A city wedding guide – 7 reasons why a city-chic wedding is worth considering

The British countryside is undeniably beautiful. We have one of the most colourful spring transformations anywhere and gorgeous photo opportunities can be found throughout the year. Country-houses, Marquees, woodland weddings and an overwhelming presence of green!

But quintessential isn’t for everyone. Some of our couples go in a completely different direction and I wanted to use a couple of weddings to show you why an urban wedding can be everything that you want and more. I LOVE to shoot urban weddings, the lines, the structure, the busy backgrounds and graffiti all offer something unique and a tonne of fun to use for your wedding and your photos. Hopefully our city wedding guide will have some useful snippets of information for you

1. The Venue choices and Architecture

The above images were taken in Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Coventry. An urban wedding does not need to equate to London! You will find fantastic architectural and historical venues in almost every city or large town in the UK. Some of them offer huge amounts of character, perhaps you can find something which represents who you are as a couple?
For example if you both have a love of dinosaurs and natural history, why not get married at the Natural History Museum?

If you met in a bookstore and bonded over your love of books, why not a grand library somewhere? The library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is fantastic, and there are even more historical libraries to choose from in the city.

There are buildings in this gorgeous nation of ours which can reflect your own interests and personalities, stunning and full of opportunity without a single tree in sight! You don’t need a tonne of natural light, you don’t need acres of grounds, we can make your shots work for you in so many different scenarios, if its what you want… we will find a way to make it work! My personal favourites for London are either The Gherkin (30 St. Mary Axe) or Tower Bridge, but you can find your own prefect venue in any city destination.

Easy and fun for guests

If you have family and friends from all over the place (especially internationally), a city wedding can be a wonderful way to make life a little easier for them. Often enabling your travelling guests to combine your wedding with an enjoyable break away from home. Most cities have tourist infrastructure, things to do and places to visit around your wedding as well as lots of great places to eat, opportunities for them to explore and excellent transport links (usually) to get to and from your venue easily.

You could even plan to do something with them either the day before or after your wedding, why not all agree to meet at a great restaurant or take a try to the theatre (any excuse to keep the celebration going!).

Great options all year-round

Its a quick point, but a good one. Whilst the surrounding of your countryside manors and barns will change massively throughout the year, especially the colours and the foliage, it can also mean that at certain venues, the outside space can be a little bleak in the winter months. But city weddings and urban backgrounds look consistently great throughout the year, no flowers in bloom? – No problem!

Capacity – Do you need a large venue?

Considering the grandeur of many of the country venues, couples can be surprised to discover that they often cannot accommodate over 100 guests, some are even less. Whilst you will find gorgeous grand ball room options at countryside venues like Offley Place, many others cannot accommodate larger weddings.

City venues have been dealing with large capacity events for centuries, from stadiums, to theatres, to city halls, you will find something to suit even the largest of weddings.

Shapes and Colours at city weddings

Urban and city weddings have a real advantage with these elements over the majority of countryside weddings. The sheer variety of the style and ages of architecture mean that unusual colours and shapes can be found almost anywhere in a city. We can literally turn a new corner and discover a huge block wall of bright yellow or we can utilise the red we find in the hotel foyer.

Lines and Reflections

My personal favourite reason, we cannot help it! Countryside architecture can be stunning, but city venues usually have to workaround fitting large capacity wedding venues into tiny spaces, they need to work hard on the design to maximise light and floorspace. This can lead some seriously gorgeous and unbelievably clever architectural designs in city buildings.

Graffiti and Street Art

I know we can think graffiti and immediately conjure images of barely legible and crude scribblings, but there can be so much more to it. Unfortunately, whilst there may not be a Banksy on every corner, most city’s have their own collection of talented artists just ready to create on any and all available blank spaces!
We love to utilise these awesome designs and colours to create some truly breathtaking images for you!

You might even find that your city chic wedding can make in onto our “wish list” Here. It is definetly worth checking this list if you think a city wedding might be for you. You can always get in touch to discuss your plans with me, just pop me a message.

Esmé