The Paddington Room
L and D chose Old Marylebone Town Hall for their autumn London elopement venue. They invited just three guests so the Paddington Room was the ideal ceremony room for the five of them. It is one of Westminster’s two smaller ceremony rooms and the wood panelling gives it an elegant, Hollywood vibe. It has bags of style and is perfect for private, low-key ceremonies.
The mirror-image Marylebone Room has a sofa and 10 chairs, while the Paddington Room has just 2 low chairs and 3 pouffes which allows a lot of room to move around. My favourite thing about this room is that guests can sit or stand wherever they like. Out of all the hundreds of smaller venues that I have visited this room trumps the lot. If you are concerned about coronavirus and social distancing the lack of furniture is ideal.
L and D married on a Wednesday in November which meant that they practically had the building to themselves. And because Westminster handle births and deaths in their separate Harrow Road headquarters you don’t bump into loads of other people. Often couples marry here and have a much bigger wedding weeks or months later, often abroad. I have a feeling that smaller ‘elopement’ or ‘micro’ weddings (2 to 20 people) will be very popular until the end of 2021, and from 2022 larger ceremonies will start up again.
If you are looking for a stunning small wedding venue for up to 15 guests in central London you can’t go wrong with the Paddington Room.
Arrivals and Ceremony
L arrived wearing a full-length tiered black dress with sheer floral sequinned embroidery. And then D in his blue suit and pale blue, silver tie and red rose buttonhole. L’s red nails matched her red rose bouquet perfectly. They did a surprise ‘first look’ in the Mayfair Room and then walked in together to a round of applause from everyone, including Registrar Liz.
The ceremony was handled by Registrar Mark and there were plenty of laughs and smiles throughout. Their three friends delivered the rings and witnessed the signing of the register.
As everyone made their way outside, I took a few photographs of L and D on the second-floor corridor outside the Paddington Room. And then everyone went mad with confetti on the steps outside. Since there were only three guests, they waited for 15 minutes while I took some photos of the two of them outside the building. We ended with a team photo next to one of the famous Old Marylebone Town Hall lions.
London elopement venue details
Ceremony venue – Paddington Room, Old Marylebone Town Hall
