was when we interviewed 2 of Mike’s brothers – they were a walking comedy routine!  I’m glad that the famliy members that receive the DVD’s will get a chance to hear what they (and other family and friends) had to say about this really great couple!

The Joclyn Castle is a lovely venue – built in the early 1900′s, it is beautifully decorated in a historical fashion. Caterers of both Indian and American style foods provided an absolutely delicious meal!

Bonnie was radiant in an ivory satin gown, and GJ was quite “GQ” in his tuxedo with pearl grey accessories. His children stood as attendants and the family lit a family unity candle to celebrate the formation of their new family.

Their cake was georgous and had a miniature Eiffel Tower on the top – tribute to GJ’s proposal to Bonnie in Paris France! How romantic!

I’m looking forward to seeing photos from their Indian wedding – I’ve never been to India or participated in a full Indian wedding, so it is both personal and professional interest that I hope to see pictures!

Bonnie & GJ – in edit

Lindsey & Rich – in edit

Stephanie & Josh – in edit

Erin & Mike – ready for delivery

Stephanie & Josh – in edit

Amy & Steve – in studio

Amanda & Kris – in studio

Amy & Cody – in studio

Sara & Andrew – in studio

Nichole & Erik – in studio

Kate & Nick – in studio

Lindsey & James – in studio, music video complete

Becky & Andy – in studio

Sarah & Bryce – in studio

Cheri & Tony – in studio

Patricia & Dale – in studio

Tricia & Jeremy – upcoming wedding

If you’ve read a bridal magazine or a “plan your wedding” book or guide (I’m guessing this is most of you) you have probably encountered a list of questions to ask when you talk to a videographer (as well as questions for photographers, etc.) Thought I’d address some of them. (In writing below, “you” are the bride/groom/person planning wedding and “they” are the videographers you are interviewing, and “we” is me – Miriam at Omaha Wedding Video).
(Note – source of questions – Omaha World Herald Wedding Essentials and “The Knot” website)

The most important question, in my opinion, is what style of wedding video do you want (cinematic, documentary, etc.) and do they produce this type of wedding? If you have your heart set on a dreamy, elegant wedding movie, be sure that you’re not going to get MTV – and vice verca! We produce all types of wedding videos, and take our directions from you as far as style, music, etc.

Does the videographer belong to any national or local associations? Have they won any awards? We have not personally won any awards yet – but submit work for judging twice a year to the 2 international associations to which we belong. We do hope to win an award someday but we don’t just sit around “hoping” – we are actively pursuing this goal by attending workshops by some of the best videographers in the US – the ones that are winning the awards ! We push ourselves with every wedding we do to do the best work ever – every wedding is our best wedding – and someday that plaque will come home with us. We have started a local videographers assocition (our first meeting was in November) to help improve videography in Omaha, to educate videographers and brides about what is possible and how to attain it.

Have you done a wedding at my (church/hotel/venue) before? This question is a kicker, which is why I put it here. Most of the time, our answer to this question is “no”. There are a lot of churches in Omaha – and many venues other than churches !! But that is why I put this in here – do not be discouraged or concerned because we haven’t been there before. We’re professionals, and this is what we do – go where we haven’t been before and do what we do all the time. We talk to the minister/church coordinator/etc., establish where and what we are allowed to do in their church/venue, and that is what we do. If you like a videographer’s work, don’t be overly concerned about this point. The next airplane flight you take – the pilot may never have flown into Denver before, but he knows how to fly an airplane and all airports work basically the same way.

More FAQ coming soon!

What types of cameras, microphones, lights do they use? In our case, HD (High Definition) cameras, high quality wireless microphones (on the groom), and soft lighting that is dimmer-adjustable – no harsh spotlights. We will ask you about your lighting preferences, especially during special moments like your first dance and cake cutting.
What type of editing equipment do they use? At this point, in 2008, I would guess that 99% of videographers use “non-linear editing” systems – fancy words for we do it with software on a computer, in our case, Apple (Mac) computers using Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro, along with about 10 other software applications that I won’t bore you with here. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want to be sure you understand, but we all do just about the same thing, just with different software. (But if your videographer doesn’t know he is doing non-linear editing, you might want to ask a few more questions!)

An opinion on the above information – while it is important that your videographer use good-quality equipment, it doesn’t need to be cutting-edge, super new, super expensive equipment. It just needs to be good enough to produce a good-quality video. What is, in my opinion, more important is the experience and creativity of the videographer to produce a quality video. I could give “Uncle Fred” my HD cameras and Sennheiser wireless mics and Mac and software, and you’d get a piece of junk more than likely. I could run to Best Buy and spend $1000 on a consumer camera and do a better job than an amatuer with $50,000 in equipment but no knowledge or experience. At the convention I attended in January, a world-class videographer, Jason Mabangua, got a last-minute travel visa to come to the US from the Phillapines to speak at the convention. He has won numerous awards but had never been able to attend (I guess the state department was afraid he’d abandon his awesome videography company and want to live here …) anyway, he showed a wedding that he shot – for real – on his cell phone, just to see if he could. It came out neat – a bit rough, as you’d expect from the low-quality video a cell phone would capture – but still put together with his “eye”, his sense of style – and it was, well, neat – can’t think of a better word right now