Local videographers help you turn your wedding into a mini-documentary.

Got your venue? Check. Rings? Yep. Dress, photographer, cake, DJ? It’s all in place. What about a videographer? Ah.

Peri Basseri, owner of Bigtime Video Services in Monterey, is also a board member of the Monterey Bay Wedding and Event Professionals, a tri-county trade organization that’s done focus groups on brides.

“We ask what their biggest regret is,” she says, “and two out of three said, ‘that we didn’t get a wedding video.’”

Greg and Dixie Hyde, a husband-and-wife team, run Best Shot Video in Salinas. “I believe you can really capture the feelings, the details: a tilt of the head, someone taking a deep breath,” Greg says. “When couples watch their wedding videos, they cry, because it brings up so much emotion.”

This former wedding videographer talked to three current ones about how to get the most out of your wedding video.

My mama told me, you better shop around.

Technology has equalized the playing field, Basseri says. The difference is filmmaking skill. “[Videographers] are becoming comparable to photographers in terms of equipment,” she says. “We’re using the same DSLRs [high-end cameras that shoot both still and video], but with a microphone on top.”

Videographers should have a sample reel. Watch them. “I’m not always the right filmmaker for the job; look at the work first,” says Steven Garza of Higher City Films in Salinas.

Hyde says to check Yelp for reviews. Basseri suggests WeddingWire.com or the venue. A reputable videographer, she says, will cost about $1,500 to $5,000.

Watch out for Stanley Kubrick syndrome.

Some videographers may delude themselves into thinking your wedding is actually a film set, and that you and your loved ones are actors and extras who must hit their marks or do retakes. You want a videographer to have pride in their work, but humility too.

“We try to be unobtrusive,” Greg Hyde says. “My wife and I wear all black to [not] be seen. We go to the rehearsals and we get [to the ceremony] an hour early so we’re not moving around when people are arriving.”

“The essence of cinema is editing.”

Not to get highfalutin, but that’s a quote from Francis Ford Coppola, and it can be applied to your wedding video. Raw footage should be edited down to make it more dramatic. A good videographer must also be a good editor in order to come out with the best finished project. “That’s where everything comes together,” Garza says.

Cameras don’t shoot weddings. People do.

Garza suggests couples ask themselves: “Is this a person I want to spend all day with?” Especially on a possibly high-pressure day like a wedding, you will want to be compatible with those around you. He says a videographer should get to know the couple, and the wedding party if possible, to better be attuned to whom to shoot and when. That will translate into a better finished product.

Make sure there are AT least two shooters.

“It looks more like a movie that way,” Hyde says. Plus, if one shooter’s footage gets blocked or the battery fails, continuity can be rescued with the second camera. And there’s no harm in setting up a third camera on a tripod shooting wide-angle.

When it comes to video, pay attention to audio.

The videographers I spoke with were unanimous on this point.

“Audio is half of what we’re recording,” Basseri says.

“Great sound can make the video look better,” adds Hyde, who is also a recording musician.

Garza says, “If you don’t have good sound, you’re missing part of the story.”

Can’t afford a professional videographer? DIY.

Couples tell Basseri they are grateful they had their wedding filmed because “the whole day was a blur.”

But if the cost is prohibitive, she adds, in any wedding party there are bound to be aspiring filmmakers. Find that person (or, to be safe, people), get them a tripod and decent wireless or lavalier microphones, and deputize them to shoot the wedding.

Or, Hyde suggests, add videography to your gift registry. It may be one of the most enduring gifts of the day.