Derbyshire Videographer Video Lou.

At Jackstar we’re a sucker for a good Wedding video, even when the special day’s we’re watching have no connection to us. We just can’t help ourselves from watching them, and grab for the nearest tissues afterwards. There’s something beautiful about allowing a videographer to capture something beyond a photograph that is authentic at your wedding. There’s already so much for you to digest during the big day, so take in what you can and allow the videographer to do the rest for you. The beauty of having something you can watch afterwards is capturing those moments you want to remember or the ones you didn’t manage to see for yourself.

We’ve always wondered what it is that makes videographers turn still images into something more real, bolder and more personal to the couple. Lou, from Video Lou, provides affordable wedding videography made with love in Derbyshire and beyond. Her business aims ‘to provide the happy medium of wedding films’.

We caught up with Lou about Video Lou, the heart of the business and why you should consider a videographer for your big day.

Byron Burger. Derby. August 2015.

“Adam…don’t go mad, but I may have just booked a videographer for the wedding.” Cue a year-long debate with my darling fiancé every time we checked the dreaded wedding budget spreadsheet about how the wedding videographers we definitely NEEDED and not simply wanted would be worth every penny once the day I had waited far too many years for had been and gone.

The Maldives. August 3rd 2016. 72 hours after ‘I Do’ day.

“Lou…I can’t WAIT to see the wedding video. It’s definitely the best thing we booked. I’m so glad we had it done.” Nearly two years on, and guess who whips out said video of said wedding every time we have visitors round? Answer: not me! But that’s the thing about your wedding day – it’s a moment you can never get back, yet it becomes the one you wish you could relive a thousand times over. Whilst a photograph can provide a stunning snapshot of who was there, what was said and how we reacted, it can’t bring that moment back to life in the way a video can. I know because I’ve been there…and when one of my good friends said she couldn’t afford to book a videographer for her wedding last summer, my heart broke a little, I filmed a cheeky highlights film for her on the sly with nothing but my iPhone to hand, I loved editing it a little too much…and that’s how Video Lou was born! Funnily enough, Jackstar were there with their Magic Mirror so us getting to know each other was clearly meant to be!

If you’d have told me as I welcomed my wedding videographers into our home on the morning of our big day, bare-faced, rocking a dignified collection of rollers in my hair and not sure if I was high on excitement or about to vomit from nerves that I’d be doing the exact same thing to other brides in a year’s time, it would’ve gone in one ear and out of the other (partly because the fear of whether I’d be able to fit into my dress and if I would make it down the aisle without face planting was much more real at that moment!) as it was the joy of our wedding which was my sole inspiration for setting out on this here venture of mine. And the ‘we don’t need another camera in our face’, ‘it’s too expensive’, ‘we’ll never watch it’ conversation (correction – argument!) has actually given me a solid foundation on which to base my own service which is to provide a happy medium of wedding videography.

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Video: Video Lou Summer 2017 Showreel.

I pride myself on capturing a perfect balance of elegance and emotion without the bells and whistles that take videography packages into four-figure sums. My videography CV consists more of just ‘being a bride’ though. I have a media degree, which involved summer stints at the BBC and training with big industry bods and that, so I know a thing or two about cameras, framing, editing, producing, shooting under pressure and all of that stuff you’d expect from someone you’re paying to film the most important day of your life. My degree somewhat inspires my style though as I leave off the fancy effects and put videos together in a clean-cut chronological fashion, as if through the eyes of your guests, to help you relive your wedding day as it happened – I’m sentimental like that! It also helps me to keep my costs a little more, shall we say, wedding spreadsheet friendly as my packages start from £695. Most importantly, I absolutely love knowing I am creating a permanent reminder of the raw emotions experienced not just by you, but all of those who you invite to share your most intimate moment, achieved by unobtrusive and subtle filming techniques. Basically, you won’t hear a word from me all day (which I’m sure my husband in particular only considers to be a good thing!) and I manage to get up close from far away with my nifty collection of DSLR cameras and zoom lenses.

Not only do I promise a passion for your wedding day, but for you as a couple, ensuring that once the final glass of champagne has been drunk, the last bite of cake has been eaten and you flop back into newlywed bliss filled with the happiest of memories, that you are left with a record of all that happened and all that was which you can look back on fondly for the rest of your lives together because that’s what it’s all about, right?! And I promise you’ll be so glad you had it done.

If you fancy getting to know me a little more, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram on @iamvideolou or drop me an email on hello@videolou.co.uk. My website is also available at www.videolou.co.uk.

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