Don’t Do THIS to Your Wedding Party or Coordinator!

I get asked all the time about how to coordinate the cameras and filming for a WeddingMix event. Scratch that. That’s NOT the question I get asked. That’s the question that SHOULD be asked. People ask me if asking their friends to film their wedding video is putting them to work. Easy answer. No. Most of your friends have their cameras and iPhones out anyway.

Image by Rose Schaller Photo

BUT here’s what you DON’T want to do

Your box of cameras arrives from Storymix a few days before the wedding. The night before the wedding, you surprise your wedding party with the fact that they need to “get video of your wedding”. Or, the morning of the wedding, you “instruct” your wedding coordinator that you ordered this great wedding video service and she needs to “make sure the guests get video”.

That is what’s called being a bit of a bridezilla. It’s not fair to spring this on them. Getting candid video of your wedding is fun, but does require literally just a few minutes of planning.

WeddingMix is NOT the same as disposable cameras

Leaving a disposable camera on the table is leaving it to chance that someone will pick it up and take photos. And hopefully that someone will not be (a) 10 years old or (b) so drunk they can’t stand up.

As I said, getting wedding video clips needs a few minutes of planning. Literally… a few minutes.

Just a Minute of Planning

We ship the cameras with big postcards full of  tips on getting good video, who to ask to hold the cameras, questions to ask wedding guests…  You want to give your friends a minute to look these over and get excited about all the cool moments they can get on video. You also want to make sure they know which moments you’d like to get on video.

We make this pretty easy with the iPhone app – there’s a shot list built right in. And, I got a great tip from one of our fabulous bride guest bloggers – Kelsey. Her mom bought a 5 camera package as a gift for her. She asked a few different people a few days ahead of time to capture different aspects of the wedding. Her mom wrote little note cards with what they were hoping to capture and tied them to the individual cameras.

While you don’t have to tie note cards to cameras, simply asking a few trustworthy friends and family members (or at least asking your wedding coordinator to do so) a few days ahead of time, will save you having to think about it on your wedding day. And it will certainly let them have fun planning the moments they will capture… like the flash mob dance, or the pre-wedding golf trip, or the post-wedding after party craziness, or the “impromptu” re-enactment of the cop pulling you over during the road trip from spring break, or the… you get the picture. So what cool moments do you hope your friends will capture?