I photograph weddings all over the country, but there are a handful of venues I come back to often enough to know properly — which room the light is good in, where the confetti works, how long the walk really takes and what the registrar will let you get away with. These are those. I am a recommended supplier at three of them. Each one has its own guide: the rooms, the capacities, the timings and a lot of photographs.
London Venues
Recommended photographer
The Ned Hotel
A Grade I listed former bank designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with an entire events floor given over to weddings — four licensed rooms, two terraces, a spiral staircase and a view of St Paul’s.
- WhereBank, EC2R — two minutes from Bank Underground
- RoomsTapestry 180 · Saloon 110 · Drawing Room 60 · RWB 50
- Best forRange — five completely different backdrops under one roof
Chelsea Old Town Hall
Herringbone parquet, tall windows and a stone archway on the King’s Road that was made for confetti. Four rooms, from twelve guests up to three hundred and forty.
- WhereKing’s Road, SW3 — Sloane Square or South Kensington
- RoomsRossetti 12 · Brydon 38 · Small Hall 140 · Main Hall 340
- Best forSmall weddings, and the best confetti steps in London
Recommended supplier
Brunswick House
A Georgian house stuffed with antiques, chandeliers and salvage, marooned in the middle of Vauxhall. Everything in the room is for sale, so no two weddings there ever look the same.
- WhereVauxhall, SW8 — five minutes from Vauxhall station
- FeelCandlelight, low ceilings, gilt frames and a cellar bar
- Best forAtmosphere, and a dance floor that feels like a basement party
Old Marylebone Town Hall
The most photographed steps in London, and for good reason — the portico is enormous and it makes a crowd of thirty look like a crowd of a hundred.
- WhereMarylebone Road, NW1 — Baker Street or Edgware Road
- RoomsWestminster, Soho and Pimlico rooms
- Best forShort ceremonies and a five minute walk to somewhere better
Bristol Venues
Recommended supplier
The Mount Without
St Michael’s on the Mount Without — a Georgian church with a vaulted nave, a faded teal ceiling, a crypt for dancing and a bell tower, five minutes from the centre of Bristol. I am a recommended supplier here.
- WhereSt Michael’s Hill, BS2 — top of the Christmas Steps
- SpacesNave, crypt and bell tower
- Best forScale, candlelight, and speeches given from the pulpit
Getting married at one of these? Tell me the date and I will come straight back to you.
Check AvailabilityWhat Actually Makes a Venue Photograph Well
Couples ask me this constantly, usually while they are still choosing. After a decade of weddings, four things decide it — and none of them is how the venue looks in its own brochure.
Light beats prettiness, every time.
The most beautiful room in the world is a problem if it has no windows, and a plain register office with tall glass on one side will out-photograph it comfortably. When couples ask me whether a venue is any good, what I am actually assessing is where the light comes from and what time of day it arrives.
One room is a risk. Five rooms is a gift.
The venues on this page all share one thing: you can move. The Ned gives you a terrace, a staircase and a dark panelled dining room within a minute of each other. Chelsea gives you a corridor, a ceremony room, an archway and the King’s Road. A single-room venue means every photograph has the same background, and you feel it by the time you look at the gallery.
The best twenty minutes of the day is the one nobody planned.
Almost every wedding I photograph has a gap somewhere — a bus ride, a walk between two venues, a wait before dinner. That is when people stop performing. If you take one piece of planning advice from this page, leave twenty minutes empty somewhere after the ceremony.
A dark venue is not a problem. A dark venue plus flash is.
Brunswick House at nine in the evening is close to pitch black and it produces some of my favourite frames of the year. I work fast lenses wide open and I do not put a flash on a camera during a ceremony or a speech. Atmosphere is the thing you booked the venue for — lighting it flat throws it away.
Not on the List?
Most of the weddings I photograph are at venues that are not on this page, and that is completely fine — a venue I have not shot before means a morning of walking the building before anybody arrives, which I would do anyway. If yours is somewhere else entirely, these are the better places to start.
Or go straight to the portfolio and the blog, where there are full weddings from start to finish.
Venues · Common Questions
Do I have to book a photographer from my venue’s recommended list?
No. A recommended list means the venue knows that photographer works well in their building and does not get in anybody’s way — it is a shortcut, not a rule. I am a recommended photographer at The Ned and a recommended supplier at Brunswick House and The Mount Without, and I photograph plenty of weddings at venues I have never set foot in before.
What if my venue isn’t on this page?
That is the usual situation and it is completely fine. Most of the weddings I photograph are at venues I have not shot before. It means arriving early and walking the building before anybody else is there, which I would do anyway — I have simply not written the guide yet.
Do you visit the venue before the wedding?
Not usually, and I would rather be honest about why. What actually matters is being there early on the day, when the light is doing what it will do on your date rather than what it did on a Tuesday in February. For venues I do not know I will study the floor plan and the sun position beforehand, and then get there ahead of everybody.
Can you cover two venues in one day?
Yes, and a lot of the best London weddings work that way — a register office ceremony and then somewhere else entirely for the celebration. The journey between them is usually worth photographing on its own. Tell me the shape of the day and I will tell you how much time it really needs.
Do you charge more for London than Bristol?
No. I am based in Bristol and I work across both cities and the rest of the UK at the same rates. Travel is included for most of the country.
Let us Make Something Beautiful
I photograph a limited number of weddings each year so that every couple gets my full attention. Wherever you are marrying, I would love to hear about your day.
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