There is a particular quality of light in East London in May — low and warm, coming through industrial glazing at an angle that turns everything amber. It was that light that made this wedding.
The ceremony was held in a converted warehouse just off Hackney Road. Exposed brickwork, white linen, sixty guests. No excess. The couple had been together for nine years and knew exactly what they wanted: something that felt like themselves, not like a wedding.
We arrived two hours before the ceremony, which is always the right amount of time. The getting-ready photographs happened at a flat five minutes away — small rooms, good chaos, genuine feeling. The first look was unplanned and happened on a fire escape.
The Ceremony
The registrar was funny. That matters more than people expect — a ceremony that breathes, that has air and lightness in it, sets the whole day differently. Guests laughed. The couple cried briefly, quietly, at the right moment.
We were two photographers for this one. While I covered the ceremony from the front and the edges, our second moved through the room reading faces — the bride’s mother, the best man trying to hold it together, the small child in row two who had absolutely no idea what was happening and was coping by eating a biscuit.
After the Ceremony
The light outside lasted another hour. We used all of it. The couple were at ease with each other in a way that is rare and makes portrait work genuinely easy — they didn’t need direction, just an indication of where to stand and the permission to be themselves.
The portraits took twenty minutes. That is usually enough.
On Working in East London
East London rewards photographers who know it. The light behaves differently here — bounced off brick and glass, interrupted by railway arches, softened by trees that have no business being as beautiful as they are. It is also, increasingly, home to some of the most interesting wedding venues in the country: warehouses converted with taste, rooftops with views that do not require any further styling, railway arches that have been thoughtfully stripped back.
This couple understood where they were. They had lived in Hackney for seven years. The wedding felt like an extension of their life there, which is the best thing a wedding can be.
The gallery was delivered three weeks after the day. Full album ordered, with a half-dozen prints for the parents.
All photography: The Atunbi Experience. Enquiries welcome at [email protected].