When beginning your wedding planning process, one of the items that is likely on many couple's wedding checklist is a wedding videographer.  This is a relatively new development.  A few decades ago a wedding videographer was not something that was commonly seen at any wedding unless the couple was very high profile.  

Prior to about the 1980's wedding videography was almost unheard of.  There were many reasons why couples did not consider it an essential part of their wedding planning process.  Quality of the finished product was one issue.  The film and equipment available to most consumers was not of the type that would produce quality results.  Also, because the video equipment was large, bulky and generally tethered to may cords.  This made for an experience that was less than desirable for most couples.  The whole process was very cumbersome and interfered with the overall ambiance of wedding ceremony.  

With Sony introducing the first consumer camcorders in 1980, wedding videography was now brought into the mainstream and not reserved just for the rich and famous.  Most people that produced wedding videos during this time period were hobbyists that started out recording the weddings of their friends and families and moved on to providing the service for a fee.  However, even though the camcorders were a vast improvement over the old 8 mm or super 8 mm film, there were still many limitations which still kept many couples from documenting their weddings in this manner.  Bright lights and limiting cables and cords were still a factor that many couples did not want to deal with on their wedding day.  

During the early 1990's, the videography industry began a change toward the better.  The videographers themselves became a bit better organized and the equipment  was evolving into something geared toward the "prosumer" which was more user friendly and produced a better quality end product.  Toward the middles of the 1990's, the digital video camera was introduced and this changed the face of wedding videography.  

Now the wedding videographer would be able to produce good quality videos that would be edited nicely with a minimum of intrusion upon the actual festivities themselves.  A good wedding videographer would be able to capture all the special moments of the day from the bride spending a quiet moment  with her father to the wedding party showing off their bridesmaids dresses.  Even pre-wedding activities could be videotaped and edited into the finished product.  

Fast forward to present day.  Many couples have chosen to use wedding videographers that make use of the old school film formats such as 8mm or even 35mm film stock to produce some interesting wedding videos.  There are many different styles of wedding videography and an almost unlimited number of ways to edit the videos.  A good wedding videographer can easily produce a cinema-quality wedding video that suits the style and taste of the bridal couple while being minimally intrusive during the entire process.  

No matter what your style or taste, it is of the utmost importance to be sure your wedding videographer comes highly recommended.  You should also make a point of previewing some of the videographer's past work to be sure their style suits what you are looking for in your finished product.