This is absolutely a true story from a DJ who belongs to WEVA, one of the national organizations we belong to. All names have been omitted to protect the guilty and I corrected some spelling here and there. This DJ is describing the “service” a $500 videographer provided at a wedding he was a DJ for. This wedding was not in the Houston/Galveston market. It’s too bad that this client will get exactly what she paid for, but sometimes we all learn things the hard way:

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…For $500 they (the couple) got unlimited time. It was a two camera setup and for all of the toasts both cameras were focused on the person giving the toast. Forget the cut aways of the bride and groom laughing or crying – they don’t exist. As soon as we got through the celebratory dances, the videographers returned to their table and sat down. And sat.. And sat. All the while they missed the happy couple dancing with people like grandma, granddad, the bride with her mother, the groom with his sister and on and on. About 45 minutes into this the videographer wanders over to me and asks… “when is the bouquet and garter?” and I tell him, in 15 minutes.

At this point grandma is dancing with groom. I point that fact out to him, sort of as a push. He looks and says “I see that, let me know when you are throwing the bouquet and garter.” He wanders back to his table and plops down.

A few minutes later one of the groomsmen wanders up to me and says that they’d like to do a frat brother song for the bride. I point out that the garter removal would be the best time for this. The videographer wanders by from the bar right after this and I mention to him the serenade will be taking place. He looks at me and says “we don’t film stuff like that”. He then mentions the tosses again so I go and check with the bride and groom. They are partying and want to delay the tosses till 10, and it’s 8:30 at this point.

I go over to the photog who is contracted to 10:30 and tell him and then go tell the lazy videographers. At this point they start having a fit. I ask them once again if they are on a time limit and if so I’ll see what I can do. No they are not on a time limit but their contract says they leave after the tossess.

A half hour later the videographer is back in my face asking if the tosses will be taking place shortly. I look at him and inform him that the schedule was still for 10 as I had informed him when it changed at 8:30. He starts having a fit that he wants to go home. I’m like if you want them to move it up to now, it’s you who will have to talk to them, I have my orders and there is no reason for me to push them to change it.

To wrap up my rant, at 10 as the bride wanted we did the tosses. Between the bouquet and garter removal the frat brothers did their serenade and sure enough he stopped the recording on his camera and stood on the side of the dance floor. I think he was out the door 30 seconds after the bouquet landed in a brides maid’s hands.

He literally recorded nothing of the dancing. I still can’t imagine not having a few seconds each of all the people they danced with or some of the fun dancing that happened.

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That’s the end of the story as I know it. It’s videographers like this that give our industry a black eye. Please, for anyone who reads this who is shopping for any service for your wedding, don’t shop on price alone. Of course you are on a budget, I don’t know of a bride who isn’t. But as a rule of thumb you should allocate the same amount to video that you do for photography.

There’s no telling what this “videographer’s” finished product is going to look like. But it certainly won’t be an accurate representation of the events of the day. That’s what we do as professional videographers. And some of us add cinematic elements where possible to elevate the production into something that you will cherish for years to come.

But not for $500.

You get what you pay for.

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