Left at The Altar

I love what we do. I love the constant creative challenge. I love the honor of being present at intimate and joyous celebrations. I love the responsibility of making time capsules of people's lives, feelings and thoughts.

This time of year - the end of Summer and the  approaching Jewish (and Lunar) 
New Year - evoke thoughtfulness, introspection, self-assessment. We've had a busy and exciting Summer, with lots of outdoor and indoor weddings around New England. We also got to produce our first feature length, birthday documentary - using pictures, interviews, music, graphics and video to tell a very funny and love-filled story.

We got to produce our second piece of Video Wallpaper - thank you Janie, Stephanie, Karen and Peter - which was a huge success at The Event Conference Center in Boston.

I am proud of our event industry, of The New England Chapter of National Association of Catering and Events, and all its members. What I don't understand is how and why anyone in our industry could leave a bride vendor-less at her wedding.

In less than a month, we have gotten calls from 3 brides, each of whom had hired a videographer who disappeared shortly before the wedding. One, didn't return her calls. One, claimed a personal emergency (What? No Back up?); And the third, just yesterday,discovered her missing-in-action videographer to be an unscrupulous owner of three different video companies and possibly on the run.

Clients Beware:

An unbelievably inexpensive, charming, fast-turnaround videographer is probably too good to be true.

A business-savvy friend of mine once said that clients can have 2 out of 3 of the following options:

1. Good;   2. Fast;   3. Cheap.


You won't get it all, and you may not get anything at all. If the videographer gets a lot of response to his/her impossible promises and rates, he or she might just keeps raking in the cash but not produce a decent wedding film within a reasonable period of time. And, the quality may suffer as the overwhelmed owner tries to farm out work to cheap and novice editors.
You might get lucky - but the odds are against you that you'll get the wedding film you were promised. 

Serendipitously, we were open on those 3 dates, and were able to step right in. It was infuriating to me that the poor bride had already paid in full for her wedding film, and now had to hire someone else (us).  

Dear Brides and Grooms:
If you may be thinking that having your wedding filmed could be important in the future,
ask your photographer, planner or venue for a few referrals. Warning: These referrals are not likely to be the least expensive videographers found on Google. They are, however, most likely to be honest, fair, responsible, professional and talented. If you are on a really tight budget, ask your local film school for a student referral. Twenty year olds can still live on ramen.