A Few Things You Might Wanna Know
What is the most Important to you?
What is the most Important to you?
What questions to ask? What to look for if you don't know anything about videography? Where to start? Google search makes it more difficult by giving 1000 different choices from "Best Wedding Videographer"to"Most Affordable" not to mention very vague terms like "Cinematic", "Documentary" like it wasn't confusing enough already.
So where to start ?
I'd say start by asking this question "What's the most important to you?" is it how the story told or maybe it's the people that dear and near to you and you want the video to be not just about you but about your family and friends as well or maybe you want a more stylized video? Once you figured What's important the search should be easier since you'll have a clear picture of what your needs and wants are.
What do you really want?
Ok, You figured what's important and now What? Now you'll need to find someone who understands your vision and gets what you really want and that's probably the most crucial part of the process finding the right person who does not impose his vision but instead understands yours.
So Where to find the right one?
There are many ways starting from Google searches to visiting the most popular wedding sites (TheKnot, WeddingWire, Zola etc...) but the easiest way is to ask your friends who recently got married or if you already have a photographer or wedding planner they most likely know a few they worked with in the past. The Key here is to do your homework by watching more than one video and asking yourself if you like what you see and how the videos make you feel. Once you find a few candidates you think might be a good fit schedule a call do not skip this step. Your photographer and videographer are the people who will be with you the entire day so imagine if the person you hired does not make you feel comfortable and does not care about your needs and cares only about his own vision that won't be good.
What should my Budget be?
You know what you want you found the right person the question is What you should spend on your Wedding Video. How much is too much or too little? It depends there is no right or wrong answer. People usually spend more on things they value. You should ask yourself if this video is important and set realistic budget for desired outcome. There are many variables that pricing reflect ( quality of service, product, time and effort that will be put in making the video etc...) so what your Budget should be to be honest I have no idea it depends. Set a Price Range that you're comfortable with and schedule calls with a few videographers and see if your Price Range is aligned with theirs and adjust your Budget accordingly. It all comes down to how bad you really want it. is the video important to you? Where else you can spend this money for a bigger impact? See if you can answer these questions definitively.