Modern Save the Date | Online, Eco-Friendly and Personal

We recently completed a Video STD for Dubuque custom wedding invitation designer Stephonie Ogden of SAO Dzynz. For those of you new to that term, STD is not a disease, it’s for Save the Date.

Stephonie was looking for a fun, unique, and personal way to let her friends and family know when her wedding would be held. She didn’t want to be limited to one photo, or even just photos. And so, she convinced her fiancé to film a video clip to include in a Deluxe Video Save the Date from Storymix Media.

Another reason Stephonie wanted to go with an online save the date was the environmental impact and expense of mailing postcards. The link to the private gallery was simply emailed to all of her family and friends. No need to register – and no html email to get stuck in her friends’ spam boxes.

Last week I interviewed Stephonie to gather any tips she had for filming the best possible video clip to include in your e-Save the Date. As a photographer as well as graphic designer and bride, she was the perfect person to put together tips on capturing the video.

“We were going to say our names in the video clip, but then decided if we are inviting you to our wedding, you know who we are Guests will most likely recognize us, hopefully, from the video alone if they don’t know our names, plus the video you put together has our names on a slide so it would be redundant. I think the most important things are to tell your guests when, where, plus a little flare (personality). If you want to mention that a formal invitation will follow, that wouldn’t be bad either

Tips on capturing best video:

– Time of day is important. Noon light is the worst lighting of the day, its unflattering coming from above. Make sure the sun isn’t behind you, otherwise you will be a silhouette and no one will be able to see you. Also, be careful about the sun being directly in your face to avoid squinting and funny expressions

– Beware of your surroundings: if people are in the background and what are they doing, noisy streets/construction/people, bad shadows, location, distractions, etc.

– Review your video before you quit shooting, make sure you look at everything and like everything

– Simple video editing software can help by starting and ending your clip exactly where you want (this helps when you don’t have someone to film for you and you have your camera on a tripod – you have the ability to cut out walking from the camera to your spot and then back to the camera when you are done to stop the recording). My Mac came with one…

[editor’s note: Storymix Media will do this for you]

Location was important to us, we wanted it to represent us and our special day, so we decided filming on our boat was perfect. We made sure the boat faced the right direction with the sun and backdrop of the city, waiting for boats to drive by because of noise and the waves (really didn’t want to make our guests sick by viewing a video that was filmed on a rocking boat!).

Just remember, you guys are in love and its fun As soon as we made it through a full run through, we were happy with the results. It doesn’t have to be long, short and sweet works just fine ”