Couple laugh during wedding ceremony at Four Seasons Park Lane

Four Seasons Hotel Wedding Photographers Park Lane

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

We love photographing weddings in central London. It’s a large part of the work that we do, and we are always pleased to return to Park Lane where we are most often found at the Dorchester or the Hilton. For this fantastic day we were Four Seasons Hotel wedding photographers, which itself is a great venue close to the Hyde Park corner end of this famous thoroughfare.

wedding dress hanging at Four Seasons Hotel London

The happy couple were Emily and Jon, and I had got to know them a little better beforehand after doing an engagement shoot with them at Alexandra Palace. I also spent time with Jon and his groomsmen the day before the wedding for a Turkish barbers session at Ted Bakers grooming rooms, and then on to Churchill’s for some afternoon drinks and cigars. Such is the tough world of wedding photography!

Bride gets ready at Four Seasons Park Lane London

On the big day itself Jon and his groomsmen were getting ready at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, another of our favourite London wedding venues you can read about at the end of this post. Joanna made her way there to cover events as they unfolded including Jon’s trip down the corridor in the luggage trolley!

Groom and best men at Mandarin Oriental Hotel London

Emily got ready with close family at the Four Seasons Hotel itself so that’s where I started my day. I like to know a little about the venues we do our photography in and I found out this particular central London hotel was actually built fairly recently in 1970. However it has just undergone a tremendous £125 million refit designed by Pierre-Yves Rochon in 2010 and really looks the part.

Bridesmaids laughing at Four Seasons Hotel wedding photo

Groom waits as bride arrives Four Seasons Hotel

Kissing photo Jewish wedding Four Seasons Hotel Park Lane

The wedding ceremony itself was truly special with a fabulous arch of flowers made for the couple to say their vows under. Fantastic electric violin playing throughout just added to the romantic atmosphere, and later on to some of the dancing moments.

Jewish wedding Four Seasons Hotel photo

It was a civil ceremony first with signing of the register afterwards, and then we had Jewish elements conducted by the couple’s rabbi, complete with the traditional breaking of the glass underfoot by Jon.

Wedding couple pose on roof Four Seasons Hotel

Champagne reception ensued and it was time for a mixture of documentary photography, family formal pics and time alone with the newly weds for some couple shots around the hotel.

Bridal party pose in lifts Jewish wedding Four Seasons Park Lane London

After the wedding breakfast and some traditional and energetic Israeli dancing and toasts, we had speeches, cake cutting and first dance.

Bride and groom after Jewish wedding day Four Season Hotel London

Providing the nights live music we enjoyed one of our very favourite and best bands on the whole of the UK’s wedding circuit The Superlatives. Not only are these guys a fantastic outfit, but behind the scenes they are great people too. It really added to our pleasure photographing the wedding to have their music shaking the dance floor! Check out their website here: The Superlatives

Jewish dancing at wedding Four Seasons London

To see previous work at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel you can check this blog post: London Mandarin Oriental Wedding Photography

To see another recent large Jewish wedding at a classic London Hotel take a look at his piece from the blog: London Waldorf Hilton Hotel Wedding Photographers

And for other Park Lane weddings at the Dorchester and various Jewish ceremonies you should take look through our extensive on site images here: Wedding Galleries

By David Green

Groomsman with hats Four Seasons Hotel

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wedding couple with London love sign photo

Love is the drug I’m thinking of…it’s people that make wedding photography special

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

The wedding season is upon us and in full flow now. As we sit here editing a lovely Jewish wedding that took place in Park Lane central London from last week, and another from Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire, we got to thinking what motivates us most about the work that we do. Other photographers specialising in different areas of our profession sometimes ask us “why wedding photography?” It’s almost as if it is some kind of lesser genre to them! Well as people who have been photographing professionally for just over ten years now, originally in portrait, commercial and fashion photography, weddings are where we see the most creativity and satisfaction. It is also the most demanding kind of work because there are no second chances, it is literally a case of once only moments that must be captured beautifully every time. Light conditions, weather, subject matter and venue change constantly and that’s just on one day. But that’s the thrill, and creating images that will be shown to generations to come is a lasting reward for us.

But if you had to ask what the best bit of being London and home counties wedding photographers is, we would have to say it is the people we get to work with. First and foremost that means some really wonderful couples, but also it’s great to meet their friends and family too. Every other wedding these days whether that’s in the capital or further afield, it seems we run into someone that has seen us working at someone else’s special day. A great deal of our commissions come from personal recommendations and that too is a very satisfying feeling.

The featured image here is from Julie and Ed’s wedding at Vinopolis and Southwark Cathedral. These guys were a perfect example of a great couple who made the day extra special for us too. Sadly Vinopolis ended it’s fantastic run as a wedding venue just a few short months later. But now we all have fantastic memories of both the place and the day. Love was the drug that brought them together, and our love of what we do and the people we work with is what keeps us fresh and motivated every day!

To take a closer look at Julie and Ed’s wedding check out the blog link here: Southwark Cathedral and Vinopolis wedding

By David Green

Love1

London Zoo Wedding Photographers

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

London Zoo Wedding Photographers

A long time ago before becoming London Zoo wedding photographers…..After David’s first visit to London Zoo at the age of seven he left with a plastic Rhino from the souvenir shop, which for a time was his favourite toy, he still has it, in fact it now belongs to his youngest son who is seven years old himself. Joanna, growing up as a little girl in London, often gazed longingly at the outside wall of the Zoo in Regents Park, wishing she was could be on the other side, looking at the animals rather than the flowerbeds around her (not that there was anything wrong with the flower beds…) More about this below.

Neither of us imagined that as adults today we would be returning most often as London Zoo wedding photographers, and not just parents taking our children there. Since the days of our childhoods the wonderful Victorian zoo has changed immensely (for instance the classic penguin pool of the 1960’s and featured below in a London Zoo wedding of ours is now a curiosity piece, and there’s no elephants anymore…oh well) One of the biggest changes of all is that you can now get married at London Zoo! What a wonderful chance for a memorable day, whether a couple are animal lovers or not.

Weddings at London Zoo September shot

Big Day Weddings with David and Joanna have been thrilled to photograph there, because it has combined our childhood love of the zoo with our passion for photography. There are many fantastic opportunities and iconic areas of the zoo for wonderful wedding photography – if you know what you are doing. Knowing what you are doing at the zoo on a wedding day is crucial, because not only do you have to get incredible well taken shots and great natural expressions from your newlyweds, you have to manage crowds, and on a typical Friday or Saturday those crowds are large. Thankfully although starting out as rather shy children, we have turned into very confident wedding photographers! In the two sample shots below David literally “parted the red sea” at the penguin pool and reptile house, while Joanna kept the waiting crowds out of the shots and good humoured. Another benefit of having two photographers rather than one! So if you are looking at having your wedding at London Zoo or another unusual and original location like Tower Bridge, have a chat with us. We know how to get the best from a hustle and bustle London wedding, and not just the more genteel settings of the home counties (we like them too, particularly the fresh air…)

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.

Wedding couple penguin pool London Zoo

London Zoo Wedding Photographers

London Zoo reception and photography

London Z00 Wedding Photos and Packages Image

Photos London Zoo weddings

kissing photo at London Zoo

Wedding Photography London Zoo

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wedding couple first dance confetti cannon photo

Your wedding day is full of peak experiences – for the photographers too!

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding PhotographerNo Comments

A widely held belief in our modern society is that your wedding day is one of, if not the best day of your life. Well, from our extensive experience of couples during their special day and the feedback we get, sometimes years later, this common wisdom is pretty accurate. The day is absolutely packed with memorable moments. In fact we would say to quote the title of this post, that your wedding day is full of peak experiences and not just for yourselves but the photographers too!

What does that mean? Well when we were looking back at some of the images we captured in the last year, we began to remember some of what we felt at the time. That’s when we thought it would be a good idea to write about how the photographer feels working alongside you.

It was almost as if the images themselves were re triggering these moments again inside ourselves. So we decided to showcase some of those wedding photos that made us feel great ourselves while we were taking them. In fact we believe if you are not feeling the excitement and specialness of the day as a photographer, then documenting what happens will not be fully expressed with your images either.

The best wedding photographers know when a moment is special and choose their angle, framing, camera and lens settings in a flash to reflect that. Anyone of course can take a few great pictures if they press the shutter button a thousand times. The mark of a professional is being able to make nine hundred and fifty or more of those images relevant, emotive and beautifully captured. Anything less is luck not technique. Semi rant over!

So where do peak moments come in a wedding? Well often right from the beginning. For example, the first time the bride’s father sees her in that fantastic wedding dress she spent so long searching for. The moment a groom sees his bride walking down the aisle. The looks of love and euphoria when a bride and groom are officially proclaimed “husband and wife.”

Your entire wedding party cheering and throwing confetti over you. The fantastic time you spend alone at some point in the day with your fantastic wedding photographers David and Joanna! The moment you enter your wedding breakfast to a standing ovation. Hearing those heart felt words directed towards you during the wedding speeches. Your first dance surrounded by friends and family, to name just a few peak moments.

In fact the featured image in the post is that exact moment in Rachel and Chris’s wedding where John Legend’s All of Me as the first dance literally exploded into the Tiesto remix. As I got covered in confetti myself I felt a peak of euphoria as I was taking the shots. It was literally wedding magic.

See many more of those peak wedding moments in our three dedicated galleries here: Wedding Galleries

Check out wedding after wedding through page after page on our Blog right here on the website.

By David Green

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London Mandarin Oriental wedding photographer

Favourite black and white wedding images from the last twelve months

By Big Day WeddingsLondon Wedding PhotographerNo Comments

We thought we would post some of our favourite black and white wedding images from the last twelve months in a special post.

Photographers have varying approaches to using black and white in their coverage of a couple’s big day. For some it is a large part of their signature style and they shoot with monochrome in mind. In fact there are quite a few who present one hundred percent black and white imagery only.

Our attitude is to do a mixture of colour and black and white. Everything is originally captured in colour, and then converted with our own recipe to some of the shots featured here and on our Wedding Galleries

We have found over many hundreds of wedding days in and around London, that black and white works particularly well for bride and grooms preparation shots. It’s often the case that where a couple may be getting ready are busy cluttered places, with lots of paraphernalia like hairspray, makeup, clothes and accessories strewn all over the place. Good use of black and white, excellent lenses and technique really help isolate any particular subject and give things some atmosphere.

Another excellent time to use monochrome is during the ceremony, where the technique can concentrate the viewers attention to the emotion being displayed by the loving couple rather than their surroundings.

We will always give a couple the colour version of their image too. A particular favourite was this shot taken of Christopher as his emotion broke through seeing his bride to be walk down the aisle with her father, and a solitary tear rolls down his cheek.

Black and white as mentioned is good for deliberately concentrating a viewers attention on a particular area, not least because there are no colour elements to distract. It is also a photographic technique that helps emphasise shapes and patterns present in a wedding image.

Stand out images whether in colour or black and white take technique and an attitude of “making not just taking” photos. For example the featured image on the post is from a small intimate wedding at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge seen in this post: London Mandarin Oriental Wedding Photography

For this shot I asked the couple to sit on the stairs and just chat to each other. I knew what I wanted to achieve was a natural looking interaction with a stylish look. Pretty quickly the couple started smiling at each other and canoodling, I held a spotlight up with one hand and shone it on them while with the other I took the shot. I knew from experience this would look good in black and white, and sure enough the couple were delighted.

Other images featured here so the inside of Tower Bridge, various hotels, Islington Town Hall and Leez Priory among others.

By David Green

Love2

London Wedding Photographer

Four Seasons Hotel Wedding Photographers Park Lane

Love is the drug I’m thinking of…it’s people that make wedding photography special

London Zoo Wedding Photographers

London Zoo Wedding Photographers

Your wedding day is full of peak experiences – for the photographers too!

Favourite black and white wedding images from the last twelve months

A Final Word

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