London Wedding : Alex & Simon : Part One

Alex & Simon planned a wedding in eight weeks. Planned, organised and celebrated. More than that, they planned, organised and celebrated a fantastic wedding. In eight weeks.

Eight weeks.

They booked me seven weeks out, so very early in the process.

My thanks to Yorkshire wedding photographer Jo of Shoot Lifestyle. Jo had photographed the wedding of two of Alex & Simon’s friends but she was already booked on their wedding date so introduced Alex & Simon to me. Thanks also to Emma at Big Bouquet for helping out with an interesting image editing conundrum.

The day started off in Hertfordshire with what must have been the calmest bridal preparations I’ve thus far encountered. Alex got ready in the home she grew up in, Mum Georgina keeping the refreshments flowing (and my thanks to Dad David for the perfectly timed bacon roll!)

Which reminds me, I must place an order for that Kindle I’ve been wanting for a while. (Don’t mind me)…

This week’s brazen answer to the existential crisis of wedding photography (with a wee sliver of my new wedding tie, courtesy of Pam & Martin whose wedding I photographed on New Year’s Day. Thanks Pam & Martin!) I wasn’t in the slightest conscious of my posture. What on Earth was I thinking? That they were going to leap off the gate and kick me?..

Adjoining doorways; a favoured visual prop of mine whenever I can find them. I love to utilise these frames within the frame to… frame parallel events as they occur, at their natural pace, small yet poignant sub-stories of the day’s progress with story-teller unnoticed…

And that is how relaxed preparations were on this day. Everyone had time to sit down and take it easy, some thirty minutes before the cars were due to leave…

Once upon a time it belonged to Joan Crawford…

Now it belongs to Simon’s Dad Paul. He operates a wedding car company in Cambridge. I do have some full length shots too Paul!..

Alex & Simon chose to get married at the Old Marylebone Town Hall in London. A splendid choice indeed. I’ve been there before and I love the place, the architecture, decor and ambience; the attitude of the registrars in particular, which is positively enthusiastic. I arrived there in time to see Simon arrive, frame right. In between (Hertfordshire that is, and London) I had a rather pleasant journey. I have a particular liking for Addison Lee, the minicab firm, and use them whenever the need arises on London commissions. Their drivers are invariably pleasant, completely so. It gels well with a public facing service industry, not surprisingly (or at least it should be no surprise). On this occasion I had a great chat with the driver, whom originally hailed from Uganda, about his love for the photographic image and the importance of memories. All photographs of him as a child had been lost many years back and he greatly regretted this, the loss of a link with the young person he had been before he became an adult. Over the ensuing years he developed and maintained a passion for documenting the lives of those around him, however simply the process might be treated. So, Simon, frame right…

Groomsmen having arrived in good time too, there was welcome opportunity to head straight across the road and up a side street to a pub but a stone’s throw from the Town Hall, if tucked out of immediate sight. As good a place as any to engage in combat with the buttonholes (though a rather un-frustrated battle it was on this occasion, immediate concession made to the need for team work)…

Georgina and her sister don’t get to see each other at all often…

Hands speak a language of their own, at times with universal clarity…

Eyes certainly so…

Another reason I like attending ceremonies at the Old Marylebone Town Hall; professional trust…

And off they went. And off we follow too, in Part Two.

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