Capturing your special day on video allows you to relive your wedding for years to come. While all wedding videography aims to document the big event, there are a few different styles you can choose from. The type of videographer and package you select depends on your budget, preferences, and desired final product. Here’s an overview of the main types of wedding videography and what each entails.

Cinematic Wedding Videography

Cinematic wedding videos focus on artistically capturing the emotions and intimate moments of your wedding day. A cinematic videographer will use high-end equipment and creative filming techniques like dramatic lighting, slow motion, aerial views, and close-ups. This creates a movie-like highlight reel set to music that encapsulates the look and feel of your wedding. The goal is to tell the story of your love and wedding celebrations in an evocative, visually stunning way. Cinematic wedding videos require an experienced videographer with top-notch equipment and editing skills. This is one of the more expensive wedding video options but produces a spectacular, cinematic work of art.

Documentary Wedding Videography

Documentary wedding videography aims to capture your wedding day as it unfolds, without a lot of elaborate editing. The videographer will record the events and interactions as they happen in a fly-on-the-wall style, mixing in both wide shots of the venue and crowds along with close-ups of the couple, wedding party, and guests. Minimal editing is done in post-production so the final video reflects the organic flow of the wedding day from start to finish. This creates a comprehensive video chronicle of your wedding you can look back on for years. Documentary wedding videos have a simple, genuine style and are usually more affordable than cinematic packages.

Short-Form Wedding Videography

If you’re looking for budget-friendly wedding video coverage, short-form videography can be a great option. Here, your wedding videographer will capture all the main events of your wedding day and edit these down into a short highlight video set to music. This may include the ceremony, reception entrance, first dance, cake cutting, speeches, and some candid moments. Short-form videos are usually around 3-10 minutes long, focusing on the highlights rather than documenting the entire day. This delivers gorgeous shots of your wedding edited into a concise, shareable video at an affordable price point for couples.

When deciding which type of videographer to hire, consider your priorities and vision for your wedding video. Cinematic videos deliver dramatic, emotionally-resonant films, documentary provides complete day-of coverage, while short-form captures all the highlights at an affordable price. All will artfully preserve memories of your special day that you can cherish forever.