Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why should we have our wedding day filmed?

A. Your wedding day is a momentous occasion and one that you will want to remember and treasure for a lifetime. With a DVD you can watch any aspect of your special day over and over again. A DVD allows you to share your special day with family and friends that could not be present on the day. A DVD capture's the real emotion such as laughter and tears, and little moments that you weren't even aware of in a way that a still photograph cannot achieve.

Q. Will we need to get permission from the church/wedding venue?

A. Yes, most definitely. Your wedding ceremony is copyrighted material in particular the hymns, other music and readings. If you are getting married in a church your vicar/priest may require an additional payment on top of the standard fee. The churchwedding.org provides details of the standard costs for a typical marriage service in England and Wales.

The costs of videoing is not detailed on the above website and can differ between parishes. The basic rule of thumb is that anyone playing an instrument or singing can ask for an additional fee for the filming. It is your responsibility to pay those fees and ensure that you are able to have your ceremony filmed. Generally speaking most churches are fine with videoing as long as there is no disruption and distraction during the service. With Civil Ceremonies you do not have to pay an extra fee but it is still good practice to check with the venue and the Registrar that it is ok to have your ceremony videoed.

Q. We have a family friend who has offered to film our wedding day for us. Why should we pay for a professional videographer, it seems expensive?

A. Paying for a professional videographer to film a very memorable day will ensure that each precious moment is captured without any glitches or those all important moments are missed. You can be rest assured that your day will be filmed with the highest quality camcorder, sound recording system and edited to a professional standard. By letting us film your day, takes the pressure off you and your friend/family relative and you can all enjoy the emotion of the day knowing that the filming is in safe hands and that nothing will have been missed.

Although we have standard packages, we do appreciate that your budget may be limited. With this in mind, we offer an alternative Bespoke Package that takes your budget into consideration and your own personal filming requirements. With every package we offer, you will always get two videographers to ensure that your wedding day is captured in full. We can film up to 10-12 hours of footage in one day.

Another factor to that is taken into account when pricing is the amount of editing that is required to condense many hours of filming into a DVD of just 1-2 hours long of your special day. Your wedding film will always include the highlights of the day and music of your choice. Some of our packages also offer additional photo montages which need to be edited onto your wedding film. We also have to include within our prices the cost of Copyright Licences for each DVD made.

Q. What sort of equipment do you use?

A. We have two professional standard High Definition camcorders, 1 Canon XHA1 and 1 Sony HDV FX1. We do have a third High Definition much smaller camcorder that we use which is also a Canon as a back-up or as a third camera for a complete multi angle shot. For audio we have external microphones that attach to our camcorders and a separate Sennheiser wireless mic system that is small enough to pin onto the groom. With this small audio device you can be sure that your vows, readings and the speeches will be captured in full audio for you to enjoy over and over again. Each videographer has their own tripod to film most shots and we have other stablisation devices where tripod use is not practical to ensure that all video footage is as steady as possible.

Q. Do you visit the venue before the wedding day?

A. For all local weddings we will visit the venue prior to your wedding day to assess the lighting and where we can set up to capture your ceremony and we would also come to your rehearsal. If we have to travel some distance outside of the Midlands , we will either arrange to visit on a weekend prior to your wedding day or for further afield weddings, arrive a day before the ceremony to then look at the church/venue.

Q. Is Midway Media insured for Public Liability?

A. Yes we have Public Liability Insurance. We do recommend that you take out separate wedding insurance that covers all eventualities.

Q. What about copyrighted material such as a disco or a band?

A. We have to purchase two separate licences to cover all copyrighted music on your finished DVD and this also covers any church music, choral, live band and all music recorded from your disco.

A Private Function Video Dubbing Licence is issued on behalf of the Record Companies and the Performers which enables their music to be recorded. It also covers the dubbing of music on to the wedding film during the editing process. The licences are in the form of small holographic stickers which we must apply to all copies of the DVD.

The MCPS – LM Licence (Limited Manufacture Licence) is issued on behalf of any Choral, live band, Composers and Publishers and enables us to record and dub their work, click here for further details.

Again each copy of the DVD will require a separate licence.