Planning a London Town Hall wedding? There are many beautiful Town Halls in London, whether you’re planning an intimate elopement for two, a small wedding in one of the registry office rooms or a large civil ceremony in their main hall. A Town Hall wedding is also a great option if you want a small legal ceremony to finalise all the paperwork, before a destination, celebrant-led or religious wedding without the legally recognised element.
London Town Hall wedding venues
You can pick any town hall or registry office – some of my favourites are Chelsea Old Town Hall, Marylebone Old Town Hall & Islington Town Hall. You can contact the London Town Halls here:
- Old Marylebone Town Hall
- Islington Town Hall
- Chelsea Old Town Hall
- Camden Town Hall
- Hackney Town Hall
- Wandsworth Town Hall
- Lambeth Town Hall
London Town Hall wedding timings
London Town Halls tend to have multiple weddings each day – this means you usually don’t have the option to decorate the space in the way you can in a standard wedding venue. They typically have some flowers in the rooms for you, and if you have something easy to move around you might be able to set that up and then take it on to your reception. You aren’t allowed any food or drink in the rooms. You each have a short interview before the ceremony starts, so you’re likely to need to arrive around 30minutes before your ceremony time. Ceremonies tend to be short, and can last between 10 and 30 minutes. And you’ll have just a short time after the ceremony for photos or confetti – around 10 minutes at most.
London Town Hall wedding ceremonies
For your ceremony you will have two members of the registry office staff – one to conduct the ceremony and one to arrange the marriage certificate. Additionally, you need 2 witnesses. These might be two of your guests or you might choose to invite just two close friends to witness for you. You don’t need to know your witnesses – the Chelsea Pensioners can sometimes act as witnesses for Chelsea Old Town Hall weddings, and as a photographer I’ve been a witness and arranged for a friend of mine to join as the second witness – although it is always worth checking this is ok with your registrar in advance. You can customise your ceremony to make it individual by choosing readings, personal vows and music – but you are not able to include anything with a religious connotation.
London Town Hall wedding photos
The London Town Halls are beautiful buildings and offer lots of places for photos. You will often find grand marble staircases, long tiled corridors, pretty windows, covered doorways and elegant pillars. You might want to use your short time at the Town Hall after the ceremony for group photos on the steps, to have a confetti exit or to focus on portraits of the two of you. If you’re planning an elopement you may want to allow time before the ceremony for a first look and portraits and/or time after the ceremony for a photo walk. For example, from the Chelsea Old Town Hall you might like to walk around the beautiful Chelsea streets and down to the river – or from Old Marylebone Town Hall there are many pretty little cobbled streets that are perfect for portraits. And of course you can include the rest of your day in your photos – whether that’s hailing a black cab, hiring a routemaster bus, walking or jumping on the tube to wherever you plan to continue your celebration.
If you’re planning a London Town Hall wedding or elopement, I’d love to hear more about your plans and talk through how I could capture your day – please get in touch.
