What do you include on your wedding DVD?
 

I could really use some guidance from others on what you include on the final DVD. We had been including the following, but doing a highlights version that is SO long is very time-consuming and I'm not sure it's where we should be going with our services. Here is what we are currently including on the DVD:

Highlights of the entire day (10-20 minutes)
Entire ceremony without clipping, just editing for multi-cam, color, sound, etc.
Entire first dance (with groom and father of bride)
Toasts

That's all we include. What do you include and what have you heard from couples they just LOVE? Also, if you do a SDE, do you include that as a separate chapter on the DVD as is and that's the highlights or do you "redo" the SDE to make it better and then include it?

Thanks for your help.

I don't know about anyone else, but I include the whole day:

Bridal prep (to music)
Groom greeting guests, bride arrival
Full ceremony (2 cam)
Crowd mingling outside
Group photos (to music)
Formal location photoshoot (to music)
Guests mingling at reception
Grand Entrance
Speeches and Toasts
Cutting the cake
First Dance or two
Highlights (set to one song - 3-4 mins)

Average DVD would be around 60-80mins. Speeches are the biggest variable - sometimes 10mins, sometimes 2 hours!

I normally made the DVD in two section

Full Coverage:

Bridal prep(with music, a short interview in the middle)
Groom prep at Church (with music and greeting)
Bridal arrival
Full ceremony
Photo outside church (with music)
Location photo(with music)
Guest mingling at reception (with reception cutaway)
Speech
Cake Cutting
First Dance

Special Feature:
Highlight of the day
Trailer
Photo Montage
Love Story

Dvd
 

Ours run like this:

Bride/Groom getting ready
Bridesmaids/Groomsmen photo sessions
The Ceremony (short form/ 4-5 minutes)
Family portrait session
Couple's portrait session
Grand Entrance
First Dance
Toasts
Father Daughter Dance/Mother Son Dance
Dancing/Cake/anything else at the reception

Trailer (2.5-3 mins)
Film (30-40 mins)
Outtakes (1.5-3 mins)
* Any other add-ons that the client paid for *

-short intro (highlight clip) before dvd menu pops up
-full ceremony
-reception (I call it "memories in motion") 30-45 minutes
-photo montage
--*whatever else they paid for (bridal video, best wishes, etc.)

Ha ha.... probably won't want to call it that if doing an Asian wedding.... LOL

Pass Motion | Antimoon Forum

"I tend to PASS MOTION after a meal. "

...yeah I would definitely think about changing the name of it if I did any Asian weddings. :)

Could you help me with more specifics?
 

You all have given me some good information and I appreciate your help. Could you help me with even more specifics so I can get a solid feel for your DVD? I apologize in advance for asking so many questions.

Do you actually include each one of the things you listed as a separate menu item on the DVD and about how much footage do you include? I'll throw out some made up times and DVD menu items, for example:

Highlights/Trailer 2-3 min.
Bride & groom getting ready 4 min.
Family portraits 5 min.
Wedding ceremony (do most of you include the whole thing or a short 5 min or so version?) - full ceremony around 30 min. or short version about 5 min? Or both?
Grand entrance 1-2 min.
Couple's first dance 2-3 min.
First dance with parents 2-3 min.
Toasts - varied timeframe depending on how long they talk
Dancing - 5 min.
Any other items the couple wanted

How long is your finished DVD usually (including trailer/highlights and footage from the day)?

How long do most of you make the highlights/trailer? Seems like most are 2-3 minutes

Also, how much do you edit the footage from the day aside of the highlights/trailer? Can couples just play through the footage from the day (aside from the trailer & full ceremony) all the way through with transitions from one scene to the next? Kind of a 30-45 minute view of the day without much editing (contrary to the highlights/trailer)?

Is most of your work spent on the trailer/highlights? Or where would you say you spend the bulk of your time? We have normally spent a huge amount of time on the highlights because ours is heavily edited with a final run time of around 15 minutes. That seems much longer than most. That alone is probably 30+ hours of work and there's a lot more to do. Then, our other DVD menu items are: full ceremony (multi-cam edited and color corrected), the first dance and the toasts. It seems like couples want more footage of the rest of the day.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated. We take our work very seriously and want to put out products that really wow the couple, family and friends. I have seen some amazing work here and appreciate how everyone is so open.

Standard Package:
-Motion Menu
-3 min "music video" of pre-ceremony preparations
-Full Length Ceremony
-15-20 min reception documentary

If applicable:
-Slideshows
-Highlight edit of the day (5-8 min)

Times look ok. I always include the full service - my reasoning is that if they don't like to sit through the whole thing, they can skip it easily with the remote - but who am I to decide what is remembered forever and what gets cut?

60-90 mins

1 song. (3-4 mins)

It all does have full editing like colour correction, sound tweaking, proper cuts, fades etc.

My average editing time is currently down to 25-30 hours per wedding. Getting faster and better with each one. If they were an awesome couple I spend a lot more time making it extra perfect.

I think I would be shot by the couple if I only had 4-5 minutes of the ceremony on the DVD!

I shoot the bride getting ready with the bridesmaids.
The grrom greeting the guests at church.
Arrival of the bride.
the ceremony in full ( minus a verse or two of All things Bright and beautiful/Jerusalem)
The photographs
leaving for the reception
Greeting of the guests
General shots
The speeches in full
Cutting the cake
First dance
An hour of dance floor action
Loads of interviews with the guests leavig messages of goodwill.

Plus 50-100 candid photos taken during the day for a musical montage at the end of the DVD.

The wedding film lasts anywhere between 1 hour 30 and 2 hours in total.

Amen to that !!!

Funny thing about videoing people singing at weddings, you can tell that they thought it was a good idea when planning the service, but the looks on their faces is often "why the hell are we singing this??"

Our edits go like this:
1. Bridal prep opening (establishing shots, bridal/groom prep, processional though bridal entrance) all to one song.
2. Ceremony (mostly as is, but Catholic masses will be edited down, usually using homily with candle lighting, presentation of gifts, communion all mixed down into one song).
3. Bride Groom kiss, cue music go into recessional, cocktail hour, establishing shots of reception venue, through bridal party intros.
4. Speeches in their entirety
5. All main dances are in their entirety, but often we will mix the cake cutting into the first dance. Or maybe mix the cake cutting, garter/bouquet toss etc. into one montage.
6. Dances and other fun events, are edited down into 3-4 dance montages (1 slow, 3 fast. Depends on the reception)
7. Departure.
8. 3-5 minute highlight recap of the day
9. Bonus footage (cake cutting, garter bouquet etc.), some of the RAW dance sequences not used.

Total runtime of all of my main edits seem to almost exactly 1 hour in length (not including Bonus footage).

We don't sell or give out RAW footage, as I inform the client and show them that it's not necessary.

Many people seem to spend little time editing the main video (documentary style chronological timeline of events), and most of the time on the highlight video.

I see the highlight video a great fun recap of the day that someone can show friends.

We spend much more time editing the main edit than the highlight video.

Our main videos are highly edited, using captured live audio, straight cuts, little to no slow motion, and timeshifting of clips, to ensure that the couple will watch over and over again. Think of the main edit as a 1 hour movie of their wedding day.

I have had 3 brides reently tell me that they have had many viewing parties for their videos. One has had 15 viewing parties.

That makes me feel good!

Bobbi:

A lot of great posts on here to help you. What you are doing sounds great. Every wedding is a little different and there may be different scenes you want to include.

Bottom line, don't over engineer or over do your basic video package. Simpler is always better.