An Intimate St Dunstan in the East Elopement in London

There is something so special about a wedding that strips everything back to what actually matters.

Clare and Ron travelled over from the US for their intimate London elopement at St Dunstan in the East Church Garden, tucked away amongst the buildings of the City of London.

They had actually legally married before coming to London, which meant their St Dunstan ceremony could be completely about them. No huge guest list. No enormous wedding timeline. No pressure to do things simply because tradition says you should.

Just Clare, Ron, a couple of their closest people, their vows and one of the most ridiculously beautiful little corners of London.

And honestly? I bloody love weddings like this.

From Bumble to a London Elopement

Clare and Ron met on Bumble on 7 July 2023, and their story eventually took them all the way to a Christmas market in Vienna, where they got engaged in 2024.

So choosing to come back to Europe for their wedding celebrations felt pretty fitting.

Rather than planning a traditional large wedding back home in the US, they chose something much more intimate in London. Their plans centred around a simple symbolic ceremony and exchanging vows at St Dunstan in the East, surrounded by just a tiny handful of the people closest to them.

There is something lovely about choosing a wedding based around the experience you actually want rather than automatically following the usual wedding formula.

And London is SO good for that.

Why Choose St Dunstan in the East for an Elopement?

If you have been searching for London elopement locations, there is a very good chance you have already stumbled across St Dunstan in the East.

It doesn’t really feel like it should exist where it does.

One minute you’re surrounded by the buildings, traffic and general chaos of the City of London, and then you walk into the ruins of an old church filled with greenery, stone arches, open windows and ivy.

It feels somewhere between a secret garden and an abandoned church.

Basically, an absolute dream to photograph.

St Dunstan in the East dates back to around 1100 and was badly damaged during both the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the Blitz in 1941. Rather than rebuilding it after the Second World War, the ruins were eventually transformed into the public garden you see today.

The result is one of the most distinctive places for wedding and elopement photography in the City of London.

You get the history and architecture of old London, but because the church is now open to the sky and filled with plants and trees, it doesn’t feel dark or imposing.

For photography, that combination is BEAUTIFUL.

A Small London Wedding That Actually Felt Like Them

Clare and Ron’s plans were deliberately simple.

Their ceremony was intimate, with just a couple of guests joining them as they exchanged their vows.

With only two hours of photography coverage, there wasn’t a massive list of formalities to squeeze into the morning either. It meant we could concentrate on documenting what was actually happening and then create some beautiful portraits around St Dunstan afterwards.

That is one of the reasons I love photographing London elopements and micro weddings.

A shorter wedding doesn’t mean the photographs have to feel like a smaller version of a “proper” wedding.

It can actually give you so much freedom.

You can spend your morning slowly getting ready. You can exchange vows somewhere meaningful. You can wander through London afterwards. You can have incredible portraits without disappearing from 100 guests for an hour.

Your wedding is allowed to be tiny and still feel bloody important.

Documentary Wedding Photography Meets Editorial Portraits

One of the things Clare and Ron spoke to me about before the wedding was wanting a mixture of documentary wedding photography and editorial portraits.

Which is pretty much my favourite combination.

For the majority of a wedding, I want you to be able to actually experience it.

I’m looking for the glances, nerves, laughter, hands reaching for one another and all of those tiny things that would disappear if nobody was there to photograph them.

Then, when it comes to portraits, I can step in a little more.

Clare is a photographer herself, so one of the things she wanted from me was the ability to completely switch that part of her brain off. She didn’t want to spend her wedding thinking about where the light was coming from or whether they were standing in the “right” place.

That’s my job.

The result is wedding photography that still feels natural and recognisably you, but with a little more intention when we need it.

And somewhere like St Dunstan in the East gives us SO much to work with.

The stone, huge window openings, archways, greenery and surrounding London streets can take an image from romantic and soft to something much more editorial within a few metres.

Photographing Different Skin Tones at a London Wedding

Another really important part of Clare and Ron’s search for a wedding photographer was finding someone who understood how to photograph different skin tones accurately.

For interracial nearlyweds, particularly when one partner has darker skin and the other has lighter skin, this is something that should be considered throughout the entire photographic process.

Not just in editing.

Lighting, exposure, location and editing all play a part.

You shouldn’t have to choose between preserving detail in one person’s skin and properly exposing the other. And darker skin isn’t inherently “difficult” to photograph.

It just needs to be understood.

As a Black wedding photographer, accurate skin tones are something that sit at the heart of the way I photograph and edit weddings. I want the people in front of my camera to actually recognise themselves in the finished photographs.

Especially when I’m photographing interracial and multicultural weddings where there can be a huge range of skin tones within one family or wedding party.

Camcorder Wedding Content for a Little Bit of Nostalgia

Alongside their wedding photography, Clare and Ron added our content video and camcorder coverage.

And this was SUCH a good fit for their day.

There is something about camcorder footage that immediately feels like a memory.

It’s imperfect in the best possible way.

Alongside the polished photographs and films, those little snippets of movement, voices and completely ordinary moments create something that feels much closer to looking back through an old family video.

For an intimate elopement especially, it means the day isn’t only documented through still photographs.

You get the movement. The atmosphere. The tiny bits in between.

All the stuff you forget happened until you see it again.

Can You Have a Wedding at St Dunstan in the East?

If you’re currently planning a St Dunstan in the East wedding or elopement, there are a few practical things worth knowing.

St Dunstan in the East Church Garden is managed by the City of London, and professional wedding photography at the garden requires permission.

So this isn’t really somewhere I’d recommend simply turning up on your wedding morning with a professional photographer and hoping for the best.

You’ll want to organise the appropriate permission with the City of London beforehand.

It’s also worth remembering that St Dunstan is a public garden. Unless you’ve arranged otherwise with the City, there may be other people around, which is another reason timing can make a big difference.

But if you’re dreaming of an intimate London wedding surrounded by old architecture and greenery without leaving the middle of the city, it is SUCH a beautiful option.

Planning an Elopement at St Dunstan in the East

One of the biggest benefits of choosing St Dunstan for your wedding photographs is its location.

You’re right in the City of London, with Monument and Tower Hill amongst the nearest Underground stations, so you can build the rest of your London elopement around it rather than spending half your wedding day travelling across the city.

For me, the magic of a London elopement is exactly that.

You don’t necessarily need one venue to do everything.

London itself can become part of your wedding.

Your ceremony can happen in one place, your portraits somewhere completely different, and then you can disappear off for an incredible meal afterwards.

It gives you permission to create something that feels much more like a day out in your favourite city than a traditional wedding production.

Looking for a St Dunstan in the East Wedding Photographer?

If you’re planning a St Dunstan in the East elopement, intimate London wedding or micro wedding and you’re looking for photography that feels documentary, editorial and actually representative of you, I’d love to hear what you’re planning.

I photograph weddings across London and the UK, with a particular love for multicultural, interracial, Black and LGBTQ+ weddings.

My approach is relaxed for most of the day, allowing things to unfold naturally, while still giving you direction when you need it so you don’t have to magically know what to do with your hands the second a camera appears.

Because nobody needs that pressure.

Whether you’re planning two hours wandering around London after exchanging your vows or bringing everyone you love over for a huge multicultural celebration, the goal is the same:

Photographs that look bloody beautiful, but still feel like you.

Planning a St Dunstan in the East wedding or London elopement? Get in touch to tell us what you’re dreaming up.