Every Wedding Videographer Needs to Film a Funeral

Death is not fun, but it’s important to understand its power within a family.

I only first began offering memorial films to clients local to my community of Whatcom County when a close family member on my girlfriends side passed on. At the time we were living on her grandparents property and were building a really beautifully community on those 20 acres. We would always find ourselves hanging out together from tea in the evenings to working in the gardens! When I first learned of Lee’s passing, Nana’s brother, I knew we needed to do something special for them to help preserve the event and allow more family to be a part of it that couldn’t make it due to covid.

So we did just that, captured an incredibly beautiful ceremony and service, and gifted the whole family a means to see everyone that came. On a whim we offered family to come to us privately to share stories of Uncle Lee, and in the process it began to click within me what it truly means to be an even photographer/videographer ESPECIALLY WITHIN the wedding industry!

We aren’t just capturing a wedding day. It’s not all about the glitz and glamour. It’s one of the few major events in two families lives that bring a huge chunk of people together to share a moment in time together. This realization made me aware of the fact that we have to prioritize and think different about what it is we’re capturing and why we do it the way we do.

So, we stopped emphasizing epic slow-mo clips and prioritizing audio. We stopped forcing our vision and allowed collaboration…and it’s been the most liberating feeling ever to experience knowing that we are serving our couples and their families first.

I urge any videographer within the industry or looking to get into the wedding industry to offer a free service to a grieving family and capture their service. It’ll change your heart and help you to prioritize what’s most important for a family!

- Joey Winkler, May 11th 2022

Lee's Memorial Films