Wedding Photographer in Canterbury
A wedding photographer who lets the day breathe in Canterbury, for church, civil and fusion celebrations of every kind, with fine-art albums and prints ready when you are.
★★★★★ Rated 4.8 from 580+ reviews
Wedding photography from £750
Bespoke packages · fast response · free consultation
The short answer
Your wedding photographer in Canterbury, at a glance
Kaushik Bathia, a Fellow of the BIPP and the MPA with 25+ years of wedding photography, works from Northwood in north west London and travels to Canterbury and across Kent. Rather than directing every scene, we would let the day unfold, whether guests gather within the city walls or out in the Kent countryside, and step in only when a group needs a little order. From a civil ceremony at Wellington House to a barn wedding at Winters Barns or a hotel celebration at ABode Canterbury, and every faith, culture and fusion day in between, we would photograph each with the same care. With 25+ years behind us, we believe more photographs are not better photographs, even in a city with as many backdrops as Canterbury. A carefully edited gallery of six hundred frames serves you better than every frame of the day left unsorted. An engagement shoot in Dane John Gardens, a second photographer for busier days and fine art albums are all available, and for a Canterbury wedding we travel from Northwood; travel and any overnight stay are quoted in writing before you book.
Canterbury has two railway stations, which can complicate the timing of a wedding day. Guests may come in at Canterbury West, which has high-speed services from London St Pancras, or at Canterbury East, so whoever covers arrivals would need to know which one most of the family is using. Canterbury Cathedral Lodge has a Common Room that looks over the Cathedral and its gardens, so portraits in the cathedral grounds need no car. That is the whole argument for a walking day: no coach, no lost half hour. Dane John Gardens, laid out inside the city walls between 1790 and 1803, would take group photographs comfortably in soft afternoon light. ABode Canterbury on the High Street keeps everything central, while The Old Kent Barn at Swingfield moves the reception out of town, so place the portrait window before that drive.
The Owner is very friendly and professional. I have been using Mr Bathia for over 15 years and have seen him through multiple family weddings.
Kaushik was exceptional at creating our wedding photo album! He designed it so beautifully and his customer service was the best. The album quality and design is amazing, we loved it! Wow what a great job. Highly recommend for photo albums.
This photographer consistently demonstrates a keen eye for detail, producing work that stands out for its quality and precision. Their commitment to the craft is evident in the thoughtfulness of each captured moment. Thank you!
Serving Canterbury
Photographing your wedding in Canterbury
Which room you use is picked by the licence, and the licence rarely picks the prettiest one. In most buildings only one space is approved for a civil ceremony; often that room owns the least glass in the building. Establish which room it is before you sign anything, then stand in it yourself, once, at your ceremony hour, on a weekday if that is all anyone will allow. What you see is roughly what we will have to work with.
The legal part is shorter than anyone expects. Vows, a signature, a registrar's paperwork, and you are married before the guests have properly settled. Everything that fills a gallery sits either side. The hours you schedule around the ceremony therefore matter more than the slot itself. Ask your registrar early about which parts of the room a camera may use. Venues within reach include ABode Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral Lodge and The Old Kent Barn.
Check your date
Every kind of wedding
Churches, licensed rooms and group photographs
A licensed room and a church want opposite behaviour from a photographer. The church gives you height, dim air and firm views about where you may stand, so we work from fixed positions with fast glass and no flash. The room gives you a ceiling within reach, glass on only one side and thirty chairs, so we move instead, because in a space that small moving is quiet rather than disruptive.
Group photographs decide how the middle of a wedding day feels. Write the list beforehand, keep it beneath a dozen combinations, and appoint somebody per family willing to shout names across a lawn. Shoot them in flat unfussy light, quickly, and everybody gets their drink back. Speeches want a position taken before the room fills, because afterwards there is nowhere left to go. A first dance is short, it is dark, and it is better served by one light set behind the couple than by four hung overhead.
Why choose us
Preparation for a wedding in a cathedral city
A wedding day never runs twice, so depending on luck is not a plan. Positions get chosen in advance, light is read before it matters, and there is always a second body and a second card. Luck decides the weather. Preparation decides the rest, and preparation is what a fee buys.
Wedding-day places in and around Canterbury
Wedding plans usually start with where the ceremony and reception will be. The places below, in and around Canterbury, are described from published pages, with a link to each source. We travel from Northwood; travel and any overnight stay are quoted in writing before you book.
- Winters Barns at Winters Farm, Nackington, close to Canterbury city centre, is a Kent County Council approved venue with two Kentish barns for up to 150 guests each and an enclosed garden with a pond. 1
- The Westgate, built around 1379 to 1380 across the River Stour, is 60 feet tall and the largest surviving city gate in England; it is Grade I listed and houses the West Gate Towers Museum. 2
- Canterbury Cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral mixes Romanesque and Gothic architecture and became a place of pilgrimage after the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170; its east end, with exceptional stained glass, was rebuilt after a fire in 1174. 3
- Wellington House register office. Kent County Council's Canterbury register office is Wellington House on St Stephens Road (CT2 7RD), an 1800s house beside the River Stour just outside the city walls, with a Drawing Room for ceremonies of up to 25 guests. 4
Sources
Coverage and booking
What your wedding photography in Canterbury includes
What's included
- Wedding photography from £750, priced for the events you choose
- Coverage of the ceremony, the family groups, your couple portraits and the reception
- A pre-wedding planning meeting to agree the timings and the family groups that matter most
- A second photographer available for the largest celebrations
- An edited private online gallery to share and download
- Hand-finished albums and wall art as an option
How booking works
- Check your date. Call or WhatsApp 07956 505383, or use the enquiry form on this page.
- Free consultation. In the studio, by phone or over video, with sample albums to look through.
- Written quote. The events, the hours and any album, with travel from Northwood set out in writing before you book.
- Confirm the booking. A simple booking agreement holds your date in the diary.
- After the day. Your edited gallery arrives online, followed by any album you have chosen.
Good to know
Wedding photography in Canterbury, frequently asked questions
Yes. Canterbury and the rest of Kent are all within range, and travel appears in the quote up front, never on a later invoice. Send the address and the start time and the rest is ours to arrange.
Half an hour where the list is written and one person is calling the names, considerably longer if we are hunting for an uncle. A dozen groupings is a sensible ceiling, and past that the guests begin drifting off.
Book as soon as both the room and the date stop being provisional. Weekend dates in summer disappear earliest, and a photographer worth having is generally taken further ahead than a room is. Where your date is already near, ask anyway.
Print them, hang them, put them into an album we lay out for you first, or simply keep the files. You receive full resolution copies with permission to print, so nothing sits locked behind a shop.
Yes, and they justify the cost. Being photographed for an hour beforehand strips out the stiffness that otherwise shows up early on the wedding day. Around Canterbury there is no shortage of ground for it.
More in Canterbury
More wedding & photography services in Canterbury
See also Asian wedding photography, Hindu wedding photography, Sikh wedding photography and Muslim wedding photography, and nearby our wedding photography overview, all the areas we serve, Ashford, Southend-on-Sea, Gravesend, Gillingham, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Maidstone.
Guides
Wedding guides for Canterbury couples
Portfolio
From our wedding portfolio
Marrying elsewhere in Kent? See wedding photography across Kent, with register offices, venues and every town. For every other service, see photography across Kent.
Popular sessions
Before the day, many couples book a pre-wedding or engagement shoot near Canterbury, which also helps everyone relax in front of the camera.
Church · Civil · Country House · Marquee · Multicultural
Planning a wedding in Canterbury?
Tell us about your celebration and we will send availability, ideas and pricing, wherever it takes place.