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Bride and groom messing around at Shoreditch wedding by graffiti

Eight Club Wedding in Moorgate and Shoreditch

By Big Day WeddingsLondon venues and events, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding Venues2 Comments

There’s something endlessly fascinating about the streets of central London. It’s not just the rich history of our capital, it’s the architecture, it’s the energy and the sheer variety of what is around us. Whenever we work there for a wedding day we remain equally motivated and fascinated by this environment.

When we spoke with V and B we were as ever excited to be working in iconic areas, and this time it was to be Shoreditch and Moorgate, which had a lot of both personal and professional history for them.

Wedding dress hanging at Montcalm Hotel in London

Bridal preparation Montcalm Hotel London

Bride's face in mirror Montcalm Hotel wedding

The day was to start at B’s local pub with the boys at the Old Blue Last on Great Eastern Street, and a bit of fun in a few places around the block. The Old Blue Last has a very colourful history, including being a formal brothel, site of a theatre Shakespeare hung out at and is now a vibrant music venue too.

Groomsmen on bikes in Shoreditch wedding morning

V and her bridesmaids were getting ready at the Montcalm Hotel in Finsbury Square. Joanna started there and I joined her after a while.

Bride and bridesmaids outside Eight Club Shoreditch wedding

Bride near Eight Club Moorgate wedding

The venue foe the ceremony, wedding breakfast and reception was the rather fabulous Eight Club Moorgate. A lovely members club with fine dining, private meeting rooms and large airy modern spaces with terraces around making it a special place to host a wedding ceremony and reception.

Bride and groom in aisle at Eight Club wedding ceremony

V and B chose a celebrant to host their ceremony and to make it meaningfully personalised for them, and we have to say she did an excellent job.

Bride groom and bubbles inside Eight Club Moorgate wedding

Their recessional was played out to bubbles from the guests and Sucker for You by The Jonas Brothers. I have to admit to being a little bit of a sucker for that track myself.

Bridal party walking through Shoreditch wedding streets

Whilst the guests enjoyed their drinks reception on the sunlit terraces of Eight Club, we took to the surrounding streets of Moorgate and Shoreditch to do some shots once again in places that had memories and meaning for the couple.

Shoreditch wedding couple kiss on graffiti filled steps

In my opinion that’s the best kind of wedding day, one that is filled with relevance and meaning to the couple themselves. While a country mansion is great too, unless it was your ancestral l home (!!!!) I don’t think it could resonate quite the same way.

Wedding party by graffiti in Shoreditch London

The wedding breakfast and speeches were in the stylish Quartier restaurant level of the club, while the upstairs bar and terrace areas were readied for the first dance and evening partying.

Eight Club Wedding Collage

All in all a great day, and a special mention to the staff of Eight Club Moorgate who were great throughout the ceremony, reception and party.

By David Green

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Chinese wedding in central London with bubble guns

New review in from Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding day

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Thanks to S and Y for the review submitted to the The Wedding Industry Awards which has just come through.

I had a great time with these guys at Alexandra Palace in torrential rain for their engagement shoot.

Later in the year I photographed their wedding ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hal,l and then their reception Chinese banquet at the wonderful Phoenix Palace near Baker Street central London.

Old Marylebone Town Hall has just had a major refurbishment, and many may now know it as Westminster Council House which it has emblazoned across it’s frontage. It’s the grandest council house I’ve ever seen…!

I particularly enjoyed our fun with the bubble guns the wedding party brought along for the day.

First here’s the couple’s reaction to their engagement shoot, and then their review of the wedding day itself:

“Hi David, Just wanted to let you know we received the USB and CD today. The photos are lovely. We liked how everything turned out. Thank you for a wonderful engagement shoot :)”

“We decided to go for David after meeting him and seeing his portfolio. On our wedding day he was well prepared and arrived early to take photos of the guests. He was funny and engaging so it helped us relax a lot. He took really lovely photos of us at the town hall and banquet. We received a lot of compliments when we showed the photos to our friends and family. He was also a great photographer during our outdoor engagement shoot despite it raining heavily on the day. Great photos and memories!”

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Two brides at their wedding hold hands on a bridge

Two fantastic brides marry at Essendon Country Park. Gay wedding photographers London since 2006

By Big Day WeddingsBarnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

It has been one of the great pleasures as wedding photographers to experience many different faiths and outlooks across a tremendous variety of venues. What has also been inspiring is to have witnessed first hand a sea change in attitudes to same sex marriages.

Gay wedding ceremony at Essendon Country Club

Since 2006 we have been busy with an ever increasing amount of civil partnerships each year, and were also delighted to be the first photographers in a number of London borough’s who were chosen to shoot a so called ‘gay wedding’. We say “so called” because it has always been our attitude that it is a wedding full stop, nothing more nothing less, no need to differentiate. Whether it’s LGBT, or a traditional orthodox religious ceremony it’s the joining of two people who love each other. And what could be better?

First kiss with two brides gay wedding ceremony London

When Z and M got in touch it was easy for us to convey our long time experience in all these areas, and as usual we were able to show much more importantly the kind of “people people” we are, if that makes sense!

Two brides having fun on their London gay wedding day

This big day took place at Essendon Country Club near Hatfield in Hertfordshire which we have photographed at previously. It benefits from an impressive raised barn on one level with dramatic steps down to a large dining area for a good sized wedding breakfast and reception.

There are outside areas for alfresco drinks, and of course parts of the golf course for some external photography too.

Essenden Country Club wedding photographers couple shot

Both Z and M wanted their coverage to start from just before they entered for the wedding ceremony, and what a memorable and dramatic entrance it was. Each bride wound their way through the decorated dinner tables, up the impressive staircase and into the grand barn. The look on each others faces as they saw each other for the first time was priceless and that’s why I included that particular shot in this post. In fact the focus of this description is really to show the love between this fantastic couple and their friends and family rather than endless detail shots. Although we gave the couple over a thousand edited images so there’s plenty of those too!

Essendon Country Club wedding day collage

After the drinks reception and some family photos, time restrictions dictated a fast shoot near the barn with the couple. That was fine we are used to that and the results were great.

First dance shots at London gay wedding

After the wedding breakfast and speeches it was party time, and as M’s family were Greek we were guaranteed a great and lively one. During that we snuck out for ten minutes with the girls to get a few moody shots in the darkness of night before returning to the bright lights and dance tunes of their big day.

Two brides kiss at London Gay Wedding day image

First dance for Z was with her father, and for M it was with each of her brothers, which was refreshingly different and really touching to watch.

By David Green

Here’s a copy of the testimonial from these guys I put on a separate post here:

https://www.bigdayweddings.co.uk/another-lovely-google-review-from-an-essendon-country-club-wedding-day/

“Thank you so much to David and Joanna for capturing our special day. One of the main reasons we chose to go with David and Joanna was their ability and talent to capture the moment and use the lighting in a way we saw no one else do. Believe me we carried out our research and Big Day Weddings was our first choice. We had a great time getting to know them both and David kept us laughing all the way through the day. We highly recommend Big Day Weddings to capture your special day in the most uniquely beautiful way.”

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Was this our best year ever? 12 months of wedding photography inside…

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

Goodbye 2019. Hello 2020. That was one great year of wedding photography with truly special big days we were super excited and privileged to be a part of.

Tanner warehouse wedding at the Shard photo

For us all wedding days are fantastic to be a part of, and we worked our socks off to do every single one of them justice for the couples and their guests.

Eleven years of London and Home Counties wedding photography has not dimmed our enthusiasm, in fact every year it grows as does our experience and technique.

London wedding photography collage two

Looking ahead to the next 365 days we have our usual mixture of iconic venues, hipster hangouts, warehouses, stately homes and Victorian gastro boozers to look forward to. A whole host of new places and faces to explore, and also a return to favourites St Paul’s Cathedral, The Gherkin, The Shard, London Zoo and Tower Bridge.

Gherkin wedding day two brides on stairs

In truth though it doesn’t matter if the venue is humble or spectacular, for us it is about the people and making them happy with an approach and imagery that they value.

Bride arrives at Dead Dolls House for Islington Town Hall Wedding

Bride and Groom walking at Brook Farm Wedding

We are lovers of wedding photography and its challenges, but we never ever forget that we are in the service industry, and that it is about the couple first and foremost and what is best for them.

Wedding-couple-kiss-under-Tower-Bridge-London-photo

Bride and groom messing around at Shoreditch wedding by graffiti

It’s interesting that a few brides and grooms told us last year that they felt many photographers they were talking to were more interested in the possibly photogenic venue to shoot at rather than the plans of the couple themselves. That’s a mistake because great photography can be anywhere.

Groomsmen walk to Trinity Wharf wedding ceremony

We don’t blog every wedding, very simply because we are busy both photographing and living our lives. Every year we shoot between thirty and forty weddings. That’s enough for us to give the right level of time and attention to every one of those big days. Once we have our limit of bookings we stop for that calendar year, unless it’s an emergency to help someone out.

Two brides at their wedding hold hands on a bridge

Couple by red phone boxes London wedding day

Stoke Newington town hall wedding ceremony kiss

There are some 2019 weddings that were highlights we haven’t blogged, so we choose some of the favourites from the ones we did in our featured collages. Hope you enjoy and feel free to ask to see a whole wedding, which on average will be over 1000 individually edited images we present to each couple.

Couple in Leadenhall Market London engagement shoot image

Bride looks across London Gherkin wedding day

Looking forward to 2020 and beyond!

By David Green

Here links to some of the featured images in this post:

Tanner Warehouse Wedding Photography, with a ceremony at Stoke Newington Town Hall

Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding photographers, and a sky full of stars

Eight Club Wedding in Moorgate and Shoreditch

Islington Town Hall Wedding Photographers, reception at Dead Dolls House

St Georges Cathedral & Gherkin wedding photographers

Hanbury Manor Wedding Photographers

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First kiss Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding ceremony

Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding photographers, and a sky full of stars

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

Trinity Buoy Wharf London is one of those weird and wonderful wedding venues that we have been asked to photograph many times but we have always been doubled booked! So naturally we were delighted for the first time to be able to say ‘yes’ to T & M’s November big day.

Groomsmen walk to Trinity Wharf wedding ceremony

We love a good winter wedding which is just as well as it’s always a busy time for bookings with us every year. Never mind it was wet and windy, we are used to that too!

Bridal prep for Trinity Buoy wedding day image

Our day started in London’s Canary Wharf quarter with T’s bridal preparations in an apartment overlooking the Thames. There was certainly plenty of laughter anticipation and energy on show. After a while I (David) headed off separately to document M and his three best men and groomsmen’s arrival at the wedding venue and their “meet and greet” of all the arriving guests.

I grew up next to a lighthouse in Yorkshire so it was special for me to experience London’s only such beacon across the Thames from the O2 arena as well. So what if it doesn’t work anymore, what could be more cool than a lighthouse with a wedding ceremony and reception venue beneath!

Wedding ceremony at Trinity Buoy Wharf London

T and M arranged some great decor for the venue and we particularly liked their hangings from the ceiling. This made me think of Coldplay’s Sky Full of Stars and I was keen to incorporate it in some of the angles I shot for the wedding ceremony. Unfortunately the registrar was in the line of sight for most of the proceedings except for the first kiss, so when that window of opportunity arose I dropped to my knees and got the shot I’d seen in my minds eye, and which I’ve used as the featured image in this post.

Trinity Buoy wharf wedding couple in lighthouse

Anyway it was a great ceremony and afterwards while Joanna documented the drinks reception I went off with the newly weds straight to the top of a very windy, cold and slightly rainy lighthouse to do some couple shots. Nevertheless we had a great time and the rain did us a favour and stopped for an hour after a while so I had a chance to do some family shots too just outside of the venue.

Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding couple outside lighthouse by O2 arena photo

Wedding couple hold hands and laugh at Trinity Buoy Wharf

Bride and groom in gardens for Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding

History wise Trinity Buoy Wharf is really two buildings. The area for wedding ceremonies and receptions was a storehouse and maintenance depot for buoys, and the lighthouse was added and completed in 1866. As well as doing it’s traditional lighting duties the structure was used to train lighthouse keepers and was also used for experiments by famous scientist Michael Faraday.

Bride and groom by sign at Trinity Buoy Wharf Wedding