Jay and Spike | The Ned Hotel Wedding
The Ned · City of London
A Documentary Wedding Story
A black tie winter wedding in the City of London. Vows in the Saloon with two hundred people watching, portraits on the terrace under St Paul’s, and dinner by candlelight in the Tapestry Room.
The Morning
The morning ran across two floors of the hotel, which is one of the quiet luxuries of getting married somewhere with 250 bedrooms in it. Nobody was in a taxi, nobody was carrying a dress through a car park, and everyone who mattered was within about ninety seconds of everyone else.
The Ned’s bedrooms take good light through tall sash windows and have enough room to move around in, which matters more than people expect. Downstairs, Spike was in the bar with his people, doing a decent impression of a man who was not nervous.
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
They married in the Saloon, which is the brightest room on the events floor: pale walls, tall windows, and green leather chairs that photograph beautifully against black tie. It is the room I would choose for any ceremony where the light matters, and with a room this full the noise when they kissed was genuinely startling.
I work the ceremony from the edges and I do not use flash. If I have done my job you cannot tell from the photographs where I was standing, only what was happening in front of me.
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 photographyThe Terrace and the City
Fifteen minutes on the terrace with the dome of St Paul’s over their shoulder. This is the view people book The Ned for, and in winter it does something particular — the light goes soft and grey and blue, and the whole City turns into a backdrop rather than a distraction.
No posing. I give people something to do rather than something to look like, and then I get out of the way.
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 in the Tapestry Room
Downstairs into the Tapestry Room, which is as dark and warm as the Saloon is bright: panelled walls, the tapestries it takes its name from, and chandeliers hanging low enough to sit in frame above the tables.
It is a demanding room to photograph and a wonderful one to be in. Fast lenses, no flash, and a lot of watching faces rather than watching whoever is holding the microphone. The best speech photographs are almost never of the speaker.
Into the Night
First dance, then the room went. The events floor at The Ned turns over from dinner to party without moving anybody anywhere, which sounds like a small thing until you have watched a hundred guests lose momentum walking between buildings at some other venue.
Jay and Spike, thank you. One of the best rooms in London and a crowd who did it justice.
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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