Planning a Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding?
Who am I and why have I chosen to write a guide to planning a Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding? I’m Marianne Chua, a fun colourful documentary wedding photographer in London. One of the weddings I’ve photographed there (Lam and Paul) is featured on the official website. I am a fairly local photographer to Trinity Buoy Wharf, I live 30 minutes drive away.
I am writing this guide after a couple who enquired with me said they read many of my blog posts and chose to book TBW as their wedding venue. It occurred to me I have lots of insider tips and advice I can give and it was worth bringing it altogether in one post! It’s easy to look at photos online but it’s hard to get a true sense of the venue and how the day works until you’ve been there in person. I hope this guide helps you decide if this is the cool London wedding venue for you!
What and where is Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding venue
Let’s start with the essentials! Trinity Buoy Wharf is a large warehouse style wedding venue in East London. It is situated right on the River Thames, within an artistic industrial estate. When I say estate it’s got shipping container businesses, private flats and a parkour gym! Technically the whole area is called Trinity Buoy Wharf, and the actual warehouse building you use for the wedding is called the Chain and Buoy Store. However everyone does just refer to the wedding venue as Trinity Buoy Wharf. You can also hire the Electricians shop building for getting ready in between.
Why choose Trinity Buoy Wharf for your London wedding
Here are some of the great reasons to choose Trinity Buoy Wharf as a wedding venue:
- It’s a huge blank space that you can transform into anything you like! You bring in your own catering and can adjust the layout to whatever suits you.
- It has both parking and is TFL public transport accessible. It also it all on one level so it’s disability/elderly friendly.
- The venue is large enough for everyone to stay indoors on rainy days, ideal for stress free English weather weddings.
- There are endless great group and couple photo op locations all around with barely any need to walk far.
- The size both in floor space and ceiling height makes it great for a diverse range of cultural weddings, they can accommodate all the crazy dancing or ceremony rituals you might need! I’ve written a fuller list of similar vast London venues that can hold Jewish and Indian weddings.
- You can opt for a boat ride on the Thames, a really unique feature of this riverside wedding venue.
What you can expect from a Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding
Each Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding comes with dedicated venue staff that are very experienced in making your day go smoothly. As I previously stated you can hire nearby buildings for your getting ready, but if you don’t want that there are plenty of hotels nearby. Just search for Canary Wharf weddings, the Radisson Blu is very nice but if you want cheaper accommodation for your guests there’s also the trusty Premier Inn.
Trinity Buoy Wharf ceremony set up
You can choose different ceremony set up options. Either having the focal point at one end by the window, or to get married by the large main barn doors. Your choice should depend on the guest number and weather. Standing by the open barn doors can give you the closest experience to an “outdoor” ceremony. At the time of writing, in England you still need to stand under a licensed venue/structure to legally get married. So Trinity Buoy Wharf is licensed for marriage ceremonies but the barn doors being so huge and open means it feels the same as standing outdoors. As a photographer my only gripes with the barn door ceremony is that on a super sunny day your guests are squinting into the light a bit. You can also get hard shadows amongst the ceremony but sometimes that can make some epic creative photos.
Entertaining guests during the drinks reception
You have the option to either have drinks outside or take all the guests for a reception hour on a Thames boat ride. I feel like if you’re planning a Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding then the boat ride is a lovely unique aspect of booking a wedding here. There is a very tight time window to get on and off the boat as it is allowed to dock and load/unload only. So just be aware that having a boat ride can impact the flexibility you have in the timeline of the day. The outdoor space is also large enough to have games, or even a whole bouncy castle!
Where do you do group photos at Trinity Buoy Wharf
Trinity Buoy Wharf weddings have plenty of spaces to do group photos. You can use the bold coloured shipping containers, the Millennium Dome/Thames or any of the brick walls as backdrop. It’s great because there’s something for all tastes and for any time of the day for the best light! There’s backdrops facing all points of the compass so you can really utilise what you need!
Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding photography
Trinity Buoy Wharf has so many possible couple photo locations. They vary from industrial backdrops to epic scenery. The only thing this venue is missing is a little greenery, it’s definitely more of an industrial style wedding venue. The lighthouse is a main attraction of this venue. The actual interior of the lighthouse produces great photos, as does the view from it over the Thames. On the Trinity Buoy Wharf site there’s bold colour shipping containers, a retro diner, Interesting sculptures and more.
My top tips for planning a Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding
- Hire a decent venue decorator and florist. TBW can really be transformed but it’s such a vast space you need some epic floristry so it looks relative to the space.
- Allow decent time for your couple photos. This will help get the best out of the venue. Ideally I cut the portraits into three short sharp sessions, so you don’t feel removed from your wedding but you get the variety in light. TBW is a great venue for night time photos as it has gorgeous lights across the river.
- Take the boat, it’s such a unique feature of this London wedding venue it’s genuinely worth it and makes a memorable wedding day.
A bouncy Trinity Buoy Wharf wedding in London!If you’d like to see an example of a fusion wedding at Trinity Buoy Wharf or a cool wedding with a bouncy castle then check out my past work
