How Much Does a Wedding Video Cost?

Mar 25, 2017

The question I get asked more than anything else! “What is the cost for a wedding video? What’s your pricing like? What do you charge for a video?” No matter how the question is worded, I always say that it depends on several things. The cost of a wedding video overall could be anywhere from $500 all the way up $10,000. For me personally? It can range anywhere from about $1400 up to about $3000. Whatever the cost, this is your wedding day, and everyone we talk to says “IT’S WORTH EVERY PENNY.”

The 3 biggest factors that go into pricing a wedding video are location, date, and what you are looking for in the final video(s). The amount of time we spend at the wedding is actually one of the smallest factors. That is because, it typically doesn’t matter how long we are shooting, the editing still ends up to be about the same amount of time. 

One of the first weddings I ever shot, we were there for about 5 hours. Almost every other wedding we have shot, we were there for 8-11 hours. In every case, the editing still took roughly 40-50 hours. Now if you’re just looking to have your ceremony recorded and we’ll be shooting for an hour or two, that’s a different story. But generally, most people are looking to cover the majority of the day.

Location is obviously a factor due to travel. Generally speaking, if we only have to drive up to 2 or so hours, we don’t charge anything extra. But if your wedding is more than 2-3 hours away and we’ll be there late, or if we have to fly, we may have to charge a small travel fee so that we can get a place to stay. It’s a long day on our feet and we love it, but driving for 3 hours late at night after an 8-10 hour day can be dangerous. 

Date is a factor because our knowledge and skills are constantly improving. We are always learning new things, finding ways to improve the work we do and service we offer, and/or getting newer and better equipment. So if your wedding is in a month, chances are the cost will be less than if your wedding is in a year or two. But every situation is different.

The final factor is the kind of video you are looking for. The two videos we “advertise” are highlight videos and full day videos. Some couples want both and some want just one of the two. The highlight video is anywhere from 4-10 minutes and the full day videos can be anywhere from 20-50 minutes. It all depends on the length of the ceremony/reception and what you’d like to see in them.

The highlight videos are just as it sounds, a highlight of the day. They include some fun shots of the bride and groom getting ready, highlights of the first look if there is one, pieces of the ceremony, and then a highlight montage of all the intros and fun dancing. Over the whole video are audio and video bits of the toasts. To illustrate this explanation, check out some of the highlight videos here.

The full day videos start out very similar with a highlight montage of all the preparation/first look. They then usually include the majority of the ceremony, if not the full ceremony. After this are the entire intros, full toasts, and then it ends with a fun dancing montage. To see some full day videos, there are a few here!

After the day of the wedding, it takes approximately 40 hours from start to finish to edit the highlight video. I sit and go through every clip we shot, pick the best pieces, find music, sync all the audio and video together, and then edit it all together with the music and toasts. Some have taken 35 hours while some have taken 45 hours. To edit the full day video on top of the highlight is an extra 1-2 days of editing time. So the price difference is not huge, but we understand that weddings are expensive and we know that every few dollars can make a difference. If you are looking for just the full day video, it’s about 45 hours of editing work. These numbers are based on the time spent on all of our weddings to date that I track with an online app. 

We love shooting weddings and I always say that if I could do them for free, I would! We seriously have a passion for what we do and we would love to sit down and talk with you about your big day. However, we understand that sometimes our price or style might not be what you’re looking for, and that’s okay. If that’s the case, we know several other people/companies that we can refer you to. If you’d like to talk with us about your wedding, feel free to shoot me an email at info@neilanvideos.com with your info, or fill out the form on this page or this page. Hope you enjoyed this! Feel free to share it on all your social media! 🙂

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