February 2010 – Dolce Films Blog

As you plan your wedding day, you’re probably starting to gather all your correspondences, ripped out magazine pages and contracts with vendors in a pile somewhere, hoping to keep your ideas and plans together in one place. While you may not have a problem finding that one important piece of information YET, I recommend reducing your future stresses with, what I call, The Less Stress Binder. I did this for my own wedding day, and it was a real time saver. It also saved me from an enormously stressful situation on my wedding day. The flowers arrived. Dead. Because my sister-in-law had my version of The Less Stress Binder in her hot little hands, she was able to call the florists, email a photo of the flowers, fax a copy of the contract and have replacements delivered and set out, all before I showed up at the wedding. I did not learn about the fiasco until after my honeymoon and was saved an enormous amount of stress on my wedding day as a result.

So what is The Less Stress Binder? Gather all those papers you’ve accumulated and separate them into piles according to vendor category. Everything cake related goes in the cake section, everything DJ related goes in the music section, everything place card related goes in the stationary section…and so on. You figure out what divider tabs you need based on what you are planning to hire and incorporate. Now, when you meet with vendors you have pictures and ideas to show them. As you sign contracts, put the signed contract AT THE FRONT of the section. Keep the oldest ideas and papers at the back of the section and the newest ones at the front.

Now, here is the best part about the Less Stress Binder project! On the day of your wedding, give the binder to SOMEONE ELSE and ask them to be in charge of that information and the use of it on the wedding day. Ideally, you have a planner you can give it to. If not, chose a friend or relative who you know can handle a stressful situation and be an advocate on your behalf. My sister-in-law can be really sweet, but she can also be a real battle axe, and that worked out well for me with the flower debacle!

While it may take a little bit of effort to pull The Less Stress Binder together, it could result in being your free pass for enjoying the most out of your Big Day. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about!

Time and again, couples ask me to quote a price for a second, unmanned camera during the ceremony. Is it a wise investment? Will it improve the quality of the video? Let me share the pros and cons of the option with you to help you decide whether or not this choice is the right fit for you.

The biggest advantage for having a second camera on site is that you get better coverage of your ceremony and that you feel you are getting ‘more’ for your money. If that second camera is unmanned, this gain is largely psychological, as an unmanned camera rarely captures worthwhile footage physically. Here’s why: while the shooter can anticipate positions and angles prior to the ceremony when they set up that camera, they can’t account for the tall groomsman that blocks the shot of the groom, or the shine off dad’s bald spot as he places himself right in front of the camera in his front row seat. Without a person to monitor the camera and correct the shot each time the ‘scene’ changes, the footage is rarely the professional shot you would have hoped for in your edited film.

For you, the biggest advantage of having a second camera is to actually get better coverage with it. The second camera can film the groom’s reaction when he first sees the bride, it can get a better angle on the readings, it can get gorgeous close-ups of the ring exchange or the couple’s spontaneous actions on the altar. Unmanned, there is no guarantee any of these shots will be captured because the camera would need to be turned, moved and adjusted to capture this shot list. Continue reading “Adding an Unmanned Camera: Is it Worth it?”