Photographer vs. Videographer ....baffled

Hi...I must preface my comment by admitting that I am biased?

Your wedding day will speed by and after it, most of the planning elements will be history.....the dress, food, entertainment, alcohol, cake, flowers, cars, favours, chair covers etc. What will remain is your personal memories, the rings and each other.......plus the pictorial memories of the day which can be either videography or photography. Both of the latter will increase in personal value as time passes and family and friends pass away. Both individually create a bespoke memory of your day that will not fade away.

Peter

If I had to chose, gosh i'd just cry.

I love our video, so far there isn't a day that has gone by since i've had it that i've not watched some small part of it.. But my favourite parts are when we had our photo calls video'd - without a this, you've not got a lot to record - sure you have the arrivals and the service but an amateur could do this - it was what our man did with the recording of the bits which we had in private that made it..

But I adore out photo's and will so even more when we get the canvas' prints of them for our walls. I love the video so much but I can't put it up on the wall. I am also vain and love the poses the TOG put me and H in to look our best while the video man records as he see's etc.

Overall, i'd struggle to give either up, but i'd still go for the TOG first.

Is there a way you can find a couple of extra hundrer - you could find a basic £500 package with a TOG then try and negotiate the same kind of rate for a video.?

We're not having a video. In fact, I don't think any of the weddings I've ever been to have had a video. Not a professional one at least. Personally, I think if I had one, I'd watch it once or twice, show it round the family, and then it would sit in a cupboard collecting dust forever. I'm a photo kind of girl. But that's just me

I would say try and have both - sorry if that's not what you want to hear. At the start of our wedding planning we didn't budget for a vog but I spoke to lots of friends who were OMs who said they regretted not having one and how fast the day goes by, blah blah blah. So I spoke to the OH and put my case forward - it took some persuading and even up until a month or so before the wedding, he was not keen. We had to save in other areas to allow for the vog - we shaved a bit off from the flowers and a few other areas. We were lucky to get our tog on mate's rates (£400) and our vog cost us (£550). When we got our wedding video, my OH has never been so pleased to be proved wrong - we LOVE it, it brings back amazing memories and everytime we watch it, there are new bits. You can only take in so much on the day and our video shows us those magical bits that we missed. Plus with music, it really sums up the emotion on the day, something photos can not convey.

We had a pro photographer and not-quite-so-pro video recording done by some work colleagues who do other video work, and I edited it The end results can be seen in our wedding website in my signature.

I think even poor quality videoing is better than no videoing, in the same way that poor photography is better than no photography - but I think if I had to choose one or the other professionally done then photos would win every time.

I think the key thing for me was the audio of it - you can hear the emotion in the words in the ceremony, you can hear the elderly relative's laugh during the speeches, you can see the first dance in a way that a still shot rarely captures the momnet.

One key thing to remember is that, if you are having a church wedding, not all churches allow photography or videoing inside during the ceremony, so it might be worth checking that out before you start stressing over affording something you can't actually have.

A relative with a video camera on a tripod in one spot will at least be able to record most things even if it's not the best shots - and much of the skill (and cost) of videoing is actually the time spent editing the footage afterwards.

I can't imagine not having some special photos of our wedding day, so that would always be my first choice. Having said that, after having a video done of my first wedding, I have booked a videographer for our wedding because the memories it can give are incredible.

We were in 2 minds about having a video but in the end we couldnt justify the cost and I did wonder if I would live to regret it, our tog wasnt cheap but you get what you pay for, and out pictures tell as tory better than any video could have done. We love them. Had we got a video I would have watched it probably every day for 6 months, but then the novelty wears off and I know that H would cringe every time I put it on. Its lovely to have that to show your children/family in the years to come but we have our albums which say so much more. You can linger at the pictures for hours to I think a video is a bit more impersonal.

We too had a professional doing the photos then a cousin do the video. The video turned out rather dark & poor quality at times, but am glad we have it.

I have pics in the house on display so people can see them, but I dont put the video on everytime someone visits, therefore think the photos are more important, but I'd still have both.

We had both, they were £750 each for all day.

And I love both for different reasons. The photographs do tell a story and capture some very emotional moments, the video also tells the story, has the words and the sound of our friends and family.

I would totally have regretted not having the video. It also meant I could go back and transcribe the ceremony and speeches and put this into our wedding album.

Indeed, post production costs are always high. That said, a skilled cameraman at the shooting stage makes the editing so much quicker and the final film so much better as they have thought through the elements on how the film will edit together. For picture editors, a good cameraman is priceless. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, if its no video or a friend shooting it, I would always suggest that it is best to have something rather than nothing.

We do a wedding photography package for £495. If you're interested, have a look at www.rswphotography.co.uk

We're based in Warrington.

For video, you could look at www.chapelfordweddingvideos.co.uk - I think there prices start at about £500 as well x

Thanks for all your comments.

I am going to have a budge around with my figures, and ask for a pay rise lol.

OH has said I can have what I want (he is unemployed!) so contemplating taking the money from my Bridesmaid budget, and I can always do my own make up.

Time to get down to the proper research ?