When people think of wedding videos, they think about the video that is created showing the wedding itself, the reception, and all that goes with them. This is the expectation when we talk about “wedding videos”. But I think there’s a much bigger opportunity for video at the wedding: The wedding tribute video. This is the opportunity to tell the life stories of the bride, groom, and their families, and have a ready and willing audience to enjoy it. When else, if not before an audience of hundreds of people? This is theater, ready to happen. Let’s look at how to create a wedding video– tribute style.
The Premise: Love Was In the Stars
The overall premise of a love story video is that “this was meant to be”. The paths of previous generations (parents, grandparents) led to the meeting of this couple, as did the life paths of the couple themselves. What they experienced as kids, teenagers, adults: in locale, interests, recreation, education, first jobs, and more all effect cupid’s arrow.
The Proof: The Stars (Chronology)
The people that came before the happy couple
The stars are all the people that came before the couple were even born, let alone met. Where would they be without them? We want to know. For older generations, when did they arrive in America if they were immigrants? Where did they live? We want to see pictures with them and their families. Of course parents can be shown with childhood pictures, wedding pictures, film or video with their children, with an emphasis on the bride or groom to be. Each of the couple’s families get their own section or montage, to keep the stories straight. (click play button to see following videos.)
The Couple: Separate
We learn about each of the engaged individuals in their own section or sections, depending on how much material you have. For an early tribute we produced, good pictorial content allowed us to see the couple individually as kids, teens, adults. We intertwined the sections to add interest, alternating between the bride and groom each time. In this example, we added an old voice recording of the Grandfather of the groom.
The Couple: Together
For my brother’s wedding, which was between two mature adults, we were able to show them together in the prime of their lives. For my niece’s wedding, where both parties were product of the smartphone generation, we had a plethora of video and still photos showing them in fun and in love.
The Big Payoff: The Wedding
Generally, you want to the audience to know the big ending is coming up. In some cases, you may be able to add video or photos of the actual wedding to the end of the show, especially if you the editor are present and can add the photos to a timeline on your laptop and playback the video from your laptop.
If not, a reprise of the best photos and video used in the project will suffice, with the big payoff the best dramatic photo you have of the couple. Either approach, with the right music, will end in applause and cheers for the betrothed.
The Techniques Add to the Magic
Music is critical and may include stirring stock music library selections, as well as some of the individuals’ favorite songs from various phases of their life. End with a stirring orchestral. Edit on the beat of the music, especially in faster sections. This syncopation technique has a positive impact on the audience. And choose your transitions wisely, using dissolves, cuts and other transitional effect that don’t blur or cheat the photos– people like seeing pictures of themselves when the opportunity presents itself (friends, relatives).
When It’s Over….
Give the wedding party and parents (or the all the attendees if affordable) a copy of the video on thumb drive (high definition) or DVD (standard definition). Or, combine the wedding event video with the tribute video for a post wedding gift on DVD, Blu-ray or thumb drive for a pleasant after-event surprise.
There’s more to weddings than just the ceremony. There’s history, emotion, nostalgia, joy, and happiness. There can be no finer gift.
