These lovely photos of Ryan and Dani in the Pimlico Room are from June 2021, shortly after weddings were being allowed again. Due to the Covid restrictions they were only allowed close family into the ceremony but had another thirty guests waiting at the reception in a Chelsea restaurant.
Ordinary cars are allowed to drop-off and pick-up outside Old Marylebone Town Hall, but a white 1960 Silver Cloud II Rolls Royce is allowed to linger for the bride and groom as well as the lucky photographer who gets to ride through London, as the traffic parts, other drivers staring at the elegant vehicle and newly married couple.
The car was a gift from Dani’s mum and was delivered as a surprise to her on her wedding day.
The Pimlico Room is one of the smaller of the seven reception rooms following the £70mn refurbishment in 2017. Each room is named after a neighbourhood of the borough. Pimlico holds 20 guests plus photographer and registrar. The largest reception room has 100 seated guests. The Pimlico Room may well be the prettiest room with its gran fireplace and wood panelled walls.
Regardless of having seven reception rooms, every wedding party wants to be photographed on the elegant steps beneath the Portland stone fluted columns designed by Sir Edwin Cooper. Wedding parties are therefore restricted to thirty minutes for photographs on the steps, which effectively controls how many wedding can be achieved in a day.
Confetti is allowed, with a member of staff on hand to sweep up between each 30-minute photography session. Following the group pictures, Dani insisted on dancing between the columns while I snapped away with my camera. It’s also a good idea to grab a few pictures within the building as the wood panelled hallways are very beautiful.
The architecture style makes a beautiful photographic backdrop. The bride, Dani had studied architecture and told me that the columns were of the Graeco-Roman classical tradition and the tower is in the style of Sir Christopher Wren. Following a competition in 1911, Sir Edwin Cooper was commissioned. After a six year build, it was opened in 1920.
The council chamber was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War. The town hall, which had served as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone for much of the 20th century, ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged City of Westminster was formed in 1965.
Of the photos in this page, the image of the bride and groom walking towards the Rolls Royce was taken at the Outer Circle of nearby Regents Park. The photos of the bride and groom beside the car in a mews street were taken immediately behind Old Marylebone Town Hall, in the cobbled-stoned Thornton Place.
Good locations include the secret garden in Regents park, which is especially good in the summer. Or within a short walk is Dorset Square, which is just across the road.
Paul McCartney married photographer Linda Eastman in 1969, captured by Frank Mastropolo. McCartney returned for his marriage to third wife Nancy Shevell in 2011, while Ringo Starr married second wife Barbara Bach at the venue in 1981. Liam Gallagher married Patsy Kensit there in 1997 and returned in 2008 to wed Nicole Appleton of the pop group All Saints. Other famous weddings include Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, Sean Bean and Georgina Sutcliffe, Claudia Winkleman and Kris Thykier, and Cilla Black and Bobby Willis.
Old Marylebone Town Hall is an iconic wedding venue and a classic location for wedding photography.