Well, no. It really depends on what you want. A wedding photographer and a videographer capture some of the same things in different ways. A wedding photographer can capture all of the details of your day—the table settings that you spent so much time selecting, the look on your fiancé(e)’s face as you see each other for the first time on your wedding day, the awesome dip you spent forever practicing for your first dance. But no matter how talented the photographer, a photograph simply can’t capture the sound of a groom choking up as he reads his bride’s wedding-day letter aloud, the jokes in a best man’s toast that brought down the house, or the piece of marital wisdom offered by the bride’s grandparents at the reception.

It really comes down to the audio. We experience the world through our senses. Photographs use our sight, while videos take advantage of our sense of hearing too. This can be a powerful combination when it comes to triggering our memories. I always say that photographs remind us of the day, but a video can transport us back to it.

In deciding whether you want both a wedding photographer and videographer, my best piece of advice is to think about how you will remember your wedding in 10, 20, or 50 years. Do you see yourself showing your wedding video to your kids and grandkids and watching it on every anniversary? Or do you see yourself leaving it in the cupboard, unwatched and forgotten about?

When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we knew we wanted both wedding photos and a video. To make the video fit in our budget, we did some of the décor ourselves, opted to skip the extra flowers at our ceremony location, and offered only a single flavor of wedding cake. To us, the trade-offs were totally worth it. In the year and a half that we’ve been married, we’ve already watched our video four times: once when we got it, once with my husband’s family, once with my family, and then again on our one-year anniversary (a tradition we hope to continue every year). We also sent a copy to my grandparents who live in California and couldn’t make it to Massachusetts for our wedding. My Grandma loved it and said it felt like she was there. This ability to share our day with loved ones made our investment in a wedding videographer totally worth it!

Not all couples want a wedding video, though, and that’s okay! Whether you are sure you want a wedding video or are simply considering the option, I’m happy to talk it through with you. I offer both photography and videography services, and I’m happy to work with couples to customize either a photography or videography package that suits their needs.

Hi! My name is Jessica, and I’m a professional photographer and videographer. I first fell in love with photography in high school, and I followed that love through an art major at Lehigh University and a Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. For the last few years, I’ve worked throughout New England as a professional digital retoucher, an adjunct professor of digital photography, and a freelance commercial photographer and videographer. Now I’m focusing full time on my freelance business, and I’ve started this blog to share my story with all of you.

Starting this business has been a dream of mine for a long time. I’ve always been the one capturing special moments at my family’s events, but planning my own wedding really highlighted how important capturing those moments can be. I spent over a year planning our big day, from designing my own invitations to taking secret dance lessons so my husband and I could surprise our guests. The day itself was a whirlwind. I never imagined how quickly it would fly by. The pictures and video we have from our day not only remind us of all the details, but they allow us to see moments that we completely missed. Perhaps most importantly, I was able to share the pictures and video with my grandparents, who could not make the cross-country trip to be there for my wedding.

Now I have the incredible privilege of capturing the special moments of others’ lives. I get to capture the joy that a couple experiences as they embark on their marriage or parenthood. I get to put together a video that a couple will hopefully watch year after year. And, perhaps most importantly, I get to tell a story. As you’ll see from my work, I love to tell stories. I love to incorporate details of a couple’s romance in their engagement session and in the photos or video of a couple’s wedding. I also love to include personal details in family photo shoots to really make the session come to life.

With this blog, I hope to share some of those stories with all of you and to share a bit of my own along the way. I hope you’ll join me.

Photo by Anna Beeke.