If you are getting married in a church and are planning to have your wedding filmed be sure to check if the vicar is going to levy an additional charge. Right from the start let me say that as far as I am concerned these extra charges are usually just another means of extracting extra money out of the couple. In extreme cases they are virtually day light robbery!

OK, so why do churches charge to allow weddings to be filmed? There are three main reason.

1. It is to cover copyright issues such as the choir, organist etc. This has an element of fact about it. However we can arrange an MCPS (Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society) license that covers recording live music for around £10. So why do some churches charge several hundred pounds just allow you to have your wedding filmed? It’s your wedding and your money – ask the vicar to justify the cost. Alternatively suggest that you won’t record any of the music played on the day and only have the vows recorded. If they are not happy with this it is almost certain that copyright isn’t the real reason.

2. Another reason, in a lot of cases, is that some vicars simply don’t like photographers / videographers so they quote an inflated charge to discourage the poor couple from having the ceremony filmed. Very often this is because they have had bad experiences with either photographers or videographers who don’t know how to conduct themselves during a religious ceremony and are very intrusive. This is extremely annoying when we encounter this as we are not intrusive.

3. Some vicars see this an opportnity to earn some extra pocket money. One local church charges £300 just to allow us to set up a camera. Some years we do 3-4 weddings in this church so that is £1200 extra not to mention all the weddings filmed by other people. A very nice earner for doing nothing!

I understand that people don’t like to challenge the vicar and may be a little in aware of him / her. However, if the charge is more than a few pounds you are almost certainly being ripped off, so challenge it. If they insist that it has to be paid, make sure that you pay by cheque, never cash,  and ask for a proper VAT invoice.

As far as I am concerned, you have already paid for the ceremony. It is your wedding and in the same way that you want some photos during the ceremony it isn’t unreasonable to want some video footage. The footage taken is for your personal viewing, it isn’t being sold on Amazon.  Explain to the vicar that this is important to you and it will help you remember the vows you made.

From a personal perspective it makes me angry to hear that the couple have paid the vicar up to £300 just to allow us to film on the day. In many cases this is nearly half of what we have charged the couple for what will be around a week’s work. To make matters worse, the vicars charging these sums are often uncooperative on the day so that the footage we do get isn’t always from the best position.

However, in many cases this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and the couple decide that they can’t afford a wedding video. So they lose probably the best reminder of their wedding day because of someone elses greed. Not a very Christian attitude!