There are various approaches to wedding videos, just like in cinema there are many genres. A wedding videographer can tell your love story in many ways – from dreamy and ethereal to adventurous and imposing. European wedding videography is diverse – let’s look at the top wedding cinematographers and their wedding video styles.

Reportage style wedding videography / Mario Albanese Pereira

Mario Albanese Pereira describes his approach as reportage style, documenting people and events of the wedding day. When you watch his videos, you can see that he’s looking behind the surface, appreciating the couple’s personality and letting it shine through the wedding movie. It results in one-of-a-kind videos, creatively tailored to each couple’s character. As he explains, it is the work of observing a lot and capturing all the best moments of the day, like the crying moment during the vows reading by the couple or the laughing moment during aperitif or dinner when the tension of the ceremony is gone down. Often the couples tell him that he’s invisible, they didn't notice him all day, and often they see him as a guest blending in the celebration more than a vendor.

When asked about what kind of locations he likes to shoot, he answers that everywhere the couple decide to set the wedding, he’s sure it's going to be a great day. He likes villas, Renaissance style wedding venues, but also countryside wedding venues and the panorama view around them, as well as stunning castles with ancient atmospheres.

Before the wedding, he talks to the couples by video call to get to know them and to understand how they imagine their wedding day. He delivers two types of videos: a 2-4 minutes long trailer that shows the highlights of the day in a cinematic style and a 10 minutes long documentary film that is in more chronological order. To deliver them, it takes 6 months, but sometimes less.

Documentary style wedding videography / B&G Films

B&G Films love capturing the day in a very natural way with very little equipment in the way. They love to be in the background getting all the important moments. They are documentary-style wedding filmmakers, and their films are elegant and beautiful. Full of love, laughter and party vibes.

When preparing for a wedding, they love to have a chat with their couple. They discuss what their priorities are and what parts of the day they are looking forward to, and who will be involved in the events of the day. Every couple will get a documentary edit and a highlights film. The documentary edit is all the footage captured of the day put into a single well-crafted film. This is so you can look back in ten years and see as many of the faces that they captured as possible. The highlight film is for sharing with friends and family. It's the fun one that is all the best bits of the day crafted down to four or five minutes.

Cinematic wedding videography / Poeticae Studio

Poeticae Studio describes its videos as cinematic-inspired. They love to combine romantic music images and authentic and spontaneous dialogues to tell epic love stories. Poeticae Studio is a couple, husband and wife, with a lot of experience and creativity. They like to create empathy with the couples who choose them to be able to personalize every detail of the film. They offer couples a pre-wedding session to be able to include further elements that will complete the storytelling, they think it is also a good time to get to know each other!

Poeticae Studio works in a reportage style, capturing spontaneous moments without ever altering the beauty of the day, from the preparation of the bride and groom to the ceremony, the cake cut, and the party. They pay great attention to the editing stage of the film (about ten minutes in length). For them, the choice of music is a fundamental component of the style, rhythm, and way of communicating emotions. They deliver a short trailer about 48 hours after the wedding to immediately have a souvenir available to send to friends and relatives or publish on social networks. Their offer includes one or more cameramen available all day, they shoot in cinema format with high-definition image 4K, and they also provide drone footage.

In their concept, images and music are perfectly linked in a relationship of balance and harmony. This is why they like to get to know the spouses, understand their tastes and preferences and get in tune with them. They love Italy Renaissance style wedding venues but also more modern and fashionable locations with both natural and artificial light. Inspired by their clients, from the smallest gestures, and the extraordinary in everyday moments to the most important days of their life, they will create a love story full of real emotion and cinematic atmospheres.

Destination wedding videography / Alessandro Pentene

Working in the wedding industry is Alessandro Pentene’s great passion, and you can see that in his wedding films as he approaches them with enthusiasm and creativity. The technical skills he has acquired over the years have allowed him to interpret the sensitivity and desires of his clients to create videos where events, locations, and faces can express themselves most authentically. Alessandro Pentene’s destination wedding videos seem inspired by adventure-style movies, capturing the wedding day as an extraordinary journey. They include sweeping shots of the venue and surrounding landscapes, along with a powerful soundtrack to evoke a sense of adventure and excitement. He’s versatile – epic scenes are not his only skill; he’s mixing them with intimate and romantic moments.

Modern wedding videography – Tobi Films

Tobi is both a wedding videographer and a musician, and you can see that reflect in his videos – there’s rhythm, dynamics and poetics, as well as just beautiful unrushed shots, appreciating the beauty of the moment. He’s creating modern wedding videos that incorporate contemporary filmmaking techniques and styles to capture the essence of the couple's special day and create a visually stunning and immersive experience. His videos blend candid, authentic moments with artfully crafted shots. When watching wedding videos by Tobi Films, one can’t help but see the parallels with modern indie movies. Indie-inspired wedding videography takes a non-traditional and artistic approach, focusing on capturing the couple's unique style and personality. It embraces a more intimate and authentic aesthetic, reflecting the couple's connection and their offbeat, free- spirited celebration of love.

Fashion-inspired wedding videography / Simona Tortolano

Simona Tortolano has a background in the fashion industry, painting and illustration, but her interest in the moving image, in particular, brought her to study and work with documentary cinema and finally to wedding films, which have a special place in her heart and which she can bring all these elements – a sense of style, love for details, and showing the true story of a couple’s celebration of their love and their union through film. To describe her wedding videos as romantic wouldn’t be enough – there’s not just romance, but eternal love that shines through.

She describes her wedding video style as authentic mixed with a pinch of a dream, and it’s about the little things and details, the emotions, music and sounds. Her approach is discrete and unobtrusive, always respectful of people and places, something she took with her from her time spent making documentaries. Simona Tortolano’s approach is knowledgeable yet delicate, focusing both on creating sophisticated visuals and genuine emotions.

Fine art wedding videography / Gione da Silva

Gione da Silva creates artistic wedding videos, capturing and presenting wedding moments in a visually compelling and creative way. Unlike traditional wedding videography, which may focus on straightforwardly documenting events, artistic wedding videography aims to tell a unique and visually stunning story of the couple's special day.

Gione da Silva uses cinematic storytelling, crafting a narrative that goes beyond the mere recording of events. You can see both emphasis on aesthetics as well as deep personalization, highlighting the couple’s personalities and the essence of their relationship. He uses creative editing, carefully selecting and editing footage to create a cohesive and emotionally charged video with visually appealing effects.

Creative wedding videography / Vanessa & Ivo

Vanessa & Ivo make creative and genuine wedding videos that are heartfelt and imaginative portrayals of the couple's special day. It goes beyond traditional wedding videography to create a cinematic storytelling experience that reflects the couple's personalities and love story. They use creative and artistic techniques to capture visually stunning shots – unique camera angles, creative compositions, and inventive use of lighting to add a touch of magic to the footage. Their wedding videos convey the genuine reactions of the couple and their guests, reflecting the true atmosphere of the wedding day. Not less importantly, the editing process is carefully curated to highlight the most significant moments of the day. The video flows seamlessly, creating a coherent narrative that engages the viewers from start to finish. Vanessa & Ivo’s videos strive to create a lasting memory that reflects the couple's love and the essence of their special day in a way that is both creative and authentic.

Author: Renāte Berga

Wedding videographers: Mario Albanese Pereira, B&G Films, Poeticae Studio, Alessandro Pentene, Tobi Films, Simona Tortolano, Gione da Silva, Vanessa & Ivo