I’m one of the recommended wedding photographers at Hotel Café Royal, and it’s always a venue I’m glad to see come up in an enquiry. It sits right on the bend of Regent Street, where the West End, Mayfair and Soho all meet — a five-star hotel with one of the best addresses in London, and a building with real history behind the front doors.
I’ve photographed enough weddings here to know it properly: where the light lands in the morning, which rooms work for what, and how to move a day through the building without it ever feeling rushed. As a recommended photographer I also have access to the private spaces and roof terraces most guests never see — and those terraces, looking down the curve of Regent Street, are some of the best backdrops anywhere in central London.
A short history of the Café Royal
The Café Royal opened in 1865. It was started by Daniel Nicholas Thévenon, a French wine merchant who’d arrived in Britain a couple of years earlier — by most accounts with about five pounds to his name — and went on to build what was, at one point, considered the finest wine cellar in the world.
By the 1890s it had become the place to be seen in London. Oscar Wilde held court here; it was in the old Grill Room, now the Oscar Wilde lounge, that he was dining with Lord Alfred Douglas when the Marquess of Queensberry walked in. Over the years the guest list ran from Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw to Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Muhammad Ali and Diana, Princess of Wales. In 1973, David Bowie threw his famous farewell party for Ziggy Stardust here, with Mick Jagger, Lou Reed and Ringo Starr in the room.
The building was carefully restored and reopened as a hotel between 2008 and 2012, so what you get now is all of that history with none of the wear — 160 contemporary rooms and suites behind a listed façade. For a wedding, that mix matters: the bones of the place do a lot of the work in the photographs before I’ve even lifted the camera.
The wedding spaces at Hotel Café Royal
A handful of very different rooms make up the venue, and part of planning the photography is knowing how they fit together across a day.
The Pompadour Ballroom is the showpiece — gilded, mirrored and ornate in the proper sense — and it’s the natural setting for a ceremony or a wedding breakfast. At the far end, a set of double doors opens straight onto a pillared terrace with views up and down the arc of Regent Street, and that’s where I’ll often take a couple for ten quiet minutes away from the room. There are smaller private dining rooms for more intimate numbers, the Oscar Wilde lounge with its painted ceilings, and the rooftop spaces with their long views across the city.
It’s a contemporary hotel wrapped around a genuinely historic building, and that’s exactly what makes it work on camera — clean, modern rooms when you want them, real period grandeur when you don’t.
Wedding photography at Hotel Café Royal
My approach here is the same as it is anywhere — I photograph the day as it happens, and I keep the camera pointed at the people more than the set-ups. The difference at the Café Royal is simply how much the building gives me to work with: the gilded corridors, the sweep of the staircases, the light coming through the windows onto Regent Street.
Before the day I’ll talk you through the practical side — the best times for natural light in each room, where we can step out for portraits without losing you from your own wedding for long, and how to build a loose timeline that leaves the photography room to breathe. I cover the full day, candid and considered, and I have packages to suit different budgets, so the conversation always starts with what you actually want rather than a fixed list.
Photographing the bridal prep
The morning is one of my favourite parts of the day to photograph at the Café Royal. The suites are quiet, the light is soft, and there’s space to work without anyone feeling crowded — which means I can stay out of the way and let the morning unfold properly.
I’ll photograph the hair and make-up, the dress hanging and then going on, the rings, the shoes, the note from your partner if there is one — the details as well as the moments. And I’m always watching for the real reactions: the mother of the bride seeing the dress, the bridesmaids’ faces, the last quiet minute before everyone heads down. None of it is posed. It’s just the morning, photographed by someone who’s done it enough times to know what’s coming.
Photographing the ceremony
A ceremony in the ballroom is a real thing to photograph. The chandeliers, the gilding, the painted detail — the room does half the job for you. I work quietly through it: the walk in, the vows, the rings, the first kiss, and just as importantly the faces in the seats while it’s all happening.
I shoot ceremonies unobtrusively — no stepping into the aisle, no interrupting the moment for a better angle. I know the room well enough to be in the right place ahead of time, which means you get the photographs without ever really noticing me getting them.
Photographing the speeches
Speeches are where a lot of the best photographs of the day quietly happen — and not always from the person speaking. I’m watching the whole room: the laughter, someone wiping their eyes, the look between the two of you when a line lands. The Café Royal’s rooms give all of that a setting that flatters it, but the photographs are really about the words and the reactions to them.
Photographing the first dance
The first dance is a small, genuine moment in the middle of a big day, and I photograph it as exactly that. Depending on the room and the light, I’ll either use what’s already there or bring my own lighting in to keep it soft rather than harsh. What I’m after is the two of you and the way the room folds in around you — not a staged shot, just the moment as it actually felt.
The bridal suite at Hotel Café Royal
Spending your first night as a married couple in one of the suites at the Café Royal is a fitting way to end a day spent in the building. The rooms are calm and beautifully done, with views out over the West End, and if there’s time at the end of the night I’ll often take a few last frames there — quiet, unhurried, the two of you finally off your feet. They tend to be among the favourites from the whole gallery.
Planning a wedding at Hotel Café Royal
If you’re planning a chic city wedding and you want a glamorous London setting with genuine history to it, the Café Royal is hard to beat — and I’d be glad to be the one to photograph it. As a recommended photographer there, I know the building, the team and the rhythm of a day inside it.
For the venue itself, you’ll find the events team at Hotel Café Royal weddings. For the photography, get in touch — tell me about your plans, and I’ll check my availability and we can arrange to meet. I’m taking bookings now for 2026 and 2027 wedding photography in London; ask me for the brochure and current London wedding photographer prices.
