London baby! I'm terribly sorry, but I have this compulsion to say that every time London comes to mind. I blame Friends. People who know the show will get the reference. But even before Friends descended upon London, I had the joy to visit this beautiful and vibrant city two times. I was an early adolescent in the 90's and at that time I never would have thought that I'd end up as a wedding photographer. I did already love taking photographs at that time, but then again: Who didn't? Me and my parents did one if these slightly cheesy double decker bus tours, but also we went to see the Miss Saigon musical. Until this day that was a very memorable experience.
Fast forward to 2019, roughly 20-25 years later. London still has a very special place in my life, despite for a very different reason. Since meeting my life partner and partner in crime Carine, I've visited the UK capitol regularly. It's always a pleasure to be there, because London is very much alive. Howver, this time my visit had a different purpose. Other than the fact that Carina shares almost the same first name as 'my' Carine, there's another resemblance with my own personal life. René is from the Netherlands and Carina lives in London. I get to shoot their wedding in the Netherlands next month, but before that, they wanted to do a nice engagement session in London. Not a problem! So I packed my bags, drove my car to Brussels, got on the Eurostar and a mere few hours later I arrived at St. Pancras International. Two days later I met Carina and René for the shoot. We picked up three locations that were very much London without being overly touristic. The shoot started at the South Back area, after which we visited Little Venice and Richmond Park. A beautiful and diverse set of locations. We spent an amazing, sunny afternoon together, with the following photo series as a result: