How you can edit your own wedding video

In a previous post, I wrote a lengthy opinion of why I believe it is important for every bride to document her wedding day with professional wedding videography.  I suggested that even if you can't afford the cheapest package, consider asking a professional videographer (or a college student in that field) to videotape the day for you and then hand over all the raw footage and video files to you.  That's what we did for my sister's wedding three years ago.

It took me about a year after her big day, but I finally finished a 90 minute wedding video of the big event that I had edited together for her using a PC program by Ulead titled Media StudioPro.  Here are some clips from the final video to show what is possible with a little self-taught video editing and some research of demos on videographer's web sites and blogs (obviously the quality of the uploaded computer version isn't as good as what we have on the video, but you can get the gist of it):

A recap of the ceremony (I love how she is nervously

bouncing while waiting in the bridal prep room)

You can't see/hear it in this video clip, but during the sand pouring, the bride and groom were laughing and making comments about racing to see who could pour their sand out first.  None of us (not even us bridesmaids up near the arch) could hear them or knew what they were doing.  But since the videographer had the groom mic'd, he picked up their entire conversation!  It was so much fun watching it later and adding it into their wedding video for all of the family and friends to see their silly sense of humor.  Something a photographer would not be able to catch and the guests knew nothing about. 

All the details my sis didn't get to see as guests arrived, mingled, and waited for her big walk down the aisle...plus the set up of the cake and reception room details before the guests barged in.

My sister's a little crazy and decided she wanted the guests to have something to do while they were seated on the lawn waiting for the ceremony to start...thus she provided them with beach balls to toss around like people do at sporting events.  You will also see guests signing the calendar guest book she created that I referred to in a previous post. 

A little montage of the 'wedding events' focusing on the bride:

  pre-ceremony photography, toasts, bouquet toss,

 garter removal, cake cutting, etc

This part of the video was meant to show my little sister's off-beat sense of humor and silly personality.  I think it does such a good job of capturing her attitude and her movements throughout the day. 

This one is by far my fave!  It was shot on our own personal camera by a friend we asked to follow us around, not the professional videographer.  A clip of the fun bridal party having all their pictures taken and the laughter and smiles that kept us busy most of the afternoon

Now remember that I just do this as a hobby, but my baby sister wasn't going to have anything at all if it was up to her husband and this is what I came up with for her to revisit her big day on future anniversaries, holidays, etc.  And for us girls, who had such a blast hanging out together, planning her shower, and laughing all day, it is a great way for us to relive the fun of our friendship surrounding the special event.  We pull the video out sometimes just to remember the moments and funny jokes and such that you can't even always see 'in the video' but are implied by something we did or said.  :)