Ok, I`ve been looking at photographers and videographers, and I`m a little torn. Is it better to use house vendors? What`s everyone`s experience with this? Do you feel like you get a better deal? Are the vendors treated nicer by your hall on your wedding day? Also, is it bad to use separate places for photo and video, or is it better to use one place? Your honest opinions are needed!!
Many of the video companies know the reception sites on LI. Being a house recommended vendor very often does not mean they know the best better than anyone else. I did not hire one house-recommended vendors for my wedding. Sometimes getting recommended just means that they give a cut to the reception site or have a good relationship with the owners. Quality is not always a factor. That does not mean house recommended vendors are not good, just saying it does not mean they are always good.
Also, I did not like most of the photographers video demos. I wanted to hire a company that only does video, full time. I found that there was a huge difference between the photographer videos and the stand-alone video companies.
I loved Mark Kuaffman for photographer but thought his video guy was sub-par. I loved Wild Rose for video. They were the best I saw out of 6. Look around at a few first and then decide.
Just make sure to listen to sound quality during the Vows. Some places have no sound quality at all. Why bother if you cannot hear your Vows since most people say that part flies by.
And ask what type of lighting the camera guy uses. Guests hate those huge lights in their faces while dancing.
The house vendors pay the catering hall a percentage of the money they get from you. So, they tend to charge you a little more to cover those fees. But, they are familiar with your hall, the photographer & videographer might know the best places to get nice shots. We decided to use a photographer & videographer that was not the house vendor, but has worked there many times in the past.
My uncle works for an independant video company in South Jersey, and told me that it's best to get photo & video from the same place, if they offer both services. He said they are used to working together, and can work around each other to make sure they both capture the key moments of your day. But he also said that at the end of the day, everyone is a professional, and they are going to do their job to the best of thier ability regardless of if they have worked together in the past or not.
We chose to look for our own vendors. Mainly because we used vendors that we were already familiar with or vendors that came highly recomended to us by good friends or family members. It really is a personal choice though. Also we used a seperate photographer and videographer. Really for no reason other than the fact that we fell in love with our videographers work but he did not have a photographer that worked with him.
I think the vendors you choose should be chosen because you love their work, attitude, commitment, and service, not because of who they work for or with. I did not use a single house vendor at my wedding, and got my photo/video from different places, and I am still in awe of how wonderful and smoothly the day ran. My pictures and video are both outstanding, not because the vendors worked well together (which they did, incidentally), but because they worked well, PERIOD.
Look around and choose what makes you happy and confident. : )
Good luck!
I would say to look at some house vendors and some outside vendors and see who you like the best and feel the most comfortable with. Everybody is looking for something different so you have to search for the vendor that best fills your needs.
I think that you should go with who you have a good feeling about. I happen to use the house vendors at my place, just because I didnt know who to call, but I did meet with some the vendors, and didnt get a good feeling about. So it is all up to you. If you dont get a good feeling, then keep looking. You will know. Its just finding your dress, you just know.
Good Luck!!!!
I would not let if they are the house vendor be the reason to decide to use or not use them. A good professional photographer or videographer will have an eye for finding good shots, whether they are familiar with the place or not. But so many of them are familiar with the reception sites anyway. Sometimes a hall will give you a break on the vendor meals if they are house vendors, but I`d hardly let that be the deciding factor either. As to whether you should use video & photog from the same place. It honestly doesn`t matter. The big selling point for a place to sell you on both services is the 'we work well together' line. Any good professional will be able to work side-by-side with another vendor smoothly. Usually the photographer 'orchestrates' and the videographer will get lots of footage at the same time when it comes to key moments. Definitely don`t believe you have to use both from the same studio to have beautiful pictures and video. Best wishes.
In the case of a photographer, we chose one that was recommended by our hall. We were between two, and the recommended one had many sample albums/pictures that were taken at our hall and the one that was not recommended did not have any samples from our hall, even though he said he worked there before. We just felt more comfortable in this case going with the recommended one, but we liked the work of both we checked out equally.
Thanks everyone! I figured we`d just go with who we love, but unfortunately we haven`t found the perfect vendors yet.
