Photos and Video - Not the Same Animal

When it comes to YOUR wedding, don't make the very common mistake of looking at photography and videography as the same thing; as an either/or option. BOTH photos and video have their own special uses and purposes. They are totally different, other than the fact that they both involve images.

I attended a seminar on videography a couple years ago, and they talked about a study that was done where they asked couples what the five most important services for their wedding were. BEFORE the wedding, video was named in only about 25% of the answers. But AFTER the wedding it was named in nearly 80% of the answers! Obviously there was a lot of people that wished they had gotten a video for their wedding!

It flies by in a nanosecond. Just as you wouldn't think of having your wedding without someone to take still photos, a video should be just as high on your priority list. If you can't afford to go with a fully edited, high tech video, at least have a professional take raw video, so that later on you can pay the additional to have it edited into something beautiful. If you don't have the video, you can't do it, ever.

Incidentally, did you know that an average wedding video requires about 40 to 50 hours of editing time? The price you pay for having someone take a video of your wedding is not just for the few hours that they are at your wedding. The largest portion of the cost is those hours and hours of editing time! If a video costs $1500, that works out to about 30 dollars an hour. Looks a lot more reasonable, doesn't it? In addition, professional videographers can easily have 30,000 to 50,000 dollars tied up in their equipment. Professional high definition cameras that are able to take high quality video in low light situations (and who wants a searchlight on constantly during their reception?) are really expensive, and good videographers are constantly having to update and upgrade their equipment. Looks like an even better bargain, doesn't it?

Because of the improvements in equipment, video doesn't have to be any more intrusive than still pictures. Just as with your photographer, people notice them at the very beginning, and then they kind of fade into the woodwork as people get used to them being there. After 5 minutes, they don't notice the photographer OR the videographer.

We have some awesome videographers on our Faves List. I hope you will really give video serious consideration when it comes to planning your wedding!

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE RESCHEDULED

Well Mother Nature certainly dropped one on us this time!!! We have decided that because of the road closings, drifts, and additional snow that is forecasted, that we will RESCHEDULE our HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE for WEDNESDAY THE 15TH FROM 5:30 TO 8:30.
We have lots of wonderful food in the cooler ready to go, and hope that those of you who had planned on attending today will be able to make it on Wednesday. The weather is supposed to be much better then!
All I can say is, I'm glad it's Monday and not Saturday!! I would much rather have OUR party snowed out, rather than someone's wedding. It's just Indiana though, we have things happen all year around--floods, tornadoes, snow, you name it! It makes Hawaii look very attractive sometimes.
Hope to see everyone on Wednesday for the party!

To Letterpress or not to Letterpress!

So I am looking for some opinions. I love letterpress invitations, but they are a little more expensive than thermography. I'm not sure if anyone knows what they are in this area...

I found a neat company that does letterpress that aren't horrendously expensive, like most. If you have a minute, check out their website, which has pictures of all of the invitations they offer, and let me know whether you think this would be a good addition to our invitations library or not. The pricing is all on their website as well, so you can also let me know if you think they are gorgeous but just too expensive. Keep in mind that the pricing is for the invitation and envelope as well as the response and envelope--it's for the set rather than just the invitation.
Whatever your opinion is, I am interested! The website is www.letterpresslove.com
Feel free to comment, or send me your opinion privately to denna@aberdeenmanor.com whichever you are more comfortable with.
Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Gown Sale in Indy!!!!!

For those of you that want to get a steal of a deal on a wedding gown--
Next weekend there is a charity sale in Indy sponsored by Brides Against Breast Cancer. Some of the gowns are donated by brides, however the majority are overstocks, samples, and the like from bridal shops. They are mostly brand new gowns that have never been worn, and they are available at a huge discount. There are many designer labels and high end gowns!
Affairs will be donating a bunch of accessories, veils and jewelry to the organization. It's a terrific opportunity for those of you that are budget conscious brides!
This is similar to the Filene's Basement Bride's Stampede, so you will want to wear appropriate undergarments and maybe even a leotard so that you can try gowns on without having to wait for a fitting room.
Let me know if any of you attend, and how it goes! I would love some feedback on the sale!
Happy Hunting!

Katie and Mike 5-8-2010

Well if we gave a prize for the most beautiful flowers, last Saturday would have won it hands down! Their flowers were not just beautiful, they were exquisite!! I see a lot of wedding flowers, and these were absolutely awesome. The peonies smelled absolutely heavenly, and the French tulips, wow! They were the most beautiful, delicate pink, with their long, slender, graceful stems--I just love them! In order to make spring branches, they wired the individual flowers from pink stocks to curly willow branches. They looked like Kwansin Cherry blooms--so pretty! The branches also had dripping glass baubles hanging from them. The effect of the whole arrangement was amazing.

Katie and Mike were a delight! Such a great couple. They had originally planned to have their wedding in the garden, but when the weather turned crappy, and the temperature was only about 50 degrees, they decided that maybe the chapel was the place for their ceremony. They were able to get pictures taken in the garden before the wedding (so smart, I love it when the bride and groom get their pictures together done before the ceremony, it really maximizes their time.)

It was a delightful evening, with a beautiful couple, making their dreams come true. What a wonderful job we have!!

Tux registration problems---

Just to let everyone know, we have again been experiencing some problems receiving the online tux measurement registrations. I keep hoping that our new web host will get this all fixed, and it seems like for a while it's ok, and then, whamo! We get hit again with another problem!
So what has been happening, is that when someone submits their measurements, they get a variety of error messages. Some of the measurements have gotten to us in spite of this, others haven't, so if you have groomsmen that have used our online registration you might check with us to see if we have their measurements in your file.
I am SOOOOOO sorry! I know this is a pain. Believe me, it has been a nightmare for us too. Hopefully we have it fixed now.
Remind all of your out of town people that we always acknowledge the measurements we receive, so if they don't receive a confirmation, they need to check with us.
Hopefully this won't happen again. Gees.

So if you are still searching for that perfect gown---

Ladies, you have to see this! Toilet paper wedding gowns! So funny! and some of them are really pretty, amazingly enough!
We have not had the pleasure of a TP gown at Aberdeen Manor yet, but there is always a first for everything. I just hope that it isn't on a day where we have rain--that could make a wet t shirt contest look tame!
Too funny-----
Enjoy!