St Stephen's Trust Wedding

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Steph & Dion

A Wedding at St Stephen’s Trust, London

In the heart of London, amidst the quiet elegance of St Stephen's Trust on Rosslyn Hill, Steph and Dion embarked on their journey of marriage. The iconic venue, with its historic charm, set the stage for a day that blended classic sophistication with romance.

Built in the 1860’s, and now Grade I Listed, St Stephen’s Trust has a unique architecture - with a steep roof, a huge square tower and some very intricate and detailed stonework. The interior features unusual and striking brickwork designs, utilising different colours to create mosaic-like patterns in the arches and on the walls. It provided the perfect backdrop for the Steph & Dion to exchange their vows.

St Stephen’s is such a unique venue, it made sense to open the film with some of the b-roll footage I captured of it. Overlayed with the audio from Dion’s speech, thanking the guests for their support and attendance, made for an understated yet heartwarming beginning to the film - particularly as the couple had had to reschedule a number of times due to the pandemic.

Morning Preparations

Steph & Dion got ready in the morning separately, and I chose to spend the morning with Steph. She got ready at a local hotel with her mum and her bridesmaids. Hotel rooms can sometimes be tricky places to film in - a mixture of different light sources can lead to weird colours in the footage, but luckily a floor to ceiling window allowed us to turn off the lights and rely on the lovely natural windon light instead. This always makes for better looking footage, so it’s something i’ll often do during the morning preparations. To maximise the emotional impact of this section of the film, I used some of Steph’s dad’s speech from later in the evening. Anytime a father of the bride begins talking about his daughter during a speech, I can usually pick out some excellent bits to include over the prep footage, and this was no exception.

The Ceremony

The ceremony for this St Stevens Trust Wedding was an emotional affair - no sooner had Steph begun to walk down the aisle than her soon-to-be husband was in tears of joy. Luckily Dion composed himself enough to be able to exchange the vows, folllowed by rapturous applause from the guests. It’s evident from the footage I captured of the aisle walk and confetti how excited Steph & Dion were to finally get married and commit themselves to one another in front of their friends and family.

For the couple’s portrait session, we chose to have a little wander around the local streets and lanes. Not necessarily a traditional spot for wedding portraits, but Steph & Dion were so joyous and so clearly besotted with one another it was impossible not to get great footage. Some sweet, heartfelt words from the best man’s speech, talking about how great of a couple Steph & Dion are, made the perfect narrative audio accompaniment.

The reception

For the reception of this St Steven’s Trust Wedding, Steph, Dion and their guests made their way to the Marriott Hotel at Regents Park, a stunning hotel not far away. It is still a bit of a rarity for a bride to do a speech at a wedding, but thankfully Steph decided to buck tradition and deliver one. From a videography perspective this is great, as it provides me with the opportunity to include narrative audio from the bride, giving the film a little more balance and making it that much more personal. It was clear that her heartfelt words about her new husband needed to be included. I followed up this section of the film with footage of the coupes first dance, leading into the party footage, including an impromptu conga-line and some clups of Dion rocking out on stage with his guitar.