7 Steps wedding videographer guide in Melbourne [2020]

Okay so to get everything started. You will need to reach out to the market and look for couple of wedding videographers in Melbourne. There are so many wedding videographers in Melbourne nowadays, and I have summarized the top 5 most efficient platform to find your wedding videographers in Melbourne:

1. Google
2. YouTube and Vimeo
3. Wedding expo in Melbourne
4. Social media: Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest 
5. Wedding magazine and wedding Blog

For a detailed break down of each method, please click here.

Meeting your wedding videographer

After some searching and comparisons, you have found couple of wedding videographers in Melbourne that produce films to your liking as well as their pricings do seem to fit in your wedding video budget. 

That is a good start. Next step, you want to get in touch with your wedding videographer to discuss further. 

You can arrange a meeting with your Melbourne wedding videographer by these means

• Email or phone call
• Skype and Zoom
• Meet in person

Most Melbourne bride and groom meet me in person. However, we do have couple who based in the country or simply far away from Melbourne. In that case, meeting through the Skype or Zoom would be easier for them. Both software can share screens which means I can share the wedding video samples on the couple’s screen as well.

There are also some bride and groom that cannot attend the meeting due to work commitment, they can get their information from the cinematographer via email or phone as well. 

I always suggest the couples to meet their wedding videographer in person. Meeting in person makes the whole process easier as the videographer can show my portfolios in person as well as the couple can get a more comprehensive understand of the him. 

Regarding the meeting spot, meeting at the videographer’s own studio is far better than meeting at a local café. A studio offers privacy and comfortability. I can still remember few years ago I met one couple at a café shop and during the meeting we literally couldn’t hear a word from each other, and I thought it was a sub-optimal experience for them.

Surprisingly, they booked me two weeks later. To avoid the same experience, I invited this couple to meet in my own studio during the pre-wedding consultation few month later.

how long should the meeting go? And what should we discuss during the first meeting with my wedding videographer? 

For meetings with your Melbourne wedding filmmakers, you should usually spend around 40-60 minutes with each of them. As you will most likely book appointments with several videographers, as well as you got lots meetings with other vendors. So you don’t want to spend too long with each of them. However, a minimum of 40 minutes of meeting time is needed to acquire some key information from the videographer. 

For my meetings with my clients, I will spend some time for the initial introductions, followed by showcasing of my portfolios, and then we will discuss some of the points outlined below, and these all adds up to a time of around 40-60 minutes.  

• Initial introduction
• Wedding inspiration and wedding location
• Wedding video style 
• Wedding timeline 
• Custom wedding videography package 
• Initial introduction with your wedding videographer

Also called as ice breaking, you and your wedding videographer can do a little bit of self-introduction to start to know each other. 

The topic can start with the wedding videographer’s self-introduction: how many years has he been shooting wedding? Has he achieved any awards from the bridal industry? 

After his self-introduction, you can then tell him about your love stories as well as your personal touch, lifestyle, and interests. This helps the wedding videographer to know a little more about you and what to deliver for your wedding.

Every couple has different personality and preference. Your wedding also reflects your own style and aesthetic sense. So, it’s important for the wedding cinematographer to deliver wedding videos that tells the stories of the couples’ personalities as well as their love journeys. Every wedding video is a unique story. 

Discuss your wedding inspirations and wedding locations

Next up you can tell your wedding videographer about the wedding reception you chose, what will you wedding be like and etc. You can also discuss your wedding style and colour theme.

Some attention to detail wedding videographer would also want to learn more details on your wedding. For instance, how would describe your wedding, modern or rustic? Which colour palette do you choose for your flowers and bridal party dress?

You could show some of your wedding inspirations via images or videos. Instagram and Pinterest are both good platforms for wedding inspirations. 

After seeing your Pinterest board, wedding videographer can get a much better insight on your wedding.

Wedding location is also something that shouldn’t be missed during your meeting. You could tell your wedding videographer where you tie the knot and which venue you get marry. If your wedding videographers have been the wedding venue before, he can give you some wedding ideas and guides.

Some wedding have different places for ceremony and reception and the bridal party want to have wedding photo location in city. The videographer can give you suggestions on which wedding location fits best with you and your wedding themes. 

Wedding videography style 

After getting know bride personal style and wedding ideas. We can go further.

There is no one wedding videography style fits all brides. All people want to be special; it is human nature. But we still have several wedding videos styles in general, you could find which video style does fit your wedding.

• Natural and candid
• Storytelling 
• Cinematic 

Natural and candid

 

Rather than lots of hard posing shots, a candid wedding video usually involves lots of couple’s interactions with their bridal party and guests on the wedding day. A candid video usually presents its audience the uplifting vibe of the wedding. If you want to be stressed free and being yourself on your wedding day, the candid wedding video style would work for you. 

Storytelling 

A storytelling wedding video is based on the footages, music as well as the voice-overs which sourced from the speeches as well as the couple’s vows. The speech would complement the rich content footage into a narrative wedding film, the video slowly unveils the story of the couple to the audience in a heartfelt way. 

Some couples want to listen to their sweet vows and funny speeches at the reception then, the storytelling is often a good choice. 

Cinematic 

If you want something that is more unique. The cinematic style would give you a new visual experience and editorial look and feel. By combining the carefully chosen music as well as the filmy look footages, the cinematic style wedding film provides its audience a unique sublime movie style looks as well as a high level of sense of immersion. 

There are more wedding styles out there, but I have listed the majority three here which they can be seemed as the backbones of the wedding videos. If you have a particular video that you fancy, share it with your videographer during the meeting. A good videographer can also blend several wedding video genres according to the bride and groom’s perspective seamlessly.

Discuss wedding timeframe with the videographer

The wedding timeframe is something crucial for every couple to figure out with their Melbourne wedding videographers. It ensures your wedding day run smoothly. Also, the wedding videographer will figure out your wedding day shooting schedule according to your wedding timeline. 

The two key time points your wedding videographers need to know is your ceremony and reception starting time, your getting ready’s starting time as well as your wedding location shoot time are all based on these two time points. 

Once the wedding videographer knows the two key time points of your wedding date, he can then suggest a rough time for your other activities on the day: such as when you should start getting ready as well as how long your wedding location shoots should last.

Check our complete wedding timeline guide.

Tailor wedding videography package 

• Package length
• Number of videographers
• Video production items
• Extra options
• Reasonable wedding video package price

At this point, you have already had quite a lot of talking with your wedding videographer on your wedding inspiration, styles as well as a rough daily schedule. 

You feel quite comfortable with the videographer in front of you. Should you make a booking now? Hang on there, we are just halfway through: for the second round of the meeting, you want to figure out something even more detailed about your wedding videographer in Melbourne. This includes your coverage time on the day, package details as well as the most important factor: price.

How long the coverage of the wedding videography do I need?

To put in simple words: your wedding day videography coverage are decided by two things:

1. Your wedding day schedule: if you want a complete coverage, simply tell your videographer what time you will be start doing getting ready and the leaving time of the reception, and you videographer will figure out your coverage time for wedding videography. 
2. Based on your choice: Some wedding couples only want certain part to be captured: for instance, the ceremony, location shoots and most of the wedding reception formalities. In that case, a 6-8 hours wedding videography coverage should be enough.

Couples with specific cultural backgrounds usually require a longer wedding videography coverage, Greek, Jewish, Lebanese and Viennese weddings couples have all got different traditions going on in the morning as well as in the night at reception that they want to be completely recorded. We would suggest 12 to 14 hours of videography coverage for them.

How many wedding videographers do I need on my wedding day?

If you are wedding does not involve lots of traditions or formalities, then one videographer should be more than enough to capture your wedding. Two videographers on a normal wedding would be a little bit overwhelming for the couples. 

An exception will be for some couples who get ready at houses that are far apart. In that case, if you have two videographers starting at the same time to capture the groom and the broom’s getting ready, it will make more sense than letting him travelling a long time from the groom’s place to the bride’s. 

Also, if you want to see your wedding in the videos from multiple different angles, the extra wedding videographers are advised. 

What wedding video productions are included in the package?

Most wedding videographer in Melbourne provide their couple a wedding highlight around 4-6 minutes. 

And some videographer would give you all the raw wedding video footages edited into one long version. Keep in mind, videos like this holds a great value of documentation. It is appreciated by your parents as well as the relatives, and it becomes priceless few years later when you want to see your weddings years ago. So do make sure your wedding video package includes a professional long video edited. Some wedding videographers in Melbourne do charge extras for this.  

Is there any potential add-on for my wedding videography?

• Drone
• Same day editing

A drone can provide inimitable shots of the great landscape, architectures in a bird’s-eye view. If If you want to highlight the landscapes that were involved on your wedding day, having an extra drone operator is a good add-on to choose. However, something to take note when you having drone shot on your wedding day is to check the weather: as the drone cannot handle huge wind or rain. Most of the Melbourne wedding videographers charge the extra drone shots for around $500.

One way to entertain your guests on your wedding day is to have the same day editing service. With the same day editing video service, a dedicated editor will travel with the team to produce a highlight video that includes basically everything shot before your reception. Imagining your guests can watch your wedding video highlight that would normally takes month to finish right at the reception, how cool is that!

The reference price for a same day editing service would be around $1200-$1500 in Melbourne. Not cheap, but definitely worth a try. 

What is a reasonable wedding videography price? 

It is hard to give you a certain figure. But as the benchmark in Victoria, the average of wedding videography spending is $3150 in 2019. 

Also, every Melbourne couples sets different total budget for their weddings. General, people usually spend 10% of their total budget on photography and video. The wedding videography should then take account of 5% of your total wedding budget if you think the wedding videography is equally important as your wedding photography. You could read our other blog about wedding videography package; it has deeper guideline.

Apart from the set rules, you should always be looking for wedding videographers that is talented as well as affordable. However, be mindful of those with ridiculously cheap pricings. You experience with those would either be ‘’very happy’ or ‘very upset’. An old saying is that ‘you get what you paid for’. So it’s important to check twice, or third times when choosing your wedding videographer, your wedding only happen once. 

How much discount I can ask?

After you receive a quote from your wedding videographer in person, you can always negotiate with them for a better price. Do it just like when you are at the car dealers asking for a better deal for your dream car. You don’t need to be afraid or embarrassed for asking a better price from your wedding videographer. 

Personal, I think 5% to 10% off is reasonable if you are planning your wedding in the winter or during the weekdays. Some brides may ask “Can I ask even more, like 50%?” Yes, it can happen indeed. There are two possibilities. One, you are a master of negotiation. Second, the wedding videographer already left enough margin to let you bargain.  

Keep in touch with the wedding videographer

• Questions about wedding
• Follow up on social media 

After you booked your wedding videographer, there are usually around 6 to 12 months till your wedding day. It is quite common that the amount of questions and stress a bride will get into before her wedding which will drive her into a ‘Bridezilla. So it’s important to keep in touch with not just you wedding videographer, ask your wedding suppliers any questions.

For instance, they would ask “Oh my god, it radio says it’s gonna rain on my wedding day, what should I do” “when should my makeup artist start on the day” .

If you want to ask wedding day suggestions on your timeframe or whatever stuff that ensures your wedding day run smoothly. There is no doubt that a wedding videographer can give some of the most useful advices. 

As a professional wedding videographer in Melbourne, keeping my phone and email approachable for bride and groom has become one of my traits.  

On the other side, I do enjoy of being a part of the planning process with the bride and groom. When a bride has got new ideas for her bridesmaid’s dresses and new colour palette for the wedding theme. She could talk with me to see whether the new idea will rock.

As an experienced wedding videographer in Melbourne, I have been captured couple hundreds of weddings and every wedding has its uniquely different shinning point.

Follow up with wedding videographer on social media

You could follow your wedding videographer’s Instagram account and subscribe his YouTube channel. So, you will see the latest wedding videos and if one of the particular wedding videos resonates with you, you could show your wedding videographer during pre-wedding meeting.   

Pre-wedding consultation

• What is pre wedding consultation?
• When do I have a pre wedding consultation with wedding videographer? 
• Where do I meet my wedding videographer?
• What shall I discuss at the pre wedding consultation?

Time always travels faster than you expected. Finally, the one month count down of your big day starts.

What is a pre-wedding consultation?

The pre wedding consultation is a great opportunity to catch up again with your wedding videographer. During the meeting, review your wedding day shooting schedule, wedding photo/video locations and other details again. 

When do pre wedding consultation occur? 

Approximate one month before the wedding, it is usually the time that most Melbourne brides confirm details with their wedding suppliers, For instance, their wedding band, celebrant, florist, dress and etc. 

I won’t suggest the pre wedding consultation to be arranged too early, because at that time it would be hard for the couples to confirm all details from their suppliers and the couple will forget what videographer have discussed with them during the pre-wedding meeting.

The meeting time should not be too late either. For the 2 weeks just before their wedding, bride and groom are usually quite busy for all final confirmations and this is usually not a great time for some more figures and advices. 

Where do I meet my wedding videographer?

Meeting at the wedding videographer’s place is advisable. You could discuss your wedding details in a private and comfortable environment.

If you really can’t attend the meeting, a Skype or Zoom meeting is much better than a phone call.

What shall I discuss with my wedding videographer during the pre-wedding consultation?

• Wedding timeline
• wedding details 
• wedding videography style
• music for wedding highlight 

Comparing to the first meeting with your wedding videographer few months ago, the couple will have a better understanding and insight of their wedding at this stage. Couple would have a better idea knowing what they want and what they don’t.

Wedding timeline

As wedding day videography is a service that relied on time, being on time is crucial for the bride and groom’s day to seamlessly. That is why will discuss the wedding timeline once again:

When we be at the bride and groom’s house in the morning? 

What time does the ceremony and reception starts? 

How long should we allocate for family photo and location?

Wedding details checklist

• Bride and groom’s getting ready address
• Ceremony and reception address
• Bride and groom’s contact number
• Emergency contact numbers (bridal party or parents)
• Family photo list 
• Suppliers contact number
• Wedding timeframe

Wedding videography style

Couples can tell their wedding videographer their preferred wedding video style, for instance, candid, cinematic or something else.

You can show some video sample to make it easy to understand, so the wedding videographer will have a clearer idea when filming your wedding on the day as well as the desired style of editing.

Music for wedding highlight

The music plays an important role on the result of a wedding highlight. A good piece of music complements with the video footages and takes the wedding highlights to the next level. The music can naturally boost the emotion of a wedding video. The music is a big topic, I will teach you how to choose the right music to make a perfect wedding highlight reel in the next chapter-the wedding videography’s post work and behind the scene of the wedding video editing.

Your wedding day finally comes, Hooray!

Finally, the wedding day comes. As a wedding videographer, one experience I would share with you is try your best to get enough sleep even I know you are most likely to be so excited that you cannot fall asleep at all. However, not only a quality sleep does make you skin condition shine brighter but also you do not want to be tired after just a few rounds of dances later at the celebration. 

Groom preparation 

Your wedding videographer will most likely start with shooting the getting ready of the boys. For the getting ready shoot in the morning. When the videographer arrived at the groom’s place, he will firstly shoot some scenery shots or so-called B-roll shots. These footages provide the video with a natural transition to let the audiences know the story now move on to the groom’s getting ready at his place. 

Then, instead of getting the boys to get changed immediately, the videographer will capture some of the candid moments of the boys having beer while talking to each other. Then he will ask groom for his accessories such as rings as well as suits to do detailed shots of them. Finally, the wedding filmmaker let the boys to start helping each other to get changed while he actively records those candid moments. After the groom is fully dresses, then the wedding videographer will do some creative shots of him, such as drinking some whiskey or fixing his watch.

Before heading to the bride’s place, the wedding filmmaker will also record the family shots as well as the groom putting flower on his parents. 

Bride preparation

When arrives at the bride’s place, the wedding videographer will do things pretty much the same as what he did at the boy’s. If the bridesmaids are wearing robes, the wedding filmmaker can take the girls out on the lawn to do shots of them popping a bottle of champagne. 

Then the videographer will bring the bride back to her room and capture the bride with her dress. He can do some shots of the bride walking towards the dress and touching her dress. After the girls are all dressed up, the wedding filmmaker will let the girls help the bride to fix her dress. Before the videographer leaves for the ceremony, he will also finish the family shots as well. 

Despite you might had a different timing per discussed with you wedding videographer, We normally spend one hour for groom and one and half hours for bride. In daily life, girls need more time than boys to walkout from home in the morning. If you have a big bridal party or your wedding involves culture traditions, the time should be accordingly extended.

Wedding ceremony

Your wedding videographer will need to arrive at the ceremony place earlier than you to set up all the cameras and audios as well as shooting the decorations and guests entering. 

When the wedding has only one wedding videographer, he will set up a main camera in the middle which to be kept recording and he will be roaming around shooting close-up using a tele lens. 

A tele lens helps the wedding filmmaker to capture the shots of exchanging rings as well as first kiss from far distance. After you are officially married, the wedding videographer will switch to a stabilizer to capture silky smooth footages of you walking out of the ceremony. 

Family photo 

After the ceremony, wedding videographers and photographers would allocate 20 to 30 minutes for family photos. 

Wedding location photo

The ideal time for wedding location shoot will be at least one hour given if your location spot is closed by. If you are looking to travel to one of the wedding locations in the city or offsite of the venue, you need to consider the travel time. Also, during the peak time on weekday wedding, you should add 15 minutes extra time for travelling.

Wedding reception

Before the reception start, the bridal party will go to the bridal suite to take a rest and your wedding videographer will take this opportunity to shoot the decorations of the reception including like wedding cake, flower arrangement, centrepieces, signage, gift box, table setting and guest mingling. The wedding filmmaker will usually arrive at the reception 30 minutes before guests entering so he can have enough time shooting all of those. 

For your first dance, your wedding videographer will use a wide-angle lens to empathize you and the background.

Wedding day and behind the scenes

After reading the wedding day guide, you get some useful knowledge on your wedding day. You could watch the behind the scenes on the wedding day for some intuitive experience

Wedding videography editing

After your wedding, have you wondered what does it take to make your wedding footages into a beautiful wedding highlight? Have you ever wondered how your participation during your wedding video making process can make a huge difference? Have you ever wondered what music should you choose to make the most out of it? Please see our final chapter-everything about the wedding videography editing and the behind the story.  

If you have made it here, thank you for taking your time to read this comprehensive blog. I’m sure this blog will give you some inspirations and ideas on finding your future Melbourne wedding videographer. However, I would you to answer your questions: I am aware this may be not the ‘perfect’ blog as surely you will have some other questions. If you would like to more about your wedding videography, please do not hesitate to contact us!