Amateur Videographer?

It would depend on how cheap it was. If it was something I couldn't have otherwise and the amateur didn't cost much of anything, I'd give it a shot and hope for the best. I wouldn't want to spend $600 on a crappy video, though.

Our photographer charges $250 an hour for video. So the other option is to do just the ceremony. And he has said yes to that. But, I just keep hearing from so many people how they were so happy they did that. Part of me thinks it has to be better than nothing to have an amateur do the whole thing. No idea what to charge him though.

I wouldn't, but I guess if like you I didn't have the budget for it I MIGHT go that route. I guess it would still depend on how much this amateur would cost.

It would depend on the cost and how much of an amatuer. I'd really like to see any previous work they have had. My photographer came cheap only bc she just started her own business but she's been a photographer for 17 years, so maybe find someone who's branching out on their own but has experience.

No, I wouldn't 'hire' an amateur.

Personally, I would do the $250 an hour for the ceremony from your photographer (it shouldn't be longer than an hour anyway) and then do wedpics for the reception if you really want video from there. To me, the ceremony is the most important part so I'd want a professional to at least capture that, and I really could go without capturing video of the reception if it wasn't in my budget.

Try Thumbtack for people just breaking into the business. I was in the same boat. We weren't going to hire a photographer but ended up with enough extra cash to get one. We got their "budget" package which is just the ceremony and first hour of reception with minimal editing. We mainly wanted the speeches and the photographer we found was animate that their main goal was good sound quality.

I also made a deal with them that we would get the raw footage on a thumb drive and I could do with it what I wanted as long as it was only for personal use, not professional. It was added into the contract and now I'm excited to see what they come up with but not too worried about it being crappy.

Are they editing the video? That's a lot of work, not to mention the quality of the video. Have you seen their work?

Totally depends--have you seen any portfolios? When looking into videography, all of the good ones were $4000, which was not in the budget.

My photographer recommended a student she has worked with before and after looking at his past work, we were pretty blown away by the quality, footage, and editing. He is $1000, but I wouldn't be spending that if I wasn't confident he that he is going to do a good job.

I don't have anyone in mind yet so it is hard to answer all of the questions. Keep in mind its a "better than nothing" scenario, so unless he gets in the way of my photographer or falls on my cake, my expectations wont be crushed. I am just curious what people think I should pay someone like that. I have had several people tell me to look into hiring students, who really just want the experience, or someone who does it "on the side" and I am not opposed to that. I have a couple of recommendations coming in from friends. But I really have no idea of what ballpark number to throw out there. Our photographer would charge us 1k-1250 for the whole night. So maybe our max would be half that? Is it ok to ask for all night video for $500 from someone?

Our videographer cost 1k. I'm actually entering the film industry myself, and you could definitely get a student breaking into the industry to do it for 500. And they're some of the best at it - it's really the camera quality you'd be compromising on. Depending on what you wanted edited - e.g. a short edit or a full version, maybe 100 extra. Go on videopixie.com - lots of people on there!

EDIT: I'm talking in pounds here as I'm from the UK so those numbers will be a little more in dollars!

Thanks for the follow up post. I'd think 500-600 would be fair, how long is your event? You could also do it by hour, I would pay like $50-100 per hour depending on if it's just raw footage or if they are editing.

To be fair, we couldn't find any videographer that cheap. The lowest quote we got was $995 but most were around $2,000+. My FH and I decided to be cheap and that we have professional photography, so we don't need a professional video. We'll be buying a good (but not professional) camera for around $500 and get a family member to film it, and use bits and pieces of the gopro he already has (plus my nephew has a drone and we were considering flying it above our venue for a couple minutes before the wedding). The camcorder will definitely get it's use and we won't feel so guilty about a video we'll only watch once in a while.

View Quoted Comment Who did u hire and how did it come out?

View Quoted Comment We didn’t end up hiring one and I really regret it :-(

Also, for what it’s worth, the biggest regret of my wedding was not letting my friend do the photography. Unless you’re hiring someone fancy, they really just come out plain. My friend stayed beginning to end, we could have had a longer duration and I would have felt more comfortable with someone more personable. Makes me feel nauseous to think of how much we spent and my favorite pictures of my wedding were not taken by my photographer. I think sometimes WW makes you super over think things. I regret changing my mind about that so much.

If you just want a video to see the ceremony and don’t care to see it edited- I say go with an amateur. If you want the standard wedding video expect to pay an exorbitant amount. As a video editor- that is a lot of work and energy. And we charge so much because most editoes don’t really like doing wedding videos.