One of the reasons I love photographing intimate register office weddings so much, is that often there’s a really interesting story, or just something “a bit different” about the couples I get to photograph. Like Susan and David… they have been together for 27 years! And the two couples, Susan and David’s closest friends, who were their guests at the wedding, had NO idea that they were coming to London to celebrate a wedding. They just thought they were coming for lunch together. So imagine their surprise when they arrived at Chelsea Register Office to witness their dear friends getting wed!

My last children’s photography session of the year involved a trip to Essex. I’ve been photographing Popppy since she was a newborn, in fact, I photographed mum and dad’s wedding, and I love it when I have the opportunity to go back and see the family grow. And it’s also nice seeing my images being part of someone’s home – in fact, that’s really what I love the most about what I do for a living: Creating images that are a treasured part of other people’s lives.

Anyway, it was a grim day, so we stayed inside, but the weather obviously had no effect on Poppy’s excitement about Santa coming soon. After an initial period of calm, there followed lots of jumping up and down on cushions in the living room! We managed to stear clear of the tree, and no baubles were hurt in the creation of these images.

But Poppy’s biggest Christmas present won’t be here til the end of January – a little brother or sister! (although Poppy is very much convinced it’s going to be a boy )

It’s been YEARS since I was last at Marylebone Register Office (or Westminster Register Office as it’s officially called). In fact, one of my first ever paid weddings took place here, and I have not had occasion to come back since.

For my photographer friends reading this: the venue certainly holds a couple of photographic challenges. Having thanked the weather Gods all year for their guardianship, my luck ran a little low the morning of this wedding. It was pelting down… and the ceremony was due to take place in the Blue Room, which is not a room bestowed with much natural light at the best of times. So the ambient light in the room was certainly dark and of course, due to the walls, everything had a bit of blue tinge, with yellow/greeny light coming from the energy saving lightbulbs in the chandaliers (another bane of the modern photographer’s life). Flash allows us to clean up the skin tones a little bit in those circumstances, but even then, you’re bouncing blue tinged light off a blue wall, so blue is all around. During the vows, of course, I don’t use flash, so I was working with very high ISO.

None of this, however, mattered to our lovely couple, Madina and Andrew who were gathered with an intimate circle of their closest family and friends to commit to each other for life on this winter morning.

A few last minute touches and then it was time for the ceremony to begin.

Thankfully, by the time we headed outside for our confetti throw the rain had temporarily paused, but the wind was certainly still howling and it was bitterly cold.

We did quite a large number of formal family groups on the steps of the register office, after which there wasn’t a whole lot of time left for our couples portraits, but we still managed to get lots of lovely images in the short time available.

Many congratulations to Madina and Andrew, and a Happy New Year to ALL my blog readers!! See you on the other side.

For their pre-wedding shoot we headed to the Rookery on Streatham Common, which is a beautiful space with a gorgeous view that you just wouldn’t expect to find in this part of town. We were super lucky with the weather too – it had been tipping down the day before, but this morning was FREEZING, but sunny. I love a crisp winter morning. If we have weather like this for the wedding, we couldn’t ask for anything more.

If you were a guest at the wedding and would like to be notified when the bride and groom have released the gallery for public viewing, then please click HERE.

It was a pretty chilly and breezy day, but given the weather in the run up to their wedding, Valerie and Martyn were super lucky that the sun decided to come peeking out a little later in the day. In fact, I’ve been REALLY lucky with the weather for 2011 altogether. I really must thank the weather gods, who have been looking after me and my couples.

Anyway, Martyn was chatting to his family and friends before the ceremony both outside and inside the register office, whilst carefully guarding the wedding rings!

Then it was time for Valerie’s big entrance and for the cermeony to begin.

Valerie and Martyn each wrote their own, individual life pledges to each other, as well as reading a poem they had written for each other after the ceremony, and all three were absolutely lovely.

After the ceremony we had the traditional confetti throw and a number of group photographs, including one of the couple’s combined group of FIVE children.

And of course, no Chelsea Wedding of mine would be complete without a few portraits in and around St. Luke’s Gardens..

We got a beautiful ray of sunshine peeking out through the clouds for these two portraits.

Instead of the usual Routemaster to take guests from the Town Hall to their reception venue, instead Valerie and Martyn hired this gorgeous vintage bus. It’s SO cute. I’ve not seen one of these before, and just loved it.

Many congratulations to Valerie and Martyn!

The couple and their guests met up on the King’s Road outside Chelsea Town Hall before heading in together into the waiting area.

Before long, it was time for the ceremony.

We kept the group photographs down to just a few to give us more time to spend on the wedding portraits in St. Luke’s Gardens and around St. Luke’s Church.

Then we went to join the couple’s guests in their private dining room at the famous Claridges Hotel in London’s West End.

Many congratulations to Fernand and Petar!

The groom arrived in a classic car, with all the guests awaiting, only to drive straight off again for an honour lap of the forecourt.

The parents of the bride are chatting with guests whilst the groom gets ready for the Hindu ceremony.

Shalini and Jalin used one of the images from the pre-wedding shoot we did together in a signature frame for their guests to sign.

Part of the ceremony is for the bride’s mother to welcome the groom and for the groom to honour his future mother-in-law.

Then it was time for the bride to enter the ceremony and for the groom to see his bride for the “first time”.

There are so many important elements to a Hindu ceremony, to blog them all would take up too many images, so I’ll just leave you to enjoy a selection of the images from the ceremony.

There is usually a fire lit during the ceremony and this fire kept getting bigger and bigger! I could see the bride and groom were starting to feel rather toasty and at one point I was very concerned for the priests garments which were perilously close to the open flame.

I rarely show formal groups on the blog, as they don’t really tell much of a story, but with these gorgeous colours I just couldn’t help myself!

By the time we got round to doing our wedding portraits, the light was fading and the venue turned on some of its outdoor lighting, which really enhanced the colour background of some of the images. I already posted my absolute favourite image in the “teaser” post here, but these are some of the others I really loved.

After the portraits we came to another traditional part of the day, which is where the bride says farewell to her parents. This is an emotional part of the day, particularly for the bride’s mother. The tradition is for the men to help push the car away and for the bride’s female relative (or in this case her Maid of Honour), to stop the car from leaving.

Then it was time for a little bit of a break whilst both the bride and groom changed for their evening reception and dinner.

The dining area of the Northbrook Park Orangery was beautifully lit.

After the couple’s Grand Entrance, the bride’s father started off the speeches with a welcome to the guests.

With the speeches finished, the guests settled down for their meal and I headed off home. The bride and groom were heading off to their fabulous honeymoon in the sunshine the very next day and I wish them all the happiness in the world for their lives together.

If you would like to join me in congratulating Shalini and Jay or would like to say anything about the photographs, please feel free to leave a comment here.

The full wedding gallery will be available shortly. If you have not yet registered to be notified when the gallery is live, you can do so here.

Vanessa and her family are from Brazil, whilst groom Giulo hails from Italy.. .with neither side speaking much English, it was great to see that language is no communication barrier when the day celebrates the love of your children for each other.

Anyway, first, of course, we had the ceremony in the Rosetti Room at Chelsea Register Office.

We then spent a little bit of time on King’s Road before heading off to the Kensington Roof Gardens.

Once we got to the Babylon Restaurant at the Kensington Roof Gardens, we headed straight out to the gardens to take advantage of the dry weather, as rain was forecast and the clouds were pulling in.The flamingos which live at the Kensington Roof Gardens perfectly matched the colour of Vanessa’s stunning Missoni dress.

We weren’t entirely unobserved during our wedding portrait shoot, with the father of the bride keeping a keen eye on the proceedings.

To celebrate their wedding, Vanessa and Giulo had booked a private dining room at the Kensington Roof Gardens, which offers amazing light, and fabulous views.

After the guests sat down for the meal it was time for me to head off.

Many congratulations to Vanessa and Giulo!