Wedding Scammers - A Wake Up Call For Couples
October 16, 2007 at 10:18 pm - Joni
Everyone knows that weddings are a time filled with joy and love - for most of us… For some couples though, there exists a much harsher reality. It’s easy to get lost in the emotional and personal aspects of planning a wedding and forget that the wedding industry is a business that generates over $125 billion per year (yes, that’s a “B”!) As a result of this astronomical number, couples have many choices when it comes to videographers, DJ’s, photographers and all the other wedding vendors out there. Unfortunately, it also attracts scammers, bottom feeders, misguided individuals or whatever you’d prefer to call them.
We usually try to keep our posts and advice here upbeat but a recent article we saw online reminded us of the other side of this industry. A young couple in Oregon was looking for an officiant to preside over their wedding and turned to Craigslist where they found a nice woman who agreed to perform their wedding ceremony for them - everything seemed to be falling into place. The couple had asked their guests to bring Home Depot gift cards in lieu of the normal gift fare so that they could work on building a home together - a nice idea if you ask us. Imagine their surprise when they only had a handful of gift cards from a guest list of over 100 people. It turns out that their wedding officiate had stolen the bulk of the gift cards while at the wedding! This from the person that’s guiding you through your vows?! Check out the article for the details, but rest assured that the story ultimately has a happy ending. But there’s a lesson to be learned here…
It’s understandable that couples are trying to stretch their wedding dollars as far as possible these days but it pays to be smart about selecting your wedding vendors. Classified ads like those in local newspapers and online sources such as Craigslist can be good sources but as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. Most reputable businesses and vendors will belong to trade associations or local networking groups such as The OC Wedding Pros. Being associated with other local vendors goes a long way in validating someone as a trustworthy addition to your wedding since businesses aren’t going to want their name and reputation associated with others that can’t deliver a quality product.
Another useful tool to use when separating the scam from the glam are reference checks. Any legitimate wedding vendor will be more than happy to provide you with statements from previous couples that have used their services and perhaps even put you in direct contact with them so you can ask questions at your leisure. Be cautious with anyone that is hesitant or unwilling to provide references.
Lastly, trust your instincts. Not only will your gut feeling be a good indicator of how well you and your wedding vendors get along and relate to each other, but it’s usually good at telling you when things don’t quite add up - even if your brain hasn’t realized it yet. Trust your instincts!
With these simple tips in mind, you’re well on your way to finding professional wedding vendors that you can feel comfortable with - which goes a long way to ensuring that you, and your guests, enjoy your wedding day!
Safe planning!
April & Joni
Wedding Video Demo DVD’s At Orange County Wedding Pros
August 8, 2007 at 10:58 pm - Joni
425 Video is pleased to announce that we’ve released a new sample wedding videography DVD! Our new DVD includes several sample videos including reception and wedding day highlights as well as an entire two camera ceremony! Many of you have been asking for ceremony samples and we listened!
You can directly contact April and Joni to get your copy of this awesome new DVD or request a copy when meeting with any of the other OC Wedding Pros including Joe Broccardo from Broccardo Photo and DJ Todd from eMobile Music.
Happy Viewing!
April & Joni
Your Wedding: Part 1 - Photography
July 13, 2007 at 3:28 pm - Joni
I met Brian a long time ago when I was doing wedding photography (for those of you that haven’t read our biography yet - yes, I used to be a photographer before starting 425 Video with April). Brian’s photographic style is for the most part photo journalistic. His focus is on capturing images as they happen.
As wedding videographers, one of the most frequent comments we hear from our brides and grooms after they see their wedding video is, “our favorite part is when [insert moment here], we had no idea that even happened at our wedding!” And that’s usually why they want us at their wedding. On your wedding day you are so busy and there are so many things going on that normally you’d never know about without us there to capture them on film. As a photographer, Brian is unique in that he is able to capture some of these moments in his images.
We ended up hiring Brian to shoot our wedding last May. His attention to detail and his flexibility were things that we knew we wanted and needed. Weddings are living, breathing things. Most brides and grooms want to believe that everything will go exactly according to plan. But when you have 100+ guests, a wedding party of 10, and several different wedding vendors that probably haven’t worked together before - things can, and do, deviate from the minute-by-minute schedule that everyone develops when planning their wedding. Having vendors that can think on their feet and adapt is critical - it’s even better if you can find a group of vendors that work together often - see “425 Video & The OC Wedding Pros”. We’ve done many weddings with Brian so we knew his work flow and that he was up to the task. He came through for us and we love our pictures! Brian, we hope we didn’t put too much stress on you - we only started 20 minutes late and our coordinator didn’t tell you when we were going to cut the cake (yes, he got those shots for us too).
If you’d like to contact Brian, you can find him online at www.BrianJCummings.net - tell him April & Joni sent you!
Keep checking back here as we’ll continue our discussions with some of the other great vendors we’re worked with before.
Until then, happy planning!
April & Joni
Wedding On A Budget
July 2, 2007 at 3:39 pm - Joni
It’s no secret that along with being one of the most highly anticipated events in a couple’s life, weddings are also one of the most expensive. Whether it be to make your celebration of love the most memorable day of your lives or to impress family and friends, weddings have grown to be big business. Times however are changing with more and more young couples paying for most, if not all, of their wedding costs themselves instead of going the more traditional route. As an example, when April and I got married we certainly had help from her parents and my mom but we also paid for a lot of things ourselves. Sure it was stressful, but it was important to us to contribute as much as possible to our own wedding - after all, we had a little something to do with the wedding taking place!
I was reminded of all this while reading the Los Angeles Times yesterday. The Business section had an article “Love Extravagantly, But Cut Wedding Costs”. In it, they give advice for the modern couple on how help reduce the cost of some big ticket items as well as strategies for overall wedding planning - where it’s ok to pinch your pennies and where you should spend top dollar. They included everything from buying a “once worn” wedding dress to having a faux wedding cake for pictures and using less expensive sheet cake to serve to your guests. The one place they advised couples to avoid cutting costs was for pictures and video. As Christa Vagnozzi, senior editor at The Knot said, “You’re going to have these for the rest of your life - you want to make sure that they get all the shots” and cautions against going no-frills in these areas.
All too often we hear couples say, “We’d really like to have pictures and video but we’re already over our budget…” and we don’t doubt their sincerity, but our advice is the same to everyone - remember that this wedding is for the two of you. People won’t remember what the cake tasted like, what the flowers smelled like, or even what designer tux the groom was wearing. What they, and more importantly, you will remember is what you see in your video and pictures. Along with our memories, these are the things that we hold on to through the years and pull out and watch with our family, our children, and (eventually) our grandchildren. If you need to cut costs, that’s understandable, but don’t short change yourself of memories that will last a lifetime.
Happy 4th of July - Be safe!
Joni & April
Copyright 2009 425 Video - April & Joni Chu
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