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St Albans Registry wedding couple run past wall image

St Albans Registry Office Wedding photographers

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, London Wedding Photographers, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

When you book your St Albans Registry Office wedding photographers, you may or may not know you are booking one of the most unique and also famous buildings not just in Hertfordshire, but the entire UK.

St Albans Registry office wedding venue

Bride arrives at St Albans Registry wedding

I (David) thought that seen as we’ve/I’ve worked at this lovely venue now about ten times that I really should write something about it. If nothing else to be a heads up for anyone considering it for their wedding ceremony.

St Albans registry wedding ceremony 2

St Albans registry wedding ceremony crowd laughing

I love a bit of history and this place has it in spades! St Albans is a beautiful town, a jewel as far as I’m concerned in Hertfordshire, and I often find any old excuse to go shopping there, usually on a Sunday with the family. It was an important Roman settlement and among many other places of interest has a stunning cathedral and grounds, not to mention a brilliant comedy festival in the park.

St Albans wedding couple by wall hand in hand

The registry office itself was the governor’s residence for what was formerly St Albans prison. The prison itself opened in 1867 and closed at the beginning of the first world war. The entrance gate and outer walls still exist, along with of course the part used for the registry office. I love to use those old walls whenever I can in the time I have before heading off to reception venues. The doors to the registry were famously used in the 1974 much loved BBC comedy series “Porridge” starring Ronnie Barker, as the entrance to the fictional Slade Prison. Note the camera phone selfie with myself and the wedding party towards the end.

Wedding couple walk past St Albans registry walls wide shot

Wedding couple walk past St Albans registry walls

I’ve chosen to show my most recent visit as a St Albans Registry Office wedding photographer to be the focus of this blog post. This was a Saturday and my lovely couple were N and R tying the knot officially before their summer wedding in Cyprus. Unfortunately I was already booked on that particular date šŸ™‚

Bride and groom laugh by St Albans Registry doors

I was as usual there in good time to refresh my memory of the venue and to look where the light was best for pics, this is something I ALWAYS do. It doesn’t matter how often you do a venue, one way or another it is different every time.

Wedding couple kiss at St Albans Registry office gates

Bride and groom sit on stone bench St Albans Registry wedding

N and R arrived in separate cars and it soon became apparent there had been some crossed wires and the bridal bouquet and confetti had been left at home by mistake! Good news though that the ever helpful, and I have to say really friendly registrars at St Albans, had an emergency bouquet to hand, which I rather liked anyway šŸ™‚

St Albans Wedding Registry couple in gardens

This was a very intimate wedding, the couple and four guests including one best man and his partner, one sister and the bride’s best friend.

St Albans Registry Office Wedding couple sat on bench in groundsBride and groom by canon St Albans Registry wedding day

Once the ceremony was done and everyone had a good cry, I took N and R around the grounds (admittedly rather small). I made sure to get plenty of the old prison walls and doors in their shots. Plus a very well preserved 1840 siege canon that imposing sits at the front of the registry office.

Wedding couple together at St Albans Registry office

Wedding-couple-laughing-at-St-Albans-Registry-office-gates

Wedding couple pose by canon at St Albans Registry Hertfordshire

Although I visit a great variety of venues as a London and Home counties wedding photographer, I’m really looking forward to returning to St Albans registry in the near future!

Big Day Weddings selfie St Albans Registry Office

By David Green

Oh and here’s our lovely couple, and Ronnie Barker leaving from the same spot (blurry BBC image)

Bride and groom at St Albans Registry gates

Ronnie Barker Porridge St Albans Registry gates

St Albans Registry wedding couple run past wall image

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding couple walk to London bus

Old Marylebone Town Hall Weddings

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, London Wedding Photographer, London Wedding Photographers, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Old Marylebone Town Hall weddings are probably some of the most iconic that happen in central London. Right next to Baker Street and not far from Madame Tussauds it has been trendy and very sought after for over a century. I’m there a lot (that’s me David) and I think if I was going to choose a place, especially if I was coming in from another country, this would be it.

Confetti throw Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding day

In fact, if you were appearing in a Richard Curtiss rom-com THIS is where you would get married, when the girl gets the guy in the final scenes! Or the guy gets the guy, or the girl gets the girl…well you get my drift.

Old Marylebone Town Hall Wedding Couple in Christmas decorations image

Wedding drinks reception Holmes Hotel London

Old Marylebone wedding couple at Holmes Hotel London

I’m going to write an info piece soon with lots of examples of all the main London Registry offices, as I’ve photographed at all of themĀ  multiple times, just to give an insight for prospective couples and other photographers spying on me (lol!). Old Marylebone, Islington and Chelsea Town Hall’s I would put as the big three. All with rich history and plenty of A listers who got married there. Including myself šŸ˜‰

London wedding couple kiss on street near Marylebone Old Town Hall

Old Marylebone Town Hall bride and groom hold hands by wall

Honorable mentions also go to Camden Town Hall, Hackney Town Hall and Stoke Newington Town Hall. All great choices.

Bride and groom walk to their Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding

The December wedding I’m featuring here was shorter than most I do at Old Marylebone Town Hall, as this was both a smaller celebration and a legal requirement for V and P who were getting married later overseas (I wasn’t available for that one). This is quite a frequent request for central London registries though.

Wedding couple on way to Old Marylebone Town Hall

Bride and groom walk uo Old Marylebone Town Hall stairs

On a freezing cold crisp morning I started my coverage in The Holmes Hotel on Chiltern Street, just round the corner from fictional (is he!?) character Sherlock Holmes’s home at 221b Baker Street. V and P were staying at The Holmes and met myself and their wedding party there for celebratory champagne before taking the short walk to Old Marylebone Town Hall.

Wedding ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall image

Wedding Ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall wide shot

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding ceremony collage

First kiss at Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding ceremony

Bride and groom celebrate in wedding ceremony Old Marylebone Town Hall

Our plan was for V and P to spend 15 to 20 minutes with myself on the way. The thing is: all the images features in the blog: Blog – London Wedding Photographers Big Day Weddings (bigdayweddings.co.uk) on Instagram: Big Day Weddings (@bigdayweddingsuk) ā€¢ Instagram photos and videos, and the galleries on the website: Wedding Galleries – London Wedding Photographers Big Day Weddings (bigdayweddings.co.uk)Ā  (there are four of them by the way) are all done in short real world time scales, in whatever the prevailing conditions might be. That’s the best way to be relaxed and natural, as long as your photographer has skill and a ‘can do’ calm attitude! One of my gripes is how much fake stuff I see on socials, where photographers have set up entire wedding shoots with models and other suppliers. While undoubtably some are really pretty and are obviously a form of advert for those involved, it is totally unrealistic, and I believe misleading in expectations for potential couples. Sorry, small rant over!

Couple kiss in corridor Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding

Bride and groom laughing Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding

Wedding couple corridor Old Marylebone Town Hall

Ok, so I was delighted to go to Holmes Mews on our little jaunt to the Town Hall, which is tucked away round the corner from the hotel, and then to work in some of the streets I know so well. Of course with a busy city every time you visit a location it may be different, or too busy, or covered in scaffolding, so it’s good to be adaptable and have a backup plan in mind.

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding couple walk down stairs

Wedding ceremonies at Old Marylebone Town Hall are strictly controlled now, especially since the venue’s refurbishment. I think this is a really good thing and what I mean by that is: it’s a very busy place, a lot of weddings take place there on the main days and if the staff were not clear about when you can go in, how long a photographer has in a particular spot, then it could be chaos, and nobody wants that on their big day. So for those of you in the stages of planning for an Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding, bear in mind that you will get somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes only with you photographer after the ceremony within the building itself. That’s fine because I will get everything we need and more in that time. Your wedding party will have been charmingly ushered out of the building in that time, to get ready on the outside steps for a confetti throw if you are having one.

Couple tango by window Old Marylebone Town Hall London

As with V and P at that point I go outside and get the wedding party ready and super motivated. Then it’s thumbs up time from me, and you come out and enjoy your iconic wedding ‘moment’ on the beautiful steps of Old Marylebone Town Hall. It’s a good time after that to move to the right hand side steps, for any group shots you might have requested, or not!

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding collage

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding couple sat on lion

Two things usually happen after that, one, everyone gets on a Red Routemaster old London bus or taxis, and shoots off to the reception venue.Ā  And/or two: our new bride and groom go and do some quick couple shots/portraits in the local area. Don’t ever worry about these though. They are going to be natural looking and sometimes epic, just because… Most people are a bit anxious about having their pics taken, read my reviews though here on the site or Google itself: big day weddings reviews – Google SearchĀ  We will do natural stuff, gently directed if needs be, that you need absolutely no skills or ability for. We have fun, I will coax candid genuine positive reactions from you, and most of all we will have a blast! Many times I’ve been told it’s one of the main highlights of a couple’s day šŸ™‚

Wedding couple dance outside Old Marylebone Town Hall

I take a lot of shots, and I give you everything where you are not blinking or falling over, unless it’s funny… For V and P I delivered over 700 edited sots in a fairly short time scale. I’m including their review here.

Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding review from Google

Wedding group shot at Old Marylebone Town Hall

Jeez these guys were very romantic, they loved to kiss and dance. I didn’t ask them to do that, I just put them in good situations to be able to do what THEY wanted to do! They were both delighted by the results, and ultimately that is what is the single most important thing.

Wedding couple celebrate by lion outside Old Marylebone Town Hall

Wedding bus and bride and groom Old Marylebone Town Hall

Every wedding is so different even in the same locations, and that is one of the fantastic things about wedding photography and in this case about Old Marylebone Town Hall weddings!

By David Green

Here’s another of many Old Marylebone Town Hall weddings featured on the blog:

Intimate Weddings at Old Marylebone Town Hall

 

 

London Christening photographer font image Greek church Camden

London Christening Photography at All Saints Greek Orthodox Cathedral Camden

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, London Wedding PhotographersNo Comments

London Christening Photography is something that David has done, time permitting, between weddings for the best part of ten years now. We don’t post about it very often, but it does happen! Just pleased to receive a lovely thank you card here from Stella and Michael who’s wedding we captured at Old Marylebone Town Hall and the iconic original Ivy Restaurant in West Street Covent garden two years ago.

In the meantime they have started a wonderful family šŸ™‚

David documented the christening at All Saints Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Camden on a very very hot Sunday in June, and stella gave us permission to release one of the images of her lovely daughter Emily.

Big Day Weddings thank you card image 2023

The card reads: “Dear David, Thank you so much for the fabulous photos for Emily’s christening. We love them and you’ve really captured some great moments of our baby girl. We really appreciate what a great job you did in 2 hours and the photos will stayĀ with us forever! Pleased to work with you as always! All the best, Stella, Michael and Emily.”

It was seriously great to see so many faces again that were also at their fantastic wedding, and see the circle of life in action with the arrival of little Emily!

Bride and groom at Aldwickbury golf wedding

Aldwickbury Park Wedding Day

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographers, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Bride at Elstree Hilton wedding image

Here’s a post about David’s time with Appy and Dan at their Aldwickbury Park Golf Club wedding day. You can see what they thought in the Google review at the end šŸ™‚

Now imagine you plan your ideal day as these guys did, you look around and fall in love with a particular venue and it has everything you are hoping for. You imagine yourself and your guests there having the time of their lives. You see yourself in the grounds spending time with everyone including your photographer. In your mind’s eye it is probably a lovely sunny and warm day with perhaps a gentle cooling breeze.

First kiss Aldwickbury golf wedding ceremony

What happens then when it’s cold, windy and wet almost the whole day? Do you let it ruin your dream? Maybe for some it does impact them.

But for Appy and Dan and certainly David, we were all determined to get the very best out of the day. In these images you can’t feel the cold or the strong winds. You can’t see the rain in the background of some of the shots. And you wouldn’t realise that when we did get outside we had literally moments at a time between showers!

Harpenden wedding couple walk on golf course Aldwickbury

David is very very experienced with all things wedding, and has seen every weather condition, and a hundred and one different approaches and emotions that come out on such a big day. If you read the reviews about us all over Google and some of the listing sites, you will soon see how delighted people are with our approach whether it sun rain or shine. When you love people and their wedding days, putting the technical side of things to one side, it’s easy!

Wedding couple laugh at Aldwickbury golf club Harpenden

Our day started at the Hilton DoubleTree Elstree where both bride and groom were getting ready separately, so there was time to get each of their preparations and some shots around the hotel. Then it was time to drive to AldwickburyĀ  Park Golf Club for the ceremony and reception.

Aldwickbury park golf club wedding couple by fountain

The staff at Aldwickbury were great, friendly and efficient too.

Wedding coule under veil Harpenden wedding day

Despite the weather a great time was had by all that’s for sure!

Aldwickbury park golf club wedding couple

First dance Aldwickbury golf course wedding reception

Here’sĀ  a transcript of Appy and Dan’s Google review shown in the screen grab below:

“I have no words left, its more then what I expected. The photos and expressions that you captured were amazing. We were very upset with the weather on our big day and thought we won’t get good photos, but you did an excellent job. We can see your efforts and hard work. We both are very happy with your services. I will definitely recommend people/friends for your services. We are soo glad we met you David, you are the best wedding photographer. Excellent photography. You made our day.”

Response from the owner

“Apexa and Daniel, thank you so much for your review. It was a fantastic day, and although it was cold windy and wet we all made sure love and laughter blew all that away. I could see the special bond between you and made that my goal to shine through in every image. Wishing you and your families the very best for the future. David and Joanna”

Big Day Weddings Google review Aldwickbury Park Golf wedding 2

Engagement shoot at Alexandra Palace north London

Alexandra Palace Engagement Shoot, for 2023 Engagement season!

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, London Wedding Photographers, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Well, they tell us that now is the traditional time after Christmas and heading through New Year that those of us in the wedding world call “Engagement Season.” So here’s a recent Alexandra Palace engagement shoot landing on the blog.

Alexandra Palace engagement shoot, couple walk through leaves

Apparently now is the time the vast majority of couples pop the big question to each other and then providing the answer is positive (!!!) planning for the big day begins in earnest.

Engaged couple in front of blue doors Alexandra Palace wide shot

M and J live in Buckinghamshire and it’s very near their homes in Bletchley they are getting married, with a wedding reception to follow in Milton Keynes. J is English and M is Brazilian and bizarrely as I (David) found on on the shoot, J and I used to work in the same company many moons ago. Small world šŸ™‚

Couple sat on log Alexandra Palace engagement photo shoot

And that’s one of the great things about engagement shoots: everyone gets to know each other a bit better. It certainly helps some couples relax a little ahead of the big day to find out how friendly and relaxed we are.

Alexandra Palace engagement couple by graffiti

Having said that, it’s only about thirty percent of couples that take up our offer of a complimentary engagement shoot that comes as standard in our Elegance and Platinum Plus packages, both found here: Pricing – Creative London Wedding Photographers Big Day Weddings (bigdayweddings.co.uk)

couple walking together Alexandra Palace engagement shoot

If you’ve seen any of our other engagement shoot blog posts you will know that it is David that pretty much does all of these on his own, unless of course it’s a longer and more involved shoot say in central London with a couple that may have flown in just for the experience. Yes people really do that! A quick look on Google will tell you how happy people are with us šŸ™‚

Couple on steps Alexandra Park and Palace shoot

What’s great about Alexandra Palace engagements shoots, apart from the fact we used to live right next to it, and our children went to school nearby in Muswell Hill, is the variety the building and surrounding park offer.

Forever Yours Alexandra Palace engagement shoot

It has water, woodland, views, gardens, interesting architecture, and plenty of characters wandering around too. The thing is knowing what works visually and what doesn’t, getting people relaxed and understanding light and camera technique to get the best out of an engagement shoot. And on top of that being able to do it with energy, a smile, gentle direction, and guaranteed results every time.

Couple by grafitti Alexandra Palace engagement shoot photo

Things is when it’s your career, when you love what you do, when you always want to create something fresh and engaging: it’s a pleasure.

Couple by tree Alexandra Palace engagement photo shoot

Engagement shoot on steps by Alexandra Palace London

Want to see some more of our engagements shoots including Alexandra Palace? Then take a look at the links below:

Shoreditch Engagement Shoot, inner London photography

Best London Engagement Shoot from Covent Garden to Leadenhall Market

Engagement Shoot at London’s Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill

Engaged couple in front of blue doors Alexandra Palace

Engagement shoot at Alexandra Palace north London

By David Green