London winter wedding | Juliette & Nick

London winter wedding photography

A candlelit London winter wedding just before Christmas. The first of three weddings I shot leading up to Christmas this year. A true winter wedding, as the ceremony started at 4 pm after the sun had set. Juliette and Nick swapped the warmth of Australia to come back to the UK recently and went for a stylish winter ceremony in Notting Hill, west London. This is a creative couple. Juliette is an artist and although Nick’s professional background is law and banking, he’s really a surfer and a photographer! When Nick enquired about my wedding photography back in October, he talked about his love for photography. In fact, I wasn’t sure at first if he was really just another photographer fishing for prices! ( This goes on I’m told ) However, after he booked, we did manage to meet up when I was checking out the church – St Peter’s in Notting Hill – and had a long geeky chat about glass (#lensporn) as we walked back towards Bayswater Road.

(Fitting then that this was the first wedding in which I was able to use some very recent (expensive) investment in glass. The Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 2/50, the stunning (and heavy), Zeiss APO Sonnar T* 2/135  and the very new, AF-S Nikkor 58mm f1.4G ) But this isn’t a lens review…

Coverage began at their gorgeous open plan flat in Kensal Green, where Juliette was getting ready with family and friends. Then a short cab ride down to the church on Kensington Park Road. Thankfully there were a couple of spotlights in addition to the candles. Thankfully also they had a relaxed vicar who doesn’t see photography as a threat. It’s a good church to work in, with space for different angles. After the ceremony, it was on to the Belvedere restaurant in Holland Park nearby. It’s been a few years since I’ve covered a wedding reception there – it has to be one of the darkest spaces for a reception. But then shooting with the Nikon D3S and D4 cameras at up to 12800 iso with fast glass, it means you can get selective about using what light there is. Rather than sticking on a flash and bouncing off the low ceiling – the aim is to retain the atmosphere by just using what available light there is. This is why I bought the 58mm – a challenge had been set by Nick.

Hopefully, the resulting images capture the atmosphere of the day. Here are a few images from this London winter wedding…

You can see more London weddings here.