Why are wedding videos so expensive?

When we post on Facebook or run ads on Instagram, we often see in the comments section discussions between friends about the costs of weddings. Many of these people want to know: Why are wedding videos so expensive? We wrote a post recently about the average costs of a wedding video, from high end cinematic masterpieces to shoot it yourself DIY wedding videos. In this article we will aim to break down some of the factors that go towards making the cost of a wedding video so high.

TIME:

The main reason that a wedding video is so expensive is related to the amount of time the videographer has to spend on your wedding video. There is a likely to be an initial meeting and possible recce (location survey) of the wedding venue, then there is the filming day which can often be very long (12-14 hours if done properly from beginning to end).

Once the footage is captured, the huge task of sifting through the material and editing a beautiful film can begin. This also includes working on the sound design, colour grading the footage, exporting and uploading the finished film. If the videographer has used multiple cameras, there will be many hours of footage to work with. This all takes a lot of time to do properly (anywhere between two days and a week depending on the videographer and the quality of the finished film).

When you start to take that wedding video price and break it down into a daily rate or even an hourly rate, you will see that the price being asked actually seems a lot more reasonable. Let us say that the work listed above totals 7 days (this will vary by a few days either way) and your wedding video is costing £2000 >>>>> That works out to a daily rate of £285. This is significantly less than a film professional or cameraman in any other part of the TV or film industry would earn. And this income doesn’t even take into account the costs of equipment, hard drives, website costs, staff costs, travel / mileage etc. So if you think £2500 for a wedding video seems like a lot of money, then it is. But only to you. It isn’t a lot of money to the wedding videography company once you break down the time and money spent.

EQUIPMENT:

Video cameras / lenses / accessories / drones / sliders / hard drives / sound recorders / radio mics / storage & travel boxes / tripods / gimbals – the list goes on and on. And this stuff is EXPENSIVE! A professional camera that can shoot high quality video will cost no less than £3000, many cost up to £40,000. And the technology doesn’t stay up to date for long. This gear has to be replaced often in order to deliver the latest resolution (4K, 6K, 8K)…. The cost of the equipment is a large part of the answer to the question: why are wedding videos so expensive?

STAFF:

Being the wedding photographer is relitively straightforward and can be done by one person. Properly capturing footage and sound for a wedding film takes more. At the very least, a wedding videographer will need a team of three people to capture the day properly. Two camera operators to capture the ceremeony, speeches, prep and reception from multiple angles and someone to properly record the sound. Ideally there will be another assistant responsible for carrying equipment and transferring the huge amounts of data from memory cards to hard drives and ensuring the data is backed up and safe. That £2500 looking so expensive now?

There are many different types of wedding video package, I have chosen to look above at a typical professional wedding video package (around the £2000-£3000 mark). There are one man band operations that claim to be able to film your wedding with one camera and no assistance, but the quality of these videos will be impacted.

When planning a wedding, everything will seem extrememly expensive and often a wedding video is a push too far for many couples. As long as they have photographs, many people are usually happy to go without the moving images. But either way, I hope this article goes a little way to explaing why wedding videos are so expensive. They take a lot of time, effort and people to produce. When you break down the overall costs and look at how much that videographer is really making, then it perhaps it will seem more reasonable. That still doesn’t mean you will be able to afford one, but at least now you know why!

Edit Your Wedding is a family run DIY wedding video service. We send mini video cameras out to weddings, guests film the day and we do the editing. I run Edit your Wedding but also have a background in professional film and televison production and wedding videography. Find out more here