London Wedding : Jake & Conall : Part One

Jake & Conall built it from the ground up, started with the foundations then added extra courses as the value in doing so became apparent. This is my interpretation of events, the making of a wedding day. In common with the most easy-going and fun-filled I’ve witnessed, indeed that I’ve experienced in full along the way, everything centred around the core binary principle, “We get married; we have a party.” No notions of what should be, must be, is always done. Things were then added of course; there is value in things (even the unplanned re-introduction of perceived traditions; “It’s good to go off piste sometimes,” said Jake’s mum that evening as they lay in ambush with handfulls of confetti). There’s value in things that genuinely mean something to the people involved in it all.

I’m especially happy that photographing things was important to Jake & Conall, especially happy all the more that they chose me to come on board to tell their story. I’m happy because I enjoyed it, pure and simple. Jake first contacted me 7 weeks before his and Conall’s wedding date. With 2 weeks to go before the big day I put them through their photographic paces in a dank Dorset car park on a drizzly, dreary day and found they had the stuff of heroes about them. With just a few hours to go before the ceremony itself I joined them at their London home and did that which I do.

A band of friends and family joined them from the off. Those things that get added, well they all add up and require a lot of organisation. That’s what friends and family are for (well that and of course an immeasurable amount more).

On to a town hall somewhere in London. I forget which one now though. I’m sure it’ll come back to me with time…

(I’d best mention that it was, indeed, Camden Town Hall if only for the search engines. A lot of people find me that way, don’t you know?)

What are the odds? (It’s a sign)…

A sign that I should stick to taking photographs and desist from writing captions perhaps.

Those that were there may notice a little chronological jiggery-pokery on my behalf but it’s all about visual flow. Well at certain points it is. Three lovely readings interspersed the ceremony along with renditions from an enchanting choir in the gallery. As well as, I might say more correctly; not accompanied by…

Realisation always seems to come in waves…

Guests safely deposited at St. John Bar & Restaurant in Smithfield, Jake & Conall had gone on ahead by taxi to their hotel just around the corner. The Rookery. Think boutique hotel. Attribute a number to said type of hotel. Multiply that number by ten. Then let me know the result…

I was rather hoping to capture a mirrored expression…

Not to forget the small matter of the speeches…

Jake & Conall are fantastic communicators. Jake does however find that he achieves maximum conversational clarity when standing in a bath tub…

And thence back to St. John Restaurant for a second shower…

I’ll get my coat. Actually I didn’t need to bring one. The weather’s been peculiarly balmy for November.

Onwards into the night in Part Two >>>

Contact London Wedding Photographer Phillip Allen : phill@misterphill.com : 07870 696248