THE BREAKDOWN
Wedding Location: London, UK
Reception Venue: One Friendly Place (Friendly Pl, Greenwich, London SE13)
Ceremony Venue: Lewisham Register Office (368 Lewisham High St, London SE13 6LQ)
The Couple: Rachael & Charlie
In brief: A wedding with all the fun and none of the tradition with a venue to match – the ultimate street documentary wedding photographer’s playground!
RACHAEL & CHARLIE // ONE FRIENDLY PLACE LONDON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BY DOM & LIAM
We love weddings, we really do. For us as photographers, we find them a playground of possibilities and there’s nothing we love more than when our couples see them that way too!
No wedding is ever ordinary (indeed it’s the almost paradoxical uniqueness of such seemingly traditional events that keeps us coming back for more!) but Rachael & Charlie were on a particular mission to escape any sense of wedding tradition. In their words: “no sit down meal, just bowl food, no speeches, no cake cutting, no first dance, But we do think it would be nice to try to capture the feel of having all of these different people together for perhaps the only time. You guys seem to have exactly the right approach for what we want to capture, and the “documentary” or “reportage” approach doesn’t seem like a label attached to what is otherwise standard wedding photography.”
These words ahead of the event made us so happy and we were looking forward to their wedding immensely … it didn’t disappoint!
First, we went to Lewisham Register Office in South East London for their fantastically relaxed ceremony. With a simple ceremony, only the couple’s closest friends and family present, a casual dress-code (including a beautifully understated dress for our gorgeous bride) and with their three-year-old son stealing the show, the tone was perfectly set for the rest of the day. After a little finger-food buffet (good, honest homely food with nothing too fancy, naturally!) we arrived at London’s One Friendly Place. Happily we can attest that One Friendly Place is a most friendly place indeed and, as it turns out, also a goldmine for photography! In fact one might even go so far as to call it something of a York Place utopia!
It’s become somewhat fashionable for wedding venues to describe themselves as “alternative” but in this particular case the term is genuinely fitting. One Friendly Place is a magnificently quirky London warehouse (also used as a studio location for TV and Film) and in terms of style would perhaps best be described as somewhere between modern industrial chic and a props warehouse! Everywhere we looked there were so many paintings, bizarre props (from flamingos to zebra masks!) and crazy neon lights to keep all the guests and two documentary wedding photographers very happy indeed! Needless to say it really was the perfect playground for our gorgeous pair looking to break all the ‘rules’ of what a wedding can or should be!
These are just a few of our favourites from a day spent with a crazy-cool couple in a brilliantly-bonkers setting. We hope to visit it again soon!
Dom & Liam
CONTACT US ABOUT YOUR ONE FRIENDLY PLACE LONDON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY NEEDS
As you can probably see One Friendly Place London has fast become one of our absolute favourite places to shoot in our street documentary wedding photography style. If you’re planning your celebration at One Friendly Place and would like to discuss your wedding photography or wedding videography needs we’d love to hear from you!
