Brides and Grooms - I’d consider looking elsewhere for a videographer.
We hired Matthew from Forever and a Day Wedding films in May 2018. Our wedding was held on March 8th, 2019. We had chosen one of his most expensive packages as it seemed ...like the best deal. I spoke with Matthew via phone call and he was very professional. In addition, we had watched his other wedding videos and were very impressed by his work. Per our referral, our friends also booked the company for their wedding and their video turned out beautifully. After seeing the results, we were even more thrilled to have Matthew film our wedding. Forever and a Day Wedding Films required a 50% down deposit at time of booking and final payment 10 days before the event. I spoke with Matthew before I did the final payment and he confirmed that he was still set to attend.
He was scheduled to arrive there at noon. About 45 minutes after noon, I noticed he was not there. I asked the venue coordinator if she had seen/heard from him and she said no. After OVER TWO HOURS of trying to reach him, he finally called our venue coordinator back. Matthew tried telling the coordinator due to car issues, he was not going to make it. If he did come, it would take him three hours to get from Chicago to Elgin via Uber. The timeline to get from point A to point B really was not adding up for me as Elgin is only an hour away from Chicago. I took the phone and he explained the situation to me directly. I felt he was being dismissive and not understanding the importance of the day he was cancelling on. This was one of the biggest days of our lives! It was so important to me that it was filmed. I was pretty overwhelmed (but calm) at this point and asked if he could still try making it for the ceremony and he said “okay” and hung up on me. It was decided ultimately by the bridal party to go with a backup plan formed since he was likely not going to make it in time/at all for the ceremony. With this, we allowed him to cancel with promise of a full refund.
I will point out that Matthew did keep his promise and paid us back our refund within two installments. While I was pleased about him refunding us, I am still disheartened at the situation at hand. I do not want other couples to deal with a possibility of a cancellation on their wedding day. I was fortunate that my other vendors were able to put a backup plan in place so I could still have my ceremony recorded. However, I know not every couple may not be as fortunate. Don’t risk it. Please consider a different videography company for your wedding day.