Posts tagged london
Filming a Wedding Proposal!

When luxury photographer Roberta Facchini reached out to me looking for a videographer to capture a proposal she was shooting, I knew this was going to be something special. 


I’ve always wanted to create a proposal film - a growing trend here in the UK, but have never had the opportunity, and Felicia and Massi were *the* perfect couple for me to pop my proposal cherry.  


Italian-born Massi was incredibly cool and calm (if he had any nerves he sure didn’t show it!), and looked dapper in a full tux.  Felicia was even more stunning in real life than I’d seen from her blog and her Instagram, and wearing a gorgeous mink silk dress she was a picture of perfection (I tried not to stand too close to her whenever possible!)

London proposal at St. Paul's Cathedral

Felicia is regularly approached by photographers asking to do shoots for her blog, but when Roberta contacted her to offer a couples shoot early on a Saturday morning in February, she initially said no thinking that Massi wouldn’t be keen!  In any normal situation of course, she’d be 100% right… but little did she know, this was all part of a cunning plan and she was putting a spanner in the works!  Roberta cleverly managed to convince her to speak to Massi about the opportunity and he reluctantly (but not too reluctantly!) said yes.  After some careful planning (and obsessive refreshing of the BBC weather feed - please rain, go away!) we were all ready for the innocent, casual, every-day photoshoot…


8am at St Paul’s in London we met, rain drizzling from a gloomy grey sky, but instantly the energy we all exuded was palpable.  Everyone was cheery despite the early hour; Massi and Felicia were excited and raring to go, and Roberta was smiling from ear to ear (as I now know is her default demeanour!)  My ruse was that I was a friend of Roberta’s, there to film a “behind the scenes” of the shoot, so it helped that she and I got on like a house on fire despite the fact we’d only met 10 minutes before!


Anna Petterle arrived with a gorgeous bouquet to complete Felicia’s look for the shoot and then what followed was the most effortless, flowing photoshoot I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of.  Felicia and Massi posed and danced and chatted, and every single shot I got of them was film-worthy (which is extremely rare as any videographer will know). 

We casually made our way to the millennium bridge, with Roberta insisting on a portrait of Felicia along the way (so I could surreptitiously mic up Massi ready for the big moment!)  Just as Felicia had decided she needed to put her coat back on - she was braving 3 degrees and rain in a breezy silk dress after all - Massi couldn’t bear the anticipation any longer and began reciting a speech (in the name of Valentine’s day, since they were to be spending it apart - that boy had thought of everything).


It was absolutely incredible, and… well… you’ll have to watch the video to find out what happened.  Spoiler alert… She said yes <3
 

Welcome to Jane Louise Films

New year new website, right?  And my gosh does it feel GOOD to have a shiny new shopfront for my wedding videography services!  Whilst filming weddings last year and busying myself with editing between shoots, it was difficult – nay, impossible - to justify taking time out to update my previous website.  (How could I, when I knew brides and grooms were at home eagerly awaiting their videos!)

Finally in January when I had some downtime, I was able to spend time re-designing the look and feel of my site, as well as adding all the wonderful weddings I shot last year.  I have to say, I didn’t think I’d agonise over which font “spoke my brand” as much as I did… but welcome to the world of design I suppose!

Doing it myself has actually been really enjoyable, and as a bit of a control freak I love that I can update whatever I want, when I want.  My last website was designed for me, such that I didn’t have the flexibility to try out and visualise a hundred different different ideas and looks before deciding.  I’d definitely recommend Squarespace to anyone who’s similar to me in this respect – it’s so easy, and it’s great to be able to play around with everything!  Unlike Wix you can change template at any time as well, without losing all your content and page structures.

When doing research about what sort of website I wanted I came across the below quote (featured on my homepage) which I absolutely loved.  I feel very strongly about the importance of having a video of your wedding, and I always struggle to do justice in explaining just how valuable I know you'll find it to be in the years to come.  This quote struck a chord with me, because although no-one wants to think about "life-after-wedding" whilst they're planning, I know from personal experience that post-wedding you realise just how incredibly valuable you hold the memory of every single moment you experienced from the day... and what a better way to remember all those beautiful moments than with video. 

Right now I feel pretty chuffed with how far Jane Louise Films has come, and I am SO very excited for where we are going...

Bring on 2018 :)

Wedding videographer in London and the UK