How much in advance
 

How much in advance do brides or grooms acquire a wedding videographer?

I’m wondering because I’m starting a new wedding videography business, and I’m wondering if a lot of brides book late. Am I going to find it hard to find jobs for this summer? I want to do some for a small price to build a reel.

Are there a lot who book early?

If you want to do cheapies, then you will find a few last minute clients with some Craiglist/Kijiji advertising. The summer of 2007 I finally decided to get into the wedding video business and starting posting ads about the same time. I was out every weekend from late July to September, at least. Granted, the last minute bookers are the ones that are going to spend the least amount of money possible, but it is possible to get a few dates in if you don't mind taking those jobs.

I took advertising "easy" last winter since I had too much going on with non-wedding-related projects. Now I'm advertising on facebook and local community website and I pick up decent amount of jobs from "last-moment" customers. Good thing about it is that they are less picky about the final product - they have no time to shop around so they take what I have to offer to them.

Andrew, there's no median I think. I have a client who booked me for their Feb 2010 wedding last month & just this month another one for a January 2010 event. I also have booked 2 clients last week with Wedding dates on April 26 & May 8. I love last minute bookings coz you have the upperhand especially when you say" I have a tentative booking for that date but they have not put down a downpayment yet, let me get back to you". Works like a charm.

Hi Andrew,

If you are interested I saw this posting at Kijiji. It's a freebie though.

Wanted: Looking for a learning Videographer - Toronto Photography & Video Services - Kijiji Toronto

each market is very different. I just now got a tentative agreement for my third booking of the year. And I mean I only have three bookings in the future. One for May, one for June and the tentative for Sept. So my market is very slow to book.

Building a successful wedding video business will take you a few years, so take your time and build your resume on your terms. How you choose to define your style will ultimately be based upon on how many events you can shoot within a wedding season and then deliver a finished dvd on a timely basis. Your bookings will start slow and then build to the level that you are willing to maintain.

Based upon the horror story posts I have read on wedding video forums over the past ten years wedding parties have a less than admirable reputation for paying final invoices after the wedding date. Because of this, most videographers prefer to be paid in full before the wedding date. The most common fee structure I have seen is 25% to reserve the date (non refundable), then 50% due 30 days out, followed by a payment of the final 25% within 10 days of the wedding date. You will have to research market value of wedding video in your specific geographical area to determine your base pricing structure.

Last minute bookings should have a different deposit/confirmation/final payment structure. Probably something that makes sense in terms of limited production planning and perceived quality.