First Year Recap

Documenting memories to last a lifetime

Alright momma friends! I know you have endless videos of your sweet littles, but guess what? Maybe I'm wrong, but I bet there's a good chance Instagram stories and highlights and reels may not be a thing when they are headed off to college. And even if you've saved the videos off your phone, it tends to be a hassle to click through file after file to watch video clip after video clip. I made a compilation of both my boys' first year where we can see them go from the tiny little newborn in the hospital to a big one year old, all in one video in just under 8 minutes. I know we will treasure this and appreciate that it is one click for all those special highlights in his first year. Here's what I'm proposing: Please don't let your videos get lost in the gram or your phone or in a bunch of unorganized files on your computer. If you don't have the time, ability or patience to click through video after video (I went through over 500 videos for Scotty's) to create a first year highlight, would you consider letting me do it for you?

What you will do:

Keep capturing the memories of your littles like you already are!
Upload your videos into a shared folder that we will provide
Keep in touch over the course of the year (or in the editing process if your baby is already one)

What we will do:

I will set you up a One Drive link with folders where you can upload your videos by month
If you are within our radius, I will attend the first birthday party (if desired) to capture video so you can enjoy the day without worrying about it
Once your little one turns one and we have all the footage, I will create a video similar to Scotty's First Year Recap (see video example below)

Your Investment:

$350 will get you access to the shared folder and a highlight video of the first year guaranteed to be at least 5 minutes long. I will also attend the birthday party if you would like me to be there to capture video if you live within our radius. If you are out of town, we can talk about a travel fee, or I can give you some tips for getting some good footage!

If you are interested in a First Year Recap video, shoot me an email and let's start documenting your memories together!

Bride and Groom Edits

March 2023

I have been loving creating my Bride and Groom Special Edit videos so I just wanted to share a few! This special edit is available as an add on to our Budget and Basic packages for an extra $250 and it is included in our Bonus package. Our typical full highlight ranges from 5-12 minutes and is edited chronologically to include all of the major events and details from the day. Our Bride and Groom Special Edit ranges from 3-5 minutes, it focuses in on the bride and groom throughout the day and is not edited chronologically. Take a look at one of my favorites of Mabrey and Jackson's special day below, or check out all of them by clicking here!

The Gathering

April 2021

Recently I have had the opportunity to work with the Women's ministry Be(Loved) at the church I attend, First Baptist Church of Woodstock, on creating some videos for their social media pages. On April 29th, they held an event called The Gathering which was a night of worship and fellowship with other women. This was an incredible event bringing people together from all different ages and backgrounds to share their stories, and you could truly feel God's presence as we worshipped together. I created a quick little recap for them to be able to share on social media, so take a look below!

This event is held yearly, so if you are interesting in attending next year or want to learn more about the Be(Loved) Women's Ministry then follow them on Facebook or Instagram @fbcwbeloved.

Should I book a Second Shooter?

March 2021

So you might be wondering, is it really necessary to book a second shooter? Let me give you some things to consider and then you can make the decision for yourself!

Second shooters come in handy in a variety of ways on your wedding day. Not only can they provide a second angle during some key moments (first looks and during the ceremony), they can also help divide and conquer with pre-recording audio, getting detail shots, or even grabbing the guy's getting ready shots while the first shooter stays with the bride. Check out the videos below for some bride and groom first looks shot with one shooter versus two shooters.

One Shooter

Two Shooters

You can see a difference in the two sets of videos with how the second shooter provided the opportunity to get the bride's reaction in addition to the first shooter capturing the groom's reaction. With one shooter, we usually stage the shot to get a quick view of the bride's face as she stands behind the groom, then we reposition to be able to get the groom's reaction as he turns around. Both create beautiful highlights, it's just up to you to decide what is most important to you!

Our Bonus package includes a second shooter, but if you prefer the Budget or Basic package you always have the option to add a second shooter for an additional $300. Check out our Investment page for all the details!

Exciting Announcement

January 2020

My husband Eric and I have some exciting news to share. We are expecting our first baby! We are currently 8 weeks pregnant, which is pretty early to share the news, however we feel we have waited long enough and would love to have more people thinking about and praying for us now in the early weeks of pregnancy as our little baby grows. We appreciate everyone's understanding as we plan to not book weddings this fall (August through October of 2020) as our baby is due in August. This will give us the time we need to adjust to our growing family! As for now, our little gift from God is about the size of a raspberry, but he or she is getting bigger each and every day. We are so excited for this little bundle of joy and feel so blessed by God for entrusting us with a little one. As always, thank you for supporting our businesses, whether it be videography or real estate. We are so thankful to be able to have jobs where we can serve others in some of the most exciting times of their lives, and we appreciate you celebrating with us in this exciting time of ours!

Anchor 1

Ellie and Andrew's Wedding

October 2019

Last Christmas when Burns Videography was just getting started, I did a free highlight video Christmas giveaway. I had quite a few entries, mostly because everyone loves the word free, and our winner was a sweet bride named Ellie. I met up with her to chat about her wedding day and I knew this was going to be such a fun wedding to capture. She and Andrew were one of the sweetest couples I have worked with. They love Jesus, the Georgia Bulldogs, and each other. Take a look at their wedding day highlight at Cagle's Family Farm!

New England and Bermuda Vacation

September 2019

I blocked off a couple weekends in September for a trip that my husband Eric and I had been planning for over a year. Earlier this week we got back from an 11 day vacation where we flew to New York, road tripped up to Maine, and made it back to New York just in time for our Bermuda Cruise. Our road trip consisted of a few stops: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. Our goal was to see things and explore states that neither of us had been to, and we checked a lot off our bucket list!

Our favorite parts of the road trip half of the trip were hiking in Bar Harbor, Maine and in Franconia, New Hampshire. Prior to this trip, we hadn't hiked anything quite like we experienced in these two places, and both were amazingly beautiful. Check out some pictures and our GoPro Video compilation from the trip below!

Our road trip brought us back to New York where we hopped aboard the Disney Magic for a 5 night cruise to Bermuda. We have grown to love Disney cruises and this one was absolutely amazing! We loved the island of Bermuda and were able to explore different parts with some great excursions. We swam in caves, jumped off cliffs, snorkeled, and enjoyed the pink sand! As always, we created a GoPro video compilation for the trip, which which is also shared below along with a couple of photos!

Summer Shenanigans

June and July 2019

I am sure that if you're reading this, you probably know that summer in Georgia is HOT. Hot AND humid, so not many people plan to have their wedding in the summer heat. I had one wedding in June and none in July, and seeing that I had 3 in August, I am attributing the lull to brides trying to avoid sweating through their wedding! So, what did I spend my summer doing? Well since I taught the last three years, I spent summer like most teachers do, just enjoying the time off, not worrying about not working, and trying to cram in loads of fun activities.

One of my hobbies is (you guessed it) making videos, so when my husband and I go on fun adventures together, we always have our suitcase in one hand and our GoPro in the other. I grew up enjoying scrapbooking with my mom, so I have always liked documenting memories to look back on later. I like to think of bringing along the GoPro as a way to create our own video scrapbook. I have these videos (that all started out with a very shaky video of a hike where Eric Proposed) on YouTube and backed up for safekeeping so that one day when we are old and gray, we can look back on all the fun times past Eric and Lauren had (anyone catch the reference??). Who knows, maybe soon there will be little ones that come along, Lord willing, and we can document our family through the years with these videos as well.

I made two personal videos from this summer's adventures, a 3 day backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, and a day trip rafting on the Nantahala. If you're interested, check them out below!

All of our personal videos can be found on my personal YouTube page. There you'll find our GoPro memories all the way from January of 2016 where we got engaged (again, in a very shaky video from our very first time using a GoPro) to July of 2017 on our Honeymoon cruise with Disney to Alaska, running a marathon, snow day fun, and more. We recently upgraded to the latest GoPro (the Hero7 Black) which has built in stabilization which has done wonders for the final quality of our adventuring videos. If you are like me and love to capture vacations and memories on video, but you don't have the software or time to edit all the clips together to highlight the adventure, let me know and I will put together a package specifically for your needs so you can get those vacation memories into a highlight video that you will cherish forever!

May 2019

Double Wedding Weekend

I don't know what else to say but wow! Never in my wildest dreams of starting this journey would I have imagined I'd be turning down brides for already having been booked and having double wedding weekends so soon! I feel so blessed that the Lord has allowed me to get to be a part of so many special wedding days so far and so many more to come this year.

I had my first double header the third weekend in May. It started off with Abigail and Nick's wedding at Sweet Meadow Farms in Tallapoosa, Georgia on Saturday the 15th, and Sunday the 16th I was at it again for Mitchell and Hannah's wedding at the Cotton Mill Event Venue in Jefferson, Georgia. What a weekend! I've got another double header lined up for August, with all but one Saturday booked. Brides, grooms, whoever is reading this, I can't stress enough how important it is to secure your vendors as soon as possible. Whether it is videography with us or someone else, a photographer, hair and make up team or caterer, you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to book the vendor who's work you love simply because you waited too long to secure them and they are now unavailable for your date.

Since you made it this far, enjoy the highlights from my double wedding weekend and please contact me if you like what you see and want to learn more about booking us to capture your day!

Gear Upgrades

April 2019

As with any business, there is always room to grow. I knew that something I needed to do to turn out a better product was upgrade some of my camera equipment. After shooting my portfolio builds, I knew that stabilization and high quality low light footage was where I struggled when it came to producing a high quality final product. There was only so much I was able to do with the setup I had. So, after a lot of research, we decided to upgrade our camera, lens, and steady cam. We purchased a new body, the Panasonic Lumix GH5, a new Leica prime lens, and a DJI Ronin-S, a 3 axis gimbal for optimal stabilization. This new set up is going to allow us to have the most fluid movement and crystal clear footage, even during your reception and sparkler send off. We will be using our previous camera to have a stationary second angle during ceremonies, while we use the Panasonic Lumix on the Ronin as our mobile camera.

I am so excited about the new set up. We decided to test out the gear to see for ourselves if it was as good as all of the reviews we read. Below you will see two videos, one comparing low light capabilities and one comparing stabilization. The first compares our previous camera to the new Panasonic Lumix GH5 in a low light sparkler setting. The second compares our previous set up for stabilization (a flycam steadycam with the previous camera), to our new set up with the Lumix on the DJI Ronin-S.

Low Light

Stabilization

Two Year Anniversary

December 16, 2018

On December 16th, my husband Eric and I celebrated 2 years of marriage together. Our wedding day is part of where my passion for videography comes from. Let me explain.

Eric and I got engaged on January 16th, 2016. As the excitement settled, we started planning our wedding. We decided on a July wedding date and booked our venue for 7-1-17, a year and a half away. At this point, you might be thinking the date of our anniversary doesn't quite match up, and you're right. A big part of our wedding story has to do with my dad and his cancer journey. My dad had been through chemo and the most recent scans showed no signs of the cancer. He was to have one more surgery in October of 2016 as the last step to finishing his cancer treatment. I went to work the day of the surgery and I remember very clearly getting home that afternoon to ride down to hospital with my mom. I knew something wasn't quite right on my way home when she wouldn't tell me on the phone. When I got there, she told me they weren't able to do the surgery as planned. During surgery, they found what scans for some reason didn't see, that the cancer had spread and it was far worse than they could have imagined. The next weeks were a living nightmare as we went in and out of ICU. There was an additional surgery to help correct infection that had set in with the original surgery. I went to the hospital almost everyday after work for a month. It was about halfway through that month-long hospital stay that we found out that we may not have much time left with my dad. The cancer had spread too much for any treatment to be successful. I had to make the decision of moving my wedding date sooner in hopes that would give us the best chance for him being there to walk me down the aisle, or stick with our July date and risk him not being here with us.

With time ticking to change the date to a day that would give us enough time to pull everything together, we decided that the best thing to do would be to see what our venue could do as far us moving up our wedding. They had a date available on a Friday night in December, and just like that we started making the date changes with our other vendors. December 16th was our new date, and it was our goal for my dad to be there to walk me down the aisle. What was supposed to be a sunny July outdoor wedding had quickly turned into quite the opposite. I remember sitting in the hospital room listening to songs with my dad, trying to figure out which one that we were going to dance to together, tears on both of our faces, me trying to hide mine from him as I prayed he would be able to dance with me in December.

November rolled around and then we got to December. We had some scares with my dad's heath, he couldn't eat because the cancer had basically prevented any of his digestive system from working, hospice home health was called in, and it was really a day by day thing. Some days he was strong enough to get out of bed, other days he wasn't. We go to the week of our wedding and decided to have someone on hand to record it on Facebook live in case he couldn't be there. It was going to be a last minute decision. His home health nurse was so gracious and offered to come to the wedding with him so that she could attend to him if needed and give my mom to ability to enjoy the wedding without worrying about his needs.

December 16th rolled around. I headed to the venue with my bridesmaids around 9 AM, ready to start setting up with the coordinator and then get ready for the day. I want to note that my husband and I were blessed with what we considered a very generous budget from my parents. Through all of our planning, we felt like we worked to save money here and there and manage our budget well. However, when it came to videography, our money went to other areas of the budget that we deemed more important, so professional video was nixed. Based on my experiences with being in other weddings and attending other weddings, this happens a lot. I wasn't going to not have video of our wedding day though. What is already the biggest day of our lives now had added importance because of my dad's health. He had given me a GoPro camera a couple years prior, so I figured I would spend my morning getting some video of details like my dress and the succulent favors I had grown and potted, my bouquet and the outside of the venue. All of the things I had seen in wedding videos that I came across on Social Media. Eric's dad had a cam corder that he filmed some of the events that I as the bride could not capture and one of our guests at the wedding also filmed some events with his video camera unbeknownst to us and shared those videos with us afterwards.

At this point you might be wondering how it turned out with my dad. He showed up a little before the ceremony with the home health nurse. He walked my down the aisle, gave me away, and danced with me to the song we chose in the hospital room a little more than a month prior. He sat and chatted with friends and family during the reception and was a good sport when he couldn't delve into the double chocolate cupcakes that he had picked out for our cupcake assortment. He even felt well enough to stay through the entire reception and wave goodbye as Eric and I drove away as husband and wife. It was a blessing and a true miracle.

My dad passed away two months later on February 20, 2017. The photos we have as a family from the wedding day are the last family photos we have of us together. The video I made, even though it is pieced together from 4 different cameras all with varying quality (the worst one being the Facebook live video of the ceremony that we still had recorded for my grandparents) is some of the most special footage I have. It truly is priceless.

I am writing all of this to say that my wedding experience is a big reason why I value video. It showed me that even with a generous budget, we still didn't have room for videography because of the prices that currently dominate the industry. I know what I have on video is so special to me, and part of why I put together the packages and price point for Burns Videography was to try and hit the market of Brides who, like myself, want video of their day, even just the highlights, so that they have something more than photos to look back on. The photos didn't capture my dad warming my hands because it was 42 degrees outside. They didn't capture him kissing me on the cheek. It's those little moments that are captured on video that are so special to me, and I want to capture those moments for others.

Our own wedding highlight video, captured from 4 cameras of varying quality throughout the day. I'm glad we have home video rather than no video. I put together this highlight shortly after our wedding, 2 years before even thinking of creating a videography business. Think of how much better it could have been if there was a videographer out there that would have captured our day for under $1,000 like we do now.

More Than Weddings

December 15, 2018

Saturday December 15th was one for the books! I had a wedding to film that had been scheduled since October, but I also got word of a project that needed a videographer at a local church in Canton, and I just knew I had to jump on it. I was at capturing the service project from 8-12, grabbed lunch, and then headed to my

wedding at 12:30 and was there until the send off. Did I mention I had a Christmas party to attend afterwards?? It was a jam packed day, but it could not have been more amazing!

Let me tell you more about this service project. Revolution Church was teaming up with SERV Food Local and packing boxes of fresh food to deliver to the community. Let me say that again. They were packing boxes of FRESH food. Ya'll, whenever I think of food drives and boxes to help out families during the holidays, I always think of non-perishables. These boxes were filled with produce, all the best fruits and veggies and topped with a carton of eggs. I'm talking grapefruit, oranges, grapes, green beans, potatoes, asparagus, corn, broccoli, cantaloupe, bananas, and apples. Nutritious, fresh food. It was incredible. It was an amazing thing to be able to capture. At Burns Videography, we will capture more than just weddings. Service projects, events, parties, you name it. Have your own raw footage and want someone to turn it into a finished project? We can do that too.

Melinda & Tommy

November 2018

I kicked off November with another portfolio build. Melinda and Tommy got married at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church and then partied the night away at Pinetree Country Club. One of the really cool things about jumping into the wedding business is the support you get from others also in the business. I got to work with a really great photographer at this wedding, Brooke Womack. Brooke, like myself, studied education but has a passion and a talent for photography. If you ever check her out, you'll see her talent and passion for yourself. It shines in her work! I had a blast shooting with her and capturing Melinda and Tommy's day.

Portfolio Builds

October 2018

My first two weddings were the absolute best I could've asked for as portfolio builds. I had a bride reach out on the post I put on Facebook that I described in the first blog post, and her wedding was the very next Saturday. I was nervous, but I figured I had to jump in head first so why put it off if I had this opportunity? She and I met at a Starbucks two days later and she was absolutely the most sweetest person. She radiated joy and happiness, and I could feel her love for the Lord and her excitement for her upcoming wedding. She was so thankful to have seen my free video offer, and I was so thankful she was giving me this opportunity to capture her wedding.

My second portfolio build was with another sweet bride. Her wedding coordinator reached out to me hoping to surprise her bride with with a video, and just like that I had back to back weddings to shoot. I will never forgot how grateful her family was to have me there capturing all of the special moment on video. They said I was a blessing, but they were truly a blessing to me as well for allowing me to come and gain more experience.

These two portfolio builds could not have been more different from each other as far as weddings go. The first was in the quaint little downtown area of Rockmart, Georgia. It was a mid day church wedding with the small reception down the street at the Rockmart Slate House, a restored 180o's building, one of the two oldest buildings in Rockmart. The second was at Toccoa Falls in northeast Georgia. It was a perfect October day for a waterfall wedding with a reception in the event space attached to the welcome center. I have to say, shooting a waterfall wedding was right up my alley. My husband Eric and I both love the outdoors; we are always looking for some sort of adventure. Getting to capture this couple's outdoor waterfall wedding that so perfectly captured their personality as well was such a great way to help me kick off my business.

How it all started

September 2018

Hi! My name is Lauren. I'm going to skip the about me part because you can just check that out here! I wanted to start up a blog on my site so I figured I'd go back to the beginning, when Burns Videography started to take shape.

I attended two weddings in the month of September, my brother's wedding in Nashville, Tennessee and my maid of honor Becca's wedding in Cleveland, Georgia. In both weddings I was a bridesmaid, and amidst the getting ready and set up, I ran around all day with the GoPro my dad gave me a few years back. Both weddings had photographers, but videography was cut out due to budget reasons. The same was true of my personal wedding in 2016, where, amidst the getting ready and setup, I (as the bride) was running around with the GoPro capturing details and passing it off for others to capture bits and pieces of my day. It was after the second of the two weddings in September that my friend Becca text me and said that she and her sister both thought I missed my calling as a wedding videographer. I brushed off the comment though. I loved putting together my GoPro videos of those weddings and of different adventures my husband and I have been on like hiking, cruising and having snowball fights when the snow decides to stick in Georgia, but I wasn't confident in capturing and creating videos for others as more than just a favor. There wasn't any pressure, and with no videographer hired, anything that I captured would be better than nothing at all.

Becca's wedding

Photo by Eric Cash - Shift 4 Photography

Something in me though thought that videography was something that I might be meant to do. I love the Lord and I think the gift of marriage is one of God's greatest gifts to us. I thought that being able to showcase weddings could be a way for me to demonstrate God's love to others by creating something special for them and showcase His love as it is demonstrated in marriage. I could offer a service that might hit the target of Brides who, like myself, stretched their budget to the max and had to cut out the non-essentials, which often leads to nixing videography. I want to reach the bride who wants the highlight video to share with family and friends, the one what wants to have a little more than just photos of of their day but can't afford the videographers that are currently dominating the industry. They have a lot to offer, and their prices are justified, but I wanted to try to have a price point where I can give the gift of video to brides who wouldn't be able to have it otherwise.

So, I put a blurb on a wedding group page on Facebook, simply stating that I was thinking about trying to be a videographer for weddings that I wasn't in, and asked if anyone who didn't have a videographer would let me create a highlight video of them for free. I guess I should've known that anything on Facebook with the word "free" typically blows up in seconds. And indeed it did! Within 15 minutes I had 7 events that I had to narrow down to three free weddings to build a portfolio and see if this was something I actually wanted to dive into. The first wedding was the very next weekend, and boy did it catch me off guard to have to put on my hat as a wedding videographer in just a few days.

My first few Brides were amazing and so gracious to let me come and capture their day as I practiced filming with more than just a GoPro. They allowed me to hone in on my skills as a videographer and figure out what I would be able to offer brides moving forward. I have prayed that if God wanted my to continue to pursue videography, He would continue to open doors. But, if He has something else in store for me that would bring Him greater Glory then I have asked that He would slam this door in my face. So far, I am walking through open doors on this videography journey, and I can't wait to see where God leads me as I work to show His love to others through capturing one of the biggest days of their lives.