Destination Wedding Considerations

Hi Ryan,

Congratulations on being successful in your current endevors.

I am not a traveling wedding videographer so take my advice with a grain of salt I'm just another videographer.

The first thing to consider would be insurance make sure you have your bases covered if anything goes wrong, and in your gear have important numbers like your agent so you can easily reach them even if its just to ask a question you will be ready if something happens.

Secondly I would talk with a lawyer about any gaps in your business such as paperwork release forms etc.

If you don't use one get into the habit of using and updating/optimizing a gear list this will be critical for traveling because it will save you the dreaded omg I fotgot the batteries! It is also important because every piece you bring you/client is paying for; when I go to an event I have a garden cart with all the stuff I take 60% of which I might not use, but I might want it… This wont fly (pun intended) with your clients paying travel expenses, so get your equipment list down to something managable.

Like I mentioned before any arrangments you are going to make with clients should be screwtenized by a lawyer, but you might want to consider how you would like to be payed. I would use a system such as client must book 2 months in advance or have an extravagant fee for last minute bookings, secondly I would require a 30% deposit upon booking that would be kept or part of kept for waisting time of they change their minds.

As far as resources I would check into wedding photography information because they have been around longer there is more information the two fields are very simmular so use that as a reference, also there are some dvd's available from videomaker.

Best of luck!

Justin Reto

klookfilm

P.S. you might consider looking into mobile editing, while you could send off your footage to an editior if you have reliable data; I would consider an editing laptop that way you could review footage and start preping things for editing. Just make sure you have backups god forbid your stuff gets lost broken or stolen, but bad stuff happens and seems more likely to happen away from home.

Hi Ryan,

I would personally advise against doing destination weddings for videos. Only the very high end videographer/cinematographer will make money in destination wedding. 

For our company, we film mostly local weddings. Same amount of work, same amount of pay, minus the travel, lost time, and etc. 

There are many Filipino wedding videographer & cinematographer who makes a killing on destination weddings. 

As well, constant travel will take a toll on your body. Unless you travel a preminum amount, is not really worth it in my opinion. However, if you want to explore the world then it will be a good way for you to run your business.

I am professional destination wedding photographer from last 5 years and capture lot of beautiful wedding moments of my clients. Apart from charging travel expense I always ask my clients about security management of the place where wedding ceremony is going to take place, this is because being a photographer, my group carries equipments which are quite expensive. I ask for hotel safes, lockers etc. in my room. Check for hotel safes (http://www.hotelsafes.com).

A wedding is suppose to be about you and you fh only! If the traditionnal way you first planned does not seem special anymore, well this might not be the way to do it as you will keep comparing your wedding and bro’s wedding, and that is the worst thing to do! http://weddingsspirit.com/honeymoon-in-venice/