Big Day Weddings, Author at London Wedding Photographer - Natural Wedding Photography

London Rowing Club wedding with Claire and Rich

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

London rowing club wedding image

Claire and Rich chose a characterful and quirky venue for their special day, which as the blog post titles suggests was a London Rowing Club wedding. From our first meeting we knew what a relaxed and fun loving couple they were, but even if we had only just met on the day, it would have taken us about three seconds to come to the same conclusion. From Rich joking with friends and family in a local pub before the ceremony, to the huge winning smile on Claire’s face as she arrived in a London wedding taxi, their personalities were immediately on show. This of course is a dream for a photographer, but it’s also something we work hard at achieving by being people orientated and fun loving ourselves.

wedding by the Thames Putney

Although proceedings could be mistaken for starting in the public house across the road, this winter wedding proper was held at Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Kensington Church Street. After confetti throwing outside Claire and Rich took the long journey straight across the road to phone boxes and a spot of impromptu cake eating at a local cappuccino house. Time then for the newlyweds and their wedding party to board the London routemaster bus to London Rowing Club on Embankment Putney.

London rowing club wedding second image

Chelsea wedding cake in the street

Routemaster London wedding bus

The London Rowing club also known as Putney rowing club started life in its present form in 1871 with a refurbishment in 2006-7. The longroom has great views across the Thames and is licensed for civil ceremonies. The bar is unusual and interesting decorated with boating and historical artifacts. There’s a great board room to the side of the Long room, and balcony facing the river for scenic canapé munching and drinking as well. For all kinds of information on a potential London Rowing club wedding take a look at their website by clicking this link: London Rowing Club

Chelsea church wedding recessional

wedding couple stood by Thames photo

We found it a very refreshing choice of venue, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to couples wanting to incorporate something of the essence of London and the Thames into their wedding day.

For an overview of our wedding collections take a look on the site here: Pricing

wedding party on balcony London rowing club

By David Green

Love2

London outdoor wedding

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

When planning your special day in and around the capital you may not at first think of having a London outdoor wedding, but there are a surprising number of places in our busy densely populated city that you can acheieve this. We have photographed outdoors from St Pancras station to ceremonies by swimming pools in St Tropez and always enjoy that something special of wedding vows and receptions in the great outdoors. For Katie and David’s Jewish wedding they choose a venue just outside London in the Hertfordshire countryside that gave them the space and freedom to plan their day, and reflect their relaxed and fun loving personalities.

wedding_laughter_in_a_Hertfordshire_field

London_outdoor_wedding

Buckettsland Farm is a venue that we have photographed at previously, and this provided the backdrop for the big day in question. A large marquee was erected for the wedding breakfast and reception, and was also on standby as a plan B for the ceremony in case of rain! There was also another covered space for a “chill out” room which doubled as a venue for the “bedeken” which is a traditional part of proceedings where the groom will place the veil over his bride to be. The chuppah looked fantastic covered in flowers and nestled among small trees at one end of the large field space used for wedding hire, with little ornaments hanging from some of the branches.

Jewish_ceremony_London

outdoor_wedding_fun_with_space_hopers_image

Katie got ready in the farm buildings beforehand, and when the time came for the marriage ceremony she and dad accompanied by bridesmaids and pet dog walked across the field in the sunshine (whew – relief all round) to the wedding canopy and expectant guests. Live music accompanied the whole proceedings with some lovely traditional singing at the relevant points.

Jewish_exchange_of_vows_London

Wedding_confetti_outdoor_London_photo

Outdoor_weddings_in_London_shot

Hertfordshire_wedding_kiss

As usual in these circumstances Joanna and I took up different vantage points with myself close to the chuppah and Joanna focussed more on wider views and guests reactions, one of the beauties of having two experienced photographers. As well as a list of family formal shots we were able to grab a relaxed twenty five minutes with the couple for some photos of them alone.

under_the_chuppah_London_image

Jewish_wedding_skipping_dance_banner_image

Jewish_wedding_dance_Hertfordshire

Buckettsland Farm itself was built in the sixteenth century and is Grade II listed, and is a collection of unusual and interesting buildings. As is the tradtion on a Jewish wedding day the Israeli dancing was a fun and energetic highlight of the evening. Here’s a link to the farm itself and its hire: Buckettsland Farm

And for those of you planning a St Tropez wedding or just something outside or by a pool, take a look at this related blog post of ours: St Tropez Wedding

This is Katie and David’s google plus review of the day: “David and Joanna did a great job with our wedding. They made us feel so at ease in front of the camera resulting in really natural, happy photos. They listened to what we wanted and delivered exactly that. Thanks so much for capturing and preserving the memories of our Big Day!”

By David Green

Love2

Woburn scultpure gallery wedding

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

On the borders of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire a Woburn sculpture gallery wedding is a grade one listed affair in every sense. The listed building is part of the Woburn estate which includes the deer and safari park, Woburn abbey, gardens and gallery itself.

laughter at Woburn sculpture gallery
There is a concept that many people will be familiar with which is “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” which suggests that any two people on planet earth are probably six or fewer links apart from each other. Well wedding photography often feels this way! We loved photographing Nicola and Guy’s wedding at Woburn Sculpture Gallery for many reasons, but one of the greatest was that we could say “hi” to so many people we had met at previous weddings who were friends and family of the couple. Do what you do with passion, flair and integrity and people will talk, the best advertising there is in our opinion.

Woburn abbey wedding image

Woburn wedding photographer car photo

Nicola and Guy living in Hertfordshire loved the grandeur and also variety of character that Woburn and it’s extensive grounds had to offer. Although the morning and early afternoon started with grey skies and heavy downpours, by the time the drinks and canopies were served the sky had cleared and the sun made a welcome return. As we said to the couple beforehand, rain followed by dryness or sunshine can give a more vivid and characterful look to buildings and foliage. So never to worry about the weather. Never believed Alanis Morissette when she sang it was “ironic” if it rained on your wedding day. And if that rain doesn’t stop, umbrella shots can look fantastic anyway, see some examples is our wedding galleries here: Wedding Galleries

groomsmen photo at Woburn sculpture gallery

confetti at woburn sculpture gallery

The Sculpture gallery at Woburn was built in 1790 and can accommodate up to 248 guests. For a wedding breakfast the internals are some of the most beautiful and dramatic we have seen, with a purpose built dance floor and space for the head table in a grand centre circle. At either end of the gallery are some dramatic conversation pieces in their own right. One is a pillared temple entrance. while the other is a fantastic alcove with a large spot lit statue of the god Apollo inside. This is where the wedding cake was strategically placed, and for a post about this particular cake there is a post on the blog you can read here: Wedding Cake Woburn

stone arch woburn wedding photographer

Planning a Woburn sculpture gallery wedding? Then take a look a the official Woburn website here: Woburn Weddings

woburn sculpture gallery wedding breakfast room

By David Green

Love1

Willy Wonka’s wedding cake Woburn

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Bit of fun post…

Woburn_Abbey_wedding_photo

We’ve often thought over time it would be a good idea to write a post devoted to wedding cakes. After all we have seen, photographed and sometimes tasted literally hundreds. We imagined picking a mix of our favourite and unusual cake designs with the best and most interesting shots of couples cutting them and perhaps reacting and messing around afterwards. Never did we quite imagine the “pièce de résistance” of an unusual or interesting cake shot would be what was behind it! Often we have to contend with less than ideal placements of the cake table with some venues seemingly delighting in placing them near distinctly un photogenic red fire extinguishers!

wedding cake in alcove wedding

At Nicola and Guy’s wedding I had been outside doing some family shots with the newly weds while Joanna was in the wedding breakfast room taking photos. I broke off when I had chance to see how she was getting on only to find her with a large grin on her face and pointing at the interesting placement of the wedding cake in an alcove in front of a classical statue.

willy on a wedding cake photo

There was no moving this around at Woburn Sculpture gallery. From all angles this ancient gentleman’s pride and joy was pointing at the wedding cake. Of course we could have taken all shots from a low position but that would have distorted the couple. We never asked if the placement was deliberate as everyone was enjoying the juxtaposition so much! I don’t think I’ve ever seem so many guests paparazzi trying to get the moment. Pretty sure than facebook and twitter soon had more than a few versions of these shots. Full post on this lovely wedding soon, and one day we will write a serious piece about cakes…honestly!

willy wonka wedding cake

guest paparazzi shot at woburn

For an interesting read on all things wedding cake related take a look at Wikipedia’s complilation of history and info on them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_cake

By David Green.

Love1

Landmark Hotel wedding photographer

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues4 Comments

The other weekend as a Landmark hotel wedding photographer, we had the great pleasure of not only working with a lovely couple and all their friends and family but also some great wedding related suppliers. There are some fantastic people working in the wedding and event industry, and we wanted to highlight a couple that we have worked with recently, namely Perry’s the Wedding Company, a high quality long established planning and event management team (links at the end of the post) and a great cinematographer in John of De Rienzo Films, who we’ve worked with previously.

Italian wedding London preparation shot

This particular celebration was a very Italian affair as both bride and groom Giulia and Antonio were of Roman descent. We had got to know these love birds (more on love birds and doves later…) a lot better for doing an engagement shoot with them a few months before. In fact we were delighted to see all those shots reproduced in the main signing book for guests at the reception.

St Peters Italian church wedding

St Peters Italian church wedding image 2

Speaking of wedding receptions this was held at the world renowned Landmark Hotel in Marylebone for three hundred guests, impeccably handled by Errol and the two Tony’s from Perrys, and of course the hotel itself. The Landmark used to be called The Great Central Hotel and was opened in 1899. It boasts a fantastic inner courtyard and three hundred rooms and suites.

Doves at St Peters Italian church

The wedding ceremony was at St Peters Italian Church in Clerkenwell which was built especially for the Italian immigrant population of the time in the mid 19th century. A grand affair befitting a grand Italian Landmark wedding. Newly married and showered in rice, Giulia and Antonio then released two white doves followed by a whole basket full released by all the bridesmaids.

Italian wedding Regents Park London

London Bride in Regents Park

Before travelling to the reception we went for a short trip to Regents Park, and shot some classic couple shots which is what the couple wanted and valued. We never forget that wedding photography is a service industry and we must give people what the want, and then exceed their expectations. As we mention in other parts of the website: David and Joanna whether it is quality reportage, quirky or more traditional, or a little bit of everything we love to get it the way our couples want it.

Landmark Hotel wedding photographer