The modern wedding video offers more choice than ever. New technologies give you the chance to have it designed to suit your tastes and the only limit to individuality and creativity is your budget. The average price for a wedding video has doubled in the past few years, as the UK market has followed American trends of increasing professionalism and expertise.

Since it now fetches premium rates, the wedding video industry has attracted a lot of newcomers of varying ability and capability. The first job of the careful shopper is to sort out the best person for your job. Wedding video is a service not a product. You pay high prices because you expect experience and skill from your videographer. You get what you pay for, so the best videographers usually charge the highest fees. With care and planning, you can balance your budget with what you want from your wedding video. The trick is to work out which type of video is right for you.

The price of your wedding video is dependent on the experience and skill of the person you commission, the amount of equipment used and the amount of time taken to film and edit. In general, the more complex the finished product, the more expensive but that is not always the rule. Sometimes the simplest story can take weeks to craft into shape. My own workflow has shown that for every hour of video taken at a wedding, it takes an average of eight hours to edit. Add on time-consuming effects and your one-hour DVD can have 60 hours of hard work behind it. If you want to work to a budget, you will have to make a careful decision about what level of polish you need. If you are the sort of person that will only watch any video once, then there is no point in buying all the options. If you want an enjoyable recording to share with current and future friends, it is a worthwhile investment to spend a bit more on what could become your favourite movie.

There are two extremes of style in modern video; documentary and cinematic, with options available anywhere in-between. The documentary style will be familiar if you have looked at photojournalistic albums. There are few set shots and the videographer adopts the role of witness to the events of the day. The cinematic approach is to enhance and embellish the day into a story told the way you always imagined. The level of effects, transitions and editing pace is more to do with the techniques of your chosen videographer rather than the chosen style of video. Bear in mind that it is possible to use different styles for different sections of the day. It is up to you to find a videographer whose work most suits your tastes and can make something you want to watch.

You can choose the duration of your video. I have seen the extremes of 2-day sessions, where everything was recorded and presented on a bagful of tapes to a three-minute music video. It is whatever suits you! If you are clear in your own minds about the type of video you want, you will be happy with the result, whether you spend £500 or £5000.