
Editing & Delivery Faqs
Ciao bellissimi! â¨
We know you’re probably floating somewhere between the honeymoon glow and the anticipation of seeing your wedding memories come to life. This is one of the most meaningful stages of our work—where all the emotion, beauty, and energy of your day takes shape in photo and film.
We also know that this part can come with questions (totally normal!). So here’s a lovingly curated list of FAQs to help you understand what to expect.
You’re in wonderful hands đ¤
Your delivery timeline is always clearly stated in your signed agreementâthis is your reference point for when to expect your final gallery and film. We always do our absolute best to deliver everything sooner and in some cases we may deliver earlier (especially during quieter seasons), in such cases, we will surely keep you updated, but that line in your contract is the official window you can rely on.
A Little Insight Into Our Workflow: as our work in Italy is highly seasonal â with most weddings taking place between May and October â we often document multiple events within a short timeframe. To ensure fairness and care for each couple, we process every gallery and film chronologically, following the timeline outlined in our agreement. Delivery times reflect the quality and attention we dedicate to each story, and are always clearly stated and agreed upon in advance.
We completely understand the excitementâitâs natural to want to relive the day right away! We always edit in chronological order, out of fairness to every couple. As a boutique studio, we edit every wedding with intentionâone by one, in the order they were captured, to give each gallery the time, attention and care it deserves and also to keeps things fair to every couple.
Should you wish to skip the line and get your gallery or video soonerâmaybe to share with loved ones back home, for a celebration, or simply because you just canât waitâwe do offer an Express Editing Upgrade, your wedding becomes our immediate editing priority which means your wedding jumps to the very top of our editing queue for an added fee. With this service, we guarantee delivery within two weeks from the moment the upgrade is confirmed. This service is subject to availability, depending on the time of year, our travel schedule, and the weddings already in our queue, it may not always be possible to offer express editingâso we always check availability before confirming.
Everything delivered is exactly what you selected in your main package, along with any extras you decided to add. The first page of your agreement is always your point of reference as it clearly outlines the number of photos, if any type of videos, and any additional services booked.
-Photos: are always delivered digitally in your online gallery in high resolution, and if 35mm film photography is included, those scans will appear in the same gallery.
-Videos: (if you have booked videography) your agreement details each piece. The highlight cinematic wedding film (typically 5â15 minutes of the best moments of the day, edited in a cinematic style), plus any extras included or that you chose to add. Full-length recordings such as the entire ceremony, speeches, dances or any other are never part of the highlight film and are only delivered if they were specifically booked as extras.
Everything we deliver is in full line to our artistic style which you can see all across our portfolio, on our website (under Photography / Films) and Instagram.
Our post-production process involves careful selection and editing of each image/video to bring out its best qualities. Our photos and videos are hand-edited one by one, and we deliver all the best photos and frames in your final personalised web gallery where you will be able to download high-res photos and videos and also share the link with anyone you would like to. We apply our signature editing style to enhance colors, tones, and overall aesthetics, ensuring a consistent and cohesive final result.
We love to stay true-to-tone and embrace natural beauty without over-editing or altering the authentic moments of your day. With our editing, our ultimate goal is to enhance the beauty of the location, the emotions, and the day itself, ensuring that everyone feels as real and as genuine as they are.
What we do not do: to remain true to our styles and the way we want to express and represent into our work, we do not engage in heavy heavy body or face retouches (make sure with your makeup perfectly matches the color and tones of your body too) as we don't use photoshop to alterate bodies, we don't use sky replacements. We really embrace the natural beauty of the day and of people as they are, enhancing it in the most beautiful and natural way, finding beauty in realness.
Our social media trailer is a perfectly condensed preview of your wedding video that encapsulates the essence, emotion, and highlights of our couple's special day in 9:16 aspect ratio: This short video, typically ranging from 30 seconds to a few minutes, is meticulously crafted to showcase the most significant and visually stunning moments of the wedding. Through a skilful blend of carefully selected scenes, music, and storytelling, the trailer aims to evoke the emotions experienced during the event. It serves as a teaser, offering a glimpse into the love, joy, and unique details that define the couple's celebration, ultimately leaving viewers eager to experience the full-length wedding film.
And of course, it is ready to be shared with your loved ones or on your social media.
We love when couples get involved in shaping the mood of their film!
How the use of music legally works: when you hire a photo/video team and purchase a wedding film, that transaction is considered a commercial exchange. And because of that, we canât legally use just any musicâespecially popular or radio songsâunless that music is properly licensed for commercial use. That means weâre required to follow copyright laws, and we canât use copyrighted music (like Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, BeyoncĂŠ, etc.) unless the usage rights have been officially purchased. Otherwise, we will incur in legal consequences for breakage of copyright laws.
That said, we absolutely want your film to feel like you. Hereâs how we make it work:
We use two trusted music licensing platforms: Audiio and Epidemic Sound.
Should you wish, youâre welcome to browse their libraries and choose up to three tracks you love. Weâll pick the one that fits the edit best.
If you want a commercial song, youâll need to purchase the full commercial usage rights yourself (which is often very expensive) and provide us with the license in writing.
the music sets the tone of your film, but the tone must reflect the truth of your day. Videoâunlike photosâmoves with the rhythm of the day itself. We canât slow down an energetic, lively celebration into a quiet, romantic film without losing authenticity. And we canât make a calm, reserved wedding feel like a wild party through editing alone. We always match the pace, emotion, and energy of your film to what truly happenedâelevated, yes, but always faithful to your story. Thatâs where the beauty really lives.
Important: If you have preferences, please share them before ideally before the wedding day, before we start editing, or in the few days immediately after. Once editing has begun, changing the music requires us to start from scratch with a brand-new film, and this will incur a fee.
The cinematic highlight wedding video, as the name suggests, designed to capture the essence of your day in an artistic and condensed format, like "the best of" your special day, it showcases key moments (the "highlights") from these scenes in a creative and emotive way, focusing on the most meaningful moments but it does not include the full-length recordings of those scenes, like the entire ceremony or complete speeches.
If you did purchase these full scene recordings (or these were part of your package): youâll receive them exactly as outlined in your agreement: each one delivered as a separate video, with original audio, and a style different from your cinematic highlight film. We may also include a few key moments from those scenes in the highlight itselfâbut the full-length versions are always delivered separately.
If you did not purchase these full scene recordings: you will have glimpses of these moments in your highlight film, such as your vows, speeches, or first danceâbeautifully woven into your cinematic highlight film. However, as capturing these moments in full requires additional preparation on our side: we need to bring multiple cameras, set dedicated microphones, backup gear, and a completely separate workflow, this is why full scenesâlike the complete ceremony, full speeches, or other key momentsâare offered as an optional add-on as outlined in your agreement, and must be booked before the wedding day (we also typically send a gentle reminder by email ahead of time, in case youâd like to add them before we begin technical planning and logistics). If they were not booked in advance, we wonât be able to provide them after the wedding, as they were simply not recorded in full.
No, as specified in our agreement, RAW files are not included in any of our packages and remain the protected intellectual property of Esme Film & Photography. If youâd like to discuss limited usage or licensing rights for specific files, that would require a separate written agreement and fee. Please note that purchasing RAW filesâwhether raw images or raw video footageâis only possible within the window specifically outlined in your agreement, which usually goes only covers a couple of weeks after delivery. After this time frame has passed, all RAW files are permanently deleted from our system in accordance with our file keeping and privacy policy.
Short answer yes.
In some cases we may gift as a gesture of good a few additional photos or short teasers or similar.
Of course anything you like need to be in accordance to the services you have booked, e.g. if you booked us as photography only we won't be able to provide videos or audio or any service that was not part of your package.
You can request more photos to be edited or more videos if they were captured and if we have those in our archive, within the timeframe of expiry of your raw files, which is marked on your agreement, as a additional paid service. Within this timeframe (between delivery and expiry of raw files), you may request us to add photos / videos provided if these exist in our raw files. These extras are additional commissioned services, never included by default. After raw expiry, all materials (all raw photos, videos, audio and other files) are permanently deleted by our system and no further additions / modification are possible.
For videos, please always refer back to your agreement. What is included in your package is clearly outlined on the first page. Any recordings of full moments (for example, the entire ceremony, speeches, or dances) are considered extras and must be booked before the wedding day. These require additional preparation from our side â often with extra videographers, cameras, backup setups and microphone system - so if not pre-ordered, they simply wonât exist in our footage or audio, and therefore cannot be created afterwards.
Requesting raws: Within the timeframe of raw expiry (so between delivery time and expiry time of raw files), we are able to sell all raws. After expiry all raw (including all raw photos, raw video footage and any other file) are automatically permanently deleted by our system, and therefore cannot be sold.
Note that while extras can be confirmed within the raw file timeframe, their editing and delivery will take place only after our peak wedding season and main delivery schedules are complete. This often means delivery is finalized the following year, according to availability, itâs not possible to request a specific turnaround date as any extras are not ârushâ items, and they follow our production schedule.
Please refer to your signed agreement for all specifics such as services included, expiries, extras and note that any added extra prices if not booked in advance are sold at the current price at the moment of request, as our prices are dynamic and are updated regularly based on our availability and demand.
We want you to love everything we deliver, as we always aim to get things perfect the first timeâbut if you spot something small (like one or two photos youâd like in black and white, or a minor tweak in the film scenes) and youâd like minor adjustments, youâre welcome to request them within 2 weeks of delivery. If you let us know within 2 weeks of delivery of any any additional photo edits, these are billed at âŹ25 per image, and video re-editing at âŹ250 per hour, in accordance with our terms of your signed agreement. Please note that while we do our best to accommodate these requests, any changes will be completed based on our availability. Edits are not guaranteed to be immediate and may take time, especially during busy periods.
After that 2-week window, all RAW files will be permanently deleted from our hardware and further edits will no longer be possible.
Absolutely, they can be ordered directly off your final gallery webpage.
Yes, we have a dark room print lab and you can let us know any film photo we took you would like to have. Extra fees depending on print sizing and details together with shipping costs will apply.
