How to choose the PERFECT music for your wedding films!

Today I am very excited to share with you a tutorial that has taken me many years of experience filming weddings to learn. In this video, I am going to share with you how I choose the perfect music for my wedding films. Songs that fit the bride and groom, their wedding day, and their style perfectly. No matter whether you are a beginner wedding filmmaker that is getting ready to film their first wedding, or you have been shooting weddings for years, I believe that there will be something in this video that will help you.

This is part one of two. This one is about how I choose the music. Part two is about where I license it from, and I’ll link that at the bottom.

The Elephant In The Room

Every wedding filmmaker hits this at the start, whenever you have no money and you’re shooting for free to build a portfolio, and you think: can’t I just go on iTunes, spend 99 cents on a song, put it on the video and upload it? I’m not making any money off it, so it isn’t commercial, right?

Wrong. You need a license for pretty much any video you upload online, ever. And here’s the part people miss: even if you never upload it, even if you hand the couple a flash drive and walk away, if they upload it you are still on the hook, because you’re the one who made the video using the copyrighted music.

The Joe Simon Story

Back in 2011, Joe Simon was one of the premier wedding filmmakers in the world. He was charging something like nine grand for a local wedding, which was insane at the time. And he filmed a wedding for a guy you may have heard of named Tony Romo, who was then the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

That’s the ultimate promotion for a wedding filmmaker. They let him upload it. You basically never have to market again, because from then on when somebody asks what you’ve filmed you say “Tony Romo’s wedding” and they hire you.

The problem was the song. He used Fix You by Coldplay and he did not have the license for it. The video got millions of views and got shared everywhere, which meant Coldplay’s record label saw it, and they sued him for $150,000 over one song in one video.

He settled, and part of the settlement was that he couldn’t say for how much, though he did later say on a podcast that it was in the five figures. So anywhere from ten thousand to nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars, and every single one of those numbers terrifies me.

Joe licensed everything after that. I licensed everything after that. Everybody who heard that story started licensing their music. So if you think you might be allowed to do something without paying for it, go double check, and license from a reputable company where you actually have the rights.

The Other Reason To License, Which Isn’t Fear

I don’t want to leave that as purely a “you’ll get sued” argument, because there’s a better one. Wedding videographers can be artists. The thing we’re making is art, and a couple is going to appreciate it for the rest of their lives. Which means you need creative control over it, and that includes the music.

So whenever a couple asks if they can pick the songs, or wants some top 40 track in there, or whenever I hear about videographers sending couples a link to a licensing site and saying “go to town, pick your favorites and I’ll drop them in,” I don’t think that’s art anymore. You’ve handed the hardest creative decision to somebody else and you’re just executing it.

If you want to make high quality wedding films that you can charge a premium for, you need control of the music, and you need to be the one choosing the songs.

Say It Before They Sign

This matters enough to me that I tell couples before there’s a contract. Not in the first email, but on the phone call after it, when we’re talking through their wedding day. I say it point blank: I get to choose which songs are in your video. I will absolutely take your likes and dislikes into account, and we’re about to talk about exactly how, but I have the final say.

And all of my couples trust me with that, and I’ve been able to make films for them that I’m genuinely proud of. Saying it up front is what makes that possible, because nobody feels blindsided later.

Meet With The Couple. Both Of Them.

This one took me years to figure out, so here’s the shortcut. Meet with the couple in person before the wedding day if you possibly can. If you can’t, do it over video. But meet. Talk about how they met, how they fell in love, their likes, their dislikes, their quirks, anything that gets you closer to being friends with them, because that is what makes their film good.

And meet with both of them, ideally together. When I started out, a bride would contact me, I’d book it, and I would never speak to the groom once. I’d show up on the day like “hey man, here to film you,” and he’d go “cool, whatever,” and I knew nothing about him. Not what he liked, not what he listened to, nothing.

Here’s the nightmare version of that. You meet the bride, she says she loves country and wants it all through the film, and months later you find out the groom hates country and now his wedding video sucks. Whenever they’re in the room together they check with each other, they play off each other, and the whole conversation gets easier.

The Exact Questions I Ask

I start with the two obvious ones: what are your favorite songs, and what are your favorite bands? These can put people on the spot, because if somebody suddenly asks you to name your favorite band you go “uh, uh” and panic and blurt out something random.

So to keep the conversation moving instead of sitting through a five minute silence, I also ask what’s your favorite genre? Genre is much easier for people to grab hold of. They’ll say “well, I like country, and I like rock, but I hate rap,” and now you have a broad map you can narrow down from.

And then the question that’s arguably more useful than all of the above: what do you hate? What song would you be delighted to never hear on the radio again? Which band is the worst on the planet? People answer that one instantly and without hesitation. Nobody has to think about what they hate.

Between the likes and the dislikes you start building a profile of their taste. You’re basically becoming Pandora for these people. Does anybody still use Pandora? I don’t know.

The last question I ask is which of my previous films have you seen and liked? Couples almost always find me through YouTube or Instagram or my site, so they’ve watched something. Nobody hands over thousands of dollars on a rumor. And they’ll often say “we loved the music in this one,” which is gold. I won’t reuse those exact songs, because I don’t like repeating myself, but I’ll go looking at that same artist or artists in that lane and find something new that hits the same way.

Talk At The Genre Level, Never The Song Level

Once I have their answers I have a direction, and I’ll reflect it back to them, but only ever at a genre height. I’ll say “it sounds like you’re leaning a bit more country,” or “a bit more romantic,” or “a bit more poppy.”

What I will never do is name the exact band I’m going to use, because I haven’t seen their wedding day yet. Talking at the genre level does the one job that matters here: they walk away going “okay, he gets us, he’s not going to put rap on our country wedding,” and I walk away with every option still open.

This is also the point where I reiterate that I license everything so I don’t get sued, and I’ll tell them the Joe Simon story if I need to. I want them to know I’m going to pick something they’ll love that also doesn’t end either of us in court.

What If They Like Completely Different Things?

News flash, people are different. If I’m picking up that their tastes don’t overlap, I ask what genres and songs they both like, and there’s usually something, and I’ll lean on that.

But I have had couples who genuinely hate each other’s music, to the point where they’re in the car listening to separate things. For those, I split the film. A country song for her section, a rock song for his, so neither of them sits there thinking this is all the other person and none of me. It’s a little bit of drama, and you just need to know how to handle it.

The Last Thing, And You Can’t Ask About It

The final input is the feel of the wedding day itself, and it’s more ethereal than the rest, because you cannot get it from a questionnaire. You don’t know it until you’re standing there filming.

Two versions of this have happened to me, roughly. A couple tells me they love country, they love two-stepping, they love George Strait, and then I show up and they’re getting married in a church with the reception in a downtown skyscraper and there is nothing country about it. And the reverse: a couple getting married in a barn out in the country who tell me they love pop and electronic.

So I split the difference. If they want country but the wedding is in a city, I’ll look for country that still has the guitar twang but whose lyrics aren’t about dusty roads and big Texas sunsets, because none of that is on screen. If they want pop but the wedding is in a barn, I’ll go looking for guitar-driven pop that leans a little country. You find the meeting point between what they told you and where they actually got married.

The Short Version

  • License your music. See above, at length, with a real dollar figure attached.
  • Meet with your couples, and meet with both halves of the couple.
  • Tell them you have creative control before they sign anything.
  • Ask what they love, what bands, what genre, and above all what they hate.
  • Ask which of your films they already liked.
  • Discuss it with them only at the genre level, never song by song.
  • Then let the actual feel of the wedding day pull the final choice into place.

By the end of watching this video, you will be prepared to select music for your wedding films that will satisfy you creatively, and give your couples a video that they will love and cherish forever.

Part Two: Where I License From

I promised a follow-up covering the sites I actually use, from the most expensive one with the amazing user experience all the way down to the dirt cheapest option I know of that still has real gems in it. Here it is: a guide to the best royalty free music licensing sites for wedding films.

And once you’ve picked a site, these are the specific songs I keep coming back to:

The sites themselves: Sound Stripe (coupon code “WHOISMATT” for 10% off a yearly or monthly subscription), Art List (free extra 2 months through that link), and Musicbed.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave one below or get in touch.

The Wedding Films I Used In This Video

More For Filmmakers

My wedding film editing course covers the edit end to end, there’s a free Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook group, and I have a free quick tips guide on how to book more wedding film clients. Whenever I need help with an edit I use Archaius Creative, who’ll take 10% off your first project. Everything I shoot is graded with my own WhoisMatt LUTs, and my gear is over on Kit.

If you want to keep up with my photos, videos, and other behind-the-scenes stuff, follow me on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/whoismatt

I also post a ton of video related things to my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/whoismattcom

I am also now offering one-on-one personal filmmaker consulting! Wanna talk about cameras, lighting, or booking clients? Let’s do it! http://whoismatt.com/consulting

I’m required to state that I’m a part of affiliate programs for Amazon, B&H, SoundStripe, ArtList, Musicbed, and Adobe and that some of the links above are affiliate links.

Wedding Film Editing Tips! | Behind The Scenes of Zac and Lindsey’s Wedding Trailer

If you’ve followed my channel for a bit, you’ve noticed how many wedding films and trailers I upload. That’s because wedding filmmaking is my full-time job. Making YouTube videos is the fun thing I do on the side because I like helping people like you, and honestly I don’t have a ton of time for it, since normally I’m out shooting or at home editing.

So I had an idea: what if I turned some of these wedding films into educational material? Not by hopping in a DeLorean and going back in time to bring a third shooter along as a BTS cameraman, but by revisiting films I love and talking through specific parts of them. A shot that worked. A choice I made in the edit. A moment where everything went sideways and we salvaged it.

This is the first of those, and it’s about Zac and Lindsey’s wedding trailer. Go watch that first, with the music and audio, then come back.

The Power Of Creative Choice

The reason I picked this trailer is that it highlights one of my favorite things about this job: we get hired for our creativity.

Unlike a lot of professions, people hire a wedding filmmaker because they like the way you film things. They like your vision, they like your drive, they saw something you made and said “I want something that looks like that.” That is an incredible position to be in. We get to make films however we want and people pay us for them. How cool is that?

Building A Trailer Around One Shot

Whenever I sat down to edit this one, Rachel and I talked through the biggest, most emotionally powerful moments of the day. And the one that stood out above everything else was Lindsey’s walk down the aisle.

Look at what’s in that shot. Slow motion. A long staircase. Lens flares. That enormous veil. And underneath all of it, the thing that actually makes it work: they didn’t do a first look, so this is the very first time the two of them are seeing each other on the wedding day. He’s coming apart. She’s coming apart. Emotionally, that walk was the crescendo of the entire day.

I said to Rachel, honestly, we could just make that shot be the whole trailer. Show it, put their names at the end, drop the logo, done.

And she said yes, but let’s tone that down slightly and show some other things too. She was right. She was totally right.

But then, how cool would it be if we kept cutting back to that shot throughout?

So that’s the structure. A little of the couple together, then her walking down the aisle. A little more of them together, then more of the aisle. Them dancing, and the aisle again. Their moments from across the whole day, threaded together with that one walk running through the middle of it.

What that does is make the aisle moment the most powerful part of the film, the same way it was the most powerful part of the day. The edit isn’t just presenting the footage in order. It’s making an argument about what mattered.

The Takeaway: Only Use The Shots You Want

This one took me literally years to learn, and I’m glad to hand it to you for free.

Give yourself permission to only use the creative shots you actually want in your wedding films.

For years I put things in my films because it was the tradition to include them and I felt like I had to. The bouquet toss. The cake cutting. The ring shot. The dress hanging in the window. Honestly, most of those are a videographer tradition rather than something the bride and groom need in order to tell the best story of their day.

Watch my recent films and a lot of that is gone. What’s left is the biggest, most emotional moments of the day, because that’s what I love showing, that’s what couples book me for, and that’s the vision I’m actually following now.

I’m not saying copy me. I’m not saying cut all of that out and make films exactly like mine. I’m saying make films that match your creative vision, and don’t feel stuck in “I have to document every single thing and show it” if you don’t want to.

Make what you want to make, and enjoy the actual joy of making things, because this is a really rare job. We get paid to make things however we want. That is not normal, and it’s one of the big reasons I love filming weddings.

The Settings Are On Screen

Every clip in the video carries its full settings in the corner: the Sony a7S II, the lens, the picture profile (MattFlat), the resolution and frame rate, shutter, ISO, and white balance. So if you see a look you want, you can read exactly how it was shot rather than guessing.

🎥 All of my favorite filmmaking gear is here.

The Wedding Films Shown In This Video

Was This Helpful?

Genuinely, leave me a comment and let me know, because I have ideas for a lot of the weddings I’ve shot and I’d like to do more of these. Tell me if it landed, or tell me “Matt, talk more about camera reviews, don’t do this,” and I’ll go with your feedback.

🎥 I also offer one-on-one filmmaker consulting if you want to talk through any aspect of this. And if you’d like to see more wedding films like the one above, they live at my production company, FilmStrong.