DIY Wedding Video? I DO!

 

In the “olden days,” like five years ago, not everyone and their 80 year-old grandmother had a smartphone. Oh, how times have changed! You can now unlock your car, pay for dinner, find directions, figure out your heart rate, listen to Katy Perry and break up with a boyfriend all with one little accessory. America! What a country! If the smartphone came equipped with breath spray and built-in sunglasses, we wouldn’t even need the latest Michael Kors bag anymore. Which would make life easier, but much less attractive.

Wedit is the latest accessory for the soon-to-be-married crowd. This genius idea, (started in the olden days of 2008), allows wedding guests to record even the smallest moments of the big day, ship the footage to the folks at Wedit, and either have a video edited by the Wedit pros or receive the tools necessary to edit the footage themselves. At approximately $500, the Wedit video is  significantly less expensive than hiring a crew; with the average cost of a wedding videographer hitting the $2200 mark, the savings is a gift in itself.

So – how, exactly, does Wedit work? The Tuesday before the wedding, the bride and groom receive five high-definition iPod touch cameras and designate their most kind, trustworthy, sober friends to record any and all parts of their wedding celebration (except maybe that nasty exchange with a little sister and the inter-workings of a spray tan). The iPod Touch allows for both video with sound and photography, a great option for those couples who are on a tight budget and want to use Wedit for both their video and photo needs.

Once everything has been recorded, the couple sends the cameras back to Wedit (by the Tuesday following their event) and the pros upload all of the footage. Then the couple can either edit the videos themselves or pay an additional fee for Wedit to do it for them.

Wedit then hosts the videos on their site for a year, allowing couples the chance to force friends and family to watch their wedding video an obscene amount of times which is all fair in love and weddings. After a year, Wedit takes the video off of their site, but the couple will have a copy for keeps. One-stop shopping for that once-in-a-lifetime day is fantastic. And the five hundred bucks is just icing on the wedding cake.

Should You Say “I Do” To Wedding Insurance?

 

There is no insurance policy when it comes to love. But The Associated Press recently ran an article about how too many brides and grooms are insuring their weddings as a way to protect against disaster including acts of God – and deals with the devil.

With the cost of the average US wedding on the rise “insurers have been selling a growing number of policies to protect against losses from extreme weather, illness and in one firm’s case, even a sudden change of heart.” Ouch. But the pain of the missing groom would have been worse without the promise of recouping some of the expense, yes?

When Cheryl Winter’s daughter was getting married in New Orleans the risk of bad weather motivated her to take out a $500 policy to protect her $50K investment. Thankfully the New Orleans skies cooperated, but the limo driver did not. The bride jumped in a taxi while Winter managed to get her deposit back from the driver with cold feet.

While there is no hard and fast data on how many couples are adding insurance to their pre-nuptial task lists, Hartford-based Travelers insurance company says issues with vendors, specifically photographers and videographers, account for most claims.

Whether you choose to purchase insurance or not, working with tried and true vendors is a must. Epicurean has been planning and catering weddings for so long, we remember when mauve was the hot color. Having a vendor with a long-standing reputation, a load of experience and a dedication and determination to make your wedding both memorable and personal is key. Martha Stewart’s site offers some general tips on finding the perfect partner – outside of the one you are choosing to spend your life with – to make your wedding worry-free.

At Epicurean, we have a well-honed list of the most trusted vendors in the area – everything from bands to limos to bakers to candle-stick makers. For real – we KNOW a candle-stick maker.

The best way to find your ideal wedding vendors is to ask someone who has planned thousands of weddings (us) to help you plan the only one that matters (yours). Plus, we keep champagne in the office at all times; our version of insurance.