It’s easy to get caught up in the endless tasks that come with planning a wedding. However, no matter how stressful it can be to manage caterers and come up with centerpieces, the focus needs to stay on the happy couple. Families are coming together at this event, with many people from either side meeting for the first time.
You might know a lot about the bride or groom, but some of the other guests might not. One way to tell the story of this couple is with a wedding slideshow. Here are a few good tips on how to make an amazing wedding slideshow that will make your guests laugh, cry, and cheer on the newlyweds.
1. Set a Limit for the Length
Before you start working on your wedding slideshow, decide how long you want the presentation to be. One good tip on how to make an amazing wedding slideshow is to try to keep the show less than five minutes long – or the length of a favorite song of the couple. Longer slideshows will get boring (no matter how moving you think they are) and the guests will move on.
That being said, if you have hundreds of photos you want to use, make sure you have digitized them with a photo and slide scanning service and then consider creating a background slideshow that runs throughout the reception. Guests can look at photos on a projector while they stand in line at the buffet or when they are mingling during the cocktail hour. This is a great compromise because you can have a longer slideshow that complements the short presentation.
2. Start With Childhood Memories
A wedding slideshow is a great place to share with everyone what the bride or groom was like growing up. Consider working with a few family members from the other wedding party to put this slideshow together. For example, if you are the mother of the bride, a good tip is to reach out to the mother or father of the groom to curate photos and videos that will make up the wedding slideshow.
Build a few slides that highlight what the couple was like when they were kids and the paths they took to meet each other. For many people, weddings are a time to reflect on how far the couple has come since childhood. These two people are entering a union of their own and starting their own families. It is a new beginning but also an end. Your wedding slideshow can tell this story.
3. Make Sure The Couple is Equally Represented
It’s okay if you have a few extra photos of the bride or an additional video clip of the groom, but try to make sure each person is represented equally in the slideshow. You don’t want to annoy one side of the family by making the wedding slideshow only about the bride while the groom is seemingly left out. This is another reason why collaboration with future in-laws is so important.
4. Include Video Clips
Many slideshow tools (like Prezi) allow you to build video clips into your presentations. If you have VHS tapes of the groom’s first steps or footage of the bride’s high school graduation, consider building them into the wedding slideshow. A good tip, though, is to try to limit these wedding slideshow clips to a few seconds before moving on to the next image. You might need to get creative with video editing software to find the best clips for the show.
If you have a lot of childhood memories trapped in VHS tapes, don’t worry. You can send them to Memory Fortress for digitization. We can digitize your home movies and send the footage through the cloud, on USB drives, or even on DVDs.
5. Ask Relatives to Leave Messages
As you curate video clips, now could be a great time to create new ones. Reach out to a few relatives of the bride and groom and ask them to create short video messages wishing the happy couple the best. These relatives can pass on advice to the couple or share their favorite memories. (Try to limit the length of these clips to 10-15 seconds so you can add multiple to the wedding slideshow.)
Incorporating these clips is a great way to honor family members and make them feel seen at the wedding. These clips can serve as an alternative to a toast to the couple. If you are worried that too many people will want to give speeches at the wedding, curate pre-made video clips instead.
6. End With Photos of The Couple Together
Conclude your wedding slideshow with a few recent images of the couple. You can ask for some of their engagement photos or save photos from their Facebook and Instagram accounts. When it comes to how to make a good wedding slideshow, this tip is a great way to share the evolution of two separate people coming together as a single married unit.
While a wedding is about celebrating families and bringing people together, the core of the day is for the bride and groom. Make sure the slideshow focuses on the couple – even if siblings, relatives, and friends are also part of the presentation.
7. Test the Slideshow on the Day of the Wedding
You worked so hard to create a quality wedding slideshow, the last thing you want is for something to go wrong during the presentation. Before the wedding, work with the wedding planner, DJ, or AV tech at the venue to set up your slideshow and complete a test run. Make sure the sound works and the video clips play correctly. During this time, confirm with the wedding planner when the slideshow will be played.
Too often, slideshows get derailed because there isn’t a WiFi connection or the sound doesn’t work properly. Don’t let your hard work go to waste!
Let Memory Fortress Help With Your Wedding Slideshow
Our experts at Memory Fortress don’t know much about wedding planning, but we know everything about photo and video digitization. Let us help you make the wedding slideshow process easier by digitizing your memories so they can be part of the story.
It’s possible to scan your memories by yourself through apps or digital scanners, but this process is long and cumbersome – especially if you have hundreds of photos. This wedding might be a great time to digitize all of your family memories so you can share them with relatives and use them in future events.
Start digitizing your media with Memory Fortress. All you have to do is box up your content and ship it to our team. Learn more about our process and then start your order today.