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
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
425 Video & The OC Wedding Pros
June 14, 2007 at 11:58 am - Joni
We are pleased to announce 425 Video as a member of the OC Wedding Pros team!
The OC Wedding Pros is a group of signature vendors that network together to provide you with seamless service for your wedding. From the the videographer (that’s us), to the photographer, DJ, catering and even flowers - the OC Wedding Pros work together making sure that you get the very best service and quality.
The importance of having vendors that work together for you and are familiar with each other’s style and work flow is critical to making sure that your wedding day is successful and goes according to plan. By offering this unique service to our couples, the OC Wedding Pros proves themselves as innovators in the world of weddings.
Contact us today by calling 949-215-5651, via email or visit the OC Wedding Pros website for more information. Be sure to ask about our all inclusive events and special packages that are available.
Congratulations!
April & Joni
Welcome to 425 Video!
June 8, 2007 at 12:17 pm - Joni
Although we’ve been planning on launching a wedding videography blog and discussion forum for a while now, it’s been tough to figure out what the types of things we’d post and also what you’d actually be interested in reading! We’ve decided to keep it pretty straightforward. This will be a place for us to share with you our experiences - specifically from the perspective of wedding videographers as well as a recently married couple. It will also be a place for you to tell us about your experiences and comment on weddings and wedding vendors as a whole.
We went through a lot of effort planning our own wedding, and we pulled off a hugely successful event - successful not only because we’re still married 
but also because our family and friends still talk about it to this day - it’s only been a year, but that’s pretty impressive by any measure. You want to remember your wedding day, right?
In future posts we’ll share a little about our wedding adventures, planning tips, and showcase some of the wonderful vendors and locations we’ve had the pleasure of working with. From this we hope you’ll be able to to take away a little information to help you plan your own wedding and start off on the right foot towards a happy and healthy life together.
Congratulations!
April & Joni
Copyright 2009 425 Video - April & Joni Chu
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