Old City Hall Wedding Photography: Ceremony, Portraits, Dinner
AURA PHOTO
For us, Old City Hall wedding photography begins with the room: dark wood panelling, a wooden railing, tall windows, and a register waiting on a table. Toronto performs its civil ceremonies in the former Council Chamber, and minutes north of it, Maison Selby keeps a table for dinner afterwards. Our interest is in how the hours between those two rooms unfold, from the quiet before the ceremony to the moment everyone finally sits down. A modern wedding in this city can be a short one, and we want the photographs to bring you back to being there.
The Ceremony Inside the Council Chamber
Toronto performs its civil ceremonies at Old City Hall, in the former Council Chamber of the 1899 building. The room sets the mood before anything else does: dark wood panelling, a wooden railing, tall windows, and a register on a table. The ceremony is short, formal and quiet, and nothing in the room can be moved or added.
That is the appeal for a couple who wants a wedding that is legal, small and finished within the hour. We photograph it from the side of the room, out of the sightline between the couple and the people who came to watch, and stay close for the signing at the same table. Few rooms in the city keep the light, the wood and the paperwork within a few feet of each other, and the photographs come out of that. If you are building the rest of the day around a ceremony like this, our notes on how a wedding day timeline comes together are a place to start.
Portraits Around Old City Hall
Between the ceremony and dinner there is usually a stretch of the day with nothing scheduled in it. Walking is the simplest way to use it: portraits made as the two of them move through the blocks around Old City Hall, with the city doing most of the work behind them.
This is the part of the day that reads as a modern Toronto wedding most clearly. The stone of the old building on one side, the glass towers on the other, and traffic that never stops for a photograph. We walk, they talk, and the pictures happen in between.
It is also the only part of a short wedding day with enough room in it to gather the people who came with them, so portraits with family and friends usually happen here. When the walking is done, the restaurant is a few minutes north, and its door closes the last of the daylight. You can see how this looks in photographs from other Toronto weddings.
Dinner at Maison Selby
Dinner is at Maison Selby, an old house on Sherbourne Street that is a French bistro and bar now. The mood changes at the door: low light, warm lamps, a private dining room if you want one, and a bar downstairs for afterwards. For a small wedding dinner in Toronto, that is most of what a room needs to give you.
Photographs at a table are slower. Hands, glasses, someone mid-sentence, a room filling and settling. Nothing is arranged for the camera and there is no schedule left to keep, so we stay close to the table, let the evening run, and make the last photographs of the day from across it. It is the same approach we take to documentary wedding photography elsewhere in the day.
Aura Photo's Approach to Old City Hall Wedding Photography
Aura Photo photographs weddings in Toronto and the GTA with a candid, editorial and documentary approach. A day that runs from a civil ceremony to a dinner table, without the parts that do not suit the couple, is a wedding of its own kind, and we photograph it on its own terms.
Old City Hall weddings are civil ceremonies held in the former Council Chamber at 60 Queen Street West. The City of Toronto performs them by appointment on select Thursdays, and couples book by writing to marriage@toronto.ca. Ontario requires a marriage licence, and current fees and rules are best confirmed with the City.
You can see recent work in our portfolio, or get in touch and tell us what your day looks like.
