Do You Need a Second Wedding Videographer? When the $500 Is Worth It

A second videographer is the add-on we are asked about most, and the one where the honest answer most depends on the shape of your day. For some weddings it is the single best $500 in the budget. For others it is a second person standing around. Here is how to tell which one you are.

What one videographer can and cannot see

A single filmmaker can cover a whole wedding well. They move with the day, they know where the next moment is going to happen, and with a couple of locked-off cameras running during the ceremony they can capture more than one angle of the vows.

What one person cannot do is be in two places at once, or react in two directions at once. That limit shows up in three predictable places.

The ceremony. The most important three minutes of the film happen with two people facing each other. A camera behind one of you sees the other's face. A locked-off camera at the side sees both of you in profile. What it cannot do is follow a reaction: a parent in the front row, the moment one of you looks out at the guests, the walk back down the aisle and the faces you pass. A second operator can.

Getting ready. If you are getting ready in two different rooms, buildings or hotels, one videographer has to choose, or split the time and rush both. With two, each of you gets your own morning: the dress or suit, the letters, the people who are with you, and the walk out of the door.

The reception. Toasts are the clearest example. One camera on the speaker misses the room laughing. One camera on the couple misses the speaker. With two, the edit can cut between the line and the reaction, which is how toasts feel when you are in the room.

When we would say yes

You are getting ready in separate locations. This is the clearest case. If the two of you are more than a few minutes apart before the ceremony, a second videographer is the difference between both mornings being in the film and one of them being a few hurried shots.

Your ceremony has a lot happening in it. A long aisle, a large wedding party, readings from different parts of the room, a ceremony in the round, a cultural ceremony with several parts and movement between them. The more there is to follow, the more a second moving camera earns its place.

You have a large guest count. Big weddings have more of everything: more people you will want to see later, more going on at once at cocktail hour, a fuller dance floor. One shooter can get the key moments, but a second one gets the room.

The toasts and the people matter as much as the two of you. If what you most want in twenty years is your families, a second operator spends the day on them while the first stays on you.

You are doing a long day with a lot of moving. Ceremony in one place, portraits in another, reception in a third. Two people mean one can go ahead and be set up at the next location when you arrive.

When one is enough

A small wedding. With a few dozen guests in one room, a single experienced videographer can see almost everything, and a second person can start to feel like a crowd.

One location and one getting-ready room. If you are getting ready together, or one of you does not want morning coverage, the biggest reason for a second shooter disappears.

A short timeline. On a four-hour day built around the ceremony and the toasts, the budget is usually better spent on another hour than on another person.

Your budget is choosing between a second shooter and enough hours. Take the hours. Being covered through golden hour and the first dance matters more than a second angle on the moments you already have. An additional hour with us is $125.

The cost, plainly

A second videographer is $500 on any of our film collections. Some examples:

If you also want photography, our 10-hour combined collection at $4,000 already includes two photographers and two videographers along with drone footage, so you would not add the second shooter separately. A second photographer is also $500 if you want to add one to a photo collection.

We give the same advice in what wedding videography actually costs: if there are two things worth paying more for, a second shooter is one of them, because one camera cannot see both of your faces during the vows.

What to ask any videographer about a second shooter

• Is the second videographer as experienced as the first? Some studios send a trainee. That can be fine, but you should know.
• Are they there for the same hours? Some packages include a second shooter for the ceremony only. Ask for their hours in writing.
• Does the second camera change what you deliver? More footage should mean a better edit and more raw footage, not just more of the same angle.
• How do they work around the photographer? Two videographers and two photographers at a ceremony is a lot of people. The team should have a plan so nobody ends up in the background of someone else's shot. Our guide on how to choose a wedding videographer has more questions worth asking.

How we would plan it

For a wedding with getting ready in two hotels, a 5pm ceremony and around 150 guests, we would book The Reverie with a second videographer, $2,000 in total, and cover 1pm to 9pm. From 1pm to 3:30pm each videographer stays with one of you. They come together for the first look and portraits, split again for the ceremony so one films each of your faces and the other picks up the aisle and the front rows, then cover toasts from opposite sides of the room.

For a 60-guest wedding with both of you getting ready at the venue, we would skip the second shooter and spend $1,400 on The Verse, with six hours from 2pm to 8pm, or add a $125 hour if the first dance falls late.

See every collection and add-on on our packages page, and reserve your date with a $500 deposit applied to your total.