Wedding photo albums have been a part of weddings for many years now, but since video cameras came out on the market, many married couples now have wedding videos to go along with their photo albums. Couples can hire a professional to shoot a video of their wedding, or if any of their guests bring video cameras they can ask for copies of those videos.

Having a professional shoot video of your wedding is a good idea for a few reasons. For one thing, the person shooting the video would be experienced and would know all the tips and tricks for getting the best shots. For another thing, if a friend or family member is shooting video footage of your wedding, he or she is not going to want to be looking through the camcorder the entire time. Because of this, any video shot by a friend or family member is probably going to be choppy and intermittent. The professional is going to be at your wedding for one purpose and one purpose only: to get the best video footage possible of your wedding and reception.

This having been said, it can still be a lot of fun for friends or family members to bring video cameras along to your wedding. Some of the footage that guests get of your wedding can be funny, impromptu, and completely unrehearsed, which can often have some hilarious results. It isn’t likely that the professional will shoot video footage of the young ring bearer flirting with the flower girl, since the professional will be concentrating on the bride and groom, but a friend or family member might capture the cute moment on film. Neither is the professional video likely to show Aunt Gerdie doing the Funky Chicken Dance after having a few glasses of champagne, but most likely a friend or family member with a video camera will be sure to get it on film.

One of the best things to do when it comes to a wedding video is to have someone go around the room at the reception with the video camera and ask guests to say something to the bride and groom. It is usually best not to pass the video camera around for this; some people may not know how to use it, some people may accidentally turn it off instead of on, and the more hands it is passed to, the more likely it is to be dropped. One person should be in charge of the camera, and of shooting the footage of everyone giving their messages to the bride and groom. This particular video can be, and most likely will be, separate from the professional wedding video.

The bride and groom should try to figure out ahead of time who will want a copy of their wedding video. Except for the parents of the bride and groom and members of the wedding party, anyone wanting a copy of the wedding video should pay for it. The bride and groom, or whomever is taking care of getting copies of the wedding video made, should get copies for everyone who wants one, and also should get a few extra copies made, just to be sure there have extras in case someone wants one, or in case something happens to the original wedding video. This will ensure that the wedding will remain captured on video tape (or whatever recording means was used) even if for some reason the original video isn’t accessible any more.

All in all, video recording your wedding is an easy task. There are just a few details like the ones above that you shouldn’t miss but if you can take care of them then there’s nothing to worry about; after all, you have more important things to do!