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London Eye wedding photographers coca cola kiss photo

London Eye Wedding Photographers Time Out Recommended

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues2 Comments

Some wedding days are destined to live long in the memory, and Tiffany and Ryan’s Coca Cola Official London Eye ceremony and Tower Bridge and West End wedding adventure is one of them.

Wedding dress and shoes hanging at Le Meridien Piccadilly London

We first spoke to Tiffany via Skype as she and Ryan are residents of Toronto Canada but truly love London and try and get over as much as possible. After finding us as London Eye wedding photographers, and knowing we were Time Out Recommended, they wasted no time in getting in touch and sharing their exciting wedding ideas with us.

Bride and groom walking to their London Eye Wedding ceremony

The day started for us capturing the couple’s wedding preparations which were taking place at the lovely and classy Le Méridien hotel in central London’s Piccadilly. A five star hotel built in 1908 it’s just a few short metres from the iconic Eros figure that along with places such as Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace are timeless symbols of the capital.

London Eye Wedding ceremony photo

We particularly liked Tiffany’s white Doc Martin wedding boots which reflected her personal style and tastes in music and did look great with her wedding dress.  In fact we found we had lots in common in the music department with the couple.

Wedding ceremony photo taken on the London Eye

It was a small intimate wedding party of just eight people, all Canadian and all super friendly. When everyone was ready we all boarded a huge white wedding stretch limousine waiting outside Le Méridien for us.

Wedding couple kiss by Tower Bridge London

We had quite a bit of time allocated for photos before heading to the London Eye, so we set off towards Tower Bridge and Butlers Wharf. However London traffic being what it can be at the weekends, or for that matter anytime, we were left with just twenty minutes when we finally arrived!

London-wedding-party-pose-by-Tower-Bridge-at-Butlers-Wharf

No matter though because we are used to working in tight schedules and had plenty of fun getting a good mix of classic and quirky. I think the fact that the wedding party had extra champagne drinking time in the limo probably helped loosen everyone up too.

Bride and groom at London Eye wedding

Not that anyone needed loosening up, in fact the naturally friendly nature of the wedding couple and their friends meant that wherever we went people wanted to join in for photos, selfies and even two like minded tourists were invited to the ceremony itself. I’ve never seen that before!

London bride and groom in front of red roller doors photo

At the Coca Cola London Eye the couple were looked after in the VIP lounge before being fast tracked onto their flower decorated personal wedding pod. For the first half hour rotation they had their ceremony with dedications and signings. For the second half we did some photos and drank more champagne….well we only had a little, ever the professionals, maybe…

Wedding couple and daughter pose on the London Eye

After that it was back to the stretch limo and our ever patient driver Jo, and zoomed off to the West End and Charring Cross Road to head to The Crow Bar.  This rocky themed venue is a favourite watering hole for Ryan that he wanted to drop in to as part of the celebrations of the couples special day.

Wedding couple kiss inside red London phone box image

From there it was time for the reception and final meal at the Gaucho Piccadilly.

London wedding couple pose for photo by Tower Bridge

London wedding couple pose with tourists at Butlers Wharf photo

Ultimate London Eye wedding photographers photo

Bride in reception at Le Meridien Hotel London wedding

 

 

By David Green

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Chinese engagement shoot in London by boat

Chinese Engagement shoot in Central London, Tower Bridge and Southbank

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Over the past few years years we have photographed a tremendous amount of weddings and engagement shoots in central London and beyond. One of our most frequent enquiries is from couples whose actual home is China but would like a particularly London flavour to their engagement memories. Hong Kong or mainland China may be the ultimate destination for their wedding day, but they are very happy to fly over to the capital for a few days to meet us and have their shoot. Right now it is so popular in certain inner London destinations that it’s not unusual for us to encounter three or four similar shoots going on at the same time and that is just on a week day!

London wedding carousel image

Now sometimes the Chinese couples that we work with are also getting married here in London, as was the case with this recent shoot:  Engagement Shoot at London’s Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill and it may be that they are also living and working in the capital, either way I’ve managed to learn a few Chinese words and phrases along the way.

London engagement shoot with Chinese wedding couple

 

It’s not strictly necessary though because although Mandarin and Cantonese are notoriously difficult languages to learn and master, the lovely Chinese engagement couples that we deal with have generally fantastic English language skills. Better than some of the natives!

London Eye Wedding Photographers image

Where do we go? Well it’s often the busiest but most iconic tourist spots like Tower Bridge, the Southbank, Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and so on. Here’s a good example of the kind of shoot we would do by the Thames: London Southbank Engagement Shoot You need to be experienced both with crowd management in these situations, and skilful with camera and lighting technique. The last thing any self respecting engagement couple want is a bunch of images that look like snap shots, probably like the majority of other folk with their cameras and phones out on the day. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with snap shots, but there is if you have paid a professional to create your images.

Wedding laughter on London Tower Bridge image

There is a very popular misconception often from photographers outside of London, or those with less experience, that having famous and iconic backdrops behind a couple does all the work for you. Let us say with hand on heart that this is very far from the reality of the situation. You have to work hard with technique, pose and storytelling to create something that is truly memorable and meaningful. This perfectly sums up in our opinion any great wedding photography. As I like to quote and paraphrase England’s most famous photographer David Bailey: “Most people take photos. I make photos.”

Wedding couple by Big Ben London photo

Tower Bridge Wedding front page

The Chinese engagement photos here are from a large range that we did with Natalie and Max from Hong Kong. As Natalie was a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific we don’t think she had a problem scheduling her flights to fit in with the couple’s engagement shoot plans! Needless to say we had a great time, and that as always is reflected in the final images. It doesn’t matter how skilled your London wedding photographer is, they must have great people skills too.

Engagement shoot at London's Butlers Wharf image

Chinese engagement shoot at London by southbank

Take a look at the range of serious and fun shots we have across our three galleries here: Wedding Galleries

wedding couple under finger London southbank

Wedding couple pose at St Katherines Dock

Locations for the shoot included Tower Bridge and Butlers Wharf, Southbank and Big Ben.

As there is a carousel image included here in the post you can see more about this and the history of these fairground attractions here: London Wedding Carousels, we love them!

By David Green

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Southwark Cathedral wedding with Butlers Wharf, Tower Bridge & Vinopolis reception

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues2 Comments

Southwark cathedral wedding ceremony

Ed drives a nice car, I know, I saw it at his engagement shoot with Julie…(in-joke). Actually I know lots of people with nice cars. I just wish some of them were more like Ed…..Anyway, I liked Julie and Ed from the moment I met them, and that is something that motivates far more than where people are choosing to get married and what their budget may be. They had strong personalities and strong ideas about what they wanted to achieve with their wedding plans, one box ticked. They loved London and wanted to feature the locations as much as the events and emotions of the day, another box ticked. We learned later that they got engaged in Green Park and spent the rest of that day by the Thames and visiting the View from The Shard, bit of back story there, and also places we have greatly enjoyed ourselves.

wedding couple with London love sign photo

We’ve photographed weddings at cathedral’s before too (in London that would be Westminster Cathedral) so we knew what to expect when Julie told us they would be marrying at Southwark Cathedral close to London Bridge. What to expect? Well grandeur, history and of course…tourists. Yes, they may well be allowed to sit at the rear or actually walk around and visit the building while you are getting married. They certainly mill around the outside of the central pews at Westminster, but we were quietly pleased for these guys that they were confined to a few rows at the very back for their wedding gatecrash!

wedding recessional Southwark Cathedral

Borough market next to Southwark Cathedral as anyone that has ever visited there knows is a very bustling busy place indeed, so in many ways Julie and Ed had a very public wedding. In my opinion that added to the fun atmosphere as everybody loves a wedding couple. Confetti throwing had plenty of onlookers, as did the wedding party’s short walk to Vinopolis their reception venue.

Wedding photo Butlers Wharf London

This very unique event space is built to incorporate the Victorian arches that help make up it’s distinctive look, and is dedicated to wine with a museum, bars and restaurant. It has a special place in our hearts as London wedding photographers, as it was the very first venue ten years ago that Joanna and I worked together at for both ceremony and reception. Sadly Vinopolis is closing at the end of this year  and we will all miss it.

wedding couple Borough Market shot

While guests enjoyed their welcoming drinks and canopies, the newlyweds and ourselves snuck off down the road in the black wedding cab to Butlers Wharf and Tower Bridge. It is an area we have photographed at many times, but each big day and it’s unique bride and groom creates equally unique and different images, and this time was no exception.

Happy couple at Butlers Wharf Tower Bridge

kissing couple by London Tower Bridge

married near Tower Bridge image

Back to the cab and then back to Vinopolis. Between wining and dining, speeches and the like, we had some fun with a spotlight for shots taking in the wedding venue’s arches and various props. It had to be done, and cutting the cake and dancing the night away was all there in abundance of course too.

Dance at London Vinopolis

Now this blog post may not win a Pulitzer prize, but it doesn’t need to because undeniably and obviously the big winners on the day were Julie and Ed themselves, and that is what we aimed to showcase here.

Also according to some book I bought on Amazon, writing these posts helps our website rankings, not sure about that, because really we just like waffling and putting pretty pictures online. By the way, did we mention Ed drives a very nice car?

wedding reception room London Vinopolis venue

Love heart on wa;; at London wedding reception venue

You can see a related post featuring Tower Bridge and surrounding area here: Tower Bridge Wedding Inside Story

And another here: London Bishopsgate Wedding Photographers

By David Green (yet to win a Pulitzer prize…)

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Happy couple photographed at Tower Bridge in London

London Bishopsgate Wedding Photographers

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues2 Comments

St Helen’s Bishopsgate, Threadneedles Hotel and Tower Bridge

When you are a London wedding photographer it helps to have the eyes of a tourist or visitor to our great city when you are working. By that we mean looking at what may be very familiar to you in a fresh and unique way, each time a well known place is the location you find yourself on a wedding day. As a busy in demand photographer, you owe it to each and every couple to be as fresh and sharp sighted with your image making on their big day as humanly possible. When Joanna and I formed Big Day Weddings ten years ago, the first question we asked ourselves was “if we were looking for a wedding photographer to capture our special day, what would we want from them?”  We try and bring the answers we found for that particular question  to each and every once in a lifetime event we cover. One such area we have worked many times that is still as fresh as the first time is Bishopsgate and its surrounding streets.

Tower Bridge wedding photographer London

This particular day we started at the lovely Threadneedles Hotel just behind the London Stock Exchange and the Bank of England, on wait for it…Threadneedle Street. Kim and Michael as regulars at St Helen’s church in Bishopsgate naturally wanted to get married there, with their familiar clergy Andrew Sachs conducting the service. Bride and groom both got ready at the Threadneedles hotel, making sure their paths didn’t cross, and Joanna and myself flitted between the two of them to get the full story of the start of their day.

Wedding procession St Helens Bishopsgate

St Helens Bishopsgate wedding image

The service at St Helens was a very heartfelt affair, and after a mixture of reportage photography and some formals too, we caught a wedding taxi to explore Butlers Wharf and Tower Bridge area for forty minutes, while the wedding party made their way by foot the short distance to the hotel for the reception. We love photographing wedding couples in the Tower Bridge area, which again is an place we have worked in and around many many times. After our fun and games there, and some good hearted banter with our London cab driver, we all headed back to the Threadneedles for Kim and Michael’s champagne reception.

Threadneedles hotel wedding photography

laughter at Threadneedles Hotel wedding

 

wedding photo at Butlers Wharf

marriage vows at St Helens Bishopsgate London

bride getting ready at Threadneedles Hotel

You can see we used a variety of lenses here from fish eyes to exotic fixed focal length portrait lenses. Some people have already asked “is that kissing shot at Tower Bridge real?” Well, to do an Ed Milliband: “Hell Yes!” All we did was boost the blues in an already dramatic sky. For the shot of Kim in the lift lobby area of the hotel, Joanna held a Fresnel lens spotlight over Kim while I zoomed in from a far and used my “secret” tactics to create a reaction to give the image some extra dynamism. All good fun!

To see some more images taken in and around Bishopsgate including the fantastic Leadenhall Market and our special wedding day trespassing shot on the Lloyds Building, then take a look at our dedicated galleries: Wedding Galleries

By David Green

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