Vendor Spotlight | ParkLife Video

Wedding

Mar 20

I am a big, big fan of wedding films, and if you are looking for a videographer in the east central Illinois area, you can't go wrong with ParkLife Video. I've gotten the chance to work together with Jeremiah & Kortny on a couple of different weddings, and I am always excited to see what they come up with in the end. Jeremiah also filmed and edited my business video that you see at the top of my blog. I asked them to answer a few questions about their business as the next installment in my series of vendor spotlights. Definitely give them a call SOON if you're wanting a film from your 2012 wedding as they're almost booked! What got you interested in being a wedding videographer? One of my biggest passions and hobbies is design and video editing. Being newly married, my wife was always very interested in weddings and really loved the process of planning ours. A friend of ours said that we should go into wedding videography, and we thought it was a fantastic idea. It allowed both of us work together in a business that incorporated interests from both of us. It didn't take long for me to catch the wedding bug, and fall in love with the wedding industry. So far, Kortny hasn't tried her hand at editing, but I'm holding onto hope!

When did you start Park Life Videography? We were married in July 2004, and we filmed our first wedding on New Years Eve, 2005.

What is one reason you would give couples to hire a videographer over having a friend video their wedding day? We have no doubt that someone's Uncle Rick would have all the good intentions of filming a quality wedding video, but when you hire someone, it's that person's sole job to film your wedding and nothing else. Even if a couple has a friend who works with video and film, that person will most likely want to hang out with everyone at some point and may otherwise miss out on some of the action. When you hire us to film, we're there to serve the clients and nothing else. Okay - maybe have a slice of cake, but that's about it. (Holly note: YES! Cake! You all know how I love cake too!)

What makes you different from other videographers in the Champaign area? We take great pride in the fact that we love to help tell the couple's story. Yes, we feel like our style in which we shoot and edit is very modern and relevant. However, you can take all the cool shots you want, and do some really great editing, but if the couple's story isn't the first and foremost thing in the film, it's not going to matter. We really care about our clients, and a huge part of what we do is find out their story, what makes them tick, why they love each other, and let that be the driving force behind everything we do when we serve them.

What is your favorite thing about filming weddings? No wedding is the same. We're obsessed with telling each couple's unique story through our highlight films, engagement trailers, and same-day edits. We also love serving people, and we're honored we get to serve people on one of the most important days of their lives.

Did you have a videographer at your own wedding? Would you make the same choice now? My wife wanted a videographer, but I didn't see the point! It's safe to say that my view has changed since then. Luckily, I yielded to her wishes and we had one. I'm thankful that in 50 years, we'll have our video to show our kids. And our out of date hair.

Name one fun fact about you and your family that would help couples to understand you a bit more. One fun fact. Hmmm. Kortny loves shows like The Bachelor and sappy love movies (you can tell who's writing this), and Jeremiah loves film and editing. That's why ParkLife is such a perfect fit for us. We get to take part in the most important day of people's lives, and we get to be creative and capture it on film.

Are you completely booked for 2012 yet? How about 2013? We're not completely booked for 2012 yet, but we are filling up at a faster pace than any other year. So if someone's interested in booking us for this year, contact us quick! We've booked more weddings for next year than we've ever had at this point before, but we have plenty of dates open for '13.

Here's one of my favorite videos from ParkLife to date:

Chad + Brynn [highlight film] from ParkLife Wedding Films on Vimeo.

And here's another favorite, and actually from a wedding that we worked on together. It's so neat being a part of something, and then seeing Jeremiah & Kortny's take on it a few weeks later. Great job guys!