Captions for wedding films and teasers

The vows, a parent’s speech and the best man’s opening line carry much of a wedding film’s feeling. Captions make sure those words reach people who are watching with the sound off or who can’t hear them clearly. This article covers why captions matter, what an .srt file is, the difference between sidecar and burned-in captions, and how to check them before you share. It’s part of our guide to wedding teaser reels, and it applies just as much to the full film.

Why do wedding videos need captions?

• Sound off. Many people watch videos in their feeds with the sound off, on a train, at work or late at night. Without captions, a line of vows is just a moving mouth.
• Accessibility. Deaf and hard-of-hearing guests and relatives can follow the words only if they’re written down. Captions also help guests who are following in a second language.
• Speeches that are hard to hear. Echoing rooms, laughter, a microphone held too low and a strong accent can all blur a line. Captions carry it when the audio can’t. Good recording helps too, and Recording vows, speeches and the band covers getting clean sound on the day.
• A record for the couple. Captions give them the exact words that were said, which are easy to forget in the rush of the day.

What is an .srt file?

An .srt (SubRip subtitle) file is one of the most widely supported caption formats. It’s a plain text file holding a numbered list of captions, each with a start time, an end time and one or two lines of text, separated by a blank line. Times are written as hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds, with a comma before the milliseconds.

Here’s a short example:

1
00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:04,000
Thank you all for being here
to celebrate with us today.

2
00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:07,500
Please raise your glasses
to Sam and Alex.

The first caption appears 1.2 seconds into the video and disappears at 4 seconds. The second follows after a short gap. You can open and edit an .srt in any text editor. Save it with UTF-8 encoding so that accented names display correctly, and give it the same file name as the video, which helps many video players find it automatically.

Sidecar captions or burned-in text?

A sidecar caption file travels alongside the video. The viewer can switch captions on or off, the player draws the text at a readable size, and you can correct a typo by editing the file without exporting the film again. These are sometimes called closed captions.

Burned-in captions are part of the picture. They show on every screen and in every app, including apps that don’t accept caption files, and you control the font, size and position. On the other hand, they can’t be switched off, they cover part of the frame, and fixing a mistake means a fresh export. These are sometimes called open captions.

A sensible split for most weddings is to deliver the highlight film with a sidecar .srt and to burn short captions into the teaser for any line that’s spoken. In a vertical teaser, place burned-in captions above the app’s own text at the bottom of the screen and away from the buttons on the right. Framing wedding video for vertical explains where the apps’ interfaces sit.

How do you add an .srt when you upload?

Video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo let you upload a caption file for a video, usually from the video’s settings after the upload, where you also choose the caption language. Once it’s added, viewers can turn the captions on in the player.

Short-form apps work differently. Some don’t take a caption file at all and offer automatic captions instead. Automatic captions can mishear names and unusual words, so check them in the app and correct them where it lets you, or burn your own into the picture before you upload.

If you change the edit after making the captions, the timings will shift. Export the captions again from the final cut, or check each timing against the finished film.

How do you check names and spellings?

Couples notice a misspelt name straight away, and it’s an easy mistake to prevent.

• Ask the couple for the spelling of everyone who speaks or is named, including the couple, parents, the wedding party and anyone who comes up in the speeches. The order of service or the running order for the day is a good starting list.
• Check place names, the venue, and any nicknames or in-jokes.
• Watch the whole film with captions on and the sound up, and check each line against what was said.
• Tidy speech lightly for reading. Leave out ums, false starts and repeated words, but keep what each person meant.
• Ask before publishing private lines. A joke that worked in the room may not be one the couple want captioned on a public teaser.

If the words came from automatic transcription, this check matters even more, since transcription software can guess wrongly at unfamiliar names. Using vows and speeches in a highlight film covers choosing which lines to keep, and Making an AI first cut your own covers the rest of the review.

How long should each caption be?

Keep each caption to one or two short lines, and leave it on screen long enough to read comfortably. A few habits help:

• Break lines at natural pauses in the sentence, and keep names together on one line.
• Start a new caption when the speaker starts a new thought.
• Keep the caption up until the words finish and a moment after, without letting it hang over the next shot for long.
• In a vertical teaser, keep lines shorter still, because the frame is narrow and the text must be large enough to read on a phone.