St Luke's sits back off Sydney Street behind one of the best stretches of green in Chelsea, and the walk out of the church gives you a couple of minutes before the confetti and the group shots begin. That gap is usually where the best portrait of the day is.I work from the guests' perspective rather than directing, so pictures like this one come from staying close and staying quiet. Nobody was posed, and nobody was asked to hold it.

A few quiet minutes away from the guests on the steps of St Luke's, hands still held.

St Luke's

Old Marylebone Town Hall is the most photographed register office in London and I have worked in every room in it. The Soho Room, the Paddington Room, the Westminster Room: each one has its own light and its own rhythm, and knowing them in advance is most of the job.Ceremonies here run to time, which means the photography has to as well. I stay out of the registrar's way and let the room do what it does.

The bride laughing out loud beside the wooden fireplace, moments after the ceremony.

Marylebone

Hampton Court House is a Georgian house on the edge of Bushy Park with grounds that reward an unhurried hour. When a couple has that hour, I take them out and then leave them largely alone.The pictures I like best from this venue are the ones where the day has slowed down and the two of them have stopped performing for anybody.

A kiss in the garden seating area, the groom still sitting, the afternoon going nowhere.

Hampton Court

Castell Coch stands in the trees above Tongwynlais, a few minutes north of Cardiff, and it is one of the most distinctive places in South Wales to get married. The stonework and the covered walkways give you strong, directional light without much effort.I shoot in colour and in black and white through the day. Some frames are simply better without it, and this was one of them.

Leaving the castle hand in hand, bouquet of dried flowers, the whole thing in black and white.

Castell Coch

Pembroke Lodge sits high in Richmond Park with a view down the Thames valley, and the walk between the house and the gardens is where most of my favourite pictures from this venue happen.Guests scatter, the couple gets a drink into their hands, and for five minutes nobody needs anything from them. That is the moment I wait for.

Walking away from the reception with a glass each, Richmond Park stretching out behind.

Pembroke Lodge

Stoke Newington Town Hall is an art deco building with a ceremony room that photographs beautifully in daylight. Register offices set their own rules about where a photographer can stand, and I agree them with the registrar before anybody sits down.The exchange of rings lasts a few seconds. There is no second take, so the position has to be right before it starts.

The ring going on, photographed from behind the registrar's shoulder without a word.

Stoke Newington

Asia House occupies a Grade II listed townhouse on New Cavendish Street, and its rooms are smaller and more intimate than most London wedding venues. That suits the way I work, because there is nowhere to hide and no need for long lenses.A small room means the reaction of every guest is in the frame with the couple, which is usually the better picture anyway.

The first kiss as a married couple, in a Georgian townhouse just off Marylebone High Street.

Asia House

Morden Park House is a Georgian villa used by Merton for civil ceremonies, with lawns wide enough for a group photograph that does not feel like a queue.Plenty of the couples I photograph are marrying with their children already there beside them. Those pictures matter more than the formal line-ups, so I make sure there is time for them.

Newly married, with their children, on the steps of the house at Morden Park.

Morden Park

Porchester Hall in Bayswater is a grand art deco room that takes a large wedding without feeling crowded. The ceiling height means available light falls a long way before it reaches anybody, so the exposure has to be judged carefully rather than fixed once.I do not use flash during a ceremony. It changes the room, and everybody notices it.

The exchange of rings under the hall's high ceiling, guests just out of focus behind.

Porchester Hall

St Martin's is the parish church in Caerphilly and I have photographed a good number of weddings there. Church ceremonies have their own etiquette about where a photographer may stand, and I always agree it with the vicar first.The pause at the door, just before the doors open, is one of the few genuinely nervous moments of the day. It is also one of the most honest.

A bride and her father at the church door, a second before they walk in together.

St Martin's

I cover Bristol regularly, including the Register Office at the Old Council House on College Green, which sits right in front of the cathedral and gives you the whole city as a backdrop.Reportage means most of the day is spent watching rather than arranging. Frames like this one are the reason for it.

The bride caught mid-laugh with an old friend, somewhere between the ceremony and the drinks.

Bristol

Cardiff City Hall is the civic heart of the city and one of the grandest register office settings in Wales, with Portland stone and a set of steps made for confetti.The minutes straight after a ceremony are chaotic and completely unrepeatable. I stay in among it rather than setting up somewhere and waiting.

A sister leans in to kiss the bride after the ceremony at City Hall.

Cardiff

Pencoed House Estate sits in its own grounds west of Cardiff, and the old barn is where most of the evening happens. Details like the cake, the flowers and the table settings are worth ten minutes early, before anybody has moved anything.Couples spend months on these decisions. Photographing them properly is part of the job, not an afterthought.

Three tiers on a barrel in the old barn, waiting for the room to fill up.

Pencoed House

An engagement shoot is the easiest way to get comfortable in front of a camera before the wedding itself, and it costs nothing but an hour of a weekend.By the end of it most couples have forgotten I am there, which is precisely the point. On the wedding day that hour pays for itself.

An engagement shoot in London, both of them laughing at something off camera.