Olivia and Tom’s wedding at The Guards Chapel, London.

Another winter wedding and the last wedding photography booking of the year for me. Olivia and Tom were married at The Guards Chapel on Birdcage Walk in London at the weekend. Tom is in the Guards and the reception took place in the officers mess at Wellington Barracks, with the wedding breakfast in a marquee in the grounds. As with my previous winter wedding, I tried to get a few shots of Olivia in natural light as she prepared at her parents home earlier in the day.
In fact, with an up to date digital camera, the light was usable all through the wedding ceremony at the chapel and I just managed to get a group photo outside at about 3.30pm before it got too dark. This would have been almost impossible a few years ago, but equipment has improved so much recently that photographing in gloomy churches in winter has become more practical. I’m currently using Nikon D700′s as my main cameras and I regularly use these at ISO3200 and get great results, two years ago ISO800 would have been the limit on my camera before the grain and colour became unacceptable.
For anyone that’s interested, the shots of the ceremony and chapel below are shot at about 60th of a second at f4, ISO 3200, no flash. I used a 70-200 2.8 zoom lens at about 180mm for the bride and groom exchanging rings. The lens has vibration reduction, and I also either used a monopod or rested on something to cut the camera shake down to a minimum. I think the results are pretty good in the circumstances.
The Padre at The Guards Chapel was very relaxed about photography and gave me permission to use flash if necessary. In this case I took some shots with flash and some without. When I did use flash it had to be direct, rather than bounced, which never looks great, so I prefer the shots using the available light here. A lot of churches won’t allow any flash during the wedding ceremony, in fact some won’t allow any kind of photography at all, so it’s worth checking the wedding photography policy before you book a venue.

Olivia with her mother and sister getting ready for the wedding

Olivia altering her veil at her parents house in Wimbledon

At the window seat in Wimbledon before leaving for the wedding

Exchanging rings at The Guards Chapel in Birdcage Walk

The wedding guests at the chapel

Olivia and Tom at the altar during the ceremony

The newly weds and guests outside the Guards Chapel

The wedding car driving past the guard of honour at Wellington Barracks

Olivia and Tom outside Wellington Barracks after sunset

In front of Wellington Barracks

Tom relaxing with some friends at the wedding reception

And another outside the barracks

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