London Wedding Photography – Prince Albert Pub, Camden // What do you get when you take a super creative couple, a bold and bright colour palette, and an old Victorian pub? You get Emma and Peter’s amazing wedding day. It was about 6 months from them getting engaged to them getting married, and during that period they asked if I would do them the honours of their London wedding photography. Of course, I said yes please with knobs on, and was delighted to capture the joy of the day forever. I’m doubly delighted to share this London wedding photography with you again today, as their day was a riot of inspiration.

An intimate, relaxed pub wedding

Pretty much as soon as they got engaged over takeaway and Nick Cave playing at home, Pete suggested that they should celebrate by having a party in the pub. “It sounded great to me,” Emma explains, “intimate, relaxed and in London where we live, so much easier to organise. We settled on The Prince Albert in Camden as we wanted to hire the whole pub for the day and we loved the traditional Victorian boozer style.” 

A tequila sunrise colour scheme of orange, pink and red

The venue set not only the tone for the day but the tones for the day (get it?!), which is what made this Prince Albert wedding photography so exciting. “We wanted it to be a really colourful, happy day and to contrast the dark wood in the pub, so almost everything was either orange, pink or red.” Emma continues. Thanks to a fair few trips to Covent Garden flower market and a gargantuan effort from their family members the day before, they did all of the flowers themselves, which added bold, bright pops of colour all throughout the venue. 

Pete’s mum created 10 colourful bouquets while Emma and her brother arranged the table flowers in vases, jars and tankards she’d spruced on eBay. The piece de resistance of the whole day, a vibrant flower arch that served as the backdrop for Emma and Peter’s vows, was made up of approximately 700 carnations, and lovingly created by Pete’s dad and one of their bridesmaids!

Emma also asked her aunt to make “just some bunting or something” (direct quote), and so her and her uncle went “absolutely crazy” (another direct quote) with loads more bright and beautiful decor. Sticking with this tequila sunrise-esque colour palette, they braided pom poms to line the stairs, threaded paper tassels to make bunting, and sewed velvet table runners and tassels to hang on the back of the chairs! 

A wedding party who understood the assignment

Now let’s turn to the wedding party, who I think look so great that they deserve a round of applause… [Holds for applause]

Even down to her hair and her watermelon bag, Emma nailed the colour palette brief. Her dress was a pink boho dress from Needle & Thread, which she loved because “it wasnʼt white, and Iʼd just eaten a huge (veggie) burger when I first tried it on and still felt amazing, so knew it was the dream dress for me!” (If you take nothing else away from this London wedding photography blog, please take this key piece of advice. Ideally, you’d take loads of other good content away too, but if I had to prioritise, this would be pretty high up.*)

Emma’s bridesmaids were instructed to choose whatever outfits they liked within the colour palette. The tones all worked together, and their group shots are some of my favourite London wedding photography from the day. They all wore flower crowns in their hair, echoing Emma’s milkmaid braid adorned with gypsophila. Following suit (…see what I did there), and hoping to save anyone from buying new, Pete asked his groomsmen to wear blue, which they all accessorised with an eye-catching orange tie.

You do you

“We loved how everything looked because we stuck to our usual style, but dialled up to 10 and lots of people commented it was ‘so you two!ʼ, which I take as a good thing – ha.” Emma says. “Even though it was stressful at times doing it ourselves, I really enjoyed the process and it made the day feel really personal and unique to us.”

Whilst the ceremony was held downstairs, the meal and speeches took place upstairs. Using a mirror that stood pride of place, guests found out where they were sitting, at tables named after stunning Yves Saint Laurent Valentine’s cards. On the back of the table number there were hand-written lyrics to love songs from artists such as Elvis and Laura Marling. Each place setting featured a cash napkin and a holographic sticker of Emma and Pete’s cat, Boudi. 

Afterwards it was time to head back downstairs, where the band were set up and ready to go! There wasn’t a formal first dance, just a domino effect of boogying that once started never quite stopped. Evening guests arrived, a particular quick-thinking groomsman saved the petal-adorned cake as it started to slide during the cake cutting, and the reception was well and truly underway. 

London wedding photography in the heart of Camden

At one point, I snuck out with Emma and Peter to get a few shots of just the two of them. And here’s what I love about London wedding photography: there were so many beautiful spots within a stone’s throw of the pub that we got loads of gorgeous portraits whilst barely leaving their guests’ eyesight! 

(*Ok, and this: hire someone who can capture the London wedding photography of your dreams, so that you can relive the joy of your wedding day forever more. Someone like – here’s a crazy idea – me, for example! You can get in touch to chat London wedding photography plans here, or even Prince Albert wedding photography if you’re also getting married in this gorgeous spot. Just please don’t slide into the DMs with generic Prince Albert chat, please and thanks…)

Little Black Book

Make up – @bridesbylaura