Tatiana & William’s St Paul’s Cathedral Couple Shoot

Some evenings London simply shows off. Tatiana and William met us in the City on a warm evening, her in fluid ivory silk with a hand-tied posy, him all in black, and we walked one of our favourite routes in the capital: from a ruined church garden, through the quiet lanes of the Square Mile, along the river, and up to the steps of St Paul's Cathedral as the light turned gold.

A garden inside a ruin

We started at St Dunstan in the East, the bombed-out church the City never rebuilt and instead let the trees take. Gothic arches wrapped in ivy, a palm rising where the nave used to be, and hardly another soul in the evening hour. It photographs like a secret. From there the route runs through cobbled lanes and past grand stone doorways to the Thames, where the low sun did what it does to silk.

The cathedral at golden hour

Then the main event. There is a moment crossing the road towards St Paul's when the whole dome fills the street, and it stops people mid-step every time. We caught it, then the red telephone boxes in the churchyard, and then the west front itself: the great oak doors, the columns, and that chequerboard floor, which in the evening you can often have almost to yourselves. We finished in the Festival Gardens as the light went blue behind the dome.

Planning a couple shoot in the City

Evenings are the trick. The Square Mile empties after work, the light comes in low and warm, and places that are shoulder to shoulder at noon fall quiet. An evening session comfortably covers St Dunstan, the river and the cathedral on foot. We have broken the whole walk down spot by spot in our St Paul's couple shoot locations guide, with a dedicated guide to St Dunstan in the East for the garden that opens it. If you are planning your own, our London engagement shoot guide covers timing and locations, there is a guide to pre-wedding shoots for how these sessions work before a wedding, and Prachi and Rohit's Westminster session shows the same golden hour on the other side of town. We would love to walk this route with you.