Ask who edits your film and how they’ll learn your day, whether they stay the whole day, how they’ll act around your guests, how they record the vows, and what happens to your footage afterward. Those answers tell you what the film will feel like, and what the day will feel like with them in it.
Near the end of every discovery call, I flip the questions around and ask the couple what they’re hoping to avoid. Some can’t think of anything. Others have a list ready: a videographer leaving before the ceremony is over, a camera swinging left and right, someone standing on a chair in the middle of the dance floor, the same shot asked for five or six times. The questions below come from those calls.
1. Who edits our film, and how will they learn our day?
The editor decides how your day feels on screen. The same footage can come back slow and close, the way your day felt, or cut like a trailer with fast music, depending on who edits it and how much they know about the two of you.
Ask who edits your film and what they’ll know about your day before they start. We decide your story together on the calls before your wedding: which moments matter most, whose voices you want to hear, and what you’re hoping to avoid. Your voices lead the edit, and if a section doesn’t feel like you, say so. Re-edits are always possible.
2. Will you be there the whole day, or is there a clock?
One groom told me he was worried about a videographer leaving before the ceremony was even over. With an hourly block, that’s a fair worry. Many videographers quote a set number of hours, and when the hours run out, the filming stops wherever you are in the day.
We film from getting ready to the exit, with no hourly limits. If you’re comparing quotes, I walk through how hourly pricing works in what a wedding videographer costs in Nashville.
3. How will you act around us and our guests?
I tell couples this on calls: your photographer and your videographer are some of the people you’ll spend the most time with on your wedding day, maybe more than with each other, because we’re with you before you even see each other. So their personality matters. If someone comes across rude or stressed, or you just don’t click, I’d steer away.
Then there’s how they film. Ask how they handle the dance floor and how often they’ll stop you to redo a shot. On calls I put it this way: the film is there to capture your wedding, and some filmmakers get that backwards.
4. How do you record the vows and the toasts?
Look for microphones on the people speaking, with a backup recording running. A camera across the room hears the room, and the words you’ll want thirty years from now get lost in it.
One of the things I hear most on calls is that someone hates how they sound on camera. Nobody likes their own voice, and that’s normal. I ask them to picture the two of them thirty years from now and decide what they’d want to hear. If you’re still unsure, we can keep your voices in the highlight film you watch at home and leave them out of the short teaser you post.
5. Can our own footage go in the film?
A bride once asked me, half expecting a no, whether clips they filmed themselves in the car and on their honeymoon could go in. I told her I don’t make rigid wedding films. I make short films for y’all that happen to be shot at your wedding. Sometimes I hand the bridal party a small camera, like an old VHS-looking one, and their clips go into the edit too.
Ask any videographer whether your own clips, from a phone, a drone or the honeymoon, can be part of the film.
6. What happens to our footage after delivery?
Some studios delete raw footage a few weeks after delivery. We keep every wedding we’ve filmed, which is how anniversary re-edits happen years later. Ask how long they keep yours, and get the answer in writing.
7. Will our film show up in your marketing?
If privacy matters to you, ask this one early. I don’t rely on sharing couples’ films for my own marketing, and if you want yours kept private, it stays private.
8. When will the film arrive?
Ask for the average wait and the longest one, and get the longest in writing. Ours averages about six weeks, and the contract caps it at under three months.
The question I’ll ask you back
On our call, I’ll ask you what I ask every couple: what are you hoping to avoid? If you already know, bring it. If you don’t, we’ll figure it out together.
If you’re still deciding whether a film is worth it at all, start with is a wedding videographer worth it. The quick answers are on the FAQ, and how we film a whole day is on our Nashville wedding videography page.
Save this for the week you start making calls.
Bebo
