Hoxton wedding shot against corrugated iron

Hackney and Hoxton London Wedding for Carly and Jim

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, Wedding Venues2 Comments

Hackney Wedding photographers

Every wedding is special, individual and memorable, even in the same venues. For instance last weekend in Bloomsbury Square London, there was so much love in the air especially between the couple during their ceremony I found myself fighting back the tears, which is just as well as I didn’t want to fog up the viewfinder! Carly and Jim’s Hackney and Hoxton London wedding was especially memorable, not just for the obvious love between themselves and for their friends and family, but for the individual stamp they put on their special day. Not to mention the lateness of the ceremony and celebrations. Photographing in the dark..no problem.

Hackney Town hall wedding ceremony

As artists and designers they had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve and were open minded to our photographic ideas which was great. Carly even helped design her own dress with specialist Claire Hannington-Williams at: Prince Lilly Bespoke Bridalwear

Kiss at Hackney wedding

The evening started with Carly arriving with dad in a specially prepped white london cab. A love filled ceremony followed in the impressive and imposing venue that is Hackney Town Hall. Because of the lateness in the day confetti throwing and all group and family shots took place in the dark, which was atmosheric and no problem light wise when you know what you are doing photographically.

Hackney town hall confetti image

A routemaster bus took us all to an art gallery in Hoxton fashioned underneath a railway arch that was specially converted for the reception. The driving team behind the routemaster “experience” will remain nameless because it was one of the craziest/almost dangerous pieces of driving we have ever witnessed from a bus at a wedding! We’ve also had to travel with them again recently…Having said that it made the journey very memorable and very amusing for most of the guests. We stopped off at a bridge on the way to recover (ha!) and to create an image back drop of one of the couples favourite spots Tower Bridge.

near Tower Bridge wedding kiss

After a little reception time Joanna and myself went walking with the newly weds to explore the night streets of Hoxton. Nothing was pre planned for this rwenty minutes or so apart from an area of corrugated iron Carly and Jim particualrly wanted to feature as a backdrop. We basically just had a lot of fun looking for what interested us all for some memorable London wedding photos.

Hoxton wedding shot against corrugated iron

The entire wedding party had the most delicious pizza based evening meal, hand made by a mobile fired oven facility parked outside the art gallery for the night.

Hoxton car wash

Lovely couple, lovely evening, pleae check out their website and some of their work at: One Penny Piece.

Hoxton street wedding dance

To see over 100 wedding images just click on the link here: GALLERIES OR just scroll through this blog, it’s full of images!

By David Green

Hoxton garage wedding shot

Love1

London St Pancras wedding

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographers, Wedding Venues2 Comments

Our latest London St Pancras wedding was a great meeting of cultures in a venue that has culture in spades! Lizzie and Sandy living in New Zealand and both in the medical profession came home to celebrate their love in front of friends and family at one of Londons most iconic hotels. This incredible building and station not only dominates the skyline but is quite a part of Joanna’s childhood as she lived nearby and often looked at the clock tower from her bedroom window to check the time.

The day started with Lizzie getting ready in her fantastic bridal suite with lovely tall windows and an elegant adjoining bathroom. Not an original room we think as the hotel when it opened in 1873 did not have en-suites, for all it’s glory you would actually have to go down the corridor to bathe. This is one of the factors that lead to the early demise of the hotel as tastes and expectations changed. After it recent refurbishment all those problems have been banished though, it really is spectacular and a great mix of old and new throughout!

St Pancras station wedding

The wedding ceremony took place under the huppah in the dramatic Hanson Hall, and as Sandy is a Scotsman all the official kippahs were tartan.

Laughter_at_St_Pancras_wedding

St Pancras hotel wedding prep shot

For couple shots we had twenty minutes (hey it’s all we need or less…) of fun around St Pancras station – one of the many location perks of being busy London wedding photographers.

St Pancras wedding bathroom shot

All too quickly it was back to the serious business of the wedding breakfast and dancing the night away. Best man Jim as well as a great speaker led the celebrations with his fantastic Ceilidh band. So a little Israeli dancing was followed by a lot of Celtic revelry. A great time had by all.

Kissing at St Pancras station wedding

Wedding dance at St Pancras London

Renaissance hotel wedding

We are experienced at photographing weddings for all the major faiths so please feel free to contact us and ask for specific examples and whole wedding days.

To see over 100 wedding images just click on the link here: GALLERIES OR just scroll through this blog, it’s full of images!

By David Green

Love0

Fuji X100 for your London wedding, any wedding? Yes at the Goring Hotel.

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

It is still very rare for any wedding couple to ask us what equipment we use, and to be honest we are pleased about that. The reasons are many fold, but mainly it’s because creating and capturing images is about technique, flair, experience and an artistic eye. Not so much about the camera and lenses you are using. Try telling that to your average wedding photographer though! One well know photographer when asked which camera he used would reply: “a black one.” David Bailey has said that in the UK many think the camera does the work, while abroad he’s found there is more sense that it is the person behind the viewfinder that makes the difference. Having said that we have invested heavily over time in Canon’s top of the range camera bodies and all their best lenses to help do justice to our couple’s once only wedding days.

Fuji shot at central London wedding venue

So where is all this leading? Well David in particular still loves cameras as an object of beauty too and not just a tool, but when we are on holiday or just out and about with our kids he does not (and nor do I – Joanna) want to lug around any of our wedding DSLR’s and a bunch of lenses. So for the past two and a half years our companion in family times has been firstly the fixed lens Fuji X100, and then its upgraded successor the Fuji X100s. There are a million and one reviews and posts about this little gem on the internet so that’s not the purpose of this post. Would we use the Fuji on a wedding day? Yes and no! For us the DSLR and it’s lenses are still first choice, but for discretion around a reception perhaps – where the little camera does not intimidate it can be very useful, especially in cramped conditions. We would usually use a long zoom like the 70 – 200 to shoot from afar or perhaps the 85 1.2.

We tried it out for a while along with our other cameras at the Goring hotel in London where Kate Middleton stayed before the Royal weddding. We used it for some of our corridor shots with the lovely bride and chief bridesmaid, and also for discretion and silence in some shots from afar (cropped in now) of the couple looking at their wedding cake in situ for the first time. Can the sensor handle it? Yes, but un surpringingly considering the price difference and spec – not in the same league as the Canon 5D mark 3’s that we use. Having said that, in completely subjective terms – this camera has a certain indescribable something. That’s why it travels with us.

wedding couple alone fuji x100

Fuji X100 Goring hotel wedding

So what’s it like for holiday snaps? Well you need to think like a prime shooter not a zoom freak. And as far as we are concerned that is fine because the quality of the fixed lens at f2 is so great and the resolution so good you can crop in later if needs be. The other thing too for our taste is that we are only really interested in shots that involve people. So for enviromental portraits etc it is excellent, and with the two new screw on lens adapters , closer portraits or wider shots are no worries. We will be investing in these very soon!

Here’s a couple of recent holiday snaps, one of Joanna (added edge blur) one of our youngest son Rory. We don’t bring Rory to a wedding, but we cetainly keep the Fuji in the camera bag, just in case!

Joa Green in Caen Franceann

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Our related blog post can be found here: Goring Hotel wedding photographers

A great resource for finding about all things Fuji is: Fuji Rumors

And the official Fuji site can be found here: Fujifilm

By David Green

Love1

Best London wedding venues

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Best London wedding venues

Best London wedding venue banner shot

Don’t get us wrong stately homes and barns are great for weddings, we photograph in those venues all the time of course. But if you live in and around the greatest city in the world, London, then why not take a look at some of the weird wonderful and historic treasures the capital has to offer. Best London wedding venues is naturally a subjective opinion, but it’s one that’s based on working regularly in a large variety of celebration spaces that our city has to offer.

If your ceremony is church based then it’s going to be a reception only venue you would need to choose. However if it’s a civil ceremony then a whole smorgasbord of venue possibilities awaits you. Do we get married in one place then celebrate and eat at another? Or do we make sure we don’t lose any of our guests on the way and do everything in the same place!?

First port of call probably for many is to research London’s long tradition of event hosting in some of its most iconic hotels. We have worked in most, but are going to list some of our personal favourites. This takes into account the overall wedding photography experience for ourselves and also for our couples and their guests too.

Wedding ceremony longroom Lords

The Savoy
Play place of the rich and famous for over a century now, it’s licenced for wedding ceremonies and of course you would be celebrating your day and enjoying your wedding breakfast in style. There’s also the Gordon Ramsay managed Savoy Grill in house too. Here’s a recent blog post we did on this great hotel: Savoy Hotel wedding photographer

confetti at the Savoy wedding

Savoy Hotel London wedding ceremony

The Dorchester

Opulent, traditional, with another long history taking in film stars and presidents, it’s one of Park Lane’s best wedding venues. Great catering and a lovely private roof terrace too. See our Dorchester Hotel wedding post here: Dorchester Hotel wedding photographer

Dorchester Hotel wedding Israeli dance

The Waldorf Astoria.

Long established Waldorf (always make us think of the Fawlty Towers episode “Waldorf Salad”)
It has the most fantastic atrium, a grand space great for ceremonies. With the grand ballroom/dining room nearby.

Lord’s Cricket Ground

You don’t need to be a cricket fan to appreciate the splendour of your ceremony and reception in the famous Long Room. Bride and groom can get themselves ready in the England dressing room, and guests can wander round the fantastic cricket museum in the middle of the wedding day. Here’s a relevant article David wrote recently: Lords Cricket ground wedding photographer

Lords cricket wedding shot

Gibson Hall

Formally a grand banking Hall in the city’s financial district, it is now a grand and imposing wedding venue. There is also an internal garden for your wedding ceremony should you choose to have your whole day there. Plenty of space for the biggest occasions.

Gibson Hall jewish wedding dance
Landsdowne Club

Now a fantastic private members club in the heart of Mayfair it was at one time the home of the department store magnate Mr Selfridge. Fantastic art deco function hall and Georgian drawing rooms for your London civil ceremony.

Hoxton

Buzzing full of art spaces and galleries that will host your wedding reception, and great urban locations for wedding photography with a difference.

Love in Hoxton wedding shot

London Zoo

We went there as children, took our own four children, and go there now as wedding photographers. Get married there and then have you and your guests tour the zoo for free before sitting down to a fantastic wedding breakfast. There’s even an exclusive meerkat experience should you feel the need…. Here’s some images from our photographic trips to the zoo: London Zoo wedding photographer

London Zoo wedding at the penguin pool

Planes, trains, and St Pancras

Watch this space as we update soon with recent St Pancras weddings. You have the fantastic hotel to get married in, and should you fancy a wander then the station itself is yours to spend time with your chosen photographer (that would be David and Joanna right…?)

Of course this is by no means an exhaustive list, but it has definitely some of the best London wedding venues that we have enjoyed lately. The other bonus of having a central London wedding is that you could spend twenty to thirty minutes of the day getting out and about for your photography, be it famous landmarks, or the royal parks. The possibilities are literally endless, because the best venue of all is London itself!

By David Green

Love4

Fanhams Hall Wedding Photographer

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues3 Comments

Fanhams Hall Wedding Photographers

As frequent Fanhams Hall Wedding Photographers we always look forward to returning to one of Ware’s greatest assets. Inside it is a fantastic and tasteful mix of the old and the new. Glass and steel is imaginatively mixed with oak panelling and leaded windows. Outside, the grounds feel like they have been made for Hertfordshire wedding photographers! They are large, varied and beautiful come rain shine or snow. We should know having photographed them in all three! Thankfully not on the same day though. A typical English day and also a typically quirky time weather wise for Kristy and Alun’s wedding featured here, and also Laura and David and Jenny and Dan’s from this March 2014. A little bit of rain, gusty wind, cloud and then periods of brilliant sunshine. It’s all in days work for David and Joanna then….

Favourite Fanhams Hall wedding photo

Personally we love the fountains and iron gates, the Japanese gardens and bridges and the imposing backdrop of Fanhams itself which lends historical class to any wedding taking place there. Every time we return we find something new and fresh for photography there.

Drinks reception at Fanhams Hall

Wedding photos Fanhams Hall

laughter in the gardens at Fanhams Hall

The building itself is eighteen century in origin and built in the famous Queen Anne style. It was the birth place and home of Lord Croft and has also been the residence for branches of the Brockett family. As Brockett Hall wedding photographers we would be hard pressed to choose which of the two would be our favourite. Either would be an excellent choice for a wedding day.

Fantastic Fanhams Hall wedding photos

Bride Photos Fanhams Hall

To see over 100 wedding images just click on the link here: GALLERIES OR just scroll through this blog, it’s full of images!
For convenience here’s a link to the great wedding venue itself: Fanhams Hall

Unusual Fanhams Hall wedding photo