I'm obviously biased. So rather than tell you it's worth it, here's what I actually think, including the cases where it isn't.
The honest case for it
You will forget what your wedding sounded like.
Not immediately. But within a few years the specific sound of your partner's voice during the vows, your dad's pause before he managed the next line, the noise the room made when you walked in, those go. Photographs won't bring them back because photographs don't have sound.
That's the whole argument, really. Everything else about a wedding day gets preserved somehow. Someone will photograph the flowers. Someone will remember the food. Nobody will remember exactly how it sounded, and film is the only thing that holds it.
What couples say afterwards
The pattern I notice is that the film matters more later than it does immediately. Straight after the wedding, couples are excited about it. A year on, they're using words like “treasure”. Several have told me they watch it every anniversary.
I've also had a few couples tell me the film became important for reasons nobody could have planned: a grandparent who died the following year, a speech from someone no longer around. That's not something I'd ever use as a sales argument on a call, but it's true, and it's the reason I take the job as seriously as I do.
When it probably isn't worth it
If it means cutting the photographer. Have the photographs. More and more couples tell me video has become the more important of the two to them, but if it were me I'd still prioritise photography, because that's what hangs on your wall and sits as your phone background.
If you genuinely won't watch it. Some people aren't film people. If you never rewatch videos, never look back at old footage, and the idea of sitting down to watch eight minutes of your own wedding sounds like a chore, be honest with yourself.
If the only budget left would buy three hours of coverage. A short window around the ceremony rarely produces a film worth the money. You end up with the formal bits and none of the texture. I'd rather you spent it elsewhere and asked a friend to film the speeches on a phone.
If you're doing it because you feel you should. Wedding pressure makes people book things they don't want. If videography is on your list because it's on everyone's list, take it off.
What about just filming it on phones?
Guest phone footage is genuinely lovely and I'd encourage it regardless. What it won't give you is clean audio, stable footage of the moments everyone was too involved in to film, or anything edited into something you'd actually sit down and watch.
If budget is the constraint, a phone-footage-only approach is a reasonable fallback. Just go in knowing what it will and won't be.
So, is it worth it?
For most couples who can afford it without sacrificing something they'd miss more: yes, and more than they expect at the time.
For couples where it means real compromise elsewhere: probably not, and I'd rather tell you that than take a booking you resent.