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London Wedding Photographer

Dorchester Hotel wedding photographer piano image

London Dorchester Hotel Wedding

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Camden town hall wedding ceremony

Wedding season is in full swing now, though to be honest it never really stopped throughout the winter! One of our favourite venues to work at whatever the time of year is when we are at a London Dorchester hotel wedding. The last big day we were photographing at this iconic venue the total guest count was about three hundred, this time it was a lovely intimate affair with just eight very special guests. Zaira originally from Brazil and Daniel from Paris France, wanted just close family to share their wedding day and in many ways it made the day even more magical.

When we first spoke I (David) felt an instant rapport with them which is so important for both sides to make for a truly successful experience. Although it is not strictly necessary, we would generally advise meeting with any potential wedding photographer before making a final decision on who shares such a momentous day with you.

confetti photo at Camden town hall

We have spoke before about the history and glamorous heritage of the Dorchester in a previous blog post here: Dorchester Hotel Wedding Photographers

The Pavilion and Penthouse at the Dorchester were the destinations for the reception and quite frankly in London they don’t get much more exclusive than those. I was looking at an article in Hello magazine from 2012 the week before, about guitarist Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones and his wedding, and saw that that was exactly where he had decided to celebrate! He had two best men, little known names in the world of entertainment: Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney. Actually, over the time we have have photographed at the hotel we have encountered quite a few household names. The only stars we are really interested in though are the ones we are photographing!

Dorchester Hotel wedding London

London Dorchester hotel wedding shot

The wedding ceremony took place at Camden Town Hall which has special memories for us as this was where we registered the births of our first two children while we were living in Islington. We always find the registers working there to be really good with people. After the town hall and sone family shots and confetti we took the wedding car with Martin the video man from Special Occasion Videos to the opposite bank of the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. Zaira and Daniel had told us this was an area they really loved and wanted to feature in their final wedding images. After a very pleasant twenty or so minutes there we headed for the Dorchester and the waiting champagne and canopies in the beautiful Pavilion rooms upstairs.

Penthouse at London Dorchester wedding

Read what the couple had to say about their London wedding photography experience here: London Dorchester Hotel feedback

By David Green

 

Andaz Hotel London wedding shot

Best London Wedding Photographers

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues2 Comments

The internet is full of lists. We haven’t seen one for best London wedding photographers, but we are guessing it is probably something couples looking for great imagery for their big day may well type in when they search. That got us thinking, what makes anyone the best wedding photographer in any particular area. Well to cut a long blog post short, and the conclusion we came to, it is very much in the eye and intuition of the beholder!

London Gherkin wedding kiss black and white image

For instance if you value a particular style of photography over another, chances are you will have a natural and understandable bypass towards that image genre. Websites are full of buzz words trying to describe their owners varying approaches: reportage and documentary style, fine art, dramatic, classic, natural and spontaneous, unobtrusive, and so on. What does all this mean, does it make the photographer stand out from the rest? How much of this is just something that reads well on a site. There are definately some brilliant wedding photographers out there in the big wide world, and obviously some are more affordable than others. The general rule of you get what you pay for on the whole seems to us pretty accurate in this industry though.

London_Street_Wedding_Scene

Some are good, some are great, some are way better at marketing than others. Perhaps they live on page one of Google or Bing or whatever search engine is used. The emerging genius may well be on page five and no one ever finds them. Undoubtedly that happens and all the current research shows that people rarely look past the first two pages. Are the best wedding photographers on page one? No, but we suspect the busiest are! So what should a prospective couple look for. Well, firstly something that appeals to your gut feelings, and we are not talking food here! If the images you see move you, excite and inspire you, then you are probably more than half way there. As long as the images were shot at real weddings in realistic time scales with no models involved. Unfortunately that sometimes happens. Not with us though!

Smithfield wedding photographers

Next, are these people within your budget, or if they are not, would you mind finding the extra money to make sure these are the ones for your big day. Are they flexible style wise, or only shoot one way. For instance, if you value a reportage style would the photographer be comfortable capturing more formal or traditional portraits during the day. Would they recreate a photo idea you had found somewhere else for example on a popular site like Pinterest. Would they be amenable to shoot for you in a variety of different genres. Being open minded to these factors could contribute to them being deemed “the best” certainly for your needs. That would be way more relevant than a third party list or a search engine placing, or certainly one of those pay per click ads that appear at the top and side of every page you look at.

Richmond bus stop wedding shot

Other things to think about could be, have you met the person? Some London wedding photographers are much more relaxed with people than others. They really need to not just get on well with yourselves, but also ALL of your guests. Sometimes that “unobtrusive” documentary style advertised could be the carefully chosen words of a socially awkward but well-meaning person who loves playing with cameras! Of course there are folks that tick all the right boxes in all image styles too.

Lords cricket wedding shot

If possible we will always recommend meeting your wedding photographer in person, as this could be the final deciding factor in who is best for you. And that really is the essence of what makes for the title of this piece “Best London wedding photographers.” There is no definitive impartial list, it is about what is ultimately right for you and taking into account some of the areas we have mentioned here.

Love in Hoxton wedding shot

We hope it is us, but as always of course, the choice will be yours and yours alone. To read a little more of our personal approach to the big day take a look at the section here: David and Joanna

London Zoo wedding shot

To get a feel for the variety and style of imagery we can produce you can either search further on the blog. or check out our dedicated image galleries here: Wedding Galleries

Dorchester Hotel wedding Israeli dance

Images shown here are really the tip of a very large ten year iceberg! There’s the Gherkin building at the top, Smithfield market, a bus stop in Richmond, Lord’s Cricket Ground, a bit of rundown Hoxton at night, London Zoo, The Dorchester Hotel and St Pancras Station, to name just a few of the venues we have done recently in and around London.

You can read about some of these London weddings featured here in a group of previous blog posts listed below:

Weddings at the Gherkin: Gherkin wedding photographer

London Zoo celebrations: London Zoo wedding photographers

St Pancras: London St Pancras wedding

Dorchester Hotel weddings: London Dorchester Hotel wedding

Lord’s Cricket Ground: Lords Cricket Ground Wedding

Smithfield Market: Smithfield Wedding Photographer

Central London Weddings

 

By David Green

 

St Pancras station wedding

star wars themed wedding image Enfield

Star Wars London Wedding

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Image features in Enfield museum wedding exhibition

Very happy to say we had a call from a London museum asking permission from us to use a couple of images for their year long exhibition “Just married 150 years of Enfield weddings.” This particular image is actually a few years old but still makes us smile, especially as we had no idea before the big day that Becky and Ben seen here were such big Star Wars fans. This was shot on the helicopter landing pad at the Royal Chase hotel in Enfield with rain clouds fast approaching. The civil ceremony was held earlier in the Manderville Suite of the hotel and there’s an image below of the moments right after the happy couple had been pronounced man and wife. Information about the museum’s exibition can be found here: Enfield Museum

We have worked in and around Enfield many times, and also photographed the first official gay wedding in that area of North London. The museum wanted to feature those images too as a landmark occasion, but understandbly that particular days couple wanted to keep their image and identity private.Enfield wedding kiss photo

See our related post about choosing Enfield wedding photographers here: Enfield Wedding Photographers

by David Green

wedding_confetti_inside_London_Hotel

Grovefield House Wedding

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Windsor versus London

London wedding couple in a frame

So where were you on Valentine’s day, and how did you spend the time? Well Joanna and I spent this traditional twenty four hours devoted to lovebirds, photographing two incurable romantics tying the knot at their Grovefield House wedding. We knew three years ago looking at dates ahead in the diary, that Valentine’s Day falling on a Saturday would be one that would be busy for us. No time for an amour fuelled meal alone for David and Joanna…Good job we love what we do, and what a better way to fill this February the 14th than with a London wedding. We say London wedding but strictly speaking this was Windsor. Well if it is good enough for the queen then that does us just fine, and we did take in a scenic trip around that traditional test of a photographers patience and planning, the joyous M25.

first dance Grovefield House wedding

Yes it rained, but nothing could dampen the spirits at this fun filled day for Laura and Luke at Grovefield House. It did mean however we made a rather pretty mess in reception throwing confetti as the bride and groom came out of the main lift. I did feel a little guilty later when every time I passed through reception afterwards staff were still sweeping away bits of confetti. I couldn’t bring myself to confess it was the photographer’s idea, but I did apologise with a smile, however, staff were great and understanding throughout the big day. Grovefield House itself is Victorian in origin and is set in seven acres of land close to Burnham Beeches. It was once the country retreat of John Fuller of the brewing family fame. The hotel itself has forty bedrooms and of course is licenced for civil wedding ceremonies. They can cater for up to 180 guests, and if you take one of their packages you have your own dedicated wedding coordinator to work with. Take a look at their website here: Grovefield House website

Valentines Mansion wedding photographer

Valentines Mansion wedding photographers

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Getting ready for Valentines wedding

Wedding couple in garden Valentines Mansion

Well as we sit here recharging various batteries, cleaning lenses and generally getting ourselves ready for this weekends weddings, it is that time of year when romance is in the air in a big way, namely Valentines Day. This Saturday we are celebrating our own Valentines as a couple by photographing another couple’s very special day at Grovefield House. February 14th this year falls of course on a Saturday and has been one of the most requested dates of the last three years for us. We are pretty certain many people may well use this famous time to pop the question to their loved ones, that is because many times in initial wedding meetings that exactly what we have been told was the day their engagement started!

Wedding ceremony at Valentines Mansion

This make us think now of a day we photographed as Valentines Mansion wedding photographers that somehow didn’t make it to the blog at the time, but was probably one of the most romantically named venues we have encountered. Shilpa and Helson had an intimate civil ceremony with close friends and family in one of the splendid grade two listed drawing rooms of the imposing building. This was followed by a drinks and nibbles reception downstairs, and a little alone time with David and Joanna around the beautiful grounds of the wedding venue.

laughter between wedding couple at Valentines

Valentines Mansion is over three hundred years old and was built in 1696. It has been extensively restored with money from the National Lottery fund and Redbridge Council, and is surrounded by beautiful gardens.  Take a look at their website here and see that their blog features some of our images: Valentines Mansion

By David Green.