My son's bar mitzvah is coming up and I'm using the majority of the same vendors I used for my daughter's a few years ago. For my daughter's montage I used our videographer in the Chicago North Shore who did an amazing job, but it was extremely expensive. When I sat down after to decide where I could cut back for my son's finding a more affordable option for the montage was on the list. I got a list of options from my event planner and friends including Mitzvah Montage. I reached out to Gary back in July and found his work to be impressive and his pricing to be very fair, but ultimately decided to go with someone else who was local in the Chicago North Shore. I was just about to send my pics to who I had hired for our montage when I received an email that his computer broke and due to lost templates he was no longer able to make our montage. Eek. I started scrambling to find someone new with 6 weeks to spare when I remembered my correspondence with Gary months earlier. I reached out and he responded immediately that they were still available. Phew! Gary has a very organized process- probably more organized than the videographer I used for my daughter's. I followed his format and then sent him all the pictures via wetransfer, which proved to be a little difficult since my computer doesn't allow wetransfer. Fortunately, i was able to figure it out on my husband's computer. From there I received one email from Gary with a few clarification questions and then they got to work. Gary was very clear from the beginning that we would receive the montage 10 days before the event...maybe earlier. A friend of mine had also used Gary and received hers way before the 10 day mark (and didn't give him nearly as much lead time) so I expected to have it at least 3 weeks beforehand. However, we received it exactly 10 days beforehand (as Gary promised) which made me a little nervous since our DJ typically requires 2 weeks beforehand to test. Fortunately, the first review Gary provided was near perfect and he made the little photo addition I had within one day. However, when I use mitzvah montage again in the future (and i likely will for kid #3) I may request receiving it at least 2 weeks beforehand. Overall a very positive experience and in the 24 hours I've had the montage I've watched it at least 20 times. I can't wait to show it to everyone, but love that i have something so special documenting the first 13 years of my son's life to keep forever. read more

Gary, the owner, is awesome. We hired him for our wedding in '09 and he sent out Bruce and another girl to cover our wedding day. They were great; very professional, on time, stayed through the end of the wedding (I think this may have been longer than we contracted them for). Gary is sensitive to budgets and really worked with us to customize a package that we could afford. He was so kind, flexible and reasonable we even referred him to a friend who was also getting married at the same time and they booked him for their wedding and loved him as well. Gary met with us and walked us through samples of coverage and made us feel comfortable signing the contract with him (no pressure). The final product, the video, was great. He was able to turn it around in time for us to give it as gifts for the Holidays. He captured all the "must-see" moments and also edited out some falls and embarrassing moments (thanks Gary!). We're very happy with the services he provided and would (and have) recommend him to anyone. read more

Let me start by saving " the groom is stubborn and bit off more than he can chew". I wanted to make my own montage using the limited graphic and video design skills I have for our wedding. I figure 2 months should suffice for the completed project. WRONG!!! ALL WRONG!!! My completed project looked like a generic power point that was put together by someone with limited graphic and video editing skills. With three weeks remaining, I had to outsource my project. After calling several places I settled on Video Keepsakes. They are far from my S.OC location but their website was honest and informative. Gary returned my calls and emails. I was willing to make the emergency trek up to see him if needed. Gary said there was no need to come up to LA in traffic. We arranged everything by mail. I was in a panic and short on time. Gary assured me that everything will be beautiful and will be done on time. I sent out the package with instructions. I checked with Gary in a few days and he informed me that he received the package and will start working on it. By the end of the week, a preview was ready for our approval. The bride loved it, a few minor requests, 3 days later, our montage was in the mail. We played it on the LCD and it was better than we expected it to be. I highly recommend Video Keepsakes!! Extremely professional and honest!! The work is beautiful! Thanks Gary! You saved me and saved our day!!! From the Jen and Doug!!! read more

With our final copy in hand, I still think Video Keepsakes are some of the best videographers around. They incorporated the music we wanted, the scenes we wanted, and edited the whole thing into a complete work of art. Money well spent ... there's no way to put a dollar amount on the way they captured our wedding. read more

We absolutely LOVE Video keepsakes!!! They did an amazingggg job on our wedding video!!! First off.. Upon meeting with Gary we already knew we wanted to work with him! He showed us videos that he and his team have done and we were absolutely impressed! He had a warm, chill and funny personality and that's exactly what we were looking for! We didn't want to hire anyone unapproachable with a serious personality.. Gary was a total opposite of that! Through months of wedding planning we kept in touch with him as we knew more wedding details he would need and he was very prompt with his responses.. Not only that.. He shared suggestions that totally helped us! The day of the wedding he and his team were very punctual and even with all he hustle and bustle it didn't feel like they were there.. They were like ninjas! Haha.. They were behind the scenes just doing their job! The other camera men, Alex and Bruce were so awesome.. Super friendly and very professional! We got our wedding video by mail a few days ago and my husband and I just can't stop watching it! Despite the fact that it took us a while to send Gary songs we want him to use for our video he still got it to us as promised.. by January! I have friends who got married months before us who haven't even got theirs yet... Props to Video Keepsakes because everyone knows after the wedding day all we're left with are memories.. photos and videos. and the bride and groom are always anxious to see their day through the work of amazing professional photographers and videographers.. They did such a great job putting it together including all the important, sweet, and funny moments.. It is such a feel good video leaving us with such huge smiles on our faces after we repeatedly watch it! Lol Thank you Gary, Bruce and Alex... Video Keepsakes, for putting such a great video together!!! You guys are awesome!!! read more

Amazing!! Gary, the owner was so professional during my booking & follow up emails. Having a destination wedding can be very rough on any bride so it can be tough to judge someone thru an internet site. But let me tell you Gary's team was spot on with every detail of my wedding. We can't wait to see our video & have a follow up review. We're positive it's going to be amazing!!! Thank you Gary! read more

After interviewing multiple videographers to shoot my wedding we chose VKI. They have a great website which showcases tons and tons of their prior videos. My husband and I met with Gary and his wife at their home to discuss which package we wanted. He has a lot of experience filming all day weddings ie. Chinese/Vietnamese weddings. He created a customized package for us and showed up on time to the tea ceremony and stayed through the open dance portion of the night. Gary was good at directing my bridal party on how to pose. We received our videos about 3 months after the wedding. We were extremely happy with the recap/highlight video. Unfortunately I made the mistake of only asking for one person to shoot my wedding, so we missed out a lot because there is only so much that one videographer can capture. I highly suggest that you pay more for 2-3 videographers to capture all the special moments of your wedding. read more

Gary, the owner, is absolutely amazing!!! I called him up a week before my children's b'nai mitzvah panicking because I didn't have a montage (the first one I got from another company was terrible). Gary immediately said that he could help me and not to worry. He made the process of sending the photos and creating the most amazing montage so easy and we cannot stop watching it. The pricing is extremely fair and he was an absolute pleasure to work with! Thank you so much! read more

Video Keepsakes did our slideshow for our reception and they did an excellent job! Gary the owner even put up with me being a super pain in the ass changing things a million times. I appreciated it so much! He seems to know it's stressful being the bride :) Their work is very professional and amazing! They use graphics that you've never seen and really know what they're doing. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a fabulous slideshow for their wedding! Their slideshows are not the boring typical ones.. they're amazing and keep the crowd's interest the whole entire time. Video Keepsakes went above and beyond for my husband and I and we were so thankful!!! read more

I was in crisis mode one week before my daughter's Bat Mitzvah and my vendor's montage was not up to par. My daughter found VKI on the internet and at midnight in NY I emailed them. Within 10 mins my phone rang. The owner said he would be able to put together my montage in time for my affair. The montage was done in record time. It was so amazing that when we received it we watched it so many times I'm surprised that we didn't wear out the disc. We are still watching it a month after the affair with the same awe. This is the only company to use if you want the best!! A memory to last a lifetime! :) read more

Using Gary and the team at Video Keepsakes was one of the best choices we made during our entire wedding process. Originally when we were doing costs we just didn't think we could afford a video team and a photographer. Once we got closer to the event I really started to want some sort of video of the wedding. (You're spending so much on the day it seems silly to not have good documentation of it.) Plus after experiencing being in a wedding now it goes by so quickly you can't really process it all at the time. I work in the film industry and so it was very daunting to find someone that fit our price range and had the quality that I'm used to. We were so lucky to find Video Keepsakes. Gary is very professional and a great communicator, fast to respond and very honest. We just received our completely edited video three months after the wedding (Right when they said it would be ready). There are so many moments that I'd either forgotten or missed the day of that I'm so happy were caught on film. Their cameraman was punctual, very nice and unobtrusive to the activities. Honestly I'm not sure how he got some of the beautiful shots that he did, because they seem to intimate but I never felt pressed or staged at all. I think Video Keepsakes is an amazing quality for a great value and you'll be so thankful to have those memories captured on film. read more

We hired Video Keepsakes as our videographer for our 4/712 wedding at the Bel Air Bay Club. We are so happy we did! Both Gary (owner) and Charlie (videographer) were great to work with! Charlie was super awesome at the wedding. He helped out with everything. Even helped my coordinator out with things! He had a smile on his face the whole night and was a ton of fun. We received a lot of compliments from our guests about Charlie. Best of all, our video was in the mail before we had gotten back from our honeymoon! Thank you Video Keepsakes for memorializing our wedding in such a beautiful way! read more

Gary and his team did an outstanding job capturing our wedding last May. We couldn't be happier with the results. To be honest, we were originally skeptical whether we even needed a videographer. We were worried that there wouldn't be room in the budget, and we figured photography would capture our day well enough. Or that we could just use guest footage to piece together a video (probably not the best idea we've had!). In the end, we are so glad we decided to hire Video Keepsakes. We learned that it's true what they say... videography really can capture all those moments that photography simply can't. Now we have beautiful wedding photos, AND wonderful video that captures the day in a different way. Our guests absolutely loved the highlight film (or "movie trailer"), and we thoroughly enjoy watching the full version for ourselves and family. We feel so lucky to have these memories preserved so we can look back and relive the day again. read more