How Much Does a Wedding Videographer Make at Your Wedding?
Most couples tend to see wedding vendors like this, we show up, we cover the wedding, we take a lot of money and we go home.
That’s nothing like the truth, in fact, most people in the wedding industry barely scrape by each year.
Today, we’re going to show you what your wedding videographer is most likely making if they are legit and set up as a business correctly.
Why Wedding Videographers Tend to Fail
For those that either do it professionally, maybe they're a photographer trying to add video to their portfolio, or someone looking to get into the industry, it’s expensive.
In fact, video can be roughly 31% more expensive than wedding photography, and that’s because there is gear, MUCH more gear.
Think of it this way, at your ceremony you may have one, perhaps two photographers walking around taking images.
A videographer will have 2-4 cameras, then fluid head tripods, wireless microphones, audio recorders, monopods, perhaps even lights and light stands.
Then take into account drones, the license to operate one, gimbals to walk around with, and the list goes onward.
Videographers tend to fail more than photographers because it’s much more work and typically, a lesser return in investment too.
Many wedding photographers, for example, will try their hand at wedding video for a while and quickly figure out it’s not worth the time, the added investment and value to their business, many times you’ll find their husbands or boyfriends will do video, much like Carole and I here in our business.
The tipping point for most professionals in the industry is right about the 3-year mark.
It’s not so much burnout in the industry as it is more about the business is profitable or not. in fact, roughly 46% of those in the business today, will not be in business in 3-5 years from now.
Wedding Gear is NOT Cheap!
One of the most common things couples tend to not see is the cost of the gear. Factor in a couple of professional-grade mirrorless bodies, microphones, tripods/monopods, zoom, and prime lenses, batteries, bags or cases, drones, software, and hardware, it can easily out cost a wedding photographer by 40% or more!
Read a recent blog that I wrote showcasing some of the hardware costs alone in our own business.
In addition to the gear being expensive, for every hour a wedding videographer is on-site at your wedding, you can factor in roughly 3 hours in editing and pulling everything together.
YOU’RE PAYING FOR THE POST-PRODUCTION TIME, NOT THE TIME ON SITE SO MUCH.
How Much Will my Videographer Make at My Wedding?
While numbers vary depending on circumstances, we developed a general tool below that will help give you an approximate idea of how much someone could make.
Click here if you’re looking for the wedding photographer rate tool.
What you will generally find is that videographers work longer hours, put in more capital in the business, and have to work harder than photographer counterparts to get the booking too.
That’s because of precedent, your parents most likely had a photographer, so did their parents and perhaps their parents did too.
Video didn’t really start to make a huge coming until the mid 1990’s with more montage style videos and around 2012 with the advent of smaller, more DSLR style cameras doing video.
It’s more commonplace for couples to first think of images than video, although wedding video is making huge leaps and bounds in the last 10 years, and that’s in part the technology.
Wedding Video Has Changed a Lot
Today, couples are wanting shorter highlight or feature films ranging from 3-5 minutes upwards of 20 minutes.
They want music, lots of moving shots, narration by themselves or friends and the officiant, they want lots of details and smooth looking video clips.
Today’s wedding video is nothing like it was 20 some odd years ago when I started in the industry, today we have industry leaders such as Matt Johnson and Ray Roman along with manufacturers that support video professionals.
In many ways, video is becoming more like wedding photos, more mainstream and couples today seek video more than they did 20 years ago.
Demand for Wedding Video
While the demand for wedding video has increased, pricing is still a few steps behind.
The national average for a wedding photographer is $2,400 according to theKnot while the average price of a wedding videographer is $1,700, that from Wedding Wire.
What Couples are Seeking in a Wedding Videographer?
There are a few things that couples are seeking in a wedding videographer, most tend to be the same thing.
Live Streaming of the ceremony in some form
Drone footage for the video
Shorter, more entertaining videos
Through COVID-19, live streaming has become popular and more mainstream too. Couples wanting to share the experience through the eye of a lens has become more relevant.
Before COVID, we would offer live stream and about 16% of my clients would opt for that. Today, that’s nearly 92%, a huge increase.
Also, as drones have become more commonplace, couples are wanting to have a couple of clips of the venue or location in the videos. What most don’t realize is that you have to get a ‘license’ through the FAA which allows you to operate the drone in the first place. While that’s not a showstopper, it’s another added expense of being able to fly a drone and add it to your video business.
Finally, the format has long changed from those cheesy 1980’s videos that were a couple of hours long with a single camera.
Today, couples enjoy these ‘over-the-top’ style videos, short in length with the most popular time frame being about 5 minutes in length with a separate ceremony video typically.
It’s nice to see how the wedding industry has finally started to take video more seriously and bringing it to the fold as more of a must than a maybe.
