Anytime you want!! If you are booking for a wedding, I recommend 5ish months before your date.

Last minute bookings are totally fine as well, but we cannot guarantee availability. If you’re getting married in a popular month, I’d suggest reaching out sooner! We also cannot guarantee your package will arrive on time if you book too last minute. We need time to package & ship your camcorder to ensure it will arrive in time. 

So final answer, anywhere from a 2 months to a year! 

We offer our packages in two different styles, vintage/HD  & 4K. “Vintage” just means the footage is grainier & looks more nostalgic. It’s a lesser quality camera — which means its cheaper for you! Some people want the footage to be as blurry and grainy as possible, some want it to be higher quality & crisper. We wanted you to have options. :)

A 128gb SD card can hold about 16-20 hours of footage per Essentials Cam and 8-10 hours of 4K footage for the Deluxe Cam. For reference, out of all the weddings we've done, most couples only use up 40-50gb of the SD card recording their entire day & the days before. 

it always varies based off how long of videos you’re recording or how often you keep the camera turned off to save battery but typical recording time per battery for the Essential Cams are about 1-2ish hours of constant filming. Most couples have 2-3 batteries per camera and haven’t had any issues!

I think 3 batteries for the 4K camera is about 8 hours of battery life so each battery lasts 2-3ish hours.

You will receive a charging cord with your order; make sure you re-charge your camera batteries if you plan to record the days before your wedding day!

Yes, both types of camcorders record audio/sound.

Our vintage style camcorders are perfect for nostalgia; however, the audio on these is not the clearest. It can kind of sound like you are under water at times if the background noise is really loud! (In quiet/normal settings, it sounds fine!!) If you just want audio but don't care if its amazing quality, the camcorder itself will capture that just fine. If high-quality, clear audio is super important to you, consider adding on one of our mic add-ons. 

The on camera microphone enhances the audio volume & makes voices clearer but still doesn't capture great audio from far away or loud settings. With this add on, you have to remember to plug it in & turn the mic on. If the mic is mis-used, you will have clips with no audio. If picking this add-on, make sure you trust whoever's working your camcorder to correctly handle the mic!

Your best quality audio is going to be our lav mic recorder. With this add on, you will recieve a Sony voice recorder that you just have to remember to press record & all your audio will be saved onto the recorder's SD card. You can use it without the lav attachment as a mini microphone or with the lav to attach to a jacket for times like the ceremony & first looks.

If you cancel our service more than 30 days before your event date, you will receive a full refund. After that date, your invoice is non-refundable. If there is a special circumstance, please reach out. 

Your full invoice is due 15 days before your event date. You can pay any amount at any time. We accept credit card & PayPal through our client portal where you can access your invoice at any time. If you’d like to pay a different way, we can discuss that too! If we get closer to your date and you decide you want to change your package and/or add something on, no worries! You can change your package up until that 15 day mark, just let me know.

We are located in Virginia!

Shipping to most east coast locations takes about 2-3 business days. Shipping to the west coast will take about 5 business days.

Popular locations for reference (business days) :

Virginia - 1 Day

New York - 2 Days

Maine - 2/3 Days

Texas - 2/3 Days

Utah - 5 Days

Colorado - 5 Days

California - 5 Days

Washington - 5/7 Days

We will package & ship your camcorder about a week or 2 weeks before your date (depending on where you are located) to make sure it will arrive on time. If you haven’t received it 2/3 days before your event date, contact us.

We are based in Virginia & use ground shipping — if your located on the west coast, shipping will take 4-5 days, east coast will take about 2-3 days.

We have high hopes that everyone using our camcorders will treat them with respect, but we know accidents happen!! Our package prices cover minor wear & tear.

Please notify Happy Haven immediately if the camcorder is lost, damaged, or stolen. You will be responsible for an additional fee. Please see our rental agreement for more details.

Please ship the camcorder(s) back on one of the next few business days following your event / rental period end date. For example: if you’re getting married on a Saturday, please ship your camcorder back to us on Monday or Tuesday. We know it’s a busy time & we allow a grace period, but we can’t start editing until we receive your footage!

When you receive your camcorder, you will find a pre-paid return label in the box. Please keep track of the return label & the box your camcorder comes in.

After your event, place the camcorder back in the box, seal it up, place the return label on the box & drop it off at your nearest mailing location. Lose the return label? Contact us (fondmemories@happyhavenstudios.com) & we’ll send you a new one at no additional cost.

If you have not shipped your camcorder back within 5 days of your event date, you will be charged a late fee of $25 per day. Failure to return the camcorder within 8 days of your event date will result in full replacement cost.

If there is a special circumstance that does not allow you to send your camcorder back on time, please contact me.

Raw footage will be sorted & sent to you within a week after I recieve your package through DropBox. All edited footage & your highlight film will be delivered within 8-15 weeks, our turn-around varies by season. If you would like all your footage mailed back to you on a flash drive, purchase our flash drive add-on. 

We typically only use non-copyrighted music for licensing reasons (we can't promote songs we don't "own"), but you are welcome to request a specific song & I can try to use it. You are also welcome to browse the website we use for music (Musicbed.Com) and pick ones you like! We send a questionnaire before your wedding where we ask lots of questions about the music and vibe of your film. We also typically send shorter "social media edits" with no music so you can add your own on Tiktok/IG.

Absolutely!! You can have as much or as little input on your video as you want. A few weeks before your date, I will send over a questionnaire to get the vibe you’re wanting for your video. I will ask about music preferences, overall vibe, font preferences, etc. Inspo is always welcome!

Yes! We offer a decorative flash drive (super cute, made out of wood with our logo) or a DVD with your highlight film for purchase. You can select those when you book or add them on afterwards.