Kensington Roof Gardens – Sylvia & Mike
London reportage wedding photography at Kensington Roof Gardens
As the registrar said, the sun shone on this wedding. Quite an achievement after the recent ‘summer’ weather. When your wedding is on a rooftop in London – Kensington Roof Gardens – with the meal being served outside, good weather is a big bonus. Not visible from Kensington High Street below, the gardens – with its ‘Tudor’ walkway, Spanish garden nod to the Alhambra, flamingos, etc – is its own small world in the sky. Begun in the 1930s, atop a big department store – you can still see the art nouveau staircase down to the store – I’d only been here before during my days at The Times – for photocalls and press conferences occasionally. But now it was Sylvia and Mike’s wedding – a wedding with a lot of warmth, in many ways.
The Exhibitionist hotel
Coverage begins here, in South Kensington. A luxury boutique hotel, near the Natural History Museum, with eccentric decor. No Premier Inn blandness here… Sylvia and Mike both got ready here, but Mike hid in the bar, as Sylvia took the car for the first trip to the Roof Gardens. Mike’s Bentley came back for him and his best man. A few nerves for Mike by now. I think these went away when he turned around in the ceremony room, to see Sylvia walking down the aisle with her son. Ceremony done, licence signed, kiss, applause…Mike wasted no time in getting ‘that stepping on the wedding dress’ moment done… A few quiet moments in the ‘Moo room”, as the venue staff got the guests to gather along the Tudor walkway, for the confetti run. Then drinks in the sunshine.
This went on longer than planned but no-one complained. With plenty of ponds about, one brother managed to get his older sibling immersed in one. Then to the outdoor meal. Speeches and then a rousing tune from the ‘head chef’, Giuseppe, before he headed back to Rome, to set up a restaurant there…he even overcame the sound system fusing. He fooled a few. With dessert done, the act could start again, for real, (music system fixed) ‘the hidden waiters’. Ending, of course, after some Abba, with Nessun Dorma.
Cake cut on the dancefloor and then the first dance. The wedding guests gathered around. Not yet though – a last-minute dash back to the Moo room, for Sylvia and Mike, to rehearse the tango!
Here are a few images from this wedding day at Kensington Roof Gardens in London…
Fantastic !!!
Superb Photo’s Guys .
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Fantastic photos. Gorgeous day.