Jen and Rich | The Ned Hotel Wedding
The Ned · City of London
A Documentary Wedding Story
Kilts, vows in the RWB Room, confetti in the courtyard, portraits in the middle of Threadneedle Street and a night that did not stop. A documentary wedding at The Ned.
The Morning
Dress on the wardrobe door, bridesmaids in matching robes, confetti cones lined up in a box and nobody rushing. The courtyard at The Ned is a genuinely lovely place to be photographed in a wedding dress before anybody else has seen you in it.
The Ned is one of the venues I know best in London. There is a full guide to photographing a wedding there, including every room on the events floor and how long to allow for portraits, on my The Ned wedding photographer page.
The Ceremony in the RWB Room
They married in the RWB Room, which is the smallest of the four licensed rooms at The Ned and, for my money, the most underrated. Panelled walls, a chandelier overhead, and everybody close enough that you can hear every reaction to everything. Jen’s dad walked her in and did not stop grinning once.
A room this size changes how I work. There is nowhere to hide and no long lens solution, so it is all about being quiet, staying low and moving between the two or three positions that do not put me in anybody’s eyeline.
Rich and half the room were in kilts, which is always good news for photographs.
Getting married at The Ned, or anywhere else in London? The venue guide covers the ceremony rooms, the terrace and the timings that actually work. The London page has a wider selection of city weddings.
The Ned venue guide London wedding photographyConfetti
Out into the courtyard for confetti, which at The Ned means a tight, loud, enclosed space and everybody within arm’s reach. It makes for the sort of frame where you can count six different faces all doing something different.
The Terrace
Ten minutes on the terrace with St Paul’s over the parapet. It is the best fifteen minutes of portrait time available at any London venue I photograph at, and it is right outside the room you are already in.
Drinks Downstairs
Drinks in the corridors and the bar, which at The Ned means marble, low lamps and a lot of very good tailoring. I spend this part of the day almost entirely on other people — the couple have had their turn, and the guests are where the wedding actually lives.
Out into the City
Then out of the front door and into the Square Mile: the spiral staircase, the banking hall, the Royal Exchange, and eventually the middle of Threadneedle Street with the traffic stopped and two police officers watching on with some amusement.
You cannot do this anywhere else. It is the single strongest argument for a City wedding.
If you like the way this day looks, there is a lot more of it in the portfolio, and pricing is a single page with no forms to fill in first.
View the portfolio See pricingDinner and Speeches
Dinner, speeches and a cake. The rooms at The Ned are dark and candlelit and hold their look right through the evening, which means the photographs from the speeches and the photographs from midnight belong to the same day rather than looking like two different weddings.
The Party
And then it went off, and stayed gone off, for a very long time. Jen and Rich, thank you — still one of my favourite nights in that building.
Planning a wedding at The Ned? Start with the venue guide — it covers all four ceremony rooms, the terrace, and what I would do with your timings. For weddings elsewhere in the city, there is more on my London wedding photography page, and a wider selection of days in the portfolio.
Ceremony & reception: The Ned, 27 Poultry, City of London
Venue guide: The Ned wedding photographer
Photography: Oliver Holder
Planning your own wedding at The Ned, or anywhere across London? I would love to hear about it. Send me your date and I will come straight back to you.
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