wedding videography question, advertise nationally?

[Andres Bant]

Hello all,
I am thinking of going into the wedding videography business with my XL2. I am pretty creative and have a good eye. So I am wondering, is it unheard of to advertise this kind of business nationally? Would I tell the customers I require being flown in with accomodation... or would I just factor that into the price and fly in myself.. just thinking out loud, might be totally crazy!

[Chris Hurd]

Moved from Open DV to W/EV, which I'm proud to say is the single best Wedding Videography forum on the net.

[David Schuurman]

I think that if you're thinking of shooting weddings with only your XL2 then you won't be able to cater to the market which would fly a shooter out to a wedding. The guys here that shoot internationally started out shooting locally and as their body of work grew so did their reputation, equipment list, quality of work, and price putting them in a high end market in which flying out your favorite wedding videographer makes sense.

Do you have a body of wedding work that you can stand behind? I think you're jumping the gun a bit wanting to cater to a larger demographic. If you had a large body of work which was above and beyond the local variety then I can see a discerning bride booking you and paying for the extra cost, but I don't think it'd be a wise allotment of advertising resources to market yourself nationally but offer a product inferior to, or on par with anyone else in the brides local market.

Personally I shoot in two regions, greater Vancouver, and greater Hamilton areas, but that's because I don't have flight costs and accommodation costs to factor in. My work isn't good enough to be a must have for a bride in another area.

[Noel Lising]

I agree with David, there has to be something really special or unique in your end product for Brides to even consider booking you against local vendors. I have not seen your work but if you google Jason Magbanua, Still Motion, Cloud Nine you'll see why Brides spent the money. I even saw one comment in Jmags blog about a Bride booking her wedding based on Jmag's availability. Or Still Motion doing a US tour.

Conquer your local area, make a name for yourself & the destination videos would soon follow.
That's my 2 cents.

[Chris Hurd]

Of course skill trumps gear any day, but the market that would be willing to fly you in from
out-of-state is most likely going to expect you to shoot and deliver in High Definition.

[Jason Magbanua]

When I was starting out, the few and far between destination weddings we'd do made us feel excited and giddy. We thought we had it made. =) It's a definite step the work is progressing.

We would not even charge extra because we felt we owed the couple for flying us out.

Local destination weddings then became more frequent, and they became chores lol.

We learned to price accordingly.

This year is our breakout year for US weddings. The first few were very good deals for the couple (who spend upwards of $2,000 to bring us in + accommodation). Now for the new inquiries, I'm settling at a price point I'm comfortable charging.

Oh, to the question - Unless you live in a country as small as ours, there's no point. If you want to go destination, you have to target specific states (Hawaii? NY?)

[Desy Cheng]

Also another key part of it is just plain networking! Build a relationship with your bride/grooms and if you do a great job they'll do the advertising for you to their friends.

This year we're going to greece, cyprus, mayan riviera, and cabo san lucas, and it was all through referrals!

But I agree with the above comments, you need to establish yourself locally first. Definitely check out Still motion, Jason, cloud nine, etc., all their stuff is absolutely amazing but don't forget that its also important to develop your own personal identity/brand. Create your own style!