How to DIY Shoot Your Own Wedding Video

So you are getting married and you want to hire a wedding video company but everything is crazy expensive these days and the wedding budget is already waaaay out of hand?  You might be thinking of a Do It Yourself wedding video!  With pro wedding video prices starting at $2-$3,000 and going up to $10k very quickly, no one would blame you.  This article will give you the basics of how to shoot your own DIY wedding video – or at least having a friend shoot your wedding video… since you’ll be busy getting married.

In case your attention span is short, here is the TOO LONG – DIDN’T READ version…

1. Pick 2 friends to help you who have experience with cameras and get them to watch some Youtube tutorials on wedding cinematography.
2. Have a detailed checklist of all the shots you want them to get.
3. Rent 2 cameras that are made for long form recording, with audio inputs, as big a sensor as possible with good ergonomics.  Bring tripods to the ceremony.
4. Check the venue to see if you need spotlights for the ceremony and bring on camera lights for the reception. 
5. Run wireless lav mics on the bride/groom for the reception, bring a digital audio record to put on the podium as a backup and have a shotgun mic on at least 1 camera as a double back up.  Same goes for the reception.
6. Backup and double backup the footage,  
7. If you don’t know how to edit, paying someone online to edit it for you is probably worth it.
8. Book rentals a month or more in advance, wedding season is busy.  Get your camera people to pick up early to get to learn the gear.
9. READ THE SECTION ON ALL THE THINGS THAT CAN GO WRONG!

And now for the longer version of all this advice…  

You’re now going to start your Do It Yourself Wedding Video with the most important part!

RECRUIT HELP

Obviously you’re going to need to find someone to do the actual shooting since you’ll be busy getting married.  This person should know the basics of photography (at least how to frame a picture so the heads aren’t cut off).  Since photography is a pretty common hobby these days, there’s a good chance you’ll have a friend or two in your social circle who knows their way around a camera.

The other thing they need is to be reliable!  I shouldn’t have to explain this one, but if your choice is that friend who is always late for lunch, can’t commit to anything or forgets important things – keep asking!

Have someone in mind?  Great, the next step is to find a SECOND person! 

The reason for this is one thing that separates pros from amateurs… Amateurs assume everything will go right, pros assume everything will go wrong – and plan for it.  Your main person could come down with the flu and drop out the morning of your wedding.  Or get hit by a car.  Or anything!  You must have 2 people lined up.  You will only get one chance to do this, don’t let bad luck ruin it.

MAKE A PLAN

You know the saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Your plan is your shot list – a shopping list of all the footage needed to edit a nice complete video.   It should be a hard copy on a piece of paper, checklist style, in the camera operator’s pocket for easy reference.  If you don’t have this, you’re just going to end up with the ceremony and the speeches at the reception (and maybe not even those). 

Here’s a reliable shot list that a pro wedding company might use.  You don’t need all of it of course, but it will give you an idea of your options for the final cut.

1. Bride and groom’s outfits, rings, and accessories (close-ups)
2. Bride and groom getting ready (hair, makeup, suit, dress)
3. Establishing shots of the venue (exterior & interior)
4. Behind the scenes moments of bride and groom with respective parents and friends)
5. Bride’s first look in the mirror
6. Groom adjusting tie, cufflinks, etc
7. Writing or re-reading vows in private
8. Wedding party members arriving at venue
9. Guests arriving and greeting each other
10. Opening of procession
11. Groom and wedding party waiting at the altar
12. Bride walking down the aisle (multiple angles)
13. Groom’s reaction to seeing the bride
14. Ceremony from 2 (preferably 4) angles
15. Close-ups of the couple exchanging vows
16. Close-ups of hands exchanging rings
17. Close-ups of the first kiss 
18. Reactions from parents and guests in the audience
19. The couple walking back down the aisle as newlyweds
20. Guests throwing confetti, flower petals, etc
21. Video of the photographer taking group shots
22. Bridal party posing and interacting
23. Transport of the party to the reception venue
24. Wide shot of the reception venue before guests enter
25. Close-ups of table settings, centerpieces, food, flowers, and decor
26. Wedding cake before it’s cut
27. Personalized elements (guestbook, signage, favors)
28. The couple’s grand entrance
29. Guests reactions
30. The first dance (multiple angles)
31. Parent dances (father-daughter, mother-son)
32. Speeches and toasts 
33. Close-ups of guests eating/drinking/toasting
34. Cutting the cake and feeding each other a bite
35. The bouquet and garter toss (if applicable)
36. Candid dancing and fun moments on the dance floor
37. Kids dancing or cute interactions
38. A slow-motion or time-lapse of the dance floor filling up
39. The last dance of the night
40. Couple saying thank you to guests
41. The couple’s grand exit (car, carriage, or walking away)
42. A final romantic shot (kiss under the stars, silhouetted embrace)
43. Guest interviews with well-wishes for the couple

However, to keep it simple (and to keep the camera team from hating you) pick the top 10 things that are most important (besides the main ceremony and reception speeches)  and give the list to the operators, asking them to get 2 angles of each one.  

Why is each operator getting their own copy of the list and each one getting each shot?  Because if one of them forgets to hit record (it happens!) the other camera will still get the shot, if one has the image stabilizer off and the footage is shaky, the editor can use the other angle, you get the idea.  We’re assuming that something is going to go wrong with every shot, and we will have coverage for the editor to fix all the little mistakes the operators will make during the edit.  

And please make sure your camera team has this list way in advance so they can watch Youtube tutorials on how to shoot a wedding video.  There are tons of videos on Youtube like “How to film your first wedding” or “mistakes all wedding videographers make”.  These will go far in helping them get some quality material for you on the big day.  

This article is not about teaching anyone how to operate a camera, cinematography, lighting, audio or anything else…  That’s all on Youtube already and is part of the job they are taking on for you.  At this point you may want to be bribing them a bit!

CAMERAS

First, ignore what anyone says about how their iPhone shoots amazing video.  Cell phones use tiny sensors which are bad in low light.  Their video might look great in daylight, or if they only watch it on their phone, but when you shoot a low light venue (ie wedding reception) on a cell phone, then blow it up to a 65” 4k TV it’s going to look like muddy trash.  

The brand of camera really does not matter these days.  Every company from Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, etc… makes cameras that produce great images out of the box.  What is important are that it has the following:

1. Dedicated audio inputs with a headphone jack.  I’ll explain this in the audio section as audio is the most important part of your video! 
2. As large a sensor as possible as big sensors have big pixels which are generally better in lower light, and wedding receptions are usually pretty low light.
3. Long recording capacity and big batteries so you aren’t shutting down mid speeches.
4. Dual card slots so you can record to twin cards just in case one card gets lost/damaged (this happens).
5. Good handheld ergonomics with Image Stabilization as other than the ceremony which will be shot on a tripod, most of your footage will be hand held.
6. Good autofocus as you can assume your camera team will not be manual focusing.
7. Minimum 4k recording (this is standard these days), but preferably 4k-60p.  4k so it looks good on the big screen, and 60 frames per second so the editor has some leeway in slowing shots down for a slow motion effect.

What about DSLRs vs dedicated video cameras?  A lot of people will tell you that a DSLR is the best route.  First, they probably mean a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) which is every new camera these days.  DSLR refers technically to an older style of camera which are outdated for video.  There is truth to this though as they have the biggest sensors and are best in low light without a doubt.  But there are some big caveats here.  Because of the big sensors, the lenses are much bigger/heavier/expensive and have much less zoom range, so you’ll need a wide lens (like a 16-35mm), main zoom (like a 24-70mm) and a telephoto (like a 70-200mm or 100-400mm).  For a pro, this is not an issue.  For an amateur first time wedding videographer, that’s a lot of lens swapping, a lot of potential to be on the wrong lens at the wrong time and not get the shot.  It also means spending a lot more money renting more lenses.

This is where the K.I.S.S. theory comes into play for wedding videos.  A single all purpose lens with a powered zoom won’t be as good as 3 different lenses for getting everything perfectly… but it will get everything – and that’s more important.  

For example… You have 2 cameras at the ceremony, the wedding rings are about to go on the fingers, and each camera person is on a 16-35mm wide angle to get the whole wedding party.  Now neither camera can get a close shot of that ring slipping on the finger without stopping recording and swapping lenses.  The money shot is lost.  But if at least one of them had a big zoom range, they could punch in close enough to still get the shot.  For the amateur shooter, the safe route is usually the best route. 

So what cameras would we suggest?  Here are 4 tiers of budget friendly cameras for a DIY wedding video, including the price to rent them for a weekend (so your camera team can pick them up on a Friday to get familiar with them, shoot the wedding on Sat or Sun, and return them Monday).  These are just ones that we offer in these segments, there are many versions of all these from most manufacturers.  Note, all of them have fully automatic modes.

Panasonic UX90  $165/weekend

• 1” sensor (think very good pocket point and shoot camera)
• 25-367mm (full frame equiv) powered zoom
• Shoots 4k-30p but not 4k-60p
• XLR audio inputs
• Dual card slots

The smallest sensor of the 4 options, but also the lightest and has the best zoom range (this is easier to do with smaller sensors as the glass doesn’t need to be as big).  The autofocus lags a bit.  Overall, if you’re on a tight budget, it’ll get the job done.

Panasonic DVX200    $195/weekend

• Shoots 4k-60p
• Micro 4/3 MFT sensor (larger than above, similar sensor to the popular GH5 camera)
• 30-300mm (full frame equiv) power zoom
• XLR audio in
• Dual card slots

This is probably the sweet spot.  Big zoom for closeups, though you’ll have to move back a bit for wide shots, and a slightly bigger sensor will improve the low light image.  And has 4k-60p recording with decent autofocus.

Sony FS5 w 18-105mm F4 lens   $225/weekend

• Super-35mm sensor (bigger again, similar to what cinema cameras use)
• 27-160mm (full frame equiv) power zoom
• XLR audio in
• Dual card slots

Great ergonomics for hand held and a bigger sensor once more.  The 18-105mm lens is just enough range to give a medium wide to medium closeup for a ceremony if you are in the right position.  However, it is an interchangeable lens camera so you could take a second lens that is better in low light and switch for the reception, like a 24-70mm f2.8 as you won’t need as much zoom.

Sony FX3 w 24-70 f2.8  $245/weekend

Or

Canon C80 w 24-70mm f2.8  $345/weekend

These are basically small cinema cameras and will be harder to use in terms of ergonomics for handheld.

• 4k-120 for slow motion.
• Top tier autofocus
• Full Frame sensor (as big as you get on a pro DSLR like Canon R5/5D)
• The limitation is you are using a DSLR type lens, which will have less zoom, so you’re back into the space of having to take 2-3 lenses and sacrifice some speed for amazing low light and a “cinematic” type look.

And yes, you’ll want one for each shooter.   You can of course just go 1 camera and 1 shooter, but again, things go wrong.

• One camera operator may be stuck in the bathroom with the runs when the speeches start. 
• One camera operator may have forgotten the spare batteries in the car and the camera dies just as the first dance happens.  
• One camera operator may just be on their phone all day and not realize the autofocus is off and shoots the whole wedding out of focus.

However… if the budget is for one camera and one camera only, you’ll probably want something like the DVX200 so you can get the tight closeups of the first kiss and the ring going on the finger.

You’ll need a few other things with your camera kit, extra batteries and extra memory cards, plus a tripod for the ceremony and speeches.  Those are all fairly simple.

THINGS YOU DON’T NEED!!!

GIMBALS

You’ve maybe heard of these, they are the digital motorized version of the classic Steadicam.  Your team may ask you for one.  JUST SAY NO.  The day is going to be complicated enough for them trying to get the shot list covered, they don’t need an extra level of complication by swapping off and on gimbals like the DJI Ronin.  SAY NO. 

DRONES

Another NO for the same reasons as above.  If someone besides your camera team has a drone and they volunteer to come and capture some footage, that’s great, accept their offer and get the footage later for the editor.  But don’t let drone setups get in the way of getting the key stuff for your shot list.  Note, the legalities of flying drones vary from area to area and there are a lot of places where it is illegal.  That’s up to the person with the drone to know. 

LIGHTING

The Ceremony

If you’re lucky, the venue for the ceremony (churches, temples, halls, etc) will have some decent lighting.  Unless the lighting is terrible or non-existent you won’t likely need additional lights.  However, if it is really dim, then you should rent a couple spotlights to place off to the side or back that will make you stand out against the rest of the dim room.  Lighting the ceremony if it is dark or flat will be money very well spent.

This is where you want to take some reference photos in advance and show them to the rental company you’re dealing with to get suggestions.  There are a lot of types of lighting (though almost guaranteed it will be LED) for different purposes and they will save you a lot of time with something hopefully simple and easy for your video people to set up.

The Reception

Lighting here can get a bit tricky because receptions are mostly evening/party type ambiance and no one wants the house lights up.  The simplest option is a soft on camera light that is dimmable.  This way when the video team is getting closeups of things, they can turn the light up to get great clean shots of you cutting the cake, or light up the faces of whoever is doing the speeches, but then turn it down/off for the dances or going around people eating to not disturb them.  This is a very simple thing to add to any camera kit.

AUDIO

Ok seriously…

AUDIO is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS ARTICLE.  

Ask any seasoned video person and they will know the saying “audio is 60% of video”.  You can watch mediocre footage if the sound is good, but good footage with bad sound is unbearable.  If you screw up the audio, the only option for the editor is to lose most or all of the audio and cut your day down to a montage over music.  If you don’t have the “I do’s” and the speeches at the reception, you will be very, very sad.

Here are 3 simple rules of audio that will eliminate 98% of the mistakes that can happen.

1. Placement is everything.  The closer the mic is to the sound source, the louder the source will be relative to the rest of the room.  You must have this for vows and speeches.  The cheapest wireless lav mic on your lapel will sound better than the most expensive shotgun mic on a camera 60 feet away. 
2. Use headphones.  If you aren’t listening, you don’t know what you’re getting. Recording without a set of headphones plugged into your camera is like pointing a camera and hitting record without watching the viewfinder.  Without listening you don’t know if someone has scratched at an itchy collar and moved the lav mic so now it’s rubbing against a necklace going PING PING PING PING every other second (this happens).
3. Redundancy Redundancy Redundancy!!!  Look at the above example… the bride and groom are in the middle of vows and suddenly there is a crackling noise over the wireless audio and you’re screwed because you sure aren’t stopping the wedding to fix it – so you need a backup plan!  Go into the wedding with 3 different audio recording options to be safe.

Here are your three lines of audio defence!

The main mic – Wireless lav (lavalier) mics. 

These are the tiny little mics that clip on the lapel or collar and have a wire down to a transmitter that clips on a belt.  There’s a receiver that attaches to your camera and goes into the audio input.  These will get you the best sound as they are closest to the person speaking.  The best option is one on the bride and one on the groom.  If the bride doesn’t want the lav on the dress so it doesn’t show up in the photos (it’s easy to see a black mic on a white dress), put the 2nd one on the minister who will be closer to the bride than the groom.  

As great as wireless mics are, many things can go wrong.  First, anything touching the mic itself will ruin the sound, like rubbing against cloth or banging on a necklace.  Second, batteries can die.  The camera team may test them the night before and leave them on and forget to charge them up again.  Third, no wireless device is ever safe from interference.  Powerful radio sources can crush channels completely.  Woe to anyone filming beside a police station.  Cell phones on vibrate have a tendency to cause clicking noises in many wireless audio devices.  The ceremony venue may have a house PA system that crushes your mics (we see this too often).

The first backup – Digital Audio Recorders

This is a chocolate bar sized device with built in high quality omni-directional mics.  They run off batteries and should last for hours.  Models like the Zoom H1 are cheap to rent and are the best insurance for audio you can get.  Your camera team will go to the podium 10 minutes before the start, turn it on, click record, double check the numbers are actually counting seconds (this is important as many recorders have the first click of Rec go into standby mode and only record on the 2nd click), then pick it up after the ceremony when everyone is gone.  This is a perfect backup option that is nearly foolproof!  If your wireless audio fails, this will be the next closest/best source for the vows and speeches.  

The Second Backup – On Camera Shotgun Mics

This is your last line of defence if everything else fails, but also great for handheld roaming and fast interviews.  A directional “shotgun” mic on camera #2 (camera #1 will have the wireless lavs hooked up) will get a cone of sound in whichever direction it is pointed.  The downside is that it gets everything in front and behind the subject in that cone!  If you are shooting the vows from 5 rows back, it’ll hear grandma crying right in front of you louder than it will hear the bride and groom speaking.  It’ll also get whatever is behind the bride and groom as well, an air conditioner, someone honking on the street outside the venue, etc.  Like I said, it’s a backup. 

Shotgun mics are perfect for other things at a wedding, like anything where you don’t have time to put a lav mic on someone.  They are always live on your camera so are perfect for interviews, behind the scenes, tender moments, laughs and applause.  Because there’s no setup needed once it is connected properly, they will grab all the impromptu moments between friends and family, so consider it a critical piece of kit with everything else. 

EDITING

EDITING A WEDDING VIDEO

You’ll end up with hopefully a very good 2 hours of raw footage, maybe more.  Most people choose to have it edited in two versions, one short 1-3 minute version with just highlights of the day to send to all the guests and share on social media (no one wants to watch more than 3 minutes of someone else’s’ wedding), and one full length version that captures everything on the day which will probably only get watched by yourselves and the parents.

Can you edit it yourself?  Yes.  Any newish computer should be able to edit 4k video easily.  But do you want to?  A professional editor will do a much better job, and in a fraction of the time.  There are loads of online companies who will edit your wedding video for you in a variety of prices and levels of effort.  Prices will vary depending on how much raw footage you have and how long you want the final product, so you’ll have to shop around to find what works for you.  

The good thing is that as long as you don’t lose the original footage, you’ll have loads of time.  You can take a crack at editing it yourself and if it doesn’t work out, then send it to a pro.

RENTING GEAR

HOW TO RENT CAMERAS FOR YOUR WEDDING VIDEO

The best way of picking is to ask your camera people what brand/make/model they are familiar with and stick to what they know.  We’ll happily build them a package around what they are comfortable with if you put them in touch with us. 

Once the camera package is confirmed, we’ll need your credit card on file to reserve it for your wedding dates.  You should do this at least a month before your wedding as popular gear books out way in advance.  About a week before the event, you should come in, sign the rental contract and pay for the gear, while authorising your camera crew to pick it up the day before the wedding.   

The day before the wedding, your camera crew would come in to pick it up, we’ll check out the gear with them so they see everything they’re getting and sign off that it’s all there and they are happy with the condition.  From there they should take it home, set it up to whatever specs they want, test all the audio, download and read the pdf manuals  and get used to operating it.  And then top all the batteries back up and get a good night sleep.

After the shoot, they would backup all the footage from the memory cards to their hard drive, and make a second copy on a second drive!  Then hand it all over to you so you can move to the editing phase and return the cameras to us by noon on Monday (if it’s a weekend rental).

It’s all pretty simple… nothing could go wrong.

THINGS THAT WILL GO WRONG

Hopefully everything above this section will prepare you and your camera team for a smooth event, however, I’m purposely going to scare you with a list of things that can go wrong just to make sure you want to DIY your wedding video and not hire a pro to handle it for you.

Here’s a very common thing that gets missed…

The camera team/person needs to actually learn to shoot video before your wedding.  We do not provide them with any instructions on how to use the cameras or audio gear!  Why not?  First you’re only paying for a rental, not for hours of camera instruction, we can’t teach them pro video in 10 minutes on pickup.  Secondly, there’s a liability issue where if we “taught” anyone to use a camera and they screwed something up, they could say “well you didn’t teach me that!” and blame us for screwing up the video.  So they are totally on their own and have to be committed to putting in the time to watch Youtube videos and learn the gear on their own time.

Also, if your camera op didn’t read the manual and setup the camera the night before the wedding, we don’t have a 24 hour helpline to solve their problems for them.  This is why we give you/them the gear in advance to take home and learn.  We test everything between rentals so we know it works, but we see it all the time where people just assume everything is automatic, get to an event, realize they are in way over their heads and then blame the gear.  Yes we will try to help them over the phone if they call us, but 9 times out of 10 we will be closed when they have the problem.  We’ve seen so many people phone in a panic because the ceremony is about to start and they don’t know what to plug in to where and what to turn on.  

Because of this, there are zero refunds if you aren’t happy with the results you get.  This is the peril of having a friend do the video for you, so you do it at your own risk – we do not share the risk with you. 

But it can get worse…

You’re responsible for 100% loss/damage to the gear, no matter what.  If a lens comes back and the autofocus is not working anymore, no matter how much the operator swears nothing happened, we know it was dropped.  We do a dozen wedding rentals every weekend during the summer and have heard every story there is over broken/damaged gear.  Such as a guest knocking over a tripod while the camera op is in the bathroom, it looks fine so the guest just sets it back up and says nothing and the operator never knows, except now the footage is out of focus for the rest of the event.  Meanwhile there is $2000 of internal damage to the lens.  Yes, you will be paying $2000 for the repair and have an out of focus wedding video.  We knew it worked perfectly when it went out as we have a double testing system between rentals, so this will be on you.  Also very common, the operator loses some parts of the kit (usually the battery charger or lens hood) then swears they never got it on pickup.  We have a comprehensive check in/out system, so yes, you will have to pay for anything missing regardless of what your camera op swears.

The good news is that for about $100 you can get a rental insurance policy online that will cover theft and damage (minus your deductible).  This is not through us so we’re somewhat impartial –  it’s extra money up front, but we’ve also had clients who have had their entire camera bags stolen by guests at the wedding they were filming (and lost $20k of gear), so you never know… 

I don’t totally mean to scare you from the DIY wedding…  I’ve seen wedding videos ruined by seasoned professional wedding video companies as well!  Rental houses get to see or hear all the serious screw ups by operators that the bride and groom never get to see as camera operators love sharing war stories.  Ultimately, the last thing anyone wants is for the only visual memory of your big day to be a miserable blurry shaky video with terrible audio that’s missing half of the key shots, which is why I’ve written this article.

No, DIY wedding videos are not without risk.  However, I’ve seen some DIY wedding videos that were easily as good as some of the professional ones for a fraction of the price.  So if I haven’t scared you off it, shoot us an email and we’ll get you started.  

ABOUT ME – Dylan Couper

I own Gearbase Camera Inc. a camera rental house in Vancouver BC and hopefully you’re reading this on our actual website camerarentalsvancouver.com and not on a site that stole this and reposted it!  We deal with HUNDREDS of pro wedding photographers and videographers every year and have seen pretty much everything that can go wrong.  

If you like this article and want to re-post it somewhere, please contact us for permission, we’ll say yes if you ask.