Stationers’ Hall Wedding Photography in London
There are some London wedding venues that feel hidden in plain sight.
Stationers’ Hall is one of them.
Tucked away on Ave Maria Lane, just moments from St Paul’s Cathedral, it has that very particular City of London feeling. Historic, grand, and full of little corners that make a documentary wedding photographer like me happy.
Milly and Dominic’s wedding started with a ceremony at St Etheldreda’s Church in Ely Place before everyone made their way across to Stationers’ Hall for the reception. It was a proper London wedding in the best sense. Ancient church, black cabs, old streets, a private garden, big rooms, candlelight, speeches, dancing, and a lot of people simply enjoying themselves.
Which, really, is the bit I’m most interested in.
A London wedding at St Etheldreda’s Church and Stationers’ Hall
Milly and Dominic were married at St Etheldreda’s Church, a beautiful and atmospheric Catholic church tucked away in Ely Place, Holborn.
It is one of those places that feels almost impossible when you first find it. You step off the busy streets of London, and suddenly there is this huge, historic church. London can do that. You can be surrounded by traffic, offices, phones and noise, then take a few steps and find yourself somewhere that feels hundreds of years older.
St Etheldreda’s has a rich history. It was originally the town chapel of the Bishops of Ely and dates back to the medieval period. For a wedding ceremony, it has real atmosphere.
Why Stationers’ Hall works so well for wedding photography
After the ceremony, everyone made their way to Stationers’ Hall for the reception.
Stationers’ Hall is a Grade I listed livery hall in the City of London, home to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers. The current hall was completed after the Great Fire of London, and you do feel that history in the building. The oak panelling, the stained glass, the sense of age in the rooms.
A good wedding venue is not only about how it looks in an empty brochure photograph. It is about how people move through it. Where they gather. Where the light falls. Where the conversations happen. Where people naturally stand with a glass in their hand and relax after the ceremony.
Stationers’ Hall has a lovely flow for that.
The Main Hall provides a large reception space. The Stock Room and Court Room offer distinct atmospheres.
Then there is the garden, which feels like a lovely surprise in the middle of the City. You are still in central London, but it feels as though the rest of the city has been pushed just out of earshot.
The private garden at Stationers’ Hall
The garden is one of the best things about Stationers’ Hall.
It is private, enclosed and quite lovely. For wedding guests, it gives everyone somewhere to spill out after a ceremony, especially in warmer weather. For photography, it gives a bit of breathing space.
A lot of City weddings are beautiful but quite tight on space. Pavements, taxis, tourists, office workers, security barriers, all the normal London stuff. That can be great for pictures, actually, but it is also useful when a venue gives people somewhere to just be themselves.
At Milly and Dominic’s wedding, the garden became that place. Hugs, drinks, small groups forming and reforming and people laughing.
That sort of thing is great for documentary wedding photography because people really stop performing. They forget the camera is there. They become themselves again.
And that is almost always when the better pictures happen.
Photographing the real story of the day
I have photographed a lot of weddings in London over the years, and the temptation with a venue like Stationers’ Hall is to lean too heavily into the architecture.
The place is beautiful, but the building is not the wedding. The people are.
For me, the venue should support the story rather than take over from it. I’ll take some pictures showing where the wedding took place, of course. That is important. Couples choose venues carefully, and those spaces become part of the day's memory.
But I am always more interested in how people behave inside those spaces.
That is why Stationers’ Hall works well. It has enough grandeur to set the scene, but also enough space for the smaller moments to unfold.
Working with low light and atmosphere
Both St Etheldreda’s and Stationers’ Hall have darker areas. That is not a criticism. Quite the opposite, really.
Dark rooms can be lovely for wedding photography if you work with them rather than fighting them.
I do not use flash during the day, so I am always looking for available light. Window light, candlelight, reflected light, pools of light falling across a table or doorway. In a venue like this, you have to be patient and read the room a bit.
Sometimes that means letting the background fall into shadow. Sometimes it means waiting for someone to step into the right patch of light.
There is a certain honesty in that.
Documentary wedding photography at Stationers’ Hall
My approach to weddings is simple enough. I photograph people being people.
That sounds quite simple, perhaps, but it is what I have come back to again and again after photographing hundreds of weddings. I am not trying to direct the day into something it was not. I am looking for the truth of the day, with good light and good composition when I can get them.
Stationers’ Hall suits that approach because the venue has its own character.
Planning a wedding at Stationers’ Hall?
If you are planning a Stationers’ Hall wedding, it is worth thinking about how the venue will feel across the whole day.
The garden is brilliant for the drinks reception if the weather is kind. The Main Hall brings the grandeur for the wedding breakfast and evening. The surrounding City streets can be great for a short walk if you want to.
That last bit matters to me.
Stationers’ Hall wedding photography FAQs
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Yes, Stationers’ Hall works very well for documentary wedding photography. The venue has a strong sense of history, a private garden, interlinking rooms and lots of natural moments as guests move between spaces. It has grandeur, but it also has enough intimacy for quieter, more personal photographs.
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Yes, Stationers’ Hall is licensed for civil ceremonies, and couples can also use it for wedding receptions after a church ceremony elsewhere in London. Milly and Dominic had their ceremony at St Etheldreda’s Church before travelling to Stationers’ Hall for the reception.
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Stationers’ Hall is on Ave Maria Lane in the City of London, very close to St Paul’s Cathedral. It is a good location for couples who want a historic central London wedding venue with strong links to the City.
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The light at Stationers’ Hall varies from room to room. There are bright areas, darker oak-panelled spaces, stained glass, candlelight and the private garden. For documentary photography, that variety can be really useful because it gives the photographs atmosphere and depth.
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St Etheldreda’s Church is in Ely Place, Holborn, and Stationers’ Hall is in the City of London near St Paul’s. They are not next door to each other, but they work well together for a London wedding, especially if you like historic venues with character.
Are you planning a wedding at Stationers’ Hall?
If you are getting married at Stationers’ Hall, St Etheldreda’s Church, or another historic London wedding venue, and you like the idea of natural, documentary wedding photography, I’d love to hear about your plans.
I photograph a select number of weddings each year across the UK and beyond, always with the same approach: no staging the day into something it wasn’t, no turning guests into props, and no disappearing for hours of portraits.
Just real moments, photographed properly.
