When planning a wedding, brides tend to get overwhelmed by details, tasks and contracts. Because it is the most important and toughest event she will probably ever plan, it is easy for important details to get overlooked, money to be overpaid (or underpaid) and problems to arise. As wedding videography is one of the newer types of wedding services there is, the videographer can be one of the most misunderstood professionals she will hire. This guide is meant to make that experience the best and most rewarding undertaking of the wedding planning, both for the bride, and for her professional videographer.

Let me start by saying that I believe in a detailed contract. When all the cards are laid out on the table, there will be no surprises later; everyone knows what to expect. That said, the contract details should be very simple and straight-forward. Some wedding videographers have attempted to pad their wallet by charging for every single task that he will perform in creating the video (e.g. titles, number of toasts and dances etc.). The idea behind this is to start with a simple and affordable package well within the brides price range with options galore to be added once the bride has decided to hire the professional (or even after the wedding has taken place). There are 2 inherent problems with this type of sales technique: First, this makes the pricing very difficult to pin down. The bride may either think she is settling on a final price only to be surprised later or she is unclear about what the actual price is in the first place.

This can be detrimental to both parties because the bride may shy away from a talented videographer just because of his complex pricing, and that means one less sale for the videographer. The second problem with this technique is that once the bride has agreed to hire the videographer, she is now unable to shop around for a competitive price. Her only options are to either pay what the videographer choses to charge, or take a loss and not get everything she wanted in her video. Not only is this a problem for the bride but it has now caused a problem for the videographer as well: He has now lost the benefit of perceived value. In a business that thrives on referrals and word of mouth, this can be devastating down the road.

The solution? KISS (Keep it simple, stupid!) The best solution is to contract the way most experienced videographers do and charge by the “coverage hour” meaning if the contracted agreement says the videography team will cover the event for 8 hours, the idea is to create the best video possible using that 8 hour production time. For example, during the contracted coverage time, my videographers will record everything that happens during that time that will make for a great and memorable video. Of course the way that footage is presented is ultimately up to the videographer (after all, he is the professional for a reason). Those events are what the bride is contracting the videographer to record and present. There is no confusion as to what will be included in the video as far as the day's events go. So, the best practice is to set a time limit that will include the portion of the day the bride wants recorded, for the videographer to stay during the event. It is then up to the videographer to put his skill and talent to work doing what it is that prompted the bride to hire him (or her) in the first place. So, the hourly contract would include a video of the pertinent happenings of the day during the time specified, edited completely and packaged, ready to be watched by the bride and groom.

So what about add-ons? Although the hourly method of contracting is meant to encompass the duration and events of the wedding that the bride wants recorded, it is by no means intended as a feature exhaustive contract. There are many optional things that the videographer may want to offer as add-on items to the package. For instance, most videographers will offer a montage of the day's highlights. It is generally a few minutes in length and is a great way for the couple to show friends and family briefly what happened that day without watching the entire video. Because these events have already been included in the full length video, it would not necessarily have to be included in the contracted hourly package. This is only one of a multitude of other features that can be added at an additional price to spice up the video. There are options being offered ranging from “growing up” childhood photo montages to a personalized “love story” of the bride and groom telling how they fell in love to the “wedding day edit” where the footage of the ceremony is actually edited before the reception starts to a montage of the honeymoon and on and on and on...Any of these thing can be sold as additional items up until or even beyond delivery of the video, or as part of a complete package that includes a few extras at a single price.

The benefits of hourly contracting are numerous. Brides and videographers alike can be confident they are making an agreement that they both understand and feel comfortable signing their name to. Agreements that start out complex will generally end up costing the bride more and leaving a bad impression of the videographer.

Editor: The wedding video industry lost a good guy when Adam switched over to computer game design and moved to California about a year after writing this article.  We wish Adam and his family all the best.