Why every wedding should have video coverage!
Okay, we may be biased, but it took a lot of heartache to come to this point.
Whether your wedding is large or small, we always recommend couples to include video coverage in their planning. It doesn’t matter where you get the coverage; you just need it.
Thuy here. I want to share a quick but personal story about how I came to realize wedding video is so important...
Neal and I were doing our own thing in 2015, working independently in the wedding industry. Video never interested me as a photographer. I thought video was cheesy, and reserved for large weddings. I never filmed anything, not even on my cell phone. I was one of those people who didn’t really care, watching footage of myself or listening to recordings of my voice made me cringe. I would have been content with this faulty notion of video... until I met Neal!
Neal didn’t change my perspective on wedding videos because he happens to be a filmmaker, but because of what happened the same weekend I met him.
Neal and I met while shooting a beautiful wedding in Connecticut. It was a multi-day event that deserved to be preserved. One day before the event, I received a call from my mom's doctor telling us that she was actively dying and that we needed to start making preparations. I knew this day was coming, and I wasn't in shock, I knew I had to say goodbye for good. After suffering from a surgical complication, my mom was in a vegetative state for several months.I sat beside her bed and told her just to hold on until my crazy wedding weekend was over. I couldn’t imagine canceling on my wonderful couple, who had spent so much time and effort planning the perfect wedding. I couldn’t let them down, so I pulled myself together and got to work. If I hadn’t shown up to that wedding, I may not have met Neal!
To this day, I believe our meeting was meant to be. It may be a cliché, but when one door closes another one opens. I lost a piece of my heart that weekend, but I soon gained a new love.
On Monday, my mother passed away peacefully surrounded by her loved ones. I knew it was the right time, she was no longer suffering, and my father was no longer suffering, holding hope that one day she would wake up. We all knew, it was her time to go.
During the funeral preparations, my job as the "artist" was to put together images and video of my mom's wonderful life. At that time we had so many photographs, albums filled with prints and memories.What I didn't have, however, was any video footage of my mom. How can that happen?? I'm a photographer, and we all have cell phones, so how did this happen? I guess no one in my family cared about video either. Looking back on photographs is great, but I will never be able to hear her voice, her contagious laughter, or see her smiling face again.
I don’t have many regrets in life, but I wish someone told me how important it was to take not just photographs, but to film those memories. It never occurred to me, which seems so silly now and so obvious, to make sure these fleeting moments are caught!
Through this experience, I will cherish every cringe-inducing video I have!
Again, regardless of whether you are having an extravagant wedding or a small affair with close friends and family, please consider video coverage of your big day. Maybe you don’t need a cinematically edited film, it’s just about having that footage. Imagine watching your father/daughter or mother/son dance, or even your uncle doing the chicken dance, you’ll be glad you have these memories. A photograph is wonderful, but you can't feel someone’s voice or see their smile in an image.
