London Wedding Photographer Marianne Taylor | Creative wedding reportage photography covering London, UK and overseas | Blog » Engagement

Amanda & Nick | Engagement

Marianne — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:36:12 +0000

Amanda & Nick travelled down to London from Bath for their engagement session, and Amanda certainly came well-prepared! I don’t think I’ve ever had such a huge selection of lovely props to choose from, so huge in fact that we decided to save some for the wedding day portraits. :D

We first met up at the deliciously pink Peggy Porschen shop in Belgravia for some equally delicious, not to mention photogenic, cakes. From there we headed to Green Park for fun with the beautiful autumn coloured leaves. The day was so lovely and crisp with some beautiful sunshine thrown in, but you could definitely sense winter, and dare I say it, Christmas, in the air (I think the amazing gingerbread house at Peggy Porschen helped with getting into the spirit too!).

I had such a good time with Amanda & Nick, and I can’t wait until next summer – judging by the amount of thought Amanda put into the engagement session, the wedding is going to be off the hook amazing! But yes, let’s in fact have that Christmas first…

Sally & James | Engagement

Marianne — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:54:54 +0000

Sally & James live right next to Smithfield Market in London, and are getting married in their local church in the spring, so it made sense that we started their engagement session from the area. We then strolled down to the river, nipping in and out of cute alleyways (oh, I do love a good back alley!) on the way. There’s nothing I like better than getting to know my couples, and hanging out with Sally and James was such a joy. Can’t wait for their wedding day!

Nirali & Kunal | Engagement

Marianne — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:40:09 +0000

I bet Californian photographers’ blogs don’t talk about rain quite as much as mine does… It’s just a fact of London life that with every session there’s that element of excitement about whether it will bucket it down on the day or not. When it came to Nirali & Kunal’s engagement session, the pressure was really on, as between the days they were visiting London from New York and my availability, we had such a narrow window of opportunity to do our session. And of course, as if on cue, it started absolutely peeing it down an hour before our session… Luckily the rain shower was hard but short lived, and afterwards we got to have beautifully gleaming wet pavements to add a bit of London flavour into the shots.

I’m so glad the weather worked out, and despite the rain, I do love London in the autumn! It was such a pleasure meeting you Nirali & Kunal, and I hope your wedding back in NY will be absolutely fabulous! x

Vanessa & James | Engagement

Marianne — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:35:46 +0000

Sometimes the planets just align perfectly. You know those moments, when everything just clicks and you feel like ‘yes, this is how the world should look like’. Well, Vanessa & James’ engagement session was full of those moments. The time of day was perfect for the light, the colours of the leaves were beautiful, and their laughter was contagious. I loved every minute of spending time with these two traipsing around Putney, and I think I’m in love with every single frame I took.

Oh Vanessa and James, thanks so much for making it so that our paths crossed (it was the right day in the end wasn’t it) I feel so happy to have met you, and I hope you’ll have an absolutely magical wedding day in Singapore!

Wendy & Martin | Engagement

Marianne — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:08:52 +0000

Remember last year when we went to Paris with Wendy & Martin for ‘part I’ of their engagement session? We always planned to do ‘part II’ in London, but it took nearly a year of arranging and re-arranging dates until we finally got together again. It was so nice to see Wendy & Martin again, and we spent a thoroughly lovely afternoon traipsing around South Bank and catching up on what’s been happening in their lives in the past year. And I just have to say, I love Wendy’s new hairstyle, sooo cute!

Helen & Miles | Engagement

Marianne — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:46:57 +0000

There are some funny coincidences in life, some of them so out there that it feels almost impossible to be true – or perhaps meant to be? Just a couple of weeks before Helen & Miles’ engagement session I was doing some wedding portraits for the lovely Kelly and Scott, and as it turns out, the two couples are practically neighbours! In fact, they can very nearly see into each others lounges from their windows, which I think is just hilarious. (It also seems that people living on this street are seriously into big balloons. :D)

I think the term ‘cute as a button’ was actually invented for Helen & Miles. They are just simply adorable, inside and out, and it was so nice to finally spend some time photographing them. Helen & Miles are getting married next year in one of the coolest venues I know, Pale & Interesting, down in Kent. They were originally going to get married somewhere else, but fell so head over heels in love when they came across the amazing New England barn that they decide to change venues. And I couldn’t have been happier when they told me about the change of plans. I can. not. wait. for the wedding day!

Huiting & Victor | Engagement

Marianne — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:02:21 +0000

Huiting & Victor, who live in Singapore, got in touch with me nearly a year ago about organising their engagement session in London. The plans changed a couple of times along the way, but there was always talk about Borough Market and the Southbank area, which is where we ended up for most of the session. I know I always talk about the weather like I’m obsessed (well, as an on-location photographer it is something to obsess about, really) but I can’t not mention it on this occasion, since the rain was absolutely torrential on both sides of Huiting & Victor’s session, apart for the time that we were together when the rain miraculously stayed away! I hope it doesn’t mean I chipped in all my good weather karma in one go…

It was fun trawling the streets of London with these two (and Kate Hughes who was in charge of hair and make-up). One of the highlights was when Huiting changed into her beautiful wedding gown and people on the streets went literally a bit loopy. It was amusing watching people crane their necks trying to get a glimpse of a beautiful bride in the middle of London rush hour!

Sarah & Will | Engagement

Marianne — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:35:25 +0000

There was a very narrow window of opportunity for us to make Sarah & Will’s engagement session happen, since Will was only going to be in London for a few days, and it would be the last time he came over before Sarah moves to the US in the Autumn to live with him. And of course on that one day that we could make work, it rained and rained aaall day long. But it turned out not to be such a bad thing. At one stage, when the rain got torrential, we retreated into Sarah’s flat and had some fun jumping on the bed. I’ve always wanted to shoot inside someone’s home so it was actually a lot of fun!

I think the fact that Sarah, who’s a designer for Cath Kidston, always tends to draw girls with umbrellas was an omen. Or as it turned out, a sign of fun times with umbrellas to come!

P.S. how cute is the picture of Sarah & Will together when they were little and used to be family friends? Just, awww…

Emily & James | Engagement

Marianne — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:13:57 +0000

Meet Emily & James. They are getting married in a couple of days in Florence. Personally, I’m about to burst with excitement! I absolutely love Italy and used to go there every year, back in the days when the concept of a ‘summer holiday’ was still viable. I got proposed to in Venice and went to Rome for my honeymoon (which is actually the last time I’ve been to Italy). It’s been years since I’ve last been to Florence, and I am over the moon to be travelling there now, especially for such a joyous occasion as Emily & James’ wedding.

We had such a fun engagement session in Southwark, and I cannot wait for Saturday, it will be epic! I hope these two will attract the light in the same magical way over there than they did in London.

It will be a bit quieter here for the next few weeks as I have two weddings to travel to. I will pop back in between and hopefully finish off some weddings that I didn’t quite manage to process yet, so stay tuned. But for now, arrivederci!

Rachael & Daniel | Engagement

Marianne — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:35:55 +0000

Everything’s a bit upside down, as I’m getting ready to travel to two destination weddings and trying to finish off as many sessions as I can before I go away. Hence I’m blogging Rachael & Daniel’s engagement session first, even though technically I’ve shot it last… but yeah, there’s logic in there somewhere I promise!

What made Rachael & Dan’s session especially remarkable, was the fact that while taking pictures up in the gorgeous Kensington Roof Gardens, a plastic flamingo shaped garden ornament suddenly jumped up and ran away! I mean, oh my god, I had no idea there were actual flamingoes living it up on a roof top in London! How crazy is that??

In other news, Rachael & Dan are ridiculously cute, wouldn’t you agree?