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Shoreditch Wedding Photographers. Claire & Jamie’s big day in East London.

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Being a Shoreditch wedding photographer, or for any area in London as we are, it allows you to document not just a couples special moment, but the history and cultural backdrop of the places you are in. In London most areas are constantly changing, especially in the east of the city and every time we return to places like Shoreditch, Hoxton, Hackney and the like for a wedding day we see businesses have changed, street art has come and gone, and some brand new funky places are there now to explore.

Wedding at Shoreditch Studios East London

When we met with Claire and Jamie in January to speak about their September wedding in the city, we knew they were people who wanted to put their very individual stamp on their big day. For some brides and grooms planning their wedding they are happy to follow a traditional template  and time frame, for others everything from locations, events to service wordings are personalised. I only have to look at my parents wedding album to see how much things have changed!

Wedding ceremony at Shoreditch church London

Claire decided to get ready for the day at a friends flat near Old Street tube station, and then get a cab to meet her bridesmaids and close friends at a hotel near the church. The ceremony was to be at Shoreditch’s most iconic and landmark church St Leonard’s.

Just married at Shoreditch church image

St Leonard’s Church is a dominant sight right on Shoreditch High Street that has stood since the year 1740. It is famous from the children’s nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons with the quote: “When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch.” The church was used in 2010 for the BBC comedy series Rev, and a fair few famous people are buried in its churchyard too.

Shoreditch wedding photographers photo full crop version

Claire and Jamie’s lovely service was peppered with some great readings from friends and family, and during the signing of the register the best man and friends sang beautifully and hauntingly for us all to enjoy. I love the fact that these guys strapped a GoPro camera to the service microphone stand for some unusual close up video images of the couple during the service.

wedding couple shot messing around Shoreditch studios

After some quick family photos in the grounds of St Leonards the wedding party walked on mass to nearby Shoreditch Studios for the wedding breakfast and reception. We took some time alone with the couple to take some shots on route to the venue. We had only fifteen minutes but that’s not a problem for David and Joanna, we are used to that!

Wedding couple in Hackney Street

We started with some traditional shots by the church (shown at the end of this post) just to tick the boxes for those that would expect some, and then moved on to a more quirky and reportage style, which is what the couple wished for and valued most.

Wedding reception at Shoreditch Studios

Shoreditch studio is an event space we were already familiar with, and it really is a blank canvas for couples that want to superimpose their characters and wedding vision on to it. It has two large areas and an outside space converted from railway arches.

Wedding couple in grounds os Shoreditch church

Here was the venue for wedding speeches, wining and dining and dancing a plenty. There’s a photo here for my own amusement as much as anything, of some of the wedding party’s reaction as I fell over some hidden furniture. I managed to take this shot just as I hit the floor. I was not injured thankfully!

group shot at Shoreditch studios venue

For some more tastes of a few of London’s East End weddings we have photographed recently, take a look at a couple of related posts here:  Aldgate Wedding Toynbee Hall in London’s East End  and Hackney and Hoxton wedding for Carly and Jim

By David Green

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The Hatton Garden wedding job main image

The Hatton Garden Wedding Job. Your valuables are safe…

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

The Hatton Garden wedding job relates to these particular London wedding photographer’s vocation i.e. David and Joanna, on one of many great and special days this August. In plain English: we are going to talk about a shot we took last month and why. It doesn’t relate to the recent safety deposit heist that filled the headlines earlier this year, but it was one of the factors that led to this particular photo.

This is an image from Danielle and Chris’s Camden wedding when they snuck off with myself and Joanna for twenty-five minutes round the corner from Bounce. Bounce? That is a London ping pong venue where their wedding guests were enjoying something a little different before heading to the main reception. More on their day another time. Here’s the full non cropped image:

Hatton Garden safety deposit wedding job 1

The real reason I am writing this short London wedding related blog post is that I am in the middle of editing five separate wedding days and I don’t really have the time for a full post with lots of images, and quite frankly I felt like a break! The other reason is to talk about the fact that in this country we are fascinated by these sorts of organised crime ventures. Well I know I am. The Krays biopic, Legend, is doing the cinema rounds right now, in fact I’ve just had to turn down an invite to see it in favour of editing, and others like The Italian Job, Sexy Beast and so on are enduring British film favourites. Now the perpetrators of the Hatton job have been caught, it will only be a matter of time after the trial that potential screenplays will begin winging their way to production companies.

As we were just around the corner from the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit company we couldn’t resist a couple of quick pics outside, it was certainly something for passersby to stare at and take their own iPhone versions of. In fact a couple of months earlier that’s exactly what Joanna did with myself after a meal out in Farringdon, for the obligatory Facebook post looking meaner than I am, and the following quote (see pic below) “Finally I’ve found a place to keep my ill gotten gains safe…” I’ve heard the company is now bust so I don’t know how long that particular London landmark will be around.

David in Hatton Garden photo

Ok back to editing now, another side of our London wedding job, I mean vocation!

To see original coverage of the Hatton Garden robbery look at the BBC news coverage here: BBC News Coverage

For a bunch of related images take a look at our dedicated galleries on the website here: Wedding Galleries

By David Green

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wedding couple on Chess board Down Hall Country House

Down Hall Country House Wedding Photography

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Bride in aisle Essex wedding day

Describing yourself as a London wedding photographer doesn’t mean you shoot only in London! We’ve captured countless special days from St Pancras  to St Tropez weddings in blistering sun to freezing cold. It’s been a busy year in the capital so we were pleased to get out into the Essex countryside for Rachel and Chris’s wedding day. Now both these guys have fun loving big personalities, and as a former resident of their home country Australia, I would say that they typified all that was best about our cousins down under. As a measure of their popularity there was a large contingent of family and friends who travelled to be a part of their union, including the priest who took their service!

wedding ceremony in Bishops Stortford

On the morning of their Essex wedding both Rachel and Chris got ready in the lovely Down Hall Country House hotel on Matching Road in Hatfield Heath. Naturally they made sure their paths didn’t cross before the service, so myself and Joanna swapped photographic duties between the two of them, as we went about documenting their bride and groom’s prep. The wedding ceremony itself was held at St Joseph’s church in Bishops Stortford. As you can see from the photo of Rachel and her father coming down the aisle she was looking pretty radiant as she made her grand entrance!

wedding recessional shot Essex church

After showering the newly weds with a very large amount of confetti (they are probably still pulling that out of their hair on the honeymoon) guests were treated to specially commissioned London route master bus for the journey to the wedding reception venue of the ever popular Downs Hall Country Hotel. Rachel and Chris however travelled in even more style in their vintage Bentley, a really lovely car, but I suspect it doesn’t do too many miles to the gallon! Upon arriving we took some shots of the couple with their smart car as the guests enjoyed complimentary drinks and canopies on the lawns of Down Hall.

Routemaster bus at Downs Hall Country House Hotel

bride leaning out of Routemaster bus

head to head in front of wedding car image

Joanna and myself were on a strict timetable as things had run a little late (now there’s no surprise…) but after ten busy years of London and European wedding photography we are pretty used to working fast. Twenty minutes in the grounds saw us take a ton of great shots before we returned to photograph the guests and family groups. The couple enjoyed a fantastic wedding breakfast courtesy of the catering team at Down Hall, and everything ran smoothly as we were organised and so was their excellent toastmaster. Cake cutting was fun as you can see from the photo here, Chris was ever the joker. I’m pleased to say I’ve never yet seen a bride fall foul of the wedding cake knife…

cake cutting shot Down Hall Country House

I particularly loved their first dance for a number of reasons. I liked the DJ’s strong lighting, although it was quite difficult to photograph from certain angles. But best of all was the choice of two versions of the same song blended seamlessly into one. The song? John Legend’s All of Me, which is definitely a popular choice this year for a first dance, but what took it to another level was the confetti cannons exploding as the Tiësto dance remix cut in, and got the dance floor rocking.

groomsmen talking at Down Hall Essex

wedding couple first dance confetti cannon photo

I felt quite emotional myself as I’m a sucker for that kind of showmanship, in fact I felt exuberant. As I drove home I thought to myself what a fitting end for two exuberant people with big personalities on their unforgettable day.

Ok now, wipe away those tears…I dropped in a couple of references to previous weddings that you can check out if you wish on the blog, here they are: London St Pancras Wedding and St Tropez Wedding Photographer                  

And as Down Hall reminded me in some ways of Fanhams Hall weddings in good old Hertfordshire, then here’s a little info and plenty of photos from that lovely country house venue: Fanhams Hall Wedding Photographers 

I can’t blog every wedding we do, sorry, otherwise I would explode…and have no time for other weddings, my family and maintaining my imaginary helicopter.

By David Green

 

 

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London Belgravia wedding shot on deckchairs

Caledonian Club Wedding in London’s Belgravia

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Sometimes the tube in central London can be your best friend on a wedding day. Unless there is a strike of course! On Zoe and Peter’s special day a great many streets were closed on both sides of the river Thames for a no car zone event.

Bridal prep London photo

Wedding couple in London Belgravia Square

Zoe was getting ready at the Caledonian Club in London’s Belgravia, then travelling to her wedding ceremony at Our Lady of Czestochowa and Saint Casimir in Islington, then back to her wedding reception at the Caledonian. She would be doing all of this in a lovely Rolls Royce hired for the day, but we figured we could beat her and groom Peter over time if we hopped on the tube at Hyde Park corner to Angel station.

Bride on stairs of London Caledonian Club

Islington church marriage ceremony

Well after capturing Zoe, her bridesmaids and families preparations at the Belgravia club we literally ran to the station nearby and then through the streets of Islington to the church when we arrived. We like to think of it as a bonus wedding photography aerobic exercise for ourselves!

confetti shot from London Islington wedding

This meant we had plenty of time to document Peter’s groomsmen family and friends at the lovely church Our Lady of Czestochowa and Saint Casimir, while Zoe made her way slowly but surely through the central  London traffic. We advised Zoe to set off early, so in reality everything pretty much ran on time, which was nice. The wedding ceremony itself was conducted with real verve, which can make a big difference to the enduring memories of a wedding having an enthusiastic member of the clergy in charge of your day.

Caledonian club wedding photographer photo

After confetti throwing it was back to our run with cameras and bags on the tube again, to make sure we arrived back at Belgravia and the Caledonian Club for the couple’s big arrival. Drinks and canopies followed for all the guests, and we managed to get some time to go to nearby Belgravia Square to do some family and couple shots.

First dance for couple at Caledonian club wedding image

As the club has a distinctly Scottish heritage, as does Zoe’s family, a fantastic bagpipe player was on hand to lead the couple inside, and also to the cutting of their wedding cake at the foot of the clubs’ imposing staircase.

After good eating and much merriment came speeches from the father of the bride, Peter himself and brother David as best man.

Islington church wedding interior shot

I met the wedding band earlier in the day, a great outfit called The Superlatives. After the couple’s first dance the band were there to make sure the party grooved along in earnest.

Bride dressing at Caledonian Club wedding

Here’s what Zoe and Peter had to say in an email once they received their images:

“Hi David & Joanna, we arrived back from honeymoon today to find our wedding photographs in the post. They are absolutely fantastic and we are blown away by them. We have no idea how we are going to choose just 40 out of over 1000!  Thank you so much for capturing our special day so brilliantly. Regards, Zoë & Pete.”

Read about another recent Belgravia and Knightsbridge London wedding on the blog here: London Mandarin Oriental Wedding Photography

For information on the Caledonian Club visit their official site here: London Caledonian Club

By David Green

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London Mandarin Oriental wedding photographer

London Mandarin Oriental Wedding Photography

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues4 Comments

Laura and Ben met each other in Australia while Laura was travelling from the UK. Ben originally from Melbourne being a romantic and very much in love then decided to live in the UK with Laura. They chose the London Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London’s Knightsbridge for their wedding ceremony, reception and photography.  I once travelled to Australia and lived there for love, but that’s another story…!

Mandarin Oriental London wedding ceremony

wedding laughter at Mandarin Oriental Hotel

It was a love filled intimate affair with just the couple and their parents in attendance. Two photographers would have been overkill so I travelled to Knightsbridge on my own. I knew from my communication previously with the couple that we had been chosen not just for our wedding photography, but also our people skills. When you are the outside element in an occasion with just six other people, you have to be discreet but also pleasant friendly and relaxed too.

Bride looks through window at Mandarin Oriental Hotel

I met Ben and his parents first in The Loggia a wonderful circular area in the hotel with a terrace view over Hyde Park, with special access for Royalty and heads of state. This was to be the space for the wedding ceremony. Next I met Laura and her parents arriving at the Knightsbridge hotels’ regal entrance, and then spent time with them while they waited in the ballroom for the registrars to arrive.

kissing wedding couple London's Knightsbridge

marriage vows at Mandarin Oriental ceremony London's Knightsbridge

The ceremony was extra special not just because of it’s setting, but also because Laura and Ben personalised it with dedications to each other they had written and then read out. It was also an evening affair, 7pm to be precise, which again was unusual.

wedding couple on lawn at Mandarin Oriental photo

Afterwards it was time for champagne and canopies on the terrace. As this was being enjoyed staff from the hotel assembled to roll out and fix a red carpet to the stairs leading to the exclusive Hyde Park entrance. I asked if this was the one and only red carpet treaded by Royalty, and they confirmed that yes it was! How nice for the couple. A little later the wedding cake was cut as is tradition, and the wedding party sat down in The Loggia for their intimate wedding breakfast. I said my goodbyes and disappeared into the Knightsbridge evening hustle and bustle outside. I felt pleased to have been part of such a lovely and intimate special occasion.

Newly weds walk through Hyde Park gates

To see a related post of a small intimate wedding in an iconic London hotel location, take a look at one of our many weddings at the Dorchester here or you ca use our search box and type a name, for instance The Savoy: London Dorchester Hotel Wedding

By David Green

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