After twenty-odd years photographing weddings across London, I’ve come to look forward to winter dates almost more than the summer ones. There’s something about shooting in December, January and February that you just can’t fake — the light is low, the city feels quieter, and the venues take on a completely different character once the candles are lit and the windows fog up against the cold. If you’re planning a winter wedding in London and trying to work out how the photography will actually look, this is what I’ve learned from two decades of doing it.
“Named one of the top 10 winter wedding photographers in the UK”
— Professional Photographer Magazine
Why I Love Winter Weddings in London
The thing nobody tells you about winter weddings is that the light does most of the work for you. Between November and February the sun never gets very high, which means you get that long, low, golden light most of the day rather than just for an hour before sunset. It wraps around faces, it picks up texture in fabric, and it’s far kinder to skin than the harsh midday sun you get in July.
The trade-off, of course, is that you’ve got fewer hours of it. That changes how I plan the day, but it doesn’t make the pictures any worse — if anything, the pressure of working with limited light pushes everyone to be more deliberate about the timeline, and the results tend to be stronger for it. You can see what I mean by browsing my winter wedding photography portfolio — almost all of those images were shot in available light.
The London Venues That Come Alive in Winter
The Hotels — Claridge’s, The Ritz, The Savoy
The five-star hotels are where winter weddings really come into their own. The Art Deco interiors at Claridge’s were essentially designed for low light — the lamps, the mirrors, the marble, the chandeliers all bounce light around in a way that flatters everyone in the room. I’ve shot weddings there in February when the sun set during the speeches and the whole place just glowed.
The Ritz has a similar quality to it — heavy curtains, gold leaf, that famous Palm Court — and the gilt picks up beautifully against grey winter skies through the windows. The Savoy is another one I’ll happily shoot at any time of year, but in winter the Thames Foyer with the gazebo lit up at dusk is hard to beat.
The Ivy and Smaller London Venues
Not every winter wedding is in a grand hotel ballroom. Some of my favourite ones have been more intimate — I shot a winter wedding at The Ivy a few years back that was small, tight, and full of personality, and an evening ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall that finished after dark and gave me a chance to use the city lights as a backdrop for couple portraits.
Country House Weddings Within Reach of London
If you’re open to driving an hour or so out of town, the country houses around the M25 are at their best in winter too. I’ve photographed several at Goodwood House — the Martin and Debbie wedding there was one of my favourites of that year, with low afternoon sun through the long windows. The big stone houses look properly cinematic when there’s frost on the lawn or smoke from the chimneys.
How I Plan the Timeline Around Winter Light
This is the single most important thing for a London winter wedding: if you want couple portraits in daylight, the ceremony needs to be done by 2pm at the latest. Sunset in mid-December is around 3.50pm, and you lose useful light about half an hour before that. I usually tell couples to aim for a 12.30 or 1pm ceremony, with the formal portraits done by 3pm and any outdoor couple shots wrapped by 3.30.
That sounds restrictive, but it actually works in your favour. You finish the photography part of the day earlier, you’ve got more time for guests, and the evening reception feels longer and more relaxed. Nobody is dragging the bride out into the cold for one more shot at 6pm.
If the ceremony is later — a 4pm or 5pm winter wedding, which is increasingly common in town — then I plan for everything indoors and lean into candlelight, fairy lights, and whatever the venue’s own lighting gives us. That’s a different kind of shoot, but no less good. The evening ceremony I shot at Marylebone Town Hall is a good example of how that can look.
Working with Winter Weather (Including Snow)
The number one question I get asked about winter weddings is: what if it rains? London winters are usually wet rather than snowy, and the honest answer is we work with it. Umbrellas in pictures actually look brilliant — a white wedding umbrella against a wet pavement at night reflects every bit of city light back into the lens. Some of the best couple portraits I’ve ever taken have been in the rain.
Snow is rarer in London but it does happen, and when it does I drop everything to make the most of it. I had a couple a few years back who got married during a proper snow day — I’ve still got those frames on my homepage. If there’s even a chance of snow on your wedding day, build in a fifteen-minute window for a quick portrait outside; you won’t regret it.
What to Wear and How It Photographs
A few practical notes from years of shooting brides in cold weather. Long sleeves photograph beautifully in winter — a lace sleeve or a tulle one in low light is far more interesting than a strapless gown in the same frame. Capes, faux-fur stoles and velvet wraps all look exceptional on camera, and they solve the problem of standing outside in a December churchyard for the confetti shot.
For the wedding party, the deeper winter palettes — burgundy, forest green, navy, plum, gold — sit much better against the warm tones of London hotel interiors than the pastels you see in summer. I tell brides to lean into that rather than fight it.
Florals follow the same logic. The dark, textured arrangements that winter florists are doing now — deep reds, brown foliage, dried elements, candles — photograph far better than the pale spring bouquets do under tungsten light. They feel like they belong to the season.
Pre-Wedding Shoots in Winter
If you’ve never done a pre-wedding or engagement shoot, winter is honestly the best time of year to do one in London. The streets are quieter, the light is gentler, and the Christmas lights along Regent Street, in Covent Garden and across Mayfair give you a backdrop you can’t get any other time of year. I’ve put together a whole gallery of winter pre-wedding photoshoots if you want to see how they look in practice.
For couples who fancy something more dramatic, I’ve done shoots further afield too — the winter pre-wedding shoot in Paris linked there gives you a sense of what’s possible. And if you’re proposing rather than already engaged, December in London is hard to beat for that too — I do a fair few Christmas proposals every year, usually around the lights in Mayfair or by the tree at Somerset House.
What Winter Wedding Photography Looks Like in Practice
What I’d really like couples to take away from this is that a winter wedding in London isn’t a compromise on the photography — it’s a different set of opportunities. The light is better. The venues feel more intimate. There are fewer tourists in your background shots. Mayfair at dusk in December is one of the best-looking places in the world to take pictures, and you have it more or less to yourself.
The work I’m proudest of tends to come from the harder days — the rainy ones, the dark ones, the ones where the schedule had to bend around the light. Winter forces all of that, and the photographs you end up with feel like they belong to a specific time and place rather than looking like every other wedding in every other season.
If you’re planning a winter wedding in London and want to chat about the photography — venue suggestions, timeline, how it’ll actually run on the day — get in touch and I’ll happily talk it through. And if you want to see more, the full winter wedding photography gallery is the best place to start.
