It feels like ages ago since I photographed Clare & Tom’s wedding in London at Wilton’s Music Hall.  Let’s be honest, it was quite a while ago.  Last August to be precise.  It’s been a busy period of time between then and now and I have some amazing weddings to share with you from my backlog.

If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll have noticed that my website has been completely redesigned and rebuilt to be better, stronger and faster (to quote the opening credits of The Bionic Man).  Although I used experts to do that work (Thank you Bigfoot Digital!! ), that still took a fair chunk of my time. In addition, I’ve been working on the portrait studio.  There’ll be a lot more about that in future blog posts though.

Enough of the excuses though, let’s talk about Clare & Tom’s big day.  Although I’m based in Yorkshire, I’m certainly not adverse to a bit of travel and I always welcome a trip down to London.  Especially when it’s to shoot a wedding for people like Clare & Tom, in what is probably one of the most amazing venues that I’ve ever worked in.   Whenever it’s appropriate, I like to include a bit of history about the venue’s I shoot in, but Wilton’s is a bit different.  There’s just too much history to ever try to put it all in one blog post.  There is a whole separate site about the history and how it became the current Music Hall venue that it is now and you can read that on Wilton’s own website.

For now, what you need to know is that during the 1800’s, it was a Music Hall and Variety Theatre and that’s exactly how it looks now.  It’s been renovated to be modern and meet regulations, but other than that, the walls, the floors, the decor etc. is all as you’d expect the inside of a 200+ year old building to look.  It’s simply stunning.

The day started with a very civilised breakfast with Tom and the Groomsmen as they prepared for the day and their duties.  After a few cups of coffee, I headed over to the Zetter Town House to meet up with Clare and the bridesmaids.  I couldn’t have asked for a better space to shoot Bridal preparation photos in.  That room had fantastic light!  Clare & her bridesmaids were the perfect combination of relaxed with a hint of giddiness and when the dust settled on all of the hairdressing and makeup application, they all looked fantastic (They did beforehand too, but afterwards, especially so! )

They do say that the best days always have a glitch somewhere and leaving the Town House to head for Wilton’s is where I did have a small ‘heart in mouth’ moment. Whilst running to catch my Uber before he set off, I managed to drop my wide angle lens.  In that split second as I watched it fall, I reacted and tried to break the fall with my foot.  Instead, I only succeeded in toe bunting the poor lens ten metres down the pavement.  The glass was fine though and it still worked – it just looked a bit, well, war-torn (Thank you Nikon! ).

I was greeted at Wilton’s by the suitably nervous groom and then shortly after, the bridal party arrived and the ceremony commenced.  It was during the ceremony that it really sank in what an amazing setting this really was.  I almost had to remind myself that I was there to take photographs!  Clare and Tom exchanged their personal & emotional vows and rings as their guests looked on, surrounded by Victorian architecture at it’s finest.

Staying late at weddings until the late hours so that I can tell the whole story of the day is something that I feel quite strongly about.  I feel that you need that final chapter of the story.  I don’t think I have ever shot so many dancing photographs.  I’ve posted them a bit smaller so that I can show you as many as possible but for every one in this post, there’s another 20 that I wish I had the space to share.  This was the personification of a party crowd.

I finished the night off at midnight, with a taxi driver shouting at me to hurry up, but I’m not going to hurry up when the Bride & Groom are being carried off down the street on the shoulders of their friends, am I?