Deciding on the length of your wedding film can be a tricky decision, but I hope by the end of this blog you will have a better idea of what length might suit you best!

1. The Highlight Film

There’s often two different types of wedding film that most wedding filmmakers will offer. The first is a short Highlight Film. This is normally around 5 minutes or so showing all the best bits from your day. It’s generally a collection of the best moments from the day set over the top of some beautiful music and the best bits of audio from your wedding, like your vows or speeches. Typically a highlight film won’t be strictly chronological in order and will flow through the day in a natural story arc that follows the pacing of the music and emotion of the dialogue.

A highlight film is generally a great length to share on social media or with your friends and family. It’s not too long so it’s easy to find time to watch back time and time again. But it still tells the story of your day in a beautiful and cinematic way.

2. The Feature Film

The second option is what I would refer to as a Feature Film, these are normally around the 16-20 minute mark. This longer style of film really lends itself to telling the full story of your wedding from start to finish, typically in chronological order. A feature film can really delve deep into each part of the day, allowing you to relive every fleeting moment and emotion that you and your guests felt throughout the day.

As these films are considerably longer, it’s definitely more of an event for your friends and family to watch it. It’s the kind of thing they might get the kettle on and settle down on the sofa with a cup of tea to watch it. It does require a bit more of a time commitment to rewatch, but equally, it can make for a really lovely event for you to share with your loved one’s time and time again.

3. Examples

To give you an idea of what each of these film lengths looks like, I have edited one wedding in two different ways so you can see clearly the difference between the two main options:

Highlight Film Example

Feature Film Example

Watch more of my wedding films here.

Coming Soon: The Short Film

All that being said, I am actually working on offering a new option which is somewhere in between these two, which will be called the Short Film. The short film will be around 10-12 minutes and will hopefully be the perfect balance between the patient story-arc of the feature film and the emotional impact of the highlight film. I’ll update this blog post as soon as I have one ready!

Thank you!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you found this useful! If you have any questions at all feel free to get in touch with me via email on simonhird1@gmail.com, or if you are interested in having me to film your wedding please do get in touch via the contact form, I would love to hear all about your wedding plans!

Simon