Don’t get taken for a ride.

PHP Weddings are different to most of its competitors in a number of ways; our proper, one-to-one interviews, our “Sound of Music” shot, a free video camera for your honeymoon and the fact that you don’t pay the full price before your wedding are just a few.

Another difference is our single, all-inclusive price.

Most of our competitors offer a range of prices, ostensibly to reflect the cost of having different amounts of coverage on the day. In fact, because so much of the job is done after the wedding day, the range of packages is only there to create a low start price, a loss-leader like the below-cost loaf or cheap bag of sugar to get you into the supermarket.

In reality almost every couple buys the most expensive package, after all who wants a video of only half their wedding?

But there’s a new twist to this sales technique going on in the Manchester area. At least one wedding video and photography company now offers no less than six different packages, starting at a few hundred pounds for a single camera, single operator coverage of the ceremony to a two-camera, two-operator Platinum package covering the whole day at £2000.

However, regardless of the package couples order, the company sends along the whole team and records all day long. The material is then edited according to the company’s Platinum package.

Now we all know how enthralled couples are to see their wedding video for the first time. That’s when our competitor tells them that what they’re seeing is actually the more expensive package which will cost them up to £1400 more. They can, of course, wait for a few more
weeks whilst the company edits the material to the lower standard that they originally paid for, but in fact, having seen the better quality production most couples find a way to stretch to the new higher price the company wants for its Platinum package.

I’m quite sure it’s not dishonest in the literal sense of the word but it does strike me as rather immoral.

And it’s one of the reasons with all our demonstration disks we include a Value Comparison chart which enables couples to calculate what other people’s various packages are really going to cost them and see why PHP Weddings really are the best value wedding video production company, bar none.

I blame Patrick Swayze ….

It’s becoming increasingly popular for couples to have their first dance choreographed professionally and then taught to them over the weeks before the wedding. Perhaps it’s a left-over from Dirty Dancing in which the late and wonderful Patrick Swayze persuaded men they
weren’t pansies if they swung their hips and expressed their emotions through dance. More likely it’s because if Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough can do it without any gags about their sexuality, so can our man.

I can imagine that brides too, revelling in their full dresses, enjoy the sensation of twirling and “sashaying” around the floor in time to a favourite song.

As a video producer I certainly find it more satisfying to record a choreographed performance rather than the traditional “Hollywood Shuffle” which was a simple contrivance to have each of the dancers facing the camera to deliver their lines.

But it isn’t as easy as the choreographers, on Strictly as well as at your local dance school, make it look. It takes practice and commitment, probably a little talent and certainly bags of enthusiasm. And it can still go wrong – for a number of reasons.

Firstly the songs couples choose are invariably their favourites and mean something to them. Sadly that doesn’t necessarily make them good songs to dance to. Unless you’re well into dancing, it’s sensible to choose a song with a well-defined, constant beat and a tempo you can dance to without being a Fred Astaire. My advice would be to take a list of your favourites to your choreographer and let them choose one that works.

Secondly, discuss with your choreographer what sort of dance you want to be taught. Often couples seem to be led towards what are essentially “show” dances. That’s fine if head flips and leg kicks come naturally to you. Unless you’re comfortable with that sort of dance my
advice would be to ask your choreographer to teach you a fairly standard cha-cha-cha, samba or beguine and embelish it with some twirls and spins for the bride to show off her dress.

The advantages are that you’ll have something in your skill stock that can be brought out whenever you’re dancing and you’ll not feel uncomfortable performing the moves on your wedding day.

Finally, gentlemen, whilst you’re rehearsing please remember that on the wedding day your partner may well be wearing a much fuller dress than she’s ever worn with you before. It might well be dirty dancing but not as Patrick showed us and you’ll certainly get nul points for standing all over your bride’s dress!

As an old-time photographer told me ….

I had lunch the other day with a photographer – actually the photographer who first recommended I come into wedding video production (he knew our ethos and commitment to quality from way back when we worked together ). As we drank our coffee, our waitress,
noticing us looking at a new piece of kit my friend has just bought, remarked that she’d graduated from photo college last July but couldn’t get work.

We got chatting and when she learned that my pal was a long-established wedding photographer she revealed that her passion was portraiture.

“Ah,” he said, gesturing towards me, “the one area of our work in which my friend and I don’t overlap.”

He explained that for a young photographer to break into weddings was made more difficult these days because clients so often choose a reportage or an informal style of photography.

“The thing is that if photographers are honest, they’ll admit that the video makes a much better job of capturing friends and family behaving naturally ie informally, because they record sound and movement as well as images. But, the one thing the video people can’t do is the portraiture, the formal groups and the bride and groom, the pictures everyone actually wants on the day whether they tell you so or not when they’re briefing you.”

The waitress looked a little confused. “So what you’re saying is that I should take on a job paying maybe £300 when I could be getting the whole job and earning four or five times that?” she asked.

“Yes but you’re not getting the whole job are you? You’re waiting on tables,” said my pal, always a little forthright. “If I was you I’d talk to this man,” he said pointing at me, “who makes very good wedding videos, and persuade him to offer a new style of wedding photography/video service, combining video and portraiture. You’ll only be working for a couple of hours on each job, so you’ll have plenty of time to develop your regular portraiture business.”

We did talk and indeed since then I’ve talked with a number of portrait specialists. But what do you think? Is the tradition of the wedding photographer still strong or do your friends take such wonderful snaps with their modern digital cameras that you really only need the
photographer to take the formals?

Since our lunch, this photographer and I have added a new service to our portfolios – a combination of our two skills – for a very competitive price.