Note: this centenary event took place on 1 October 2024 and has passed. If you’re planning a wedding here now, the current guide is Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding photographer — the ceremony rooms, confetti and witness rules, timings and current prices.
100 weddings in one day
To mark its centenary, Old Marylebone Town Hall married 100 couples in a single day for £100 each.
The usual fee at the time was somewhere between £621 and £1,231 depending on the room and the day. So this was the cheapest anyone has got married in central London in a very long while, and the applications reflected it.
How the day worked
Seven ceremonies an hour, from eight in the morning until half ten at night. Seventy-five staff running it. Up to eight guests per couple.
That’s a ceremony starting roughly every nine minutes for fourteen and a half hours. Anyone who has photographed at a town hall knows how tight the normal turnaround already is — you get the steps for a few minutes and then the next couple wants them. Compressing that further, all day, without anyone’s wedding feeling like a conveyor belt, is a serious piece of organisation.
A hundred years of it
The building opened in 1924 and has married more than 125,000 couples since.
Some of those are well known — Ringo Starr, Cilla Black and Paul McCartney all married here — but the number is the more interesting part. 125,000 couples in a century makes it one of the busiest wedding venues in England, and it’s still one of the hardest dates to get.
The four-year refurbishment finished in 2018, which is why the building looks the way it does now. Same Portland stone outside, considerably better inside.
Who could apply
Applications opened first to people who lived, worked or studied in Westminster, and only opened up more widely from 1 December. Local first, which was the right call for a building that’s been part of that community for a hundred years.
Why it mattered
A London wedding is expensive enough that plenty of couples quietly decide it isn’t for them. For one day, that barrier came down to £100 and a hundred couples got married in one of the best-looking civil venues in the country.
It’s also worth saying that the ordinary version isn’t far off. A register office ceremony at Marylebone costs a fraction of a hotel wedding, and I photograph a lot of couples who do exactly that — the legal bit here, then lunch or a party somewhere they actually like. The building does most of the work either way.
Weddings here the rest of the year
The centenary was one day. The building marries couples every week.
Some I’ve photographed there recently:
- Khilan & Pia — an early afternoon ceremony, confetti on the steps, then champagne at The Landmark.
- Anos & Yanos — a small ceremony followed by a very loud party at The Marylebone Hotel, with DJ Spoony on the decks.
- Syrus & Bibi — a Persian couple’s London civil ceremony, with portraits afterwards in Regent’s Park.
- Nathalie & Rutger — an evening winter wedding that finished after dark, with a sparkler send-off on the front steps.
Getting married at Old Marylebone Town Hall
I’ve written a full guide to the venue — the ceremony rooms, how the day usually runs, the best spots nearby for photos, and my hourly prices. There’s a live date checker on the page too.
Old Marylebone Town Hall wedding photography — prices and availability
Coverage starts at £350 for an hour, with every image fully edited, high-resolution downloads, and your gallery ready within 24 hours.
Book early. It was one of the most sought-after dates in London before the centenary and it hasn’t got any easier since.
