DIY Wedding Video

Why make a DIY wedding video?

It’s cheaper…

Usually the first reason people will consider making a DIY wedding video is because it’s a cheaper alternative to hiring a professional. It’s no wonder – the cost of hiring a pro have skyrocketed in recent years, to the point that it’s often one of the most expensive costs of a wedding.

A more personal touch?

However one of the sometimes overlooked benefits of a DIY wedding video, is that the end result can often be a more personal video, that captures the essence of the day. Professional videos may feature fancy drone footage and blockbuster-worthy shots, which you’d struggle to capture doing it yourself. 

However by doing it yourself – and having your friends take care of the filming – you will often capture more candid moments. Friends are more likely to be themselves around each other than they are with someone they don’t know! 

What equipment do you need?

The first thing to consider when planning your own wedding video will be the equipment you’re going to need. Assuming one of the factors in choosing to do it yourself is the budget, you’re going to want to try and keep it on the cheaper side. We’ll break it down bit by bit and provide our recommendations.

Camera/s

Ask yourself these questions first…

• Do you have a camera you could use already, or does a friend have one you could borrow? This is the best way to keep things cheap!
• How many cameras do you want? We recommend at least 2 if possible, so you can film both groups getting ready, and capture important moments such as the ceremony and the first dance from different angles. This also means you have a backup if there’s a problem with one!
• Could you use phones? Phone cameras these days are often very good quality. However if you have multiple people filming it can be more awkward to collect footage from lots of different devices.

Here at FIY Wedding, we provide Sony HD video cameras for filming your own wedding. We like them because they are good quality, but super easy to use. Just flick open the screen, and hit record. 

Memory card/s

Make sure your camera has a memory card with sufficient room to film whatever you want. You absolutely do not want someone to find themselves realising halfway through your speeches that the card is full… and trying to find earlier footage from the day to delete!

We provide 256GB memory cards which essentially means you have unlimited filming for the day.

A tripod

Not essential, but a great option to ensure you can get nice steady footage of the main events, such as the ceremony, the first dance and the speeches. If you’re using phones to film, make sure you get a tripod that has an adaptor for a phone!

Spare batteries and a charger

Just as you don’t want to run out of memory, you don’t want to run out of battery either! For this reason, at FIY we always provide multiple spare batteries and a charger with our cameras. 

Make sure that anyone in charge of filming has it drilled into them to put the old batteries on charge every time they swap them!

Who should film it? And how do you organise it?

If you have one particular friend that you think would do a great job, then there’s no harm in asking them if they’d be up for taking care of the filming.

However, bear in mind that this is a big responsibility, and that might feel like they can’t say no! If you are taking care of filming all day, it can make it difficult for them to enjoy their day as a guest at the wedding. What’s more, if they are a professional or semi-professional photographer or videographer, it might be seen as a bit cheeky to ask them to film yours for free.

For this reason, we always recommend splitting DIY filming duties between multiple guests. These are main tips:

• split filming between multiple guests
• clearly assign parts of the day to each guest (e.g. ceremony, cake cutting, speeches, etc.)
• choose guests from each side of the family and different friend groups – this helps you get a wide range of coverage
• make sure each person filming knows exactly what time they should have the camera
• ensure everyone knows who to receive the equipment from, and who to pass it on to after
• choose relatively tech competent guests for important moments
• choose ‘responsible’ guests for later in the day (when alcohol may be having an effect!)
• give everyone filming tips to make sure they capture good content

What filming tips should you give?

If you do split filming duties between a number of guests, they most likely won’t all have filming experience! We recommend you give all guests some tips on exactly what you want them to capture. This will help them feel more confident in carrying out the important job you’re giving to them, as well as helping them actually achieve what you want! 

So, we suggest you give them all at least the following tips:

• during big moments (such as the ceremony), leave the camera rolling the whole time
• capture candid moments as well – short shots such as guests laughing and having fun, close ups of the details of the wedding (favours, decorations, etc.) and long range shots of the settings (the church, the venue etc.)
• avoid overusing the zoom function, it generally won’t look great
• always film in landscape (particularly important if people are using phones)
• ask other guests questions on camera (such as ‘any advice for the married couple?’

How do you edit a wedding yourself?

The hardest part of making a DIY wedding video is possibly the editing. If you don’t have any experience (or any willing friends that do), you may really struggle here.

At FIY Wedding, part of our service (along with providing the equipment), is editing the footage together. We edit our footage with Adobe Premiere Pro, which available as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. 

However if you don’t have any experience, it’s probably not worth splashing out on expensive software. You could try using the editor built into the Photos app on Windows 10, or iMovie on Apple. If you’re not looking to do anything more than cut the shots together and add some music, this should all be doable!

This all sounds like a bit much, is there an easier way?

Well, it’s a good job you asked. At FIY Wedding, we send the equipment out to you ahead of the wedding. We also provide guidance on how to plan the day and organise the filming. After the wedding, you send everything back to us (postage costs are included in the price!) and we then professionally edit the footage together.

It’s a great alternative to hiring a professional, or to doing it yourself entirely. If you’re interested, get in touch today to see if we have availability for your wedding.