A bridal shower is a time-honoured wedding tradition. Its origin stories date back to 16th-century Holland. They say that a young girl’s father refused to provide a dowry to a marriage he disapproved of so the town joined hands and offered small gifts to help her start her home without the dowry money. But what does that have to do with your search on how to create a surprise bridal video gift, you must be wondering. Read on.
The core of the tradition has somewhat held up over the years. But the etiquette for these affairs has changed over time. The essence that remains is that a bridal shower is an opportunity to shower the bride with congratulations, good wishes, and some gifts.
How is a surprise bridal shower video gift the best option?
You must be wondering what you should give the bride-to-be. What would be the perfect gift for a bridal shower? Will creating a surprise bridal shower video gift be enough? Bridal shower gift etiquette implies that it’s best to now show up empty-handed. The core of wedding showers, as earlier mentioned, is centred around gift-giving, after all. While in some cases, the hosts may add a note on the invitations that gifts are not required, if it’s not, it’s safe to assume that you should bring a present.
From appliances to china settings and serving pieces all have been great options in the past. With so many things to consider as gifts, it is hardly surprising that several people have decided to break the tradition of gifting home appliances or in general – material gifts. The etiquette has morphed over time, celebrating the upcoming marriage has become more about good wishes and personal gifts. This means that you can save that blender for the wedding and lean into something more personal – a gift that the bride will be surprised and delighted to receive.
So now the change we have been talking about is the movement of giving someone an experience as a gift. Keeping all of this in mind, creating a surprise bridal shower gift is the perfect experience to give to celebrate the bride-to-be. You can gather messages in small video clips and even some photos from the bride’s family, friends, colleagues and anyone else who wants to give their best wishes.
Worry not! We are here to help you create a commendable video gift. Keep reading to know the steps in detail.
How to create a surprise bridal shower video gift - 4 Steps
You can create a video gift by following the 4 simple steps mentioned below:
Step #1: Create a Celebration
This step is about you ‘Creating a Celebration’ and being the producer and the director of the show.
Starting to create a video gift as a director and producer, you have to do the following:
- Fill in the name of the bride who is going to receive the gift.
- Choose the occasion of the celebration, which in this case would be a Bridal Shower.
- Select the day you want to share the video with the bride.
- It’s very important to choose the deadline for the contributors of your video gift so that you get enough time to edit it. Also, choose a deadline a few days before the date of the celebration so that everyone in the family, friends or colleagues gets enough time to contribute to the gift.
- Now you can finally choose the style of the video you want to create. There are two types to choose from: 1. Single video clip per person, 2. Q&A style. Choose the one that suits your occasion the best.
Step #2: Invite friends and family to contribute
Because you are the director and the producer, you have to select the cast of your video. Be it the bride’s family or friends or even their colleagues, anyone who is the bride’s favourite is bound to appear in the video. So this step is all about creating an invitation. Let us explain how.
- Give your e-card a name so that when the cast receives it they understand what it is about from the name itself.
- You can also add a picture of the person you are going to send the final bridal shower video gift to so that it makes it easier for everyone to understand who the video gift is for. This image will be shown on the e-card that you are going to send to your ‘cast’ when you ask them for the clips or photographs with their kind messages.
- Celebrate allows you to select one or many ideas that your contributors can talk about in their videos. You can write your ideas and also select from the ideas suggested.
- Once you have selected from the ideas suggested, it is about turning the written part of the request into something that you think might serve as guidance to what the gift video is about and what exactly you are requesting the bride’s family, friends and colleagues to do. This is important as it will be included in the final e-card invite that you are going to share with them.
- Optional: You can record your video request to set an example of how you want the contributors’ video clips to be. You can redo it as many times as you want and you can include the messages you want. In Celebrate, you will find an example that will help you to deliver the best.
- Finally, preview how your invitation will look like to the bride’s family, friends and colleagues. If you like it, it’s all good, but if you don’t, don’t worry. You can edit the invitation any time you want.
- You can send your invitation text and video in two ways. One would be the way where you can just Tap to send an email and the other is where you can Tap to copy the link to the invitation.
As soon as you send them an invite, you can sit and relax because the friends, family and colleagues of the bride will be able to create and submit their video by just clicking on the link. Also, you will be sent an email whenever anyone responds to your invitation and all the videos will automatically appear in your Celebrate account.
Step #3: Create the final video
Once you receive all the video clips and the photographs from the friends and family of the bride-to-be, you can become the editor now. Yes, the power of which bit to keep and which bit to skip lies with you. In the editing suite, you’ll be able to see a preview pane, a timeline, and a clipboard – all there to help you preview the video, add video clips to the final gift, sort the clips by drag and drop functions respectively.
Also, in the editing suite, it’s not only about videos. You can add photos, cards, GIFs, browse the song library, upload songs and even add credits just like the ones we see at the end of movies.
Step #4: Share away!
The 4th step in the process is about sharing away all the goodness. So be prepared for the happy tears now.
- First, process your video. It will take around 4-5 minutes for every minute of the video to process.
Please note:
1. Your processed video will differ in three ways:
-It will be in HD.
-The “draft” watermark will be gone.
-Any black bars on the screen will be replaced with a blurred background but only in the case that you have used the Blurred background feature.
2. No extra cost will be charged if you want to make changes later and reprocess the video.
- Now choose if you want to normalize clip volume for times when people have recorded their video clips at different volumes.
- Then choose the credits feature in case you want your bridal shower gift to display the name of all the people who took part in the video. As earlier mentioned, it will look like the credits of a movie.
- As soon as you are finally ready with the final surprise bridal shower video gift, just use the pre-filled email and also the checked email addresses in the ‘to’ field, the ‘from’ address field, the suggested text, and the link to the video. It’s completely your choice whether you use it as it is or change it before you hit send
- You can also share the video with people by copying the link and sharing it via messaging apps, email, or social media apps.
Please note: Only contributors who have provided their email addresses must have specifically requested to see the final video. Contributors who haven’t shared their email won’t be able to watch the final gift though. However, you can still check the boxes of the people you want to share the final video with even if people have provided you with their email IDs.
Don’t forget to share it with the person the gift belongs to though!
Easy to Create, Fun to Give, Joy to Receive
Wasn’t that easy? And probably it is one of the most memorable and meaningful gifts you can give someone on their special day. A surprise bridal shower video gift is also the best gift in times when it’s uncertain whether or not you can meet your loved ones. These times, if anything, have taught us to be resilient, loving and creative.
Do you need help with Celebrate to create a surprise bridal shower video gift? Get in touch with our friendly team.
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