Wedding Professional Spotlight - Edit 1 Media - Chic Ink - Custom Announcements and Invitations

I saw the folks at Edit 1 Media when I attended the Seattle Wish Upon a Wedding Launch party in May. These guys work some serious magic with their video cameras! If you need a lasting memory for your special day - don't hesitate to contact them.

1. How long have you been doing wedding videos?

We started dabbling in videography in 1997 when our son was diagnosed with cancer for the second time at the age of 2-1/2 and we were told his chances at surviving were very slim. That eventually led to small personal and corporate jobs and eventually weddings for friends and co-workers. In 1999 we realized we were really good at filming weddings and haven’t looked back since! Thankfully our son is now 15 years old and he is our daily inspiration!

2. What makes you different than other videographers?

Our history with the possibility of losing our son made us realize that while photos are awesome and can capture beautiful moments, video breathes life in to those moments with movement and sound. You can see facial expressions change and there are so many emotions that go on during the course of a wedding day...some that aren’t even noticed until the video is seen later on. For instance the look on a mom’s face when she steps back to see her daughter fully dressed as a bride, or the look of awe followed by tears when the groom see his bride for the first time. We seem to have a knack for finding those moments and bringing them out to “maximum emotional impact”. We strive to make every video we create the best one we’ve ever done and pour our souls in to them and this is accomplished through both skillful shooting and the magic of editing. Another thing that makes us unique is our amazing “Same Day Edit”....this is where we take footage shot before and during the ceremony, edit it on-site, then show it during the reception. It’s a spectacular way to share those moments before the ceremony with guests who don’t get to see that part of the day, and even though the ceremony just happened hours earlier, seeing it on the big screen with music and all the different angles is a highly emotional experience that is truly unique to that wedding.

3. Do you have any fun stories or memorable events? Anyone have a weird or unique request?

I have so many stories and unique requests that I think I could write a book! We have been fortunate enough to have quite a few couples ask us to film their destination wedding and have been to Mexico, Hawaii, Florida and even Italy. But a recent unique request that comes to mind is when a Canadian couple decided to have their wedding here in Seattle and the bride wanted to surprise her groom before the ceremony with a helicopter ride around Seattle. The only thing is that she didn’t tell us until midnight before the wedding. To shoot video in a helicopter requires some special equipment to get steady shots so we had to scramble on the morning of the wedding to rent the right gear, but we did and Chris got some really great shots of them!

4. Any tips/advice for brides who are shopping for videographers?

Watch as much work as possible. Anyone can make a decent compilation demo from 20 different weddings, but you want to make sure there is consistent high quality throughout their work. Look for proper exposure, good audio, steady shots and that the editing and music enhances the video rather than detracting from it or being an afterthought. Remember this is NOT an area to skimp! Just like your photos, your video is the only thing you have to remember your wedding by and it will become more and more valuable as your life goes on. You get what you pay for and in 20 years you won’t be thinking “Gee, I’m really glad I saved $1000 by getting a cheap videographer”. This is an investment and there are no second takes, so take your time to properly research and treat it as a high priority. We have clients all the time who come back to us years later saying how happy they are that they chose to hire us and that they STILL watch their video all the time...THAT is a good investment!

Need more evidence? Check out one of their recent videos below.