What does a wedding highlight video actually cost you?
A three to five minute highlight film hides a lot of work: logging footage, syncing audio, picking story moments, building a cut, then revising it. This page helps you put your own numbers into the calculator so you can see where the hours and the cost really go.
Estimate it with the calculator
All fields estimate-onlyWhy a short film takes long hours
The finished highlight is short, but the path to it is not. Before you place a single clip on the timeline, you are reviewing hours of ceremony, speeches, and reception coverage to find the moments worth keeping.
When you add up logging, selects, the first assembly, music and audio work, and client revisions, the real cost per film is usually higher than the export time suggests. The calculator lets you estimate that instead of guessing.
The stages a highlight film moves through
Most highlight edits move through a similar sequence. Estimating time for each stage separately tends to be more honest than one big number.
- Logging and organizing raw footage and audio
- Story selects and identifying key moments
- First assembly and structuring the cut
- Music, audio sync, and color pass
- Client revisions and final export and delivery
Where backlog quietly builds up
Backlog rarely comes from one slow edit. It comes from many films stacked behind each other while new weddings keep arriving.
Putting your weekly capacity and your queue into the calculator can help you identify which stage is the bottleneck and roughly how long the queue takes to clear at your current pace.
Common questions
Does this tell me what to charge clients?
What inputs do I need?
Will an AI-assisted workflow make my films faster?
Related pages
Plan a cleaner delivery workflow.
Run the numbers, then get a tailored workflow breakdown based on your queue. We review every request and follow up manually. Estimates only, no guarantees.