Adding video to your wedding packages

Adding video to your wedding packages is a business decision before it is a creative one. Priced without care, it fills your evenings with editing for little return. Priced from your real costs and described honestly, it can make each booking more valuable. This article covers what to offer, how to work out a price and what to put in writing. It’s part of our guide to video for hybrid wedding photographers.

What video can a hybrid wedding photographer offer?

Keep the options few and clearly defined. Three products make a sensible starting point.

• A teaser add-on. A 30 or 60 second vertical film for social media, delivered soon after the wedding. It is the simplest place to start. See 30 or 60 seconds? Choosing a teaser length.
• A highlight film. A few minutes telling the story of the day, set to music, with the best lines from the vows and speeches. Offer lengths you can deliver reliably. How long should a wedding highlight film be? helps you choose.
• A speeches edit. The speeches, lightly tidied, as a separate film families can keep. It depends on good audio.

You can sell these as add-ons to your photography packages or build video into your top package. Either way, a couple should be able to see exactly what they get.

How do you work out a price for wedding video?

Start from your own time and costs. For a typical wedding, list:

• Time on the day, including setting up microphones and tripods, filming, and any extra hours of coverage.
• Time after the wedding, including offloading and backup, editing, revisions, exporting, delivery and emails.
• Kit, as the cost of your video kit divided by the number of weddings you expect to use it for before you replace it. The video kit guide covers what that kit might include.
• Per-wedding costs, such as AI, music licences, storage and backup drives.
• Your hourly rate, meaning what your time needs to earn once tax and overheads are covered.

Then put them together.

Price = (hours on the day + hours after) × hourly rate + kit share + per-wedding costs

Time your first few weddings honestly, revisions included, because editing time is easy to underestimate. If the result is more than your couples will pay, reduce the hours by offering a shorter film or a teaser only, and keep your rate.

What does AI editing add per wedding?

If you use AI to make the first cut, its cost becomes one more per-wedding line. What AI editing costs per wedding goes into the detail.

How is hybrid coverage different from a dedicated videographer?

Be clear about this with couples from the start. A hybrid photographer is one person doing two jobs, and the photographs come first at the key moments. That means fewer camera angles, simpler sound and no crew. A dedicated videographer gives the whole day their attention.

Describe your video in those terms, for example as a highlight film made from video captured alongside your photography, and say which moments you aim to film. If a couple wants full multi-camera coverage of the ceremony or a long documentary edit, recommend a dedicated videographer. Honest limits build trust and head off disappointment later.

What should your contract say about video?

Contract law varies by country, so have your wording checked by a lawyer. Points worth covering include:

• What’s included. The products, their lengths and which moments you aim to film, without promising that every moment will be on video.
• Sound. That audio depends on access to the venue, the officiant and the DJ, and on permission to record.
• Delivery times for the teaser and the film.
• Revisions. How many rounds, and what counts as a revision.
• Music. Who chooses it and how it is licensed. Music for wedding films gives an overview.
• Use in your marketing. Whether you may show the film, and how the couple can say no.
• Retention. How long you keep raw footage and finished films, as set out in your footage workflow.
• Equipment failure. What happens if a camera or recorder fails on the day.

How quickly should you deliver wedding video?

Set delivery times you can meet even in your busiest month, and put them in the contract. A teaser sent days after the wedding keeps couples happy while you work on the film, as sending a teaser days after the wedding explains. Tell couples when to expect each piece, and if you are going to be late, tell them early.

Can you show a couple’s film as a sample?

Only with their permission. Ask in the contract and again before you post, since circumstances change. Some couples don’t want their wedding online at all, some guests feel the same, and parents may not want their children shown. Respect a no.

When you are building a portfolio, ask couples who agree whether you may use their whole film or only short clips, and keep a record of what each couple said yes to.