Planning Your Chic London Wedding

Are you an aesthetically driven couple who has decided to plan their wedding day in London? Are you dreaming of your very own chic London wedding, but are feeling overwhelmed by all the wonderful options this city has to offer? Do you want a multiple venue wedding and not sure what is the easiest order in which to book everything? 

Coming from a Londoner, as well as a seasoned wedding photographer…I’ve got you covered.

Intro

First of all, congratulations! On getting engaged, but also…on choosing this beautiful city as your wedding venue. As a professional photographer, slash ex London bride, I think you are making a great choice. London is the perfect place to get married if you are craving something unique, tailored to your taste and completely memorable. 

However, the seemingly unlimited amount of choice can sometimes have its downfalls; this is a big city, which means that locations are far away from one another, the traffic isn’t great…and so on. This is why I’m here, writing this blog post: over the past few years I have encountered the same issues amongst couples time and time again. After helping out a lot of my couples with logistics, I decided that I should put all of this information down, to hopefully help you out too.

Ceremony

Hear me out. The first thing you want to book is your ceremony. Wether this is a town hall, a church, a park – this is the thing you need to book first. You want to get in there nice and early, about a year before, so that you can have all the options available to you. 

The time of the ceremony is very important too: unlike very hot countries, the best time for a UK ceremony is around lunch. This allows you enough time to get ready in the morning and splits the day nicely before all the afternoon activities. 

In case you are looking for a town hall, I wrote a comprehensive guide about the best ones in London here.

Hotel

Now that  you know where your ceremony will be, trust me: the hard part is done! 

The next think you want to book is a hotel close to the venue. But I want to get ready at home. I hear you. But think about it: unless you live within a 20 minute radius of your ceremony spot, getting ready at home is not a good idea. Why? 

First of all, there are a lot of factors you can’t control, a main one being the traffic on your day. The day I got married in London there was a full public transport strike; it could be torrentially raining; you just don’t know! Plus, even if you account for all of this, do you really want to crease your dress/suit in an hour long taxi ride before the ceremony?  

Second of all, if you are at your own house… you will host. It will be in your nature; you will ask your guests wether they want tea or coffee, you will tidy after them – you know you will! Eliminating all of that and being in a neutral space will help you relax, unwind, and let yourself be pampered by others.

Which brings me to my main argument…aesthetics. You want your getting ready pictures to be stunning. Let me tell you a secret: the best way to ensure that is to book the right getting ready space. You need a lot of natural light (none of those yellow spotlights in the ceiling, please), and you need a lot of space. Think about the amount of people that will be there with you in the morning, and picture them all in the space you book: can you see it now? A lot of the hotels in central London are quite old, therefore, quite small; while their exteriors are exquisite, their interiors tend to be crammed. I would suggest an AirBnB with a living area, or a hotel suite, and if you can get a balcony/terrace in there, you’ve really hit the nail on the head!

Drinks Reception/Dinner

Now that you’ve got your morning sorted, it’s time to think about your first glass of champagne! In case you opted for a town hall or a church, chances are you will have a predetermined time slot that you will need to adhere to. Which means that after your exit/confetti, you and the wedding party will have to move to a different location, preferably not too far away.

My advice for this would be to find a spot that you love that could serve as both a reception venue and a party venue. Or, if this is not possible, to make sure the two are not too far from one another, but far enough so that people could take a short taxi from one to the next. I’m saying this because, while a 15 minute walk might not be a lot for you, it might be quite strenuous for your partner’s grandmother, or your aunt in a wheelchair. 

Afterparty

If you opted for a place that can cater to dinner and a party, you can skip this part!

If you have decided to move somewhere else for the evening (maybe you have extra evening guests, or maybe the restaurant you chose for dinner was only suited for that), carry on reading. This would be the second to last thing you book, however, equally important as the others. 

Firstly, you want to make sure that the place is suited for late parties (I know it sounds silly, but noise complaints are very common in London, where spaces are so close to each other).  Once that is checked, it’s time to get creative: this is the part of the day over which you’ll have the most creative control! A giant tiramisu wedding cake? An ice-cream silver coupes tower? A band playing traditional Celtic music? If you are a creative person who takes joy in planning the aesthetics of their chic London wedding, here is your chance to do it all. The key is to be organised, put people in charge and trust them, and  don’t change your mind last minute! Oh, and…get a great photographer to capture it all, you know.

Transport

The last thing from my list! Once all your venues are booked, and your timeline is set in stone: arrange transport for everyone. Trust me, it will make life so much easier on the day, and will prevent any delays, people putting the wrong The Crown Pub in their Uber app, and so on.  Organised transport is the key for your guests to have a great time if you choose to have a wedding that takes place in more than one venue, and if your guests are relaxed, you will be too. And, if you have a lot of people coming from out of town, you can never go wrong with a double decker vintage red bus! 

Top tip: leave the ceremony separately from your wedding party, and opt for a classic London black cab with only your partner and your photographer. You’ll end up with some timeless portraits, as well as with a few well needed moments of rest!

I hope this was helpful! Save this if you or someone you know are in the middle of planning a chic London wedding, and hopefully it will come in handy. 

Your London wedding photographer,

Alina