Loved Up Films: Let's Have a Celebration!
“You have to say it quickly, or else it sounds like you’re saying something too sentimental.”
It’s luvdupfilms, not Loved. Up. Films. I bet you can hear Robin’s born-and-raised South London accent right now, can’t you? Loved Up Films specializes in love—not the sticky-sweet stuff, but the soulful, loud, and celebratory moments of truly loved-up couples. “We create colourful wedding films—emphasis on joy and fun and celebration,” Robin tells me from his crammed editing office—built by his father-in-law and now temporarily serving as overflow while an extension is added to his kitchen.
“When I was getting married the films were morose and saccharine—I wanted a film that celebrated the day, not to mourn it. I wanted to celebrate it!”
Robin began Loved Up Films in 2016, before he was married, before he had kids. Now a married father, Robin cites his family, along with music, colour, joy and celebration as his main inspirations in life and business. “It’s hard to place myself,” he says. “I’m a man, working in what I’ve found is a fairly common female industry—an ethnic guy, a brown guy with a beard, but having white couples book me. And I kind of love that. I look at that like a celebration of being a Londoner—like we all get along and if you find someone you like, you book ‘em.”
“Most people who look like me are usually wedding videographers who do Indian Weddings a lot, whereas I’ve only done one. In a way I think I might bridge a gap between white, middle-class, working-class couples hiring an ethnic bloke to do their films…it’s a lived experience and it may not make much sense coming out of my mouth in 30 seconds…” he says, processing out loud how his film style strives to strike a balance between the couples he’s connecting with and the identity he represents.
Loved Up Films wasn’t begun to buck tradition, but it also hasn’t grown as a result of aligning with traditionalism, nor by concerning itself with what a wedding film should look like to any given culture. Loved Up Films is about Robin and his couples and in his own words, “Hearing the magic in something.”
For Robin, that magic is hip-hop and he finds that many of his clients, particularly those of black heritage, are drawn to the culture and sound of his films. “One of my selling points early on was I’m a big fan of hip-hop. Growing up it was the kind of music that helped me find myself a bit. You find an audience that loves that and you find your audience.”
Still, it’s a varied audience! Robin tells me stories of shooting on a massive, British estate for a family with a hunting background—the madness of rushing around with his camera, a hunting hawk swooping and diving—across an expansive field on the family’s prolific property. He’s traveled all over the country: Wales, Scotland, the North of England and in years gone by he’s been to Italy and France. The furthest from London he’s shot was around my neck of the woods in New Orleans, or Nawlins, I say, making my own homegrown accent known. A brass band led that wedding party down music-filled streets and Robin got it all on film. He’s also done a little wedding down at Clapton Country Club, rounding out a roster of wedding styles and couples whose demographic Robin can never quite put his finger on.
“Business relies on you figuring out who your target audience is,” Robin informs me, using the voice of some guy who passed on this advice to him some time ago. “And like most things people tell you that you have to do, it’s lovely to show them [they’re] wrong,” Robin says with a small chuckle. Still, he’s got a pretty firm grip on who he’s working with. You could say that Robin’s a champion of the underdog, though I’m not sure he’d necessarily count himself amongst them. Regardless, I think they’d welcome him to the party—especially if he’s bringing the music.
“I quite like couples whose love has been a little bit challenging,” he tells me. “All drama is conflict.” This is advice he’s taken to heart. When his couples have overcome something—either in their own personal backgrounds, or something they’ve faced together—Robin finds that the stories are much richer for it and celebrating with them is natural. For some, the approach may be, ‘they’ve had a challenging story, let’s make the story about their challenges,’ but Robin’s telling a different tale. “They’ve had a challenging story, let’s celebrate their story; let’s celebrate the wedding—their finding each other. The film’s about celebrating their family getting together—especially after a pandemic. Let’s celebrate that!”
Celebrating is what Robin does best. Taking only 25 weddings a year in non-Covid times, he finds it a delightful challenge to book couples who’d never considered hiring a videographer before seeing a Loved-Up film. He’s even begun his own confetti company, Flutter, Darlings! whose saturated strands I can see ready to fly once loosed from their individual containers, stacked high amongst the temporary clutter of the Loved Up Films editing studio. “I’m obsessed with getting the right confetti shot.” Robin is adamant on this point. Fully recyclable, compostable, biodegradable—FLUTTER, DARLINGS! Is not harming the environment, but it’s hoping to make a hell of an impact. Though a bit of a pandemic baby, the creation of Flutter, Darlings! isn’t the work of forcing a positive to come out of a negative situation, rather the result of needing a new revenue stream and finally finding the time to get creative once more.
“It’s another example of what Loved Up Films does—joy and celebration.” He’s not looking to up-sell his clients, but he does want to increase their joy wherever possible and in his experience those moments of bliss aren’t usually down to perfected seating plans or satisfactory serving sizes of a wedding breakfast, instead it’s in the moments. “People watch them back and realize these were the moments; it’s often when you go away on your own—it’s the the relief of getting married, of raising your hands in the air—everyone cheering for you.” He just wants to help you make those moments of connection a little bit bolder, brighter and more colorful. It’ll all look great on film, sure, but it’ll also feel good in the moment.
“The longer in the tooth I get the more I realise weddings are a real privilege to be part of,” Robin shares with me, his voice softening without giving up an ounce of passion. “People need people—you need people to help make your day fantastic,” he reports with earnest. He’s found that couples are beginning to connect with their suppliers in a more human way; the relationships aren’t necessarily deeper, though many of his couples have broken down while telling him about their hopes for their wedding day, but at the very least they’re more relational and less transactional. Robin and his latest bride sent voice notes back and forth, checking in, detailing plans, getting excited, and sharing the joy leading up to the big day.
“We’re there for people for a very short time and you help them if you can on one of the most important days of their lives to help make that day live forever.”
Robin booked six weddings during his inaugural Most Curious appearance in 2019 and every couple was his kind of couple—his kind of people. “So nice to find couples who are hip-hop heads!” This March he’s interested in finding more of his people. “Most Curious is a champion of every couple who feels underrepresented,” Robin says, summing up a hope we strive to achieve, now more than ever. Though Robin feels a lack of representation in weddings isn’t as much of a problem as it once was, he does acknowledge that we all need to work harder to be more inclusive to people “—from every walk of life, because people from every walk of life get married and have weddings!” Though he’s certain that insular communities will always act so, he believes that people are more open to diversity. “I’m a brown guy with a beard who shoots weddings for people from the middle class who love hip-hop,” he exclaims, “I would like to think that anyone who books me is booking me because they love my style.”