Here’s wishing them all the best!

Joni

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

Now that April and I have had a chance to catch our breath, we’ve spent some time thinking about the packages that we’ve been offering to our couples as well as what they’ve been requesting that often wasn’t on our package list. As always, we welcome couples with that have ideas of their own and want to work with us to develop a custom wedding package but we’ve spent some time revising our packages and have made things much easier for you.

Starting today, we’ve trimmed things down to two simple packages - the Basic and the Complete. Each of these packages offers the same professional quality and attention to detail that 425 Video has become known for but are offered to you in a format that’s much easier to understand. We’ve also changed our menu of options so that you can customize either of these packages to essentially create your own package tailored to your wedding. We know each wedding is as unique as the couple that plans it so we decided to provide package offerings that can be matched up to your needs.

Take a minute to browse our new packages and options - and if you have any questions or are ready to meet with us to book your wedding date, give us a call or send us an email and we’ll be happy to help you in any way possible.

Congratulations!

April & Joni

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

Even though this isn’t one of our regular posts in which we try to provide you with wedding tips and tricks, you can still take something away from its title, “Take A Break”. With all the excitement and planning that goes into a wedding, it’s easy to forget why you’re running around like mad planning this huge event. Make sure you set aside some time every now and then to take a break from wedding planning and your day-to-day life in general. Rent a movie and have a “Blockbuster” night with your fiance, go for a walk in the park, or catch up on what’s been happening where you fiance works - whatever it is that you can do to spend some time together and remind yourself why you fell in love - take a break and do it.

As they say in Texas, we’ll have a new post for all y’all coming soon!

Take care,

April & Joni

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

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

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

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