If a new bride could tell someone who is currently planning their wedding just one thing or give them one piece of advice while they decide what professional wedding services are in their wedding budget, what do you think it would be?
“Make sure you reserve your venue well in advance”? “Make sure you actually attend a cake tasting so you know what you are going to get”? “Don’t go through it at all”?
No! According to a 2005 survey commissioned by the Wedding & Event Videographers Association, 98 per cent of newlyweds would tell those first-time brides to hire a professional wedding videographer.
Many former brides regret not having a videographer at their own wedding – before their wedding, about 50 per cent of them thought hiring a wedding videographer was a necessary expense like the cake or flowers. But after their wedding, another 25 per cent of brides thought it was an important service – regretting not hiring one themselves.
Only 29 per cent of recently married brides used a videographer, while 98 per cent used a photographer. According to the survey, those who used professional videographer services found that they did a better job of capturing the wedding in full as opposed to only capturing snapshots and that having a video would be better than just photographs to showcase their wedding later on, especially to future children.
This survey is seven years old – it’s from a time before YouTube, Facebook and other social media sites really took off. But with the easy access to video sharing these days, as well as the improvement in the quality of video in general, one can only imagine how much more important having a professional wedding videographer is today.
At the time of the survey, 55 per cent of the brides wanted high-definition DVD, and 43 per cent wanted still prints from the video – something the high-definition video of today would be much better at providing. So if you’re getting married this year or know someone who is, consider hiring a professional wedding videographer – after all, not getting one is a huge regret for many brides and it’s the best way to fully capture your special day.