Gemma & Andy | Marylebone Town Hall Micro Wedding
Old Marylebone Town Hall · Micro Wedding · London
London Micro Wedding · Marylebone
A London micro wedding done exactly right. Getting ready together at The Londoner, travelling to the ceremony on the Underground, four people in a panelled room at Old Marylebone Town Hall, and then confetti on those famous steps.
The Morning at The Londoner
Gemma and Andy spent the morning getting ready together at The Londoner, the enormous new hotel buried under Leicester Square. Getting ready together is still the exception rather than the rule, and I love photographing it. Nobody is waiting in a separate room for a text message. You get the whole morning as one story instead of two.
A card propped on the desk, a dress being done up, hair being finished, and then downstairs to Whitcomb's for a drink with the handful of people who were coming with them. That is genuinely all it takes to make a wedding morning feel like an occasion.
On the Underground to Marylebone
Then they travelled to the town hall in the most London and most efficient way possible. They took the Tube.
I will be honest, when they told me that was the plan I was delighted. Ticket barriers, a platform, a carriage full of commuters who had no idea what they were witnessing, and a bride in a wedding dress standing among them. You cannot stage that, and it is exactly the sort of thing documentary photography exists for. They came up the escalator at Marylebone station and walked the last two minutes to the town hall steps.
Just the Four of Them
Upstairs with just their two witnesses for the ceremony. No aisle, no order of service, no audience. Four people in a panelled room with a fireplace, and about fifteen minutes that belonged entirely to them.
This is what a micro wedding does well. Stripping the day back to the people who genuinely need to be in the room does not make it smaller, it makes it closer, and that comes through in every frame. If you are planning your own ceremony here, my guide to being a Marylebone Town Hall wedding photographer covers the ceremony rooms, how the timings really work and where to go afterwards.
Out Onto the Steps
Register signed, and then out through the doors as husband and wife to be buried in confetti on those infamous steps. The rest of their people had gathered outside while the ceremony was happening, which meant the two of them walked out into a proper welcome.
Old Marylebone Town Hall is one of the London venues I know best, and small weddings like this one are my favourite kind to photograph. There is a guide to each: the ceremony rooms, the timings and the steps at Marylebone, and what is included if you are planning a micro wedding of your own.
Marylebone venue guide Micro wedding coverageCobbled Streets Around Marylebone
Afterwards we took a short walk around the streets behind the town hall. This is one of the real advantages of getting married at Marylebone: within five minutes on foot you have columns, Georgian brick, painted mews doors and cobbles, and you never have to get into a car.
Gemma and Andy, thank you for a day that proved how much you can fit into a small wedding, and for taking me on the Tube.
If you are planning something similar, my micro wedding coverage is built for exactly this kind of day, and there is more on how I work across the capital on my London wedding photography page.
Thanks for sending these over, we love them!— Gemma
Getting ready: The Londoner, Leicester Square
Ceremony: Old Marylebone Town Hall, London
Coverage: Micro wedding
Photography: Oliver Holder
Planning your own Marylebone Town Hall or London micro wedding? I would love to hear about it.
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