Oh, wedding videos… these now mainstream masterpieces are perhaps the most embarrassing portrayals of ourselves that we as guests likely never get to see. Between the very, very cheesy songs that are played throughout and the totally excellent dance montages, what’s there not to loathe? …………..until it’s your wedding………..

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still am not a fan the typical wedding video staples that I mentioned, but I liked to think that I could give a professional some guidelines of what to avoid doing in the editing process. Currently, the reason behind my disdain for videography is the price! I know, I know, weddings are expensive but I think that I’m with most brides when I say that there’s certainly a period of shock when you learn 1) the cost of the average wedding 2) the fact that the “average” wedding isn’t super extravagant; that number is for a very basic day and 3) some of these costs are flat out unavoidable, ie, yes your guests need food to eat and drinks to sip. I had to take the phrase, “it’s only one day!!!!” completely out of my vocabulary in order to avoid developing a nervous twitch from check-writing. But, I digress. You move on and actually start booking and planning, and somewhere along the line, you suck it up. I’ve been pretty accepting of most costs, but I have to tell you, videography prices really floored me. A lot of them start around $1500 and yeah, I’m sure the finished product is treasured for a lifetime by the couple but jeez! You can spend an all-inclusive week in Mexico (including air!) for that price. And sadly, the more research I did, the most frustrated I became…. but I was finally able to conclude that it doesn’t matter if we’re the stars of it, I just don’t. like. wedding. videos.

Ok! No wedding video, no problem, right? Wrong. The thing is, while I don’t want a Wedding Video, I still want video of our wedding… You’re starting to feel really bad for my fiancé, aren’t you? I know, I’m picky about certain things, but luckily, Clay feels the exact same way. He even agreed with me that IF we had a videographer, filming during the ceremony would be a no-no. I stand firm in that the magic of the actual vows, etc. is something that should only be experienced once in a lifetime. And don’t even get me started on watching a photographer and videographer clunk heads/cameras/microphones while the bride and groom promise to spend their lives together.

Short of advertising for a lovely, normal person with a wedding filming hobby on Craigslist—Clay vetoed that one awfully fast—I didn’t know how we were going to come up with what we envisioning. And when I got down to the bottom line of what I wanted, “video of our wedding,” it was something that I could watch and again feel the energy of our day. I wanted to hear our guests’ voices, listen to the songs the band played, and smile at my friends’ laughter as we counted down the hours. I didn’t think that we could accomplish this without hiring a professional and simply asking for just the raw footage, which is still very pricey. But, just this morning (after a long night of watching very corny online samples followed by necessary martini drinking), while perusing Facebook, I saw a link that my cousin had posted to something called Storymix. It was seriously like the wedding angels opened up the sky just for me because this is the absolute perfect solution found at the perfect time!

The basic idea is that the people who know you the best—your wedding party, family, and guests are the videographers. Everything is candid and comfortable. You rent the handheld camcorders from the company, distribute them to whoever you choose, then send them back after the wedding. You can go online and choose themes, add captions, etc. or have them do all of the work for you. Then they send you your Wedding Video as well as all of the raw footage taken that day. Their “Weddingmix” packages start at $99 and go up as you add cameras and length to your final edited video.  How cool is that?! Can you sense how relieved I am that I found a wonderful alternative to something that I really didn’t care enough about to cough up a few grand? I wanted to blog about it right away because if anyone out there is experiencing what I did, you’ve just got to check this out! It’s also a wonderful choice for brides who wanted video but didn’t think they could afford it! Oh, I do love when something genuinely positive comes from social networking.

Also, perhaps the one and only exception to my “no video during the ceremony” rule : )

I just had to.