The Houses of Parliament and the lit clock face of the Elizabeth Tower against a red and violet sunset sky, Westminster Bridge with its lamps and evening walkers in front and the city’s lights reflected in the Thames

Getting married in London

Royal parks and palaces along the Thames: vows in a grand old town hall or a riverside hall, then portraits by the lake in St James’s Park, on the hill at Greenwich or in a garden inside the ruins of a Wren church.

Photographers When to marry here

London grew along the Thames, and most of what couples come for lies close to it: Westminster, with the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey; St James’s Park, whose lake looks up to Buckingham Palace; Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to the west; the City, with St Paul’s and a garden inside the bombed church of St Dunstan-in-the-East; and, downriver, Greenwich, where the Queen’s House and the Old Royal Naval College lie below the hill of the Royal Observatory. Further out the city opens into wilder ground — the long views from Primrose Hill, the meadows and woods of Hampstead Heath, and Richmond Park, where some 600 red and fallow deer have roamed since 1637.

Many couples marry at a register office — some of London’s are grand old town halls, such as Old Marylebone Town Hall or Chelsea Old Town Hall on the King’s Road — or at a venue licensed for weddings, from a hotel to the Painted Hall at Greenwich, and then spend an hour or two on portraits around the city. Others marry legally at home and come here to celebrate with a few guests or simply for the photographs: in England a civil wedding has to take place in a register office or an approved venue, so vows on a hill or by a lake in a park are symbolic.

The lake in St James’s Park on a sunny day, weeping willows and tall trees along its banks, with the front of Buckingham Palace and the gilded Victoria Memorial at the far end and dark red leaves in the foreground

A couple seen from behind, sitting on the dry grass of the hill in Greenwich Park and looking over the lawns to the Queen’s House, the twin domes of the Old Royal Naval College and the towers of Canary Wharf

The two domes of the Old Royal Naval College facing each other across a lawned square under a cloudy sky, a statue on the stone path between them, a few visitors walking and the white Queen’s House beyond

Through the year

When to marry in London

May to September are the easiest months: average highs of about 18 °C in May, 24 °C in July and 20 °C in September at Heathrow, and only about eight days a month with a millimetre of rain or more — London is one of the drier corners of Britain, with about 615 mm a year against some 1,160 for the UK as a whole. They are also the sunniest months, with close to seven hours of sun a day in June and July. The rarer risk now is heat: on 19 July 2022 Heathrow and St James’s Park reached 40.2 °C, so keep shade and water in the plan for a summer day. April and October are cooler, at around 15 to 16 °C, and from November to February the highs are only 8 to 11 °C, with ten or eleven wet days a month and short days.

January: Quieter
February: Quieter
March: Quieter
April: Good with planning
May: Best
June: Best
July: Best
August: Best
September: Best
October: Good with planning
November: Quieter
December: Quieter

SpringThe parks turn green and fill with blossom, and the azaleas of the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park come into flower. Days are fresh — about 15 °C in April and 18 °C in May — and lengthen fast: the clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March, and by mid-May the sun sets at a quarter to nine. May is one of the sunniest months of the year.
SummerMild on most days, with long evenings: from late May to late July the sun sets after nine, and around midsummer the sky never grows fully dark. It is also the busiest season — the summer concerts in Hyde Park begin in late June — and a royal park lets only two wedding groups shoot at a time, so book early and keep a quieter second spot in mind. A heatwave can push the city far above its averages: plan shade, water and the portraits for the evening.
Autumn and winterSeptember is often settled and still warm, around 20 °C, with a softer, lower light; in October the parks turn gold and the showers come back. From September to November the red deer rut in Richmond and Bushy Parks — watch from at least 50 metres, and 100 when the stags are active. At midwinter the sun is up only from about eight until just before four, and dusk falls soon after half past four: a winter wedding means a short day, portraits around noon and the city’s lights after dark.

In numbers

Hottest month, average high: July · 23.9°C; Met Office
Average high in the best months: May 18.4°C · Jun 21.6°C · Jul 23.9°C · Aug 23.4°C · Sep 20.2°C; Met Office
Days with 1 mm of rain or more, best months: May 8 · Jun 8.3 · Jul 7.9 · Aug 8.4 · Sep 7.9; Met Office
Sunset on 21 June: 21:22 (London); NOAA
UNESCO World Heritage: Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey including Saint Margaret’s Church (1987)
Maritime Greenwich (1997)

Weather station: Heathrow, normals 1991–2020 · Checked 26 October 2026

Places

Where couples marry here

The kinds of places — ask your photographer which ones they know well.

Town halls and licensed venues
Some of London’s register offices are grand old town halls: Old Marylebone Town Hall, Westminster’s, with seven ceremony rooms, and Chelsea Old Town Hall on the King’s Road. Hotels, historic halls and riverside venues licensed for weddings — the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College among them — hold both the ceremony and the dinner, and since 2022 a civil ceremony may also take place outdoors in the grounds of an approved venue.
The royal parks
St James’s Park, with its lake and the view of Buckingham Palace; Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens; Regent’s Park and the view over the city from Primrose Hill; Greenwich Park; and Richmond Park, a National Nature Reserve, with its deer and the view from King Henry’s Mound to St Paul’s. Wedding and engagement photographs in any royal park need the park’s paid permit: one hour, up to ten people, applied for at least ten days ahead with the photographer’s liability insurance. No confetti, no drones, and keep at least 50 metres from the deer.
Greenwich
Downriver lies Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage site: from the hill by the Royal Observatory the view runs over the Queen’s House and the twin domes of the Old Royal Naval College to the towers of Canary Wharf. The college hires out its grounds and the Painted Hall for wedding and engagement photographs; every shoot is booked ahead, and the photographer agrees to its site rules.
The City and Hampstead Heath
In the City, the garden inside St Dunstan-in-the-East — a church wrecked in the Blitz of 1941, whose Wren tower survived — needs a City Gardens licence for a wedding or portrait session, and St Paul’s allows wedding photographs on its land only to couples who marry there. To the north, Hampstead Heath has wide views over the city and surprisingly rural corners; its Hill Garden and Pergola can be booked for two-hour sessions on weekdays, any other spot needs a licence that can take 14 working days to come, and drones are not allowed.

Light

How the light falls

At midsummer the sun rises over London at about a quarter to five and sets at about twenty past nine, out in the north-west, and the sky stays light until after ten; at eight in the evening the sun is still some ten degrees up — the warm, low light most couples choose for portraits. At midwinter it is up only from about five past eight until just before four, never more than 15 degrees above the horizon, and the earliest sunsets, in mid-December, come at ten to four. Grey skies are common, and their soft, even light suits the pale stone of the city; June and July average about seven hours of sun a day, December fewer than two. The best-known views are calmest at sunrise, before the city fills up.

Travel

Getting there

Heathrow is some 25 km west of the centre — 15 minutes to Paddington on the Heathrow Express — and Gatwick, to the south, has non-stop trains to Victoria in about half an hour; Eurostar trains from Paris reach St Pancras in about two and a quarter hours. Visitors from Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and some other countries need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) before they travel. Inside the city the Underground and walking beat the car: Greenwich is about 12 km east of Trafalgar Square and Richmond Park about 17 km south-west. Drones of 100 g or more need a CAA Flyer ID, plus an Operator ID from 250 g or with a camera; larger ones must keep 150 m from homes, shops and parks, none may fly over crowds or inside an airport’s restriction zone without its permission, and the royal parks and Hampstead Heath don’t allow them. Check the Met Office’s warnings before a day outdoors.

Photographers