Grace & Jordan | Brighton Town Hall & Fabrica
Brighton Town Hall & Fabrica
A Council Chamber ceremony, the largest quantity of confetti I have ever stood in, a walk through The Lanes with the whole wedding following, and a converted Regency church that turned into a nightclub. Featured by World’s Best Wedding Photos.
Two Months Earlier
Grace and Jordan did something I wish more couples would do. A couple of months before the wedding, we went out and shot in Brighton for an hour with no wedding attached to it. No dress, no schedule, no guests. Just the three of us walking around the city they were about to get married in.
It is the single most useful hour you can spend before a wedding day. Most people arrive at their own wedding having never been photographed properly together, and it shows in the first twenty minutes of every day I shoot — the shoulders, the hands, the not knowing where to look. Grace and Jordan had already done all of that weeks earlier, on a normal afternoon, with nothing at stake.
So by the time the day itself came round, none of it was new. They knew how I work, I knew how they were together, and nobody had to warm up. If you want to know how those sessions run, there is a full page on pre wedding shoots — they can be added to any package, and some collections include one already.
The Morning
The day started at home, with Grace’s friends helping her get ready. Pyjamas, champagne corks, martinis raised in a circle, and that lovely slow build of a wedding morning where nothing is staged and everything is worth photographing.
Then the moment the whole morning has quietly been building towards: Grace in her dress for the first time, and a room full of bridesmaids who could not hold it together.
Meanwhile, across town, Jordan and the groomsmen were preparing in the traditional manner. A pub table and a few well earned pints, then a walk through Brighton in the sunshine.
The Council Chamber
If you have never been inside Brighton Town Hall, it is a proper architectural gem. Light pours through the skylight above the grand staircase, which is the best thing in the building as far as I am concerned. It falls straight down onto everybody arriving and does most of my job for me.
The Council Chamber itself is all wood panelling, red leather benches and heritage detail — stately, but far more intimate than it looks in photographs. Grace wore a modern tea length dress with floral lace and a soft tulle veil. Jordan went for a dark blue suit with a copper tie and pocket square.
The ceremony was everything a town hall wedding should be. Sincere, personal, and full of laughter from start to finish. Then they kissed, the whole Council Chamber rose to its feet, and the two of them came back down that staircase with the veil trailing behind them.
Town halls are some of my favourite rooms to photograph in — short ceremonies, real light, no fuss and nowhere to hide. There is a guide to the venues I shoot most often, and plenty more town hall weddings in the portfolio.
The Confetti
Grace and Jordan’s confetti moment deserves its own chapter. A narrow doorway, a very enthusiastic wedding party, and more confetti than I have ever seen in one place at one time.
There is a version of this photograph that gets set up, staged and repeated three times until everybody gets it right. This is not that. It happened once, at full volume, and I was in it rather than in front of it.
Through The Lanes
One of my favourite parts of any city centre wedding is the walk between venues, and this was one of the best I have done. Grace and Jordan led their guests straight through The Lanes, veil trailing, shoppers stopping to cheer, and arrived at Fabrica to a champagne spray from the groomsmen on the doorstep.
You cannot plan that. You can only build a day with a gap in it and let the city fill the gap.
Fabrica is a converted Regency church turned contemporary art space in the middle of Brighton, and it is a brilliant wedding venue. Soaring ceilings, columns, bare stone walls and modern lighting. The tables were dressed simply with vintage glassware and jewel toned florals by The Brighton Flower Company, and Halisco kept everybody very well fed.
A Sword, and Then the Speeches
First, my favourite cake cutting in a very long time. A four tier cake covered in pressed edible flowers and dried orange, balanced on the marble font that came with the building, and cut not with a knife but with an enormous sword. Grace’s face says everything you need to know about how that felt.
Only at Fabrica do you get to cut your wedding cake off a Victorian font with such is the kingdom of God carved round the base of it, using a weapon.
Then the speeches, which brought the house down. Grace gave one that had the entire room in tears, the bridesmaids performed a double act, and Jordan and the best men kept the laughter going long past the point most speeches have run out of road.
The best photographs during speeches are almost never of the person speaking. They are of the table three rows back, of the person who has just been mentioned by name, of somebody trying very hard not to cry in front of ninety people. That is where I spend most of it.
One Last Portrait
Before the night swallowed us whole, we stole five minutes outside for the frame I love most from the whole day. The two of them in the Gothic arch of Fabrica’s doorway, lit from behind, everything else black.
One light, one doorway, five minutes. That is all it takes — if you have already done the work of getting comfortable in front of a camera two months beforehand.
The Dance Floor
The first dance was one for the ages, ending in a full dip under the fairy lights. From there it was a short hop to a magnum of champagne on the dance floor and Fabrica’s lighting turning the whole church into a nightclub.
Grace reappeared in a silver evening dress and a pair of sunglasses, and the dance floor did the rest. This is the part of the day where being invisible pays off. Nobody performs for the camera, and the photographs are all the better for it.
And it ended the way the best ones do — the two of them somewhere in the middle of it all, a drink in hand, nobody watching.
The Team
- Ceremony
- The Council Chamber, Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomew Square, Brighton
- Reception
- Fabrica, 40 Duke Street, Brighton
- Florist
- The Brighton Flower Company
- Catering
- Halisco, Brighton
- Hair & Makeup
- Emma C. Hair
- Featured by
- World’s Best Wedding Photos
- Photography
- Oliver Holder
No over the top styling, no rigid timeline. Two people who wanted a brilliant day with the people they love, in a city with bags of character. Grace and Jordan trusted me to document it as it happened, and that trust — built over an hour in Brighton two months earlier — is what makes photographs like these possible.
Huge thanks to World’s Best Wedding Photos for featuring the day. They showcase documentary wedding photography from around the world, and it is a genuine pleasure to see Grace and Jordan up there.
More town hall weddings and city celebrations — short ceremonies, real light, and a walk through town in between:
Sophie & Dan | Islington Town Hall
Aidan & Charlotte | Lambeth Town Hall
Wandsworth Town Hall
Charley & Joe | Chelsea Old Town Hall
Helen & Benoit | Marylebone Town Hall
A Tunbridge Wells Wedding
Ceremony: The Council Chamber, Brighton Town Hall, Brighton
Reception: Fabrica, 40 Duke Street, Brighton
Featured: World’s Best Wedding Photos
Photography: Oliver Holder
Thinking about a town hall wedding, or getting married in Brighton or anywhere on the south coast? I would love to hear about your plans. Every package includes all travel within England and Wales.
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