10 Ways To Land Your First Paid Wedding Videography Gig!

[the_ad id=”20″]The wedding business is one of the main income sources for many videographers but as with most things, the main problem that most entry-level videographers face is just getting their foot in the door. With a lack of experience and a lack of a portfolio to show off the services that you are able to offer your clients, it can be a constant uphill battle against the more established videographers in your area.

Thankfully, we have come up with a number of actionable tips that you are able to implement to get yourself some gigs, get yourself more experiences, and help you build up your portfolio. Now, make no mistake, this is still going to take some time and effort to implement but consistency is key and we are confident that sticking to these proven tips and tricks can help to win you some future wedding gigs.

Before getting into this list, we are presuming that you have the basic skill set required to actually perform well as a videographer. This could range from someone who has just finished a collage videography course to any experienced hobbyist videographer and everything in between. Provided that you are able to turn up and get the job done effectively these tips should serve you well.

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Perfect Your Wedding Videography Skillset

Not only can this help you build up the image quality of the video footage in your portfolio but it can also help to ensure you get the best possible footage for your clients during your gigs. Although we definatley agree with the train of thought that the best way to learn is by doing but did you know that you can enroll in one of the highest-rated online wedding videography courses without having to spend a cent?

As the course is delivered by Skillshare, you can sign up for their no-obligation free trial via the link above and enroll on the course without having to spend any money. You get two months of the premium Skillshare package added to your account for free too allowing you take any of their other courses too. As we mentioned above, it is one of, if not the highest rated online wedding videography course available right now and can really help anyone new to wedding videography up their skillset and is well worth doing.

Team Up With An Established Photographer

Starting off we are going to be going with the option that we feel is often underrated. There are a pretty large number of established wedding photographers who have the reputation, experience, and portfolio to land paid wedding gigs for themselves but they won’t offer any videographer services to their clients.

As an entry-level videographer, rather than chasing the actual clients to work that you are unlikely to get, try chasing wedding photographers in your local area who don’t offer any video package with their services. You may have to do the first few jobs for free to show that you are reliable and have the skill set required to get it done but using this method can have a strong chance of leading to paid work.

Even if you are only able to get yourself some gigs that you work for free, this not only gives you experience but it also gives you footage that you are able to use as a part of your portfolio in the future.

Shadow An Established Videographer For Free

Next up we have shadowing an established videographer also known as working second gun or second shooter for their gigs. Again, you are leveraging the established videographers reputation and ability to land paid gigs while you offer your time to help them with their jobs. In our experience, this is less likely to lead to paid jobs for yourself but it can be a great way to get some real-world experience as well as build your portfolio up.

This is ways a great way to network within your industry for the future too. Every now and then, established videographers manage to land massive jobs that require multiple videographers to capture all the video footage that the happy couple want. Doing a few jobs with the established videographers in your area and provide that you can be trusted and can capture some decent footage can help to make you the guy that they call when they need additional pairs of hands.

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Offer Commission To Wedding Planners

This one is pretty well known these days and it can be hard to outbid an established videographer as they will usually have a higher budget than you but wedding planners will often work on a commission basis for the photographers and videographers that they recommend to their clients. Again, this is based around you leveraging the wedding planners experience and reputation to your advantage to get clients and then refer their clients to you for a commission.

Depending on your circumstances and your current situation, you may be able to work a season massively underpricing yourself to ensure that you get the gigs from your local wedding planners before hiking your fees up come next years wedding season.

Work A Friends Wedding

Now, to be clear, we do mean for FREE rather than trying to get a fee out of your friend, offer to provide the videography services for their big day as your wedding gift to them. The majority of the time your friend will accept and it gives you experience as well as footage to show off in your portfolio.

Weddings are also a good place to potentially poach future clients too, especially if you are friend with the happy couple as they can help to make you aware of the couples at their wedding who have recently got engaged.

Join The Wedding Related Social Media Groups

In this day and age, there are social media groups for pretty much everything. Try to find the wedding-related social media pages for your local area and keep on the lookout for any new potential clients. There are often groups where brides will ask for advice on wedding related topics as well as for feedback or reviews of venues or services that they plan to hire.

This makes it easy to identify your potential client and allows you to pitch your services to them. You can also be cheek and say you offer an exclusive discount to members of that social media group to try and swing them towards hiring you.

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Develop Your Own Social Media Accounts

As we mentioned in the previous point, everything is on social media these days and this should include your portfolio. Sites like YouTube and Instagram are perfect for showcasing your work and showing people just what you are able to offer them. Additionally, if you ensure that your page only showcases your absolute best work you are able to grow a sizable following on social media. This can end in people coming to you due to randomly seeing your work on Instagram and landing you a paid videography gig.

Attend Wedding Photography And Videography Workshops

This one is purely to get yourself some footage that you are able to add to your portfolio but it is often an underrated technique that can also be great for networking. The vast majority of photography and videography workshops will hire models to pose as the bride and groom for you to practice capturing.

They are usually planned when conditions will be ideal with good lighting and low wind too allowing you to get some solid footage for your social media pages too. As we said, this is a great way to meet other people in the wedding industry to and look for partnerships that you are able to use to help get your business off the floor.

Use Restaurants To Your Advantage

Now, we will admit, we never even knew this was a thing until recently but some popular fancy restaurants have an “engagement gift box” that they give to all couples who get engaged in their restaurant. This includes a few cheap gifts to make the bride feel special as well as the various flyers for florists, videographers, wedding dressmakers, and wedding caterers that of course the restaurant charge to be included in the gift box.

As we said, we had no idea that this was even a thing until recently when a friend was handed one of these gift boxes after being proposed to in a fancy restaurant. We have no idea if there is a conversion rate on the backend of these but if you can work out some kind of deal, you might be able to get some paid work.

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Follow The Flowers

Now, you have to be careful about how you pull this one-off but back when one of our videographer friends was working for free for a more established videographer in his home city he managed to pull this off and it actually resulted in his very first paid gig. Basically, what he did was work the wedding as normal, and paid close attention to who caught the brides bouquet after she threw it.

A little later in the evening, he gave the woman who caught the bouquet his business card and said something along the lines of when the big day comes around, give me a call and I will give you a discount. Little did he know that she was already engaged and a few days later he got the call asking her the discount.

Now, you will have to be careful about how you go about doing this but we can’t see any problems if you do it in a joking way so you can brush it off if it is taken badly.

Wrapping It All Up

That brings our article on how you are able to land your first paid wedding videography gig to a close. We hope that we have managed to give you some ideas and that you are able to land your first paid gig soon! Remember, consistency is key so you will have to stick with it but we are confident that implementing a few of these tips will help get you your first paid gig soon!