Blending romantic tradition and modern glamour, Four Seasons Hotel London at Ten Trinity Square offers the most sophisticated city setting for all your wedding celebrations — from your engagement party to the ceremony and reception.
First opened in 1922, this Grade II*-listed building is the former headquarters of the Port of London Authority. Original neo-classical interiors have been exquisitely restored, creating a seamless fusion with chic, contemporary design.
This was the setting for today’s fabulous wedding which we were honoured to play a small part in for an absolutely lovely couple.
The Wedding
Kate and Anjan
Four Seasons Ten Trinity Square, London
Saturday 18 May 2024
Ceremony and Wedding Breakfast
London Hotel Weddings for suppliers are, to say the least, often quite challenging. A couple of weeks ago for example we played for a wedding at The Ned, not too far from Ten Trinity Square. Accessing their sixth floor with our instruments in the pouring rain with no access to the loading bay was somewhat of a challenge.
Today, the weather was kinder as we arrived at the Four Seasons. Having had very little communication from the Four Seasons wedding planner, other than to say she had in fact left and gone to their sister hotel in Hampshire, we actually decided to head to London a day early to research the options for getting our instruments into the the hotel at ten trinity square, and specifically the Ballroom where the ceremony was taking place.
We started by booking ourselves in for afternoon tea in the Four Seasons Rotunda Lounge. This turned out to be an excellent plan. Firstly the Crown Jewels Afternoon tea was first class and something we would highly recommend.
We also enjoyed for once being the customer who is entertained rather than the musicians and enjoyed some great piano music in the bar. When we had finished our tea we then investigated the other spaces in the hotel and found Kate there with her future in-laws.
The Wedding
The following morning we arose early from our nearby Premier Inn and headed up to the Four Seasons for 9am. Still with little idea where to go we decided the best thing was to park at the front of the hotel (£10 for thirty minutes!) and make investigations with the concierge.
There was much talk of a loading bay, but no one available to say whether we should use it or indeed where it was! So with the help of the kind men on the main door, we carried our piano cello and PA system up the red carpet and into the lobby of the Four Seasons.
From there we took the lift to the second floor. Here we found lots more men in four seasons uniform who seemed to be part of the wedding, but had little idea what was going on. Eventually we found someone with a vague plan who allocated us a corner to set up in.
With out kit carried in and then the car re-parked back in a carpark elsewhere we started to set up and had everything ready by 12 noon. This gave us a little time to relax before the wedding and so we headed to All Bar One next door for a little down time ahead of the ceremony.
For us, we love all weddings and we love the variety of people and spaces that we get to perform in. It was a fabulous opportunity to play for Kate and Anjan’s beautiful wedding at Ten Trinity, but it did remind us that Central London Hotel Weddings do take considerably more effort in terms of the logistics. For example when we turn up at a wedding barn, it takes approximately 30 minutes from the point we arrive to the point we are ready to start playing. At Ten Trinity, we arrived at 9am and had everything set up and ready by 11.45am nearly 3 hours later!
The Ceremony
Starting in the beautifully decorated Ballroom on the second floor of the Four Seasons our first involvement was to provide music for Kate and Anjan’s Wedding Ceremony. The room had been laid out in a semi circle which was the first time we have seen this. But what a fabulous idea meaning the couple were in the middle with Tia Scully the Humanist Celebrant surrounded by family and friends all of whom had a great view of the wedding.
Music for the Ceremony
Bridal Entrance – Miss Independent by Ne Yo blended with Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera
Signing of the Register – Colours of the Wind from Pocahontas
Exit of the Couple – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye
After the ceremony the guests moved for the drinks reception so the room could be turned around for the wedding breakfast a couple of hours later.
This gave us a couple of hours ‘off’, which for us is unusual in a wedding but was certainly a welcome break and saved us having to move our instruments to play during the drinks reception. Fortunately we were able to remain in situe for the meal later on. So we took a chance to have a walk around the locality.
Jules was particularly pleased to see an original Routemaster making its way through London and added this to his collection of Routemaster Photos…..
The Wedding Breakfast
We returned to the Four Seasons at 4pm ahead of the Wedding breakfast scheduled for 4.30pm and took some time to relax in the green room where Kate and Anjan had kindly provided us with some light refreshments and drinks.
When we went back the Ballroom had been transformed into a beautiful setting for Kate and Anjan’s Wedding breakfast.
With speeches throughout the meal between courses we had curated several sets of music to match the moment based on suggestions we had received from Kate in advance. Between the starter and the main course Kate had arranged for some ballerinas to perform a bespoke dance which looked even more glorious in such an elegant setting.
We had a really lovely time playing for Kate and Anjan’s wedding. They are a truly lovely couple and it has been a pleasure planning their wedding music with them and then being able to play for them on their wedding day.
We wish Kate and Anjan every happiness for their married life together and would like to thank them for choosing JAM Duo to provide daytime wedding music.
