FAQ

Do we need a professional videographer?  Why can’t we just have a friend film it?

Okay.  I’ll say it.  You don’t need a professional videographer.  You could have your friend do it for you.  You can also ask your aunt to take your pictures, your grandmother to bake your wedding cake, your mom to grow the flowers for your bouquet and your dad to cook the food for your reception.  Why do you hire other people to do those jobs?  Because you want someone who is knowledgeable and responsible to handle that task for you on your wedding day.  It’s no different when it comes to video.  There are so many things to consider before making video a diy project.  

Beyond the obvious standards for equipment, such as low light capable cameras and wireless mics for sound, there is also the security in knowing that we have done this countless times before.  We know where to be, when to be there and how to get there without drawing attention away from you and the events of your wedding.  We know what shots we need to capture to tell your wedding story and the steady hands and creative eyes to shoot it in a way that makes it captivating to watch.  We know what looks flattering and what does not.  We know how to work alongside your other professionals without getting in their way.  Above all, when your day is over, we know how to take all the footage we shot from your day and make it into an incredible, polished wedding film that you, your family and your friends will be excited to watch.   

Your family and friends will want to attend as guests and will want to have fun, not be a part of the hired help.  Take a cue from our own personal experience with diy wedding video; friends and family will put the cameras down when the real fun happens and things will be partially recorded or lost altogether (for more on this, see About Us).  You really can't blame them either.  They are there to support your union and to have fun and that is ultimately what you want for them too.    When you hire a professional videographer, you can have peace of mind knowing that we are there for one reason only; to capture your day as completely as possible in the most professional, unobtrusive way and to make you the best video that we can. 

For more information on the pros and cons of diy vs professional video, see our Wedding Videography 101 Article.

Why should we hire Beautiful Memories over other videographers?

At Beautiful Memories we take a personal approach to capturing and preserving your wedding day.  While some videographers are happy to take in as much work as they can, do the bare minimum of shooting and deliver the same, tired, cookie cutter videos, we take on only a small number of weddings per year and really focus on each of our clients specific needs and tastes.  We work hard to capture every aspect of your day in an beautiful and creative way to produce a video that is very personal, unique to you and unlike any other that you will see.  In our hands, your wedding becomes a film that tells the story of your wedding, your life and your relationship, not a "cheesy wedding video” that anyone can make for you.   It will be a film that you will want to watch all the time and will be proud to share with family and friends.

Do you do videos for other events?

We LOVE weddings!!  We love the atmosphere of utter joy and absolute love that comes with a wedding celebration.  Because we take in only a small number of projects per year and weddings are our passion, the only events we cover are weddings.  We also produce documentaries and other specialty videos when time permits.  If you are interested in hiring Beautiful Memories for a documentary or special project, please email us with the project information.

In what areas do you work?  Do you travel outside of your area?

We work in Dutchess County, Ulster County, Orange County and Putnam County.  We have, on occasion, traveled outside of this area for a travel fee (determined by location and time requirement), however, we do not work in any of New York City’s five boroughs or Long Island.

 

Have you worked in at my church/reception location/wedding venue?

We have worked in many locations throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley.  Here is a list of some of places we have worked:

Churches

Reception Locations

St. Peter’s Church, Rosendale, NY St. Martin De Porres, Poughkeepsie, NY Holy Trinity, Poughkeepsie, NY Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, Hyde Park, NY St. Joseph’s Church, Kingston, NY Grace Church, Millbrook, NY Presentation Church, Port Ewen, NY St. Augustine Church, Highland, NY Good Shepherd Church, Rhinebeck, NY St. John’s Church, Poughkeepsie, NY Regina Coeli, Hyde Park, NY St. Joseph Church, New Paltz, NY New Hackensack Reform Church, Poughkeepsie, NY St. Joachim Church, Beacon, NY Sacred Heart Church, Newburgh, NY St. Columba, Hopewell Junction, NY St Mary’s Church, Marlboro, NY St. Stanislaus Church, Pleasant Valley, NY Marist Chapel, Poughkeepsie, NY St. Columba Church, Chester, NY United Methodist Church, Poughkeepsie, NY Kimisis Church, Poughkeepsie, NY St Nicholas Church, Hudson, NY

The Grandview, Poughkeepsie, NY Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, Poughkeepsie, NY Villa Borghese, Wappingers Falls, NY Dutchess Manor, Beacon, NY Anthony’s Pier 9, New Windsor, NY Bykenhulle House Bed and Breakfast Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa, Milton, NY Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, NY Onteora Mountain House, Boiceville, NY Belvedere Mansion, Rhinebeck, NY West Park Winery, West Park, NY Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, NY Roundhill House, Washingtonville, NY Plumbush Inn, Cold Spring, NY Cristo’s, Poghkeepsie, NY The Links at Unionvale, LaGrangeville, NY Hudson Valley Resort and Spa, Kerhonkson, NY Colonial Terrace, Cortlandt Manor, NY Chalet on Hudson, Cold Spring, NY

I see a lot of photos on your website and blog, do you do photography as well?

No, we do not offer photography services and do not recommend that you rely on video stills in lieu of a professional photographer.  The stills on our site and blog are stills captured from our videos.  We include them on our site because video takes up a tremendous amount of space compared to a photo.  We use these stills to create our custom artwork for your coverbox and DVDs.  We can sell you stills from your videos if you see something you would like, but we feel that it is important to have both a photographer and videographer present at your wedding because, although seemingly similar, these crafts are very different.  A video is meant to capture motion and to us that means not only are the subjects moving, but the cameras as well.  This makes for a great video, but video stills that are sometimes impossible to capture clearly.  Even though we cover everything that a photographer covers, we recommend that you hire a professional photographer and use the video stills as a supplement to their work.  It's nice to have different perspectives and the quality of a still from our video is not of the same quality as a photo taken by a professional photographer.  

How do you work and how will you film our wedding? 

In general, we take a videojournalistic or documentarian’s approach to filming weddings.  We try to stay in the background as much as possible, filming every aspect while hardly being noticed.  This is the way to capture the true essence of your wedding; real reactions, real fun, real emotions, not just people hamming it up for the camera.  We go to your wedding with the hopes of creating a video that is a true reflection of your wedding as it happened, not something that appears scripted, rehearsed, campy or unnatural.  We will not ask you to shake hands with anyone for the shot.  If it happens, we film it.  If it doesn't, we don't.  

When it comes to special requests for shots or a specific look for your wedding video, we may need to be more vocal to achieve the desired look.  Since you choose the style of your video, you will know ahead of time if this will be involved on your wedding day.  If you don’t want that, we don’t do it. 

We respectfully work alongside your other wedding professionals to ensure that everyone can accomplish what is expected of them and so that we can all deliver the best product to you that we can.  We understand that every aspect of your wedding is important to you and we want to do the best that we can not to disturb the atmosphere that you have worked so hard to create.

Do you use bright lights, rolling tripods or other equipment that will be disruptive at our wedding?

For the most part, we are all hand held.  We keep the equipment to a minimum so we can move around easily without being an intrusion.  We use a tripod on the main camera for the ceremony only and that camera remains stationary throughout.  For the reception, we are hand held, no tripods will roll around on your dance floor.  We will use one 10 watt light mounted on each camera for the reception if it is necessary.  This is to ensure the quality of the picture if the lights get too low.  In the case of an outdoor, evening wedding, we may need to use the camera light for a ceremony.  All of these and other concerns can be further addressed in the meetings prior to your wedding. 

Can I get a discount if I only want one videographer?

Just as your photographer can’t be in all places at one time, your videographer can’t either.  We do a two camera shoot as the standard simply because it makes a better video for our clients and we want to do our best work for you. Two cameras allow us to cover more of your event with less intrusion; one person will need to cross the church and the dance floor fast and often in order to collect all the shots that we use to create the films we produce.  The standard wedding video shot by one videographer is boring because of this and we don't produce boring.  Eliminating a videographer won't bring the price down because, although we work very hard on your wedding day to collect the footage we need, the real time and effort for us starts after your wedding, so our packages are priced based more on the editing time required as opposed to the actual shooting time on your wedding day.  

We offer two cameras as the standard because it should be the standard for all wedding videos, not just a way to up-sell you at the free consultation.  If you compare our prices with other local videographers “apples to apples”, we believe that you will find that we are very reasonably priced for the quality of our work with two camera coverage.  You may also be surprised to learn that many urban, high end, luxury videographers shoot with four videographers or more as a standard.  The standard of wedding videography is high today and the days of the basic one camera coverage are over.

Can I get a simple video from you with little or no editing?  I don’t need all the bells and whistles.

There are many misconceptions about editing; one is that it is a luxury to have an edited video and another is that editing is a synonym for flashy effects.  The fact is that editing is a necessity and it is what makes a video watchable.  It eliminates all of the things that you don’t want to see and when done right, is hardly noticeable.  Editing is not only about effects.  It is also about cuts, dissolves, sound editing, color corrections and numerous other elements.  It is about assembling the best moments and eliminating the ones in between that, with an unedited video, you will have to fast forward through.  It is when you have only that unedited video that you understand the importance of editing.  We have received calls from so many brides with requests to take Uncle Bob's video and "fix it to make it watchable".  That is the real difference between edited and unedited. 


Here is a simple experiment that you can do to see what I mean.  The next time that you sit and watch a TV show or movie, count how many times the picture changes in any given segment or scene. In general people don’t noticed edits because we are so accustomed to seeing them in our media filled society.  Now go to any amateur YouTube video and watch that through (you know, one with the child or pet doing something so cute it had to be documented and posted).  How many edits are on that clip?  Was it as interesting to watch as your TV show or movie?  Was the quality of the picture and sound what you want for your wedding video?  Probably not.  The reason?  Editing.

For more on editing, you can read my article Videography 101.

I am having my wedding at a small venue.  Are two videographers really necessary?  Won’t two videographers be a distraction?

I understand why you might think that having two videographers may be a lot for a small venue, but really, if you want the most comprehensive, discrete coverage, it is better to have two cameras in any space, especially a small space.  We don't use tripods or other bulky equipment when we shoot your reception, so we only take up as much space as a single person.  Having two people means that one person covers one side of the room and the other person covers the opposite side.  This eliminates the need for one person to run back and forth to cover everything, which would ultimately draw much more attention to the videographer and away from you.