No videographer, no regrets?

This is as on going fight with my FH and I. We actually called my mother the other day and she said she doesn't regret not having a videographer at her wedding. I look at the videos of the ones that I would LOVE to hire, but I can't justify $3,000+ for a 15 minuet video and 60 minutes of footage. The one I reeeeeeeally want is an extra $1600 for audio. Breathtaking videos though.

I didn't hire one, but I video edit for a hobby, so hiring someone else didn't make a great deal of sense to me. and I wanted to be able to have my video the way I wanted it, vs what someone else may come up with.

so we put my camera on a tripod and turned the video feature on.

I'm happy with it, but if you want there to be interview of guests and others, then you may want to make sure someone is behind the camera for things like that.

It makes me feel better to hear people say they don't regret it. My gut tells me not to do it, but it's one of those stupid bridal obsessions that I am sure I'm blowing out of proportion.

I am having a friend of my brothers be our videographer. I polled all my married friends and only 1 felt it was really worth the money the rest agreed nice to have if you have extra $ to spend but they have all only watched their videos once. None of my friends who do not have a video regretted it though. It will be nice to have the raw footage of the ceremony but couldn't rationally pay the $$$$ for what it is.

It was a priority for us, but my sister didn't get one and said she didn't regret it. The only thing she said afterwards that she would have liked were the toasts. I brought my video camera with me and my FH took a video of me doing the toast. So she has one of the three toasts recorded. If I had known beforehand she'd want them all I could have recorded them all. I'd say that is a great alternative...get someone even if it's on their phone (but probably better on an actual video camera or DSLR) to record a few special things like the toasts and maybe the vows. The fancy videos to music are awesome but if you don't want to spend the money, that's a great alternative.

I don't regret it at all. I wouldn't watch it enough to justify the cost, and I like still photos more.

I don't regret it. I'm more of a picture person, so I didn't even try to put a videographer in our budget. I've seen amazing videos, I certainly wouldn't have minded one, but our pictures told the story of our day enough for me.

I like the idea of asking a friend to video the wedding vows and perhaps the toasts. I am sure I have plenty of tech-savvy friends who would be willing to do it on their iPhones. Done and done!

We aren't having one. Every wedding I went to with my family, someone always took videos. I do plan to have my uncle film the toasts for my wedding.

We're having a videographer for the ceremony only. That way, we'll get the most important part of the day captured on video and photos for all else.

We know it's not in our budget and it isn't a priority for us. That said we did want the toasts and maybe a little bit of the ceremony on video, so our plan was to just buy a camcorder or whatever and ask someone to record the toasts.

We then mentioned it to FH's uncle who is a filmmaker (documentaries and commercials) and he told us he'll 'take care of it'. We don't know yet exactly what that means, lol, but seeing as he's a professional and has all the gear and editing software I'm pretty excited! I wouldn't regret not having it if we had to pay a ton of money for it, but I'm excited to see what his uncle ends up doing.

You are looking for people with similar opinions because you are having a hard time turning down the idea of a videographer.. But it all comes down to if it's in your budget or not. It isn't in your budget so don't stress about it and enjoy your big day!

I regret not having one. I put a lot of time and effort into everything and wish I could have seen it. Yes, there are pictures but they don't show the whole story and friends' cell phone recordings just aren't the same. For instance, after the mothers were seated, DH, BM and officiant (FIL officiated) walked down the aisle to the Jaws theme and half way down it changed to Another One Bites the Dust, I would have enjoyed seeing the guests' reactions on video (I saw video thanks to my cousin but obviously it was from her point of view). The same video caught sound from when the aisle runner was unrolled (there was a few nice murmuras which was so rewarding given the amount of time I spent on it). I barely remember my walk down the aisle and would have appreciated video of all the "big" moments. Not having video is my biggest regret of the wedding.

I mean, I could have a videographer - I could come up with the money for it. Not being able to have it due to budget constraints isn't the issue (although of course the money is always better off going toward paying off mortgages or staying invested, I could budget it if I decided it was a priority). I just don't know if I want it or not. Like, do I want to have another person who is not a guest walking around filming everything in an already tight space, when I already have two photographers who will be there? Do I want to put money that could have been better spent elsewhere into something I may only end up watching once? Also, these wedding videos are pretty artfully edited - I may wish I could have seen the look on my FH's face when he first sees me in my dress, but maybe that is not what would make it into the video? Then I see comments like the one Theresa wrote where it's a huge regret, and I would hate to feel that way about something that realistically isn't that much more when you compare it to the entire wedding budget.

I mainly just wanted to see if there were people who were on the fence like I am, and whether they are sorry they didn't go for the video in the end. Right now seems kind of like an even split.

We don't have one. When I watch the really well done ones and they make me tear up, I wish we could have one. But we've talked several times about it and neither of us feels like we would really watch it more than once or twice. Plus, even if I could squeeze one into the budget, it definitely wouldn't be the ones that I see and tear up over. Those are all really high end, well done ones with great editing, music and all of that and thousands of dollars.

I have a DVD of my son's birth (it was an emergency c-section so probably not as great as ones where there is more footage) and I have only watched it a handful of times. Obviously it's not the same thing, but I think that is an event of equal if not more importance in my life and I don't watch it hardly ever.

We didn't have one, and we have no regrets. We just didn't feel the need for it. Could we have swung it? Yes. Instead we decided to throw the money towards a better photography package, as that was more important to us. Plus we've heard a lot of horror stories of bad footage, and bad vendors taking off with the money. Neither set of our parents have one, and neither set regrets that either.

I found a videographer for a great price and that is the reason why I got one but otherwise I would've had to pass. To me a video was important I always wanted one and FH didn't see a need but I did.

My first wedding video, on VHS, got overwritten by a Red Sox game accidently.

@Robin - oh wow! Either that is a reflection of how little you guys cared about the video, or somebody REALLY screwed up!

I didn't have one and don't regret it. It was one of the few wedding related things DH had an opinion about "No videographer" (I think he was afraid I'd make everyone who stepped in our house watch it, which is funny cause the only time I have ever pulled out our wedding album is if someone specifically asked to see it!), "no church" (we're atheists), "no instrumental versions of songs with words."