As a wedding videographer, your most important goal is to establish a partnership between yourself and the bride and groom. Weddings are almost certainly one of the most momentous days of peoples lives so  attention to detail is critical.

Here are some top strategies to consider when filming your wedding:

Keep It Simple Strategy

The most important tip of all is to remember it’s all about two people. The bride and groom.

Indeed, even before starting out it’s a good idea to spend time with them in order to get a clear understanding of what it is they are looking for and what kind of finished look they want you to achieve. Get as many shots of them as you can and try to capture those once in a lifetime shots of them holding hands at the rehearsal, when they first see each other at the wedding ceremony, the little looks they give each other at the reception, walking out together after the wedding vows as well as dancing and laughing together. It can also be a good idea to get other people to talk about them on camera and can be useful in adding another dimension to the finished wedding video.

The Wedding Video Planner 

You’ve probably heard it before: Plan your shoot – then shoot your plan.  It’s not always going to be possible to stick to a rigid plan when shooting a wedding but following these simple tips should help keep your wedding video on track:

Attend The Rehearsal

The rehearsal is a great chance to find out which kind of shots you will be going for. Think of all eventualities and familiarize yourself with everything from potential lighting and sound issues to the order of events as well as where people will be sitting. Check the electrical outlets you’ll need and move the camcorder around to find the best possible angles and positions for your shots. Another useful thing you can do during rehearsal is to shoot lots of cut away shots and behind the scenes footage that you can then include in the finished video.

Meet Beforehand

Try and meet with both the bride and groom in as far advance as possible.

Most weddings have their wedding and reception at 2 separate locations so make sure you know where each part of the wedding is due to be taking place and at what time. It’s also a good idea to find out who they want to feature in the video aside from themselves. This may include close relatives or friends that have traveled from abroad. Getting to grips with the kind of style they are looking for is also extremely important. Is it going to be religious, low key or private in nature etc You cannot plan too much and the more information you have the better position your going to  be in for making decisions whilst both filming and editing. Shot choices and background music are also worth factoring in and having a checklist is an intelligent way of making sure that all areas are covered.

Things To Watch Out For

As obvious as it sounds, make sure you are able to see the bride when she walks down the aisle. For this, you need to make sure that the video cameras line of vision will capture the bride. At one of my first wedding videos when I was just starting out, my camera had to be placed on the same level as the aisle but it  hadn’t occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to see the bride when the congregation stood up to see her entrance. Fortunately, I had placed another camera at the other side of the church to capture audio and I ended up using this camera to shoot footage as well and ended up with some impressive shots of her walking down the aisle.

Make Sure You Are Friends With The Stills Photographer

No matter how much time you spend preparing and getting things ready, you are going to have to work together with the stills photographer. You need to co-operate well with each other and decide on how you will capture different shots at different times. Taking turns on the particularly important shots is something worth considering.

Keep In Mind The Editing

The most important thing to remember during editing is that you want to present not only the scenes as they occurred, but the overall ambiance as well. Try to keep this in mind when making decisions about title colors, music, style and transitions.

Keep It Personal

You may have produced 100 wedding videos but to the bride and groom this (hopefully) is a unique event.

As always, the devil is in the detail and try looking out for things such as the colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses and flowers and try to match these with the style of your titles and backgrounds. Whether the wedding video is formal, casual or traditional choose everything to reflect the personal nature of the event. Whatever you decide to include in the middle of the wedding video, use the best shots you have of the couple at the beginning and end of the video. This helps frame the action and highlights what the video is really about.

Dress Code

There’s a delicate balance between being in the right place at the right time with your video camera and becoming a  nuisance to the wedding party and guests. It is also worth mentioning that you need to dress appropriately and, not forgetting, comfortably for the occasion. Depending on the formality of the wedding, this will generally mean dresses or jackets for women and suits and ties for men.

Sam Beavan writes for the One Vision TV team – a highly successful video production Leicester based agency, specializing in DVD production solutions, website presenters and wedding videos Leicester.