The High-Priced World of Wedding Video

Next Memorial Day weekend, at a beautiful location on the North Shore, I am getting married. As you can imagine, my fiancé and I are very excited about this. Ever since I proposed back in December we have been taking all the necessary steps, of which there are many, to plan a wonderful weekend for us and our guests. When it comes to most items on our checklist, I usually defer to my wife-to-be to make the ultimate decisions. I openly admit to knowing very little about things like flower arrangements, stationary, and glassware. However, there is one item on our checklist I felt quite confident tackling. That is choosing our videographer.

I mean, c’mon, I am a videographer. While I don’t bill myself as a wedding videographer per se, I have obliged a few friends over the years. I know cameras and I know how to shoot. I know how to get clean audio and achieve the best lighting. I know how to edit and I know how to cover a live event. I also know what all that should cost. So knowing all that I know I set out to find our videographer, excited to finally contribute to our planning process. I searched wedding websites and tracked down referrals. I watched reels and took notes. Finally, I settled on a select group of people that I thought were worth reaching out to and contacted them for their rates.

Soon, the responses started coming in. When I opened the first email I almost spit my coffee all over my laptop - eight thousand dollars. I laughed, thinking this person was clearly out of their mind and moved on to the next email - five thousand dollars. I could feel a cold sweat coming over my body. I opened another, six thousand. This went on and on. I could not believe what I was seeing.

I thought to myself, maybe I wasn’t clear. Maybe they think I want them to shoot the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and brunch over the entire three day weekend. Maybe they think I want a camera crew or a nationally televised broadcast. I simply could not understand how they were coming up with these figures. So I started doing the math. See, I’m also a producer. I’ve been hiring camera operators and editors in , Los Angeles, and Boston for 10 years. As I said, I’m not guessing at what these people cost, I know.

By my calculations, I could hire three professional cinematographers, a producer to oversee them, and give a professional editor three full days to make it perfect, and still pay less than most wedding videographers in the Boston area.

How is this possible? How is there such an enormous discrepancy here? How does a wedding videographer make so much more per day than a camera operator on “30 Rock” or “The Apprentice?” I mean it’s obvious who is more likely to have an advanced degree in cinematography. Is wedding videography really this lucrative?

Well, the short answer is yes, actually it is. Wedding videographers know that people want the best on their big day and are willing to pay for it. They also know that most people have no idea what something like that should cost. They charge that much because they get that much. It’s as simple as that.

I offer this to you as a cautionary heads up. If you are planning a wedding and hoping to hire a videographer, be careful. Preserving your memories doesn’t need to propel you into debt. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of people out there willing to take your money. Consider contacting some television professionals before hiring an expensive videographer. It may save you thousands!