Top 5 Best Wedding Venues Barcelona

March 14, 2025March 10, 2025 by mireia llum

top 5 lugares donde casarse cerca de Barcelona

Top 5 Best Wedding Venues Near Barcelona

In this article, I will offer my personal take as wedding videographer on the best 5 venues near Barcelona.

Deciding where to celebrate one of the most important days of your life can be a challenging task. If you have chosen to do it near Barcelona, congratulations—there are many advantages to this choice.

In this article, I will share my favorite venues and also the work I have done at each of them.

Pros of getting married near Barcelona

The ease of flight connections and the proximity of the airport to the city. This makes life much easier for guests traveling from other parts of Spain or abroad.
The internationally renowned Mediterranean cuisine, which will delight your guests not only on the wedding day but also for those staying in the area for several days.
Tourist attractions. For those traveling exclusively for the wedding, it’s a great opportunity to stay a few extra days and explore the city and its surroundings. Even just getting a first glimpse of Barcelona can take 2-3 days, visiting iconic landmarks such as the Sagrada Familia, the Gothic Quarter, Montjuïc, Barceloneta, and more. On top of that, there are hundreds of incredible places less than an hour and a half away, both along the coast and in charming inland villages. Many of these locations don’t even require a car, making transportation much easier.

Now, I will list—without any particular order—what I consider to be the best wedding venues near Barcelona. I worked in all of them so I know first hand their virtues. Whether you’re planning an intimate celebration or a large gathering, all these venues offer great versatility and are excellent choices. I have worked at each of them, so I speak from experience and will also share videos filmed at these locations.

Try to picture yourself in each one—let’s see which one gives you goosbumps!

1/5 Top venues near Barcelona: Sant Marsal Castle

Located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, just 15 km from Barcelona, Sant Marsal Castle is an architectural gem that provides a breathtaking setting for your wedding. Surrounded by lush gardens with fountains, this 12th-century castle offers an elegant atmosphere for your celebration. It features stunning halls that preserve its historical charm, along with spacious outdoor areas. So, from its majestic gardens to elegant indoor halls, it offers options for both outdoor ceremonies and indoor receptions. Suitable for both intimate weddings and grand events.

2/5 Top venues near Barcelona: Tamarit Castle

Located 80 km from Barcelona, Tamarit Castle stands on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, offering breathtaking panoramic views. This medieval castle, situated in the town of Tarragona, combines historical grandeur with natural beauty, creating a truly spectacular setting for your wedding. From its sea-view terrace to its elegant halls, Tamarit Castle provides a unique and romantic atmosphere that will captivate your guests. It offers versatile spaces that can accommodate both intimate gatherings and grand celebrations. At the end, it is a truly unique and memorable venue that will leave a lasting impression on your guests.

3/5 Top venues near Barcelona: Masia Casa del Mar

Located on the Catalan coast, about 40 km from Barcelona, Masia Casa del Mar offers a unique atmosphere for your wedding with views of the Mediterranean Sea. And this is undoubtedly its greatest strength. It has a charming and exclusive setting that blends rustic elegance with modern touches.. Additionally, it has spacious rooms for the preparation phase and an elegant yet modern outdoor ceremony space. Perfect for both intimate gatherings and larger celebrations, with the flexibility to customize your event.

4/5 Top venues near Barcelona Torre dels Lleons

Torre dels Lleons is the venue with the closest location to Barcelona; in fact, it is in Esplugues de Llobregat, practically next to the city and very close to the airport. It will take roughly 20 minutes to get there by car from Barcelona city center. Without a doubt, this is one of its biggest advantages. Torre dels Lleons is an impressive 14th-century fortified tower. In my opinion, its highlight is the inner courtyard, where the aperitif or even the meal/dinner can be held. It is a cozy and elegant place. Its size and layout create a more intimate and exclusive feel for your celebration. The venue offers both indoor and outdoor options, allowing flexibility depending on the size of your wedding and your preferences.

5/5 Top venues near Barcelona: La Baronia

Located in the town of Sant Feliu de Codines, less than 40 km from Barcelona city, La Baronia is an impressive Catalan farmhouse with architecture that blends the natural and historical, which absolutely fascinates me. It features spacious gardens, panoramic terraces, and a cozy hall. In my opinion, it is the most stunning venue of all. Surrounded by nature, it offers breathtaking drone shots that will leave you speechless. A charming and intimate space for indoor celebrations, ensuring comfort and warmth for your guests. This is without a doubt one of the best best wedding venues near Barcelona.

Bonus: Cortal Gran

Located in Sant Pere Pescador, 145 km from Barcelona, in the region of l’Alt Empordà, famous for its stunning rocky beaches among other things, Cortal Gran is a charming Catalan farmhouse surrounded by vineyards and forests. What stands out to me are its natural spaces surrounded by trees, perfect for dining or having a meal outdoors (truly evocative), and its picturesque greenhouse, which could serve as the perfect backdrop for the ceremony or photoshoot. Perhaps of all the venues I mention in this article, this is the one with the least capacity for large celebrations.

In conclusion, if you’re planning your wedding near Barcelona, you have a wide variety of spectacular venues to choose from. From medieval castles to rustic farmhouses, each of these places offers its own unique charm and a one-of-a-kind experience. I hope this article Top 5 best venues Barcelona with my personal take as wedding videographer has helped you discover new venues that are truly worth considering.

Let's talk!

Do you want to talk about your wedding video? Leave me a message and see where it goes 🙂

Let’s marry in Las Vegas: elopement, a wedding on the run.

October 19, 2023July 22, 2020 by mireia llum

elopement en barcelona, destination wedding barcelona

Let's marry in Las Vegas: elopement, a wedding on the run.

What is an elopement wedding?

The origin of the elopement wedding dates back many centuries ago. It normally happened when the couple did not have the family approval to marry. Then they chose to run away to get married anyway. There is evidence of elopement weddings since the fourteenth century, in the Middle Ages.

Elopement comes from the English verb to elope, which means to escape and not return to the point of origin. So we can also talk about a wedding on the run.

Nowadays, couples who decide to marry this way do not have the same motivations. It happens mainly because there is a will to do it in a more simple and intimate way. It is also an option that is gaining many followers to celebrate a vow renewal, when a couple chooses a destination away from where they live and they marry again with no guests.

What is the difference between an elopement and a destination wedding?

A destination wedding occurs when the bride and groom travel to celebrate their wedding in another place where they do not reside, usually in another country. And what sets it apart from an elopement is that there are guests, friends, and close family members. In a destination wedding the number of guests is lower than a conventional wedding since not everyone can travel to another part of the world.

You can watch by clicking here a destination wedding in Barcelona.

And here it is a destination wedding in Cascais, 40 km from Lisbon, Portugal.

I appreciate the collaboration in this post of my colleague and friend Lucho Vargas, author of the photographs that accompany these lines. All photos here are part of real elopements.

Pros and cons of an elopement wedding

There are no guests. With no guests, the stress and time spent coordinating so many people is eliminated. In a destination wedding sometimes you have to coordinate even the trip of the guests. The fact that in an elopement there are no guests makes it even more necessary than in a conventional wedding to hire photo and video services to keep a memory of the moment. besides, you will have all the time in the world to do a relaxed photo and video shooting that you can enjoy without haste.

These months in which we live affected by the coronavirus crisis, elopements appear as a very good option for those couples who do not want to postpone their weddings.

You can invest more money in your dream dress, in a good photography and video service and in your honeymoon. By cutting reception/meals expenses, there is room for all of that and more. It would still be necessary to buy the chosen clothes, airline tickets and the hotel, and perhaps a small investment in flowers or decoration for the ceremony if desired. Photography and video services for the wedding day are also lower as they cover far fewer hours.

Exciting. The fact of going to a place that you do not know or simply that is different from your day to day is already a reward for the brain, to get a point of extra joy and adrenaline. If you already like traveling, adding the fact of getting married will make it something unique and unforgettable.

Intimacy. You will have more time to feel each other without worrying about your surroundings, about whether the guests are having a good time or not. The only thing that matters is you two. This wedding option can be very attractive for couples who do not want a traditional wedding but still feel that doing a ritual between the two is a step they do want to do. It is a way of declaring that you are doing it for yourself, not to please anyone else.

Fewer headaches. You don’t have to coordinate so many things. You will need to find someone to officiate the ceremony and prepare the necessary paperwork for this to happen. It can be a symbolic ceremony, with no paperwork involved, so even this step is not essential. And coordinate the stay, but that is not far from the time that could be spent preparing a regular trip.

More improvised and spontaneous. You can choose practically any place in the world to celebrate the wedding: from a remote place that needs almost climbing to get there like Monte Roraima in Venezuela, in front of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, on a sailboat in Mallorca, in the Nevada desert, in a square in Paris, on the banks of the Tejo river in Lisbon, etc. You can choose any option that fits with you and how you are. Your imagination will be the limit. Do you feel that it is the moment? Do it, don’t think about it anymore!!

What will you need to do an elopement?

Someone to officiate the ceremony. If it’s going to be official, you need someone who has authorization to officiate ceremonies. You can choose a symbolic ceremony, with no paperwork involved, so this process is simplified.

Your wedding clothes. Usually less voluptuous, simpler dresses are chosen, since the place of the ceremony is usually a less controlled place, where it may even be necessary to walk through complicated places.

The stay. How you are going to get to where you plan to get married (plane, rent a car, etc.) and where you are going to stay if you are going to spend more than a day.

Photography and video services for elopement. The fact that you get married without friends or family makes this part almost essential. So much so that you can share part of that day with them and so that you can save forever the images of that unique moment. You can also surprise them by hiring a streaming video service so they can follow the ceremony live.

Flowers and decoration. It is optional if you want some decoration. It will also depend on whether or not it is possible to mount something. For example, if you get married within the city, such as in Barcelona, it is not allowed to put anything in the public space without authorization. You would not have this problem in any private space or somewhere remote in nature.

Celebration, yes or no? You can decide to book somewhere for lunch or dinner, or also hire a mini-catering to prepare something for you to eat and that you can enjoy in any corner you decide.

Finally, if you want to further simplify the process, you can choose to hire a wedding planner. The wedding planner will be able to propose ideas that you would not have come up with and he/she has a portfolio of reliable collaborators (officiating, catering, suits, decoration, photographers and videographers, etc).

Do you feel up to elope?

Are you getting married and want more information for your wedding video?

If you are looking for a unique and personalized wedding video that reflects your relationship and personality, write me and tell me about you and your wedding. Take a look in my website for more videos made in Barcelona and other places from Spain, Portugal and Brazil.

My year 2019 as a wedding videographer

July 22, 2020February 20, 2020 by mireia llum

My year 2019 as a wedding videographer

It is difficult to summarize everything I have experienced as a wedding videographer in 2019. From the trips to Portugal, the awards and recognitions, the luck that I have had meeting incredible couples, the kind that really love each other …

Lisbon / Cascais / Portugal

For some time I have been traveling to Portugal to shoot wedding videos in what is called Destination Weddings. There I collaborate especially with my photographer friend Lucho Vargas. With him and his wife we form a great team. We met in Manaus, Brazil, in 2016 and since then we collaborate whenever we can. This year and thanks to them, I had the great luck to meet Rui Mota Pinto, one of the most important wedding planners in Lisbon and throughout Portugal. He is an incredible person, who gets out of the mold, and makes weddings totally personalized depending on the taste and personality of the couple. And when I say personalized weddings, believe me, they are one of those that call attention to their originality. And it is that he is a person we would call authentic, that you look into the eyes and really looks back at you. An adult child who is not afraid to play and therefore does not shake his hand when deciding which style is best for the wedding of his boyfriends. Rui Mota Pinto often wins awards for his work, and this year he received one just for the wedding we worked together. The wedding, which was held by the sea in Cascais, a few kilometers from Lisbon, has been cited in magazines such as Mariée Weddings of Brazil or BodasandCo of Mexico. An honor.

Barcelona, Spain

The weddings that I have shot in Spain have taken me to very different places. From the Ramblas of Barcelona, through lost monasteries in the mountains, renovated farmhouses, beach bars or castles by the sea. I have had national couples and others who have come to marry on a destination wedding in Barcelona.

Besides being so lucky to shot stories in spectacular places, I have had the good fortune of meeting couples who really love each other. Relationships are not easy, being in love most likely ends, but then is when true love really begins. Respect, admiration, confidence and desire to grow next to that person, those are the qualities that I see and admire in these couples.

Awards and recognitions of 2019:

This year 2019 has been loaded with recognition for my work as a wedding videographer. The flute has sounded in both national and international awards. The truth is that you can not ask for more. Coming to the top of having been nominated for best videographer of the year by Inspiration Photographers, something like being nominated for the Oscar for best director.

Here is the summary of these awards. You can click on them if you want to know more:

-Ziwa Awards Videógrafo 2019 Winner, Zankyou

-Best Filmmaker of 2019 Nominee, Inspiration Photographers

-Nominée Premio Internacional de la Imagen 2019 Luces de Granada, AGRAFI

-Film Award 2019 Winner, collection 23, Inspiration Photographers

-Best Wedding Film 2019 Winner, collection 18, Inspiration Photographers

-4th place Best Videographer WEVA EsAward 2019, Worldwide Event Videographers Association

And now in 2020, the year has started very well. From UNIONWEP, the most important association of photographers and videographers in Spain, they have asked me to be part of a jury of 4 to choose the best videographer and videographer revelation of the year. All a responsibility and honor.

We will see how the year goes on.

Are you getting married and want more information for your wedding video?

Destination wedding at Tamarit Castle

December 30, 2020October 10, 2019 by mireia llum

Destination wedding at Tamarit Castle, Tarragona, Spain | Saylee + Gregg

Do you want to celebrate your wedding in a castle next to the sea?

If you are thinking of getting married near the sea, why not in a castle? In this article I will talk about the experience of participating in a destination wedding at the Tamarit Castle, in Tarragona (Spain).

Being a wedding videographer has some advantages over other jobs. One of them is the number of beautiful places that can be known in a year. And you don’t have to go far from Barcelona (which is where I live). There is a growing tendency to look for beautiful places to celebrate weddings. And besides, they are more affordable places than it may seem at first. It is only a matter of don’t be late because they are usually very popular places and they are booked soon.

Some of these sites can be restored old farmhouses, old monasteries, restaurants with gardens and even castles. And in most of them, the current tendency is to hold civil ceremonies.

This is the case of the wedding I present in this article, the one I shot the wedding video: the destination wedding of Saylee and Gregg. Saylee and Gregg are a couple full of sensitivity, with a great sense of humor and their wedding was a cascade of emotions.

It all started the day before with the Hindu celebration of the Sangeet. The chosen place was the incredible restaurant La Daurada, in Vilanova i la Geltrú (one hour from Barcelona by car). This place has incredible views to the Mediterranean sea. In the Sangeet, most of the guests were painted with hena in different parts of their bodies. The good energy and the desire to dance and have a good time that would follow the wedding day was already chewed in the environment. For my part, it seems to me precious that the couple want to maintain traditions that have to do with their roots; this also greatly enriches the wedding video and makes it more authentic and different.

Already on the day of the wedding, preparations began in Sitges, a very famous town in Catalonia 40 minutes from Barcelona. And from there we traveled 25 minutes by car until we reached the majestic Tamarit Castle, overlooking the Mediterranean. That day the sea was rough, making the landscape even more cinematic.

The ceremony was super emotional. For Saylee and Gregg, their wedding was super special because it also meant their farewell party as they were about to move from New York to Shanghai.

To me, it was a pleasure to shot their wedding video. I leave the trailer down here. I hope you like it :).

Vendors list

Videographer- Mireia Llum https://www.mireiallumfilms.com

Photographer- Dallas & Sabrina

Make-up – Nikoleta Make-Up

Hair- Hairoverheel

Sangeet:

Venue- La Daurada

Clothes- Papa don’t preach by Shubikha

Jewelry- Dazzle with Fashion

Planner- Salvador Costa https://www.costaandmason.com

Wedding:

Venue- Tamarit Castle

Clothes- Pronovias

Shoes- Christian Louboutin

Accessories- Paul Smith, Ted Baker

Planner- AG Planning

Hotels- Calipolis, MIM Sitges

Are you getting married and want more information for your wedding video?

Destination wedding in Cascais, Portugal

June 15, 2020October 1, 2019 by mireia llum

Destination wedding en Cascais, Lisboa, Portugal | Sabrina + Gonçalo

¿Quieres casarte en Portugal?

If you are thinking of getting married in Portugal, Cascais, about 30km from the capital Lisbon, can be an excellent option.

In this article I review a little how was the wedding of Sabrina and Gonçalo, both from Switzerland, who decided to marry in Portugal. The reason is the origins of Gonçalo, born in Portugal, and that as a baby he went to live with his parents to Switzerland.

The place chosen to celebrate the civil ceremony and the subsequent celebration was the restaurant Arriba, in Cascais. There is no doubt that it is a place with privileged views, one of those place for a dream venue that won’t be easy to forget. The restaurant lies next to the Atlantic ocean, above a clif, with spectacular views: steep rocks, Atlantic wind, a breathtaking sunset … these are just some elements to guarantee a unique wedding.

The person responsible for planning the event was the renowned Rui Mota Pinto, wedding planner who has been active in Portugal for more than 20 years. Rui has been winning international awards for his work for years, and that was already a guarantee that something special was waiting for us at this wedding.

I should be grateful to be able to work with my colleagues at Lucho Vargas Photography again. Since we started working together in Brazil, there have been quite a few opportunities to meet again, now in Europe.

I leave down here the wedding video of Sabrina and Gonçalo. I hope you like it!

Sabrina & Gonçalo

Wedding “Viagem d ‘Amour” by Rui Mota Pinto

Concept & Planning: Rui Mota Pinto http://ruimotapinto.com/

Photography: Lucho Vargas Fotografia http://www.luchovargasfotografia.com/

Video: Mireia Llum Films https://www.mireiallumfilms.com/

Venue: Arriba-guincho

Catering: Casa do Marquês

Flower’s design: Kefro Flores

Dj: Paulo Luz

Violin: Carlos Violinista

Saxofone: Gustavo Teixeira

Lights: Top II

Hair styling: P.Regedor – Hair Style

Make up: Susana Mathias

Cake: My Cake Store

Cocktails: Bar André Neff Bartender

Baby sitters: Baby Sisters

Are you getting married in Portugal and want more information for your wedding video?

If you are looking for a unique and personalized wedding video that reflects your relationship and personality, write me and tell me about you and your wedding. You can see more videos made in Barcelona and in other places from Spain, Portugal and Brazil.

Destination wedding Barcelona

June 15, 2020September 7, 2019 by mireia llum

Destination wedding in Barcelona:

Are you planning to get married in a destination wedding in Barcelona?

If you plan to do a destination wedding in Barcelona or other places in Catalonia, Spain, you must be interested in reading this article. But what are destination weddings? Destination weddings are those in which the couple decides to marry in a different country than the one they reside in. For a few years, the number of such weddings has skyrocketed. But is it worth getting married in another country? In this article I will review some advantages of this type of event.

A large percentage of my wedding videos are destination weddings: bride and groom from other countries who marry in Barcelona or other cities in Spain. I also travel to shoot in Portugal, especially with my colleagues of Lucho Vargas Photography. You can see here one of my latest videographer works in Portugal:

Advantages of a destination wedding in Barcelona

Travel to one of the most charming cities in the world

For those who love traveling, getting married in another country can be a wonderful way to make your day even more extraordinary. You will marry in a different context, with a landscape and gastronomy different from that of your day to day. It can be an experience with a certain degree of exoticism for you and your guests. In addition, you can take the opportunity to project your honeymoon starting in the country where you are married, and, if you are still encouraged, make a route through the neighboring countries.

Getting married in Barcelona is usually synonymous with getting married with good weather and a gastronomy recognized throughout the world. Barcelona has millions of attractions: from walks through the most emblematic neighborhoods of the center such as the Gothic, the Raval, the Ramblas; internationally renowned museums such as MACBA, the MNAC, the Picasso museum; thousands of restaurants with menus ranging from classic tapas to elaborate fashion dishes. And a brutal amount of activities and events at all hours and for all tastes.

We must take advantage of this now, when plane tickets are affordable even for transoceanic flights. It seems that with the coming oil crisis, this will not always be as easy.

Total costs lower than in a traditional wedding

But how much does it cost to celebrate a destination wedding in Barcelona? As always, it will depend on what services you hire. It is not the same to marry in a castle, than in the civil registry of the city; hire a catering with hardly any appetizer and only one main dish than another with more than 30 different dishes in the appetizer, first course, main course, pre-cake, cake, etc; rent the wedding dress or buy it in an exclusive store…

What makes the difference at the economic level is that when getting married in another country, only the closest guests and really close to the couple will make the effort to travel. This point shortens the list of guests and prevents the presence of guests “by commitment”.

If you also come from a European country further north of Spain, the United States, Canada, Australia, etc, you will notice how money yields you much more in Barcelona. A couple who lives in New York can quietly save 50% of their budget if they decide to get married in Barcelona.

Typical places to do a wedding destination in Barcelona

There is a huge variety of charming places both in the city of Barcelona and in the surrounding area. It all depends on your tastes, if you want a place overlooking the sea, isolated in the mountains, a rustic estate or a stone monastery. What you will not miss are attractive options. But if you do not know where to start, it is best that you put yourself in the hands of a wedding planner as soon as possible and she can suggest places that you recommend.If you want to look for spectacular places outside the city of Barcelona, you can take a look at this list. Some good recommendations of places, both hotels and restaurants and antic farmhouses, within the city you can find them in this other list.

The wedding planner will take care of everything

If you are living outside of Spain, the last thing you will want is to negotiate with suppliers (catering, decoration, DJ or band, etc.) or how to organize and coordinate the day’s schedules. Do not hesitate and hire a wedding planner. Time is money and your wedding planner will save you a lot. In addition, you can also advise on photography and video services, where you can stay the bride and groom, and many more.

For example, at the wedding of the video that I present below Priyanka and Nick, Gemma Sala within Your Barcelona Wedding, was the wedding planner of the event. The wedding was held in the monastery of Sant Miquel in Poble Espanyol, Barcelona. Thanks to Gemma everything went smoothly, with an impeccable organization, and this was reflected in that the guests had a great time.

Hire videography and photography services from Barcelona

One last tip: do not spare resources on the photographer and the videographer. If the difference is only a few hundred euros, choose the professional you like best. It is better if they are fom Barcelona (a lot of us speak perfect English), you won’t pay flight tickets, they can communicate better with other vendors the wedding day and rates in Spain are lower than in other countries with the same quality level.

And the bonus: many times the couple decide to hire only photo and shortly after they recognize how sorry they are for not having hired video. In a few years, listen to that special speech again, see how the tear spreads to your soul friend, all those moments you can only live again with the wedding video.

Watch this destination wedding video trailer:

Are you getting married in Barcelona and want more information for your wedding video?

If you are looking for a unique and personalized wedding video that reflects your relationship and personality, write me and tell me about you and your wedding. You can see more wedding videos made in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain, Portugal and Brazil.

Do you want more info about wedding videography?

How much does a wedding video cost?

July 22, 2020September 7, 2019 by mireia llum

tarifas videos de boda, cuanto cuesta un vídeo de boda

How much does a wedding video cost?

Prices: is a wedding video expensive or cheap?

If you are thinking about getting married in your country or in a destination wedding in Spainor or you are just curious about life, you may have wondered: how much does a wedding video cost?. This is a very complex issue, in which everything “depends”. But you must have in mind that nobody gives presents for free without a reason and a good professional is not going to be different.

An idea of what it costs a videographer to be a videographer

Equipment cost

“The wedding video is very expensive. They want to get paid more than 1,500€ for going to shoot a few hours. ” Well, I’m sorry to say you are wrong, I wish it was that easy to make money. The professional you are going to hire has had to invest in their equipment an average of 5,000€ to 10,000€ in cameras, lenses, tripods, sound recorders, microphones, spotlights, computers, monitors, hard drives, and a long etc. And imagine the ones that have an studio and must pay a rent…

Postproduction time

Then there is all the time you have to invest to edit the video. If it is a good one, even editing without stopping, it will never be less than 3 days. To give you an idea, I usually take between 6 to 10 days to edit the main wedding video, and add to this what it takes if other services are hired like a highlights video or a trailer video.

Music licensing

To make the videos, almost 100% of videographers use music, and those musics are always copyrighted. And they have to pay to get the music licenses for each song.

And many of the videographers usually get workshops and other kind of trainings to improve their skills. And these courses are not cheap at all.

Marketing

In addition, the videographer has a marketing to do so you can find him or her in wedding portals or search engines such as Google or Bing. To build a website has a cost of about 1,000€ if it is something professional. Payimg to be present in wedding portals costs between 500€ to 2,000€ per year for being featured. And there is Google advertising, where the videographer can pay up to what he or she is willing to pay to be shown well positioned in Google search every time you type “wedding video”…

Insurance

One of the biggest terrors of videographers and wedding photographers is that their equipment can be stolen. Many stories circulate from colleagues who were robbed in the street or in the car, if not in the restaurant itself. For this, there are insurances designed for these situations. Other insurance that should be mandatory is civil liability insurance. In the event, the videographer could breaks an object or unintentionally harm someone or himself. In these situations he would be covered by this insurance.

Taxes

And the last but not least, you have to be registered as a freelancer, which leads to paying a monthly autonomous fee of a minimum of 283.30€ (in Spain) or having set up a company and also paying a fee per employee of about 300€. Being legal means that you will have to pay 21% of what you receive in every bill/invoice and another 19% to 30% of the benefits for the IRPF (anual taxes). That is, if you charge 2,000€ with a legal invoice, the professional will hardly see about 1,400 euros of all that money. And from this money you have to deduct the monthly autonomous fee, the business expenses (advertising, rents, etc) and amortize the equipment. In summary, from a work billed at 2,000€, what is “clean” hopefully barely reaches 1,000€.

See, now being a wedding videographer no longer seems so cool, right? Well, it is not easy, and as in any other kind of business, you have to work hard to get a living from it and not die trying.

Conclusión

So how much does a wedding video cost? In conclusion, in my opinion you will hardly find a video service that does everything legally for less than 1,000€. I would budget a minimum of 1,500€ and go as far as your pocket reaches. It is an investment that in the future you will see rewarded being able to live again one of the most special days of your life.

Do you want to see what my wedding video prices are? Keep in mind that my rates refer to wedding videos in Barcelona, Spain, but I can move anywhere in the world. That would vary the budget a bit. Click here to see them.

Do you still have any doubts? Don’t be shy and write me 🙂

Everything you need to know before hiring the wedding video

June 15, 2020May 30, 2019 by mireia llum

vídeos de boda barcelona, tarifas, casarse en barcelona

Everything you need to know before hiring wedding video services (PART I)

Don't rush: spend some time finding your ideal video

Hiring your wedding video is not like going to the supermarket looking for tomatoes and taking home the ones on sale. Today, wedding videography has reached levels of excellence impossible to imagine years ago.

Yes, we must admit that it was a hard experience to watch wedding videos. they had incredibly long shots or camera movements that seemed made by a drunk guest. And what about those eccentric transitions that were used to move from one image to another? Something was wrong, we couldn’t find anything close to the bond between two people who love each other. Let’s recognize that the wedding video was until almost 10 years ago something almost insufferable in which almost no videographers with well-valued works stood out.

Nowadays, it is the opposite. We live the golden age of the wedding video with great artists like Santi Veiga, Maru Films, Gui Dalzoto or Alejandro Calore. All of them with their personal touch, always innovating and knowing how to tell a love story like nobody else. There are wedding videos, like those of the Spanish Francisco Montoro that almost look like works of art and that have managed to win awards in film festivals. Yes, as funny as it might sound: a wedding video winning a film festival, not bad at all.

But where to find a good wedding videographer?

As you can see, my advice is that you do not rush and hire the first thing you find. There are several methods to find wedding video professionals. On the one hand, you can look at portals of wedding professionals. In Spain, you can find videographers on bodas.net, zankyou, bodaideal, todoboda, etc. The other method is to use search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. You type “wedding videos + name of the city” et voilà, you will see a few. With the searchers, you are not going to find all the videographers, only those that have been able to position well their web. Of course, if they appear well positioned is usually synonymous with receiving enough requests for budget. If you dedicate a few minutes a day to search, surely you will end up finding one that matches with your style.

"My photographer also offers me video"

I do not tell you to run away if you come across with that situation, but be careful. It is extremely unlikely that you find a single company that is excellent in photography and videography at the same time. They work with very different techniques, which require different equipment and highly contrasted trainings. If it is already difficult to find an excellent professional in an area, imagine how unlikely it is that the two are part of the same company. My advice is that you look for the wedding photographer on the one hand and on the other the videographer, just as you look for catering on the one hand and decoration on the other. Many times what you end up hiring in this way is a photographer who takes a good slice of pie subcontracting a videographer.

Another important thing is that the photographer recommends a videographer who likes to work. Here I do not raise any objection. Take a look, it never hurts, maybe it’s a good option to consider.

"My wedding planner recommends me someone"

If your wedding planner recommends a specific photographer or videographer, I do not say that you distrust, but that you look well at their work. It may be that the wedding planner recommends them because they like to deal with them or because they like their work aesthetically and that does not mean that you will like it. It may even be the case that I recommend them to you because you take a commission if you hire them. So, take an eye on it. Consider these professionals the same as those you can find in wedding portals or search engines.

"The restaurant forces me to hire its photographer and its videographer"

This is a common practice, and it is as usual as illegal. The restaurant has no right to force you to hire your photographer and/or videographer. You could even go into litigation with them for this matter, but I guess it’s not worth it to get angry with whoever is going to prepare the food, right? At this point, you should value very seriously if you like that restaurant so much that you take it all in. Because the probability that those professionals they offer you are not excellent is 110%. There are many options for good restaurants, look for another option if you find this case. Food is very important, without a doubt, but the photos and the video remain forever.

Decide what suits you best: documentary wedding video or videoclip

Ok, there are many types of wedding videos. True. But this two styles predominate over the rest.

Documentary wedding video

The documentary wedding video usually corresponds to a use of the natural audio of the situations, long static images taken with a tripod, instrumental music that accompanies the action without highlighting too much. There is also a frequent use of interviews to the couple, family or friends to tell the story of the couple. It is usually the style that most resembles a film fiction film. In this type of videos, music is not the protagonist, the story is. I will give as an example of a documentary wedding video the following video by Tomás Utillano:

Wedding video as a videoclip

Well, as the name indicates, it is a style where music (often commercial music without a license) is the one that commands, which marks the assembly of the images. They tend to be dynamic videos, with many camera movements and lots of images per minute. This type of videos are usually more focused on the surface of the wedding and often leave the story of the couple aside. Normally it does not have interviews. You usually finish watching the video without knowing anything about the couple, what they like or dislike. I will give as an example of videoclip wedding videos Guilherme Coelho:

As you see, it is very important that you determine what you like the most, what goes with you and your personality. I am more a fan of documentary-style wedding videos, I find them much more entertaining when they tell you a story. However I do not despise anything, without going any further my way of making wedding films is a mixture of both styles: on the one hand I tell the story of the couple but on the other I try to shoot a good amount of images. This way I have the best of each style: the story and the dynamism.

Are you getting married? Let's talk!

What does a wedding videographer like me do in a blog like this?

June 15, 2020April 2, 2019 by mireia llum

What does a wedding videographer like me do in a blog like this? 😛

A while ago I made the determination that as a wedding videographer it was time to take a step forward and start with my own brand: Mireia LLum Films. I had been working for others in the wedding videos for about 8 years and it was a good time to take the step. That’s two years ago.

Since then a lot has rained, and there are many ideas and experiences harvested at this time. And now, with this blog I will present some topics that may be useful to familiarize yourself with this world of wedding videos. It will be useful both for couples who are in the process of looking for a thousand and one providers for their day, as well as those who simply get bitten by the bug.

“Ok, fine, but what are you going to tell us?”, you must be asking yourselves.

Here is the answer...

I’m going to make a mix between my experiences collected during all these years and a small guide that will cover many topics, always from the point of view of wedding videos:

Where to marry?

Destination weddings: trend or divine invention

Since not many years ago, destination weddings have appeared as a very popular option to marry. But what is exactly a destination wedding? Well, it is the fact that the couple decide to get married in a different country from where they live or were born. If it’s a wedding with no guests, only the couple, it is known as elopement. And if family and friends participate, then it’s called destination wedding.

In my case as a videographer, I’m working specially with foreign couples who wants to get married in Barcelona or close to Barcelona (Spain) and in Lisbon or close to Lisbon (Portugal).

What is a cinematic wedding video?

It’s been a while since we have been talking more and more about wedding cinematography. Nowadays, all the videographers in the field make “cinematic videos”, which at the beginning may seem somewhat contradictory. But what does this mean exactly? I will explain the recent origin of the use of this terminology and what one is supposed to find when viewing one of these videos.

The dance: the usual?

The party is the culmination of a great day, the cherry on the top of the cake. For many, it may be the best part of the day. But for getting there it is needed a good balance between music and ambience. The truth is that in my experience, original wedding videos usually have at the time of the party one of the most important points to surprise the guests. And, of course, deliver a great material to work with in their wedding film.

Well, I have a long list of topics to propose, I hope I can surprise you and give you some ideas and a little more light in everything that surrounds the wedding day.

See you soon!

Mireia LLum