What to ask before you book your Queenstown wedding videographer

Most couples book the venue, then the photographer, then start looking for video. By the time they reach us the date is fixed and the light will be whatever it is on the day. That is fine. It just makes the questions worth asking practical ones. Any wedding videographer Queenstown couples shortlist will have a good trailer, and a trailer tells you what someone can cut. It does not tell you how they behave in a room while you are trying to get through your vows.

So here are the questions we would ask if we were sitting on your side of the table. They apply to us as much as to anyone else you are talking to.

Ask how they will record the vows and the speeches

This is the question that separates a film you rewatch from one you do not. Vows are spoken quietly, often outdoors, often into wind coming off the lake. Speeches happen in a room with a hundred people, a coffee machine and cutlery. A camera microphone at the back of that room records the room, not the person.

What you want to hear back is a plan with more than one source of sound. Usually that means a small transmitter on whoever is standing still at the front, a second on the celebrant, a recorder at the lectern for the speeches, and the camera microphones as a safety net underneath. Ask what happens if one of those fails, because on a twelve hour day something usually does. The answer should be that another recording already has it.

Ask about the venue's sound system too. If your reception has a PA, a feed from the sound desk is almost always better than a microphone pointed at a speaker box, and someone has to ask the AV crew for that in advance. That someone should be your videographer, not you on the day.

Ask how they work around your photographer

You are hiring two people to document the same moments from the same small patch of floor. It works when they have agreed who leads what, and you can see it in the pictures when they have not. On our side that means long lenses, staying wide through the ceremony, and leaving the aisle to the photographer at the moments that only happen once.

A fair question for both of them: will you call each other before the day? Five minutes on the phone in the week before settles the first look, the portrait window, who stands where during the signing, and whether anyone is using flash during the ceremony. If both say yes without hesitating, you can stop thinking about it.

Ask what the plan is when the weather turns

Central Otago can change inside an hour. A wedding here often has an outdoor ceremony, portraits somewhere high, and a drive between them, and every one of those is weather dependent. You want to know that the timeline has slack in it and that someone has already thought about the wet version.

The useful answers are specific. Worth asking:

• Where the portraits move to if it is raining at the hour you have booked them.
• How long the drive to that backup location takes, with guests following.
• Who makes the call to switch, and by when.
• Whether the light in their trailer actually happens at your time of day, at your time of year. Midwinter light in the basin is gone a lot earlier than a summer trailer suggests.

We plan the portrait window around the forecast and keep a covered option ready. Ask whoever you are talking to what theirs is, and ask your venue the same question while you are at it.

Ask who arranges drone consent, and by when

An aerial shot of a ceremony by the lake looks like the simplest thing on the list and carries the most paperwork behind it. Much of the Wakatipu Basin sits inside the controlled airspace around Queenstown Airport, so flying there needs an air traffic control authorisation, arranged through Airshare. Under the Civil Aviation Authority's Part 101 rules an operator also needs the consent of the property owner or the person in charge of the area, and consent from anyone they fly above, which at a wedding means your guests. If your ceremony is on public conservation land, the Department of Conservation runs its own permissions process for filming as well. This is general information rather than legal advice, and the requirements change, so confirm the current ones with the CAA, Airshare and DOC.

The answer you want is that they handle all of it, and that to do it they need your venue, your time window and a rough idea of guest numbers well before the day. Ask when they need that by. It is not a morning of the wedding job. Ask your venue separately whether they allow drones at all, because plenty do not, and a videographer who tells you that up front is telling you the truth about something they would rather sell you. We have written up how the airspace works in our guide to flying a drone in Queenstown, and what it involves on a shoot day is on our drone videography page.

Ask what you actually get, and when

Here is the concession. A single short highlight film is enough for a lot of couples. It is the thing that gets watched, sent to family and rewatched on anniversaries, and if that is all you want, say so and spend the difference elsewhere. Full documentary coverage of an eight hour day is a real thing to want, but it is not the default, and nobody should be talked into it.

What you should pin down is the list. How long the highlight film runs. Whether the full ceremony and the full speeches are delivered as well, uncut. Whether there is a vertical cut with captions for your phone. How the files arrive, and how long the link stays up, because family overseas will be slow to download them.

Ask about music specifically. Popular tracks pulled from a streaming service are a common way for a wedding film to get muted or blocked when you post it, so ask whether the soundtrack is properly licensed for you to share online. Ask what turnaround they are quoting, and whether that is in writing in the agreement rather than said on a call.

Ask to watch one full film, not just the trailer

A trailer is the best ninety seconds of somebody's best wedding, cut to music. It is genuinely useful for judging taste, and useless for judging consistency. Ask to see one complete film, ideally from a day that was not perfect, and listen to it rather than watching it. Can you hear the vows. Does the speech that ran long still make sense. Do the cameras find the reaction, or only the person speaking.

Then read what people said afterwards. Our client reviews are the ones we point couples at, and every wedding videographer worth booking will have somewhere similar to point you. What you are looking for in them is not praise. It is whether people describe the crew as calm and out of the way, because that is the part you will live through on the day.

Our wedding videography in Queenstown page sets out what comes with a film, and if you would rather just talk it through, send us your date and venue and we will tell you whether we are free.