Pauley Productions has a lot of meaning to us, so we’re not shutting down; we’re transitioning our focus to nonprofit and hobby videos for the church, camp, and other area causes.

This adventure has been a blessing for us in numerous ways. First, it has helped us pay off our student loan debt. It also helped us become better videographers and taught us how to run a small business. The lessons we’ve learned are invaluable. That said, we’re less in need of a way to earn additional income and more in a place where we want to commit to other projects we’re passionate about.

We hope you’ll stick around and continue to follow us in the next chapter. We’ll be launching new branding and website in the coming months. We’ll still be available via email and social media channels.

We are extremely grateful to the clients who have entrusted us with telling their wedding day story. We don’t take that honor lightly and we are thankful for the opportunity.

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1. Communication and responsiveness

This is the first on our list because it’s so important. How quickly does your potential videographer respond to your emails or calls? It’s 2017; people expect to receive responses to their emails within a few hours or less. You’re bound to have questions about your wedding video, maybe lots of them. Having open and quick lines of communication with your vendor is important. If your videographer isn’t responding to you quickly in the early stages of the conversation, they probably won’t be quick to respond when more pressing things come up later. A quick response also shows you that the vendor cares about you as a client.

2. Location of the videographer

The location of your videographer may not seem like a big deal but consider this…travel costs money and if your videographer has to travel to get to your wedding, they’ll charge you for it. Travel fees may not amount to much, but wouldn’t you rather have a drone or an extra hour of coverage over paying your videographer to drive or fly to your wedding?

Also, we think it’s important to meet with your videographer face-to-face in the preliminary stages of deciding who should shoot your wedding. Yes, Skype and FaceTime calls work but meeting in-person allows you to determine within a few minutes if your potential videographer is going to be a good fit for your wedding. This way, you’ll know if the team is one you can get along with and work with.

If you’re getting married in Grand Rapids or locally in West Michigan, consider a team who knows the area and won’t charge you for travel. There are lots of good options right here in town and they do just as good a job as those in bigger cities.

3. Videography Team

Who will be on your wedding shoot? Is it the person or people you’ve been interacting with during the initial meetings? Or maybe they’re sending the summer intern to shoot your wedding because you didn’t buy the most expensive package. Ask your vendor who will be on the shoot and make sure you get to meet them too. Some companies have a client rep who meets with you and gets you to sign the contract but they won’t actually be at your wedding. We’re not saying these companies do a bad job but there is a definite advantage to interacting with the team who will actually be at the wedding. When you do meet your team, ask them about their experience in the biz, just to make sure you know what to expect.

4. Flexibility

How flexible is your videographer in terms of schedule and last-minute changes? Wedding schedules can change quite a bit and you may need your videographer to show up at a different time or shoot for another hour. Are they going to be double booked on your wedding day in which a schedule change can derail your videography plans? You probably won’t know about last-minute changes when meeting with your videographer but you can certainly ask them about their policy around schedule changes and adding additional coverage at the last-minute.

5. Experience in the industry

How long has your potential videographer been in the wedding industry? Weddings can be their own kind of animal in terms of video production. They can be stressful and flexibility is key. You can’t re-take the kiss at the ceremony and you have to make sure your audio is crisp the first time. So, being able to “run and gun” is crucial in weddings. A videographer well-versed in video production in a studio or commercial setting may but limited in wedding experience may not be the best choice. The good news is that a lot of video pros get their start in weddings so most are experienced to some degree. Just ask about the experience level of the videographer on your shoot and it’ll all be good. Sometimes you can find an awesome videographer who doesn’t have a ton of experience, they’re just getting started in the biz. The best thing you can do is talk to a few different vendors to see what’s out there and make sure you watch some of their previous work.

6. Price/Value

Depending on the kind of package and coverage you’re looking for, you can expect to pay somewhere around a few thousand dollars for your videography service (for the Grand Rapids area anyhow). If it varies widely from that, ensure that you know why you’re paying a premium for the service. Seek to understand the vendor’s pricing up-front; we’ve heard from a lot of couples who thought they understood what they were getting but then later realized they had to pay more to get that. Some companies will nickel and dime you for “add-ons” that rack up your bill fast. Don’t be fooled; higher prices and fancier package options do not always equate to better quality. We can’t stress enough that you view their portfolio and see if you like the vendor’s style, that’s ultimately what will be most valuable to you.

The moral of the story here is to do your research. Consider your options and if you’re looking for high quality and affordable videography, give us a shout.

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Wow, it’s already 2017! 2016 had some unexpected twists and turns; some great and some far from awesome. But, we’re in a reflective mood today so we’re looking back at the great times we had in the past year. For one, we’re excited to announce that we have once again received the Couples’ Choice Award from WeddingWire. This award is given to wedding professionals who receive high ratings from their clients. We have our wonderful friends and couples to thank for again giving us the honor of being one of the top wedding videographers in Michigan (okay, maybe that’s self-appointed title).

Also in 2016, we had the great experience of having our intern Jenna join the team. She did a great job with us and learned some stuff too believe it or not. We didn’t realize how helpful it would be to have a third person with us on wedding days to take care of seemingly simple but necessary tasks like setup and tear down, lens changes, food and coffee retrieval, etc. Jenna also shot a ton of our footage and also handled assembly editing. We’re so thankful that we had the opportunity to work with her.

We excitedly announced back in October that we finally reached our goal of becoming debt free. You may have seen some of our social posts about this but in case you haven’t, we started up Pauley Productions to aid us in reaching our goal of paying back student loans. It feels kind of weird not owing money to anybody, especially after giving every bonus, wedding check, and extra income we could muster to the good ole government for 3.5 years. We’ve been blessed by this small business and the boost it gave us in paying down debt.

What’s Next for Pauley Productions?

In 2017, we’re looking forward to some much needed rest and relaxation and a shift in our priorities. We just got our dog, Elva, who has already caused us to juggle around our schedule a bit and we’re also looking forward to purchasing our first home. At some point, we’d like to start a little family too (no promises that that will happen in 2017, mom). Over the past couple of seasons, we’ve been slowly scaling back from weddings and and in 2017 we’re being really intentional about focusing on other things we’re passionate about. We’ve committed to a couple of weddings and we intend to keep it at that. Thankfully, we know some really great wedding videographers in Grand Rapids and we’ll be sure to get you in touch with them. That’s the plan for now, we’ll keep you all posted as the year progresses.

Cheers to a wonderful 2017!

Kevin and Alli
(oh and Jenna too)

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Jenna is the perfect candidate for jumping in to our small but busy team. She’ll gain real world experience on running a small business and grow her skills with video editing, shooting, and marketing. Plus, we could use the help with balancing our full time jobs and running Pauley. We’re confident that its going to be a great experience for us and our clients. Of course, our end-goal remains the same: offer high quality and affordable videography and we think that we’ll be better at carrying out that mission with Jenna’s help.

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We would like to thank the fifteen awesome couples we worked with in 2015 for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. We value each of you and truly appreciate the positive feedback that helped us earn the WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards 2016.

To learn more about the Couples’ Choice Awards, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards.

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That being said, we will be taking only a few clients in the 2016 wedding season. 2016 booking will begin soon and we’ve already received several inquiries that we will be reaching out to first.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful past and present clients for allowing us to tell their wedding day story.

– Alli & Kevin

The post A Note About 2016 Weddings appeared first on Pauley Productions.

The WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism.

Our sincere gratitude goes out to the twelve amazing couples we worked with this past wedding season. We’re thankful for each and every one of you. We take pride in crafting creative and unique wedding films and we certainly appreciate the recognition of our efforts.

To learn more about the Couples’ Choice Awards, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards.

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Crafting a wedding film is a task that we do not take lightly–our work is much more than a highlight reel or re-cap video; it’s one of the few avenues a couple has for reliving their wedding day.

We want every couple to have a unique and authentic video that can help them remember those oft-forgotten moments throughout the day. That’s why we offer affordable packages and keep our focus on creating the best wedding video we possibly can. We’ll work with you closely to make sure that happens.

After your wedding, you’ll realize how quickly things flew by and how few intimate moments there were. People will be all around you, telling you to go here or there and to strike a pose at this or that moment. Our goal while we’re with you is to be out of sight and out of mind. We stick to capturing candid moments and stay behind-the-scenes.

We want your ceremony to be a sacred, intimate, and distraction-free time so we won’t be moving around a whole lot, climbing on the stage or getting in your face. Unfortunately, that sometimes means we won’t get the “coolest” shots but you and your guests will be able to enjoy the ceremony without anyone in their way.

If you like our style and want to know more, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today!

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Use the “Contact Us” form to get started!

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1. What kind of camera equipment do you use? Are you able to capture and produce high definition footage?
2. What kind of audio equipment do you use? Will we be able to hear the vows, toasts, etc?
3. What kind of editing software do you use?
4. Can we be involved in the editing process? Do we get to choose background music?
5. What is your filming style?
6. What format will our final production be in?
7. Do we get to see an early version of the final production?
8. How many other shoots do you have on the date of our wedding?
9. Have you ever shot at our ceremony and/or reception locations before?
10. Who is responsible for gathering videography guidelines from the church or synagogue?
11. What is the additional cost for travel?
12. When will we get the final production?
13. How much is the deposit and when is the balance due?
14. Are references available?
15. Who owns the copyright to the video?

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