Do You Really Need a Wedding Video?

Wondering whether wedding videography is worth it? Here are the things video preserves that wedding photography simply can’t.

If you’re planning a wedding, you’ve probably had this conversation:

Do we really need a wedding video?

Weddings are expensive. There are dozens of things competing for your budget, and photography understandably tends to be near the top of the list.

So is video actually necessary?

Technically? No.

Neither are flowers, champagne or a DJ. But wedding video gives you something nothing else from the day can.

Photographs Show You a Moment. Video Lets You Revisit It.

Photography and videography aren't substitutes for each other.

They're different.

A photograph lets you hold onto what something looked like. Video preserves movement, timing and sound.

Your spouse's voice shaking slightly during the vows. The way your dad laughs during his speech. Your friends screaming when your favorite song starts. Your mom saying something to you while you're getting ready.

Those things can't exist in a photograph.

You'll Miss Parts of Your Own Wedding

This is something couples don't always realize beforehand. You aren't going to see your whole wedding.

While you're taking pictures, your friends might be having cocktails. While you're greeting someone, something ridiculous may be happening on the dance floor. The bride and groom are simultaneously the most important people at a wedding and two of the people who see the least of it.

Video lets you discover your own wedding afterward.

Voices Become Incredibly Important

There may be people at your wedding whose voices you would give almost anything to hear again one day.

That isn't something most of us think about when we're 28 and planning a wedding. But it's one of the reasons family videos become so valuable over time. You aren't just recording an event.

You're recording people at a particular moment in your family's history.

It Doesn't Have to Mean a Huge Production

Wedding video used to mean a large camera crew following you around all day.

It doesn't have to.

One of the reasons we created Your Parents’ Wedding Video was because we loved the idea of making wedding films feel more like the home movies we grew up watching.

Friends and family can pick up a camera. They can pass it around. People behave differently when someone they love is holding the camera instead of a stranger.

And that can produce something much more intimate.

Will You Watch It?

Probably not every week. And that's okay.

You don't look through your childhood photographs every week either. The value of preserving memories isn't measured by how frequently you access them. Sometimes the fact that they're there is enough.

And every few years, you get to press play.