Wedding Video Disappointment – Please can you help?

If you’re currently planning your wedding or have recently got married you will be very much aware of how much it costs for a wedding videographer. Back in my post about keeping your wedding costs down I wrote about how we found our videographer on Gumtree.

I had originally started discussions with a guy from church about shooting the day. As we knew him and he knew us, we knew he would do a great job; however a few weeks to the wedding he broke his arm, so he wasn’t able to do it.

Then I came across the Gumtree advert. An existing videographer, {let’s call him John} he told me he was looking to move into wedding videos and in return for use of footage on his site when he launched, we would get our wedding shot for free with a 20 min highlight DVD. We had a preliminary meeting and he came across as professional and personable. He was happy to travel up to Birmingham from Manchester and also agreed to give us all the raw footage as well. I was happy with what we agreed and looked forward to seeing him the day.

On the day itself, John was good. He came with quality equipment, was engaging and appeared to be a doing a good job. He also worked well alongside Jide, our photographer and we both looked forward to seeing the final result.

Post wedding we expectantly waited for our wedding video. One month…nothing. Two months…nothing. Three months nothing. After six months of calls, text, emails on Christmas Eve {Who doesn’t believe in Christmas miracles!)} we finally received 6 plain discs, in a brown envelope, inside a padded enveloped. No note, nothing.

So our agreement was that our wedding would be shot with two cameras and we would receive a highlight video. What we received was 6 discs of incomplete, chopped up footage and an incomplete highlight video with no sound, all shot with a single camera, so in the vows for example you only see my face and not Afam’s expressions at all.

To say we were disappointed was an understatement. The footage was shaky, blurry and key bits of the day were missing e.g. cutting the cake, speeches. Okay so we didn’t pay the guy but come on…there was some expectation of what we would receive!

I went back to John and voiced our concerns and disappointment. Firstly about why it took so long for us to receive anything and secondly about why he didn’t deliver what we agreed. His response…we didn’t pay him, he had other things on and it wasn’t a priority. In addition he filmed things what he thought were important. Err so you don’t think speeches are important or cutting the cake is important!

Well we have learned our lesson. It always better to pay, that way you have some sort of come back and you get videos that look like this. Our only saving grace is that we have fantastic photographs - thank you Jide Alakija.

So here’s the thing…we have lots of individual footage but I’m no video editor. I can work my way around Windows Movie Maker but it doesn’t have the capability to do what I need it to do. We have a half finished highlight video which we would like to edit, add scenes and add music.

So I’m putting out a plea to Blogland - if you or anyone you know has good video editing skills and you’re based in the UK {and you would like to make a couple very happy}, please drop me a line. In return for your kind help, I will promote your services here on the blog gratis.

Muchos Gracias!

Image {source}

20 Things I Learnt Planning My Wedding

 

I hope you enjoyed Reflections.

It's been a pleasure to take you on the journey that was our wedding.

Planning our wedding was one of the most challenging but growing experiences I have ever been through. I quickly learned that whilst your wedding is about you, the day is not. It is shared by so many people who have their own expectations of how they think things should be and while it can be incredibly frustrating, you just learn to accept it. Despite the frustrations, I learnt a lot and would like to share 20 of those things with you.

In no particular order...

1. It's all about the baby family. This is your first project together, working as a team. You will have to make decisions that are a reflection of you and are based on your values and opinions. Not your mother's or your fathers. You have to be courageous and make choices for your family, your new family. It’s not about taking sides but understanding the importance of your upcoming union together.

2. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate. Don’t be a control freak {like moi} and let people help you!

3. Don't break the bank. Negotiate, call in favours. Forgo certain things that you don't deem necessary.

4. Trust your instincts. You know yourselves better than anyone. Not Cosmo Bride or Martha Stewart Weddings. If it don't feel right, leave it out.

5. Communicate. With yourselves, with your parents, with your vendors. So important.

6. Make sure you have a honeymoon. Even if it is a few days locked up in a hotel away from it all, you will need that time together. You deserve that time together. {More on that in a future post!}

7. Organise your thank you cards before hand. We still have not sent ours and I feel B-A-D! {Edit – Following this post on APW, they have now been ordered and will be sent out very soon!}

8. Don't kill yourself trying to be something your not. Don't like flowers? Don't have them. Don't want your bridesmaids in matching outfits, let them reflect their own style. You make the rules.

9 Stay off the biscuits. You want your dress to fit, right? {I'm really talking to myself there}. 20 mins on a cross trainer is the equivalent of one kit-kat stick. So. Not. Worth. It.

10. Don't forget your other family. Embrace your in-laws. Make efforts to build a relationship with them, especially your mother in law.

11. Put things in writing. Having evidence is always good {especially when dealing with vendors}.

12. Surround yourself with the right people. Positive, prayerful and kind people. Stay away from the haters. In fact don't even listen to them or let them into your space.

13. When you've had your 25th argument over seating arrangements or what things to keep/scrap remember it will be over soon. This is the road to marriage, people. Once you say 'I do', you are also saying 'bye, bye' to all the craziness.

14. Order your rings in advance. We did not realise that jewellers do not stock every ring size and had a mad dash the week before the wedding trying to sort out our rings. Funny thinking about it now. Not funny then.

15. Get yourself some counselling. Pre-marital counselling is ace. Not only is it good to talk about things together, but it is necessary in ensuring that you're both on the same page. Your church might do it. An older, wiser couple might do it. But definitely get yourself some because beneath all the glitz and glamour of the wedding, the marriage comes first.

16. Get stuff done when you can. Have a free afternoon one Wednesday, crack open one of your DIY projects. Otherwise you will end up 3 days to your wedding, with a million and one things not started, which you were certain you would have time for, but then life got in the way!

17. Realise that weddings do things to people. Even people you think should care about you and be on your side can let you down in a BIG way. Try not to let it take over your life. Remember the end game. Forgive and move on with your life.

18. People don't and won't notice the detail you do.

19. Remember your spouse. It's their wedding too! Take time out together throughout the craziness to remind each other why you’re doing this!

20. Finally and most importantly, commit everything to God in prayer. That fact that you made it to the altar in one piece is no mean feat. Marriage is God's creation and the devil hates it. He will try and do whatever in his power to stop it happening. Need examples...Mr E and I can give you plenty!!!

When all is said and done, marriage is a gift from God and it is wonderful. While for us, the wedding day is a distant memory, married life gets better every day!

Have a great weekend!

Reflections…Daytime weddings rock!

So you all remember the Great Venue Hunt of 2010. Well we found our venue and I promised to reveal all after the wedding.

So here it is…Usmania Banqueting Hall in Manchester. It was a race against the clock to get the place ready in time as they were still renovating when we booked them. However the owners came through and were a delight to work with. We had all day access to the venue, which gave us enough time to set up etc.

In terms of decor we kept it very simple as the hall had a lot of character on its own. Our main colour was purple, which was highlighted in the table runners, centre pieces and napkins. Originally I decided against chair covers as the cost wasn’t worth it, but at the 11th hour we struck a deal with the owner and were able to get the chair covers included at a very reduced price…score!!!

As we were the first event at the venue, everything we were using was brand new, so basically the owners said you can have everything but you will need to iron anything you’re not happy with. We didn’t think anything of this until we arrived at the venue three days before and realised that all 50 table clothes needed to be ironed.  Cue our wonderful family and friends who went to the venue every evening to iron the table clothes for us. Indebted…yes we were! Thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts!

The High Table…

Dancing in…

  

Food time…

The food was so tasty. {I had been off carbs the four weeks prior, so eating rice for the first time in ages was heaven!}

We had a ‘double’ bouquet toss! i.e. I threw it twice, so the Videographer could capture it as he missed it the first time. 

  

Lucky catcher and now ‘bride to be' Dele who is getting married very soon!

 

End of the ‘night’ group shot with the younger guests who stayed long after we had gone! 

Tip: If you’ve never considered a daytime wedding, definitely give it some thought. You get to leave your wedding around 6pm/7pm and still have the evening ahead of you to spend and chill with your new husband!

Happy Monday!

Reflections…The little things

Aaah (sigh)… the little things we do to make our weddings our own. Before I talk about the reception, I thought I would share about the things that made our wedding ‘ours’.

Some things were ideas I had seen when wedding researching and decided to incorporate into our day. Others were a little more unique. We also wanted to ensure that we didn’t break the bank, so Lexie and I had to be smart when it came to reception decor. Fortunately as the hall was grand enough, we kept the decor very minimal but used purple runners and napkins to bring some colour into the room, as well as tall centre pieces.

Here are some other things we did to make our day our own…

We hired a classic Rolls Royce to drive us in style. Unfortunately it only managed to take me to the church and then the first ten minutes of the journey to the church, before the engine started smoking and we had to get out! Fortunately one of our guests happened to be behind us and took us the rest of the way to the reception! {Definitely a story for the kids one day!}

The only real flowers used were for my bouquet and the bridesmaid flowers. Everything else was a mixture of real and artificial, making some of the items reusable, if we so wish.

  

We opened our Reception with a traditional Igbo Kola Nut Ceremony…

Our parents ‘passed the baton’, praying over us as the ‘next generation’…

We got serenaded by our friends…

Our candy buffet was a big hit with our guests… 

As well as our personalised labels from Nigeria… 

Our wedding cake was a gift from a family friend, designed to our spec…

 

And was housed on our personalised cake table, with our hand painted ‘WE DO’ letters…

  

We had our first dance to Etta James’ ‘At Last’…

And when we finished my parents decided to join in on the fun and have their own dance…

We got our friends to DJ…

and then everybody DANCED!

        

What things did you have in your wedding that made it ‘yours’?

Reflections...The Ceremony

So our laptop has officially died. We're not sure what's wrong with it, but it keeps freezing and even after reinstalling Windows, no joy. So not only have we lost everything on the hard drive {thank goodness for Dropbox which will recover the majority of stuff}, I lost all my draft posts in Windows Live Writer :(

So I'm writing this from another computer, but the good news is I can continue recaps and today we're picking up at the Ceremony.

For Mr E and I, the Ceremony was the most important aspect of the day for us. I know a lot of people focus on the reception and food etc, but for us we really wanted people to be blessed by our service.

We met with our Reverend to go through the ceremony a weeks prior and he was super flexible with what we wanted to do and how many songs we wanted to include! Whilst we didn't organise ourselves to write own vows, we were able to shape the ceremony how we wanted it.

Our readings came from:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

¹⁰ If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

1 Cor 13 and Songs of Solomon 8:6-7 and they were read by Mr E's Aunt and my good friend, Buki.

Worship and songs were really important to us and we had my best friend SB leading worship, which was amazing. She had a team of backing vocalists and band who were so good and the worship was beautiful.



We said our vows and exchanged our rings…    

Then had our first communion together…

 

We were then prayed for by the Elders…

We sang some more and then we danced our way out…

My only regret about the Ceremony was that due to my lateness, we didn't get to sing all the songs we had planned and the address had to be done at the reception.

Apart from that we really, really enjoyed the service and I think our parents did too!

Mr E’s parents… 

My parents…    

Our Programs…


I created the programs for our Ceremony myself using a mixture of Photoshop and Publisher, with an inclusion of our monogram. I literally pulled an all-nighter the week of the wedding to get them completed. Mr E couldn't understand why I wanted to do them so badly and why I didn't delegate the task, but I wanted the Programs* to be a reflection of us and personalised, so I HAD to do them! My dad printed them and they turned out great!

TIP: Let your Ceremony be a reflection of you. If you want songs, have songs. If you don't want readings, don't have readings. Just do what you feel is right.

Next up...Reception!

{*I will do another post showing the inside of them, once I can find the file in Dropbox!}

Reflections…Down the aisle

Walking down the aisle is weird. It’s weird in that you’re trying to remember a million and one things…

smile

left together, right together

omg there’s so and so, I haven’t seen them in ages

smile

don’t cry

right together, left together

smile

look at all these people

smile

this aisle is long

don’t cry

oh there’s Mr E – he looks so handsome

smile

Over 500 people were in attendance for our wedding and the church was packed out to the point that people were standing at the back. When I walked in I recognised a couple of people and had to stop myself from bursting into tears. It’s totally overwhelming. All these people had turned up for us!

Cameras flashing, people you haven’t seen in a long time smiling back at you!

I originally wanted to walk down to this because it is my favourite worship song, but in the end I walked down to the traditional wedding march.

Finally got to see my husband to be – who by the way looked dashing!

Up next…the service.

Images {Alakija & Co}

Reflections…Feelings

The week leading up to wedding was just pure crazy, I had finished work the Friday before, having travelled down to London for a job interview. I literally packed my life up as best as I could and travelled up to Manchester, with the hope that I would be able to finish all the last minute things in time.

During that week I stayed with Lexie, my wedding coordinator and she was a gem. We had such blast and she was a great support throughout all the drama that had ensued. She stay calmed in the face of the storm and was a great friend to me and my husband.

It’s hard to describe the feelings and emotions that go through your mind and body on your wedding day. For many months I had been waiting for this day and in many ways fought for this day…now it was here.

As soon as I got to the hotel, I parked myself in the corner, switched on the music and let my favourite worship songs fill the room.

Physically I was exhausted.

Emotionally I was drained.

But my heart was happy.

It was finally happening!

Images {Alakija & Co}

Reflections: Boys + Girls

We had a pretty large bridal party. However, it was just too hard trying to decide who should and shouldn’t be included so we took a view and set a limit.

Working with such a large group of people, based in different countries was not always easy and communication was key. We can’t thank our best man and maid of honour for the fantastic organisational skills they possessed in pulling everything together!

The boys hired navy suits from Slaters and since I’m not a fan of flowers, you will notice no boutonnieres, as I thought they were a complete waste on money and didn’t add to anything.

When looking at bridesmaid dresses in the initial search stages, I soon discovered how overpriced they were, so I decided to source my own fabric and get a local seamstress to make them instead. My sister and I went back and forth with the design and in the end agreed on a strapless, fishtail dress.

The whole dress worked out around £60 and Obi the girl who made them was fantastic. She was super patient and even with one of my bridesmaids arriving from overseas on the Thursday before the wedding, she had her dress ready, fitted and completed in 24 hours! She even made alterations to my traditional attire from Nigeria as well.

Tip: It’s often cheaper to buy your own fabric and get dresses made to measure. Ask around for reputable seamstresses.

 

We had a rehearsal the day before and that was the first time everyone got to meet everyone else.

At the church…they walked down the aisle and the girls curtsied, while the men bowed, before taking their places.

 

Unbeknown to us, Jide went round and took individual snaps of all our bridal party! SB is missing as she was leading worship and the best man is also not there. I guess duty called!

The girls… My sister sourced matching headbands for them all!

 

The Boys…Don’t they look dappa!

Two weeks before the wedding, my sister got all the bridesmaid together for a lunch, where roles and responsibilities were assigned. This was really important because it ensured that everyone had a clear idea of what they were doing on the day and there was no confusion.

Tip: Assign roles to people, so that things don’t get missed and jobs are spread evenly.

   

All together now…

All images {Alakija & Co}