You can choose your venue, your wedding dress, the colour theme and all the smaller details that make your wedding day uniquely you, but you can’t choose the weather. You can choose to roll with it though and not let it dampen (excuse the pun) your day.
As a photographer we often have different ideas of the perfect wedding day weather. You and your guests will probably enjoy a cloudless sky and glorious sunshine but for me that brings issues like shadows on peoples faces, squinty eyes and bleached colours. Don’t worry I know how to deal with all of these things but if I could take the weather along with me in my camera bag, I’d take clouds, a bit of warmth, a glorious sunset and then a heavy rain shower for 10 minutes just after your first dance.
What you can be assured of, if it rains on your wedding day, is a plethora of people telling you it’s good luck. You may think they’re just saying it to cheer you up but have you ever tried to undo a wet rope?. Essentially this is what you’re doing when you get married, you’re tying the knot and a wet knot is nigh on impossible to untie. So if it rains and your “knot” is wet then lucky you, your marriage will be longstanding.
Dani & Sean’s wedding day at Gingerfield Farm was by far my wettest wedding ever, it literally didn’t stop until 6pm in the evening. They were a great couple and truly embraced it. After all you can’t cancel and you want wedding photos so get brollies, get wellies, get wet, get wedding photos !
My camera kit is waterproof so I’m never concerned about the rain. I have covers for my flashes but what I also carry in my car is a huge white umbrella and short white wedding wellies in a variety of sizes for you to borrow if you need them. I also have white binbags which we put on the ground to keep your dress as clean and dry as possible so there’s no reason to not go outside and get epic rain photos.
Lettie and Scott married in Whitby and we had rain showers throughout the day.
Beth and Ade married in the middle of Storm Arwen. Trees were blowing down around us as we went for a photos session in the grounds of Rushpool Hall. Luckily Beth, like me, absolutely loves extreme weather so we spent a good half an hour getting soaking wet and blown to bits. It was amazing !
If you really don’t want to get wet there are always plenty of options inside your wedding venue for us to take photos. You don’t have to worry that you won’t get any. Most venues I photograph weddings at have staircases, halls and lots of nooks and crannies.It just takes a bit of imagination to come up with ideas and you can leave that to me.
So, to summarise, you can’t control the weather but you can control your reaction to it. This is your wedding day and it’s a once in a lifetime day that you have poured your heart and soul into planning. Embrace it, and every time it rains in the future let yourself be transported back to this most special of days. A wet knot is so much harder to untie.
Ange x
