I've lost count of how many weddings I've photographed at Hackney Town Hall, and yet I still turn up early every single time just to stand outside for a minute and take it in. There's something about that big Art Deco front on Mare Street, all clean lines and quiet confidence, that sets the mood before anyone has even arrived.

If you're at the stage where you've heard the name, maybe seen a few photos, and you're trying to picture what an actual day here feels like, this is for you. I'm going to walk you through it the way it usually unfolds, from the first arrivals on the forecourt right through to the portraits afterwards. Not the brochure version. The real one.

Arriving at Hackney Town Hall

The first thing most people notice is that Hackney Town Hall manages to feel grand without being stuffy. It's a Grade II listed building from the 1930s, and after a big multi-million-pound refurbishment a few years back it's in beautiful shape, but it has never lost that sense of belonging to the people of Hackney. It's still a working town hall, and somehow that keeps it warm rather than intimidating.

That matters more than you'd think on a wedding morning. Nobody wants to walk into a cold, formal space when they're already a bundle of nerves. Here you walk into somewhere that feels alive and welcoming, and I think it settles people.

There's a generous paved area out front, set well back from the road, which is handy. Arrivals don't turn into a scramble against passing buses. Guests can gather, hug, find their people and work out where they're going. I tend to hang back during these first few minutes and let it all happen naturally, because some of my favourite frames of the whole day come before anyone thinks the photography has started. A grandmother spotting an old friend, the groom checking his watch for the fifth time, a flower girl already covered in something sticky. That's the good stuff.

Hackney Town Hall's ceremony rooms

This is where Hackney earns its reputation, and it's the bit most couples don't fully understand until they look closely. There isn't one ceremony room here, there are several, and they each have a completely different personality. The room you choose shapes the entire feel of your day, so it's worth getting your head around them.

The Council Chamber is the one a lot of people imagine when they think town hall wedding. It has the original oak panelling and the seating is arranged in a semi-circle, so nobody ends up stuck at the back. It holds up to around 149 once you count the balcony, but thanks to that horseshoe layout it never feels cavernous, even with a smaller group. There's a real sense of occasion to walking in.

The Committee Room is probably the most photogenic of the lot. It's a long, wood-panelled room with a parquet floor and gorgeous original light fittings, holding up to 100. Ceremonies here tend to run on the hour, and you'll usually get access about fifteen minutes before yours starts. Worth knowing that rhythm in advance so the timing doesn't catch you out on the day.

Then there are the North and South Atria, and these are the spaces that always make me grin. Each one is basically an old courtyard that's been enclosed under a state-of-the-art glass roof. The result is lovely and a bit unexpected: brick walls either side of you, light pouring down from above, and that strange brilliant feeling of being both inside and outside at the same time. For photography it's a dream, because the light stays flattering whatever the weather is doing, which in London is no small promise. They hold up to around 200.

And for the smallest, most pared-back gatherings, the Lanchester Suite is a smart, relaxed room with blue walls, run by the council rather than the events team, seating a small group of around 26. It's the one couples planning something quiet and personal tend to gravitate towards.

My honest advice when you're choosing: think about how many people you're having and what you want the room to feel like, then let that guide you rather than just picking the biggest or the cheapest. A small wedding in the Atria feels completely different to a small wedding in the Lanchester Suite, and neither is wrong. It's about the feeling.

The confetti moment at Hackney Town Hall

If there's one thing I'll always nudge couples towards, it's the steps. Hackney's front steps were practically built for that big, joyful confetti throw.

One practical note worth filing away now, because it does trip people up: the venue asks that confetti is pale-coloured and biodegradable. It sounds a bit fussy written down, but it works in your favour. There's so much room down on the forecourt, well away from the road, that the whole crowd can spread out and let rip without anyone feeling penned in.

This is usually the loudest, most chaotic, best two minutes of the entire day. I tend to shoot it a touch wide so you can see everyone you love in one frame, mid-laugh, with that handsome building rising up behind you. Years later it's often the photo people pick to frame, because it's the one that has all the noise and joy of the day in a single image.

Portraits and the streets around the building

Once the ceremony and the confetti are done, the day opens right up.

Inside, the Art Deco hallways do a lot of the work for me. The marble stairs and those beautiful original light fittings are a portrait location in their own right, and if there's no other wedding running you'll often get a quiet window to use them. I love these interior frames. There's a moody, almost cinematic quality to the light in there that you can't fake.

Step back outside and you're right in the heart of Hackney, which is a gift for the kind of relaxed, slightly urban portraits I love. London Fields and Hackney Central are both moments away, and the streets nearby give you all that effortless East London texture, brick and greenery and the occasional brilliant splash of colour on a shopfront. We don't need to trek miles for portraits that feel of this place rather than generic. That's exactly my sort of thing.

What the day feels like

If I had to sum up a Hackney wedding in a sentence, it's this: it feels personal without feeling small, and special without feeling stiff.

The registrars I've worked with here are lovely, and couples often tell me afterwards that they felt looked after rather than processed. The building gives you the sense of occasion, the people give you the ease, and that combination is rarer than you'd think.

The pace tends to be forgiving too. You're not constantly racing the clock the way you can be at some venues. There's time for the confetti, time for portraits, time to stop and look at each other for a second before you head off to wherever the celebration continues, whether that's a pub up in Stoke Newington, somewhere near London Fields, or out into the rest of the city.

So if you're weighing up whether Hackney is right for you, my honest answer is that it suits couples who want real character and a sense of place, who'd rather their day felt like them than like a template. It's iconic without being precious about it. And after all these years and all those weddings, I still can't quite get over the light in those Atria.

If you'd like to see how all of this looks on a real wedding day, have a wander through my Hackney Town Hall wedding page, where I've gathered images from actual ceremonies across the different rooms.