95% of the weddings we shoot are outdoors. I love that. Outdoor weddings are just my favorite for so many reasons!! Even if we shoot an indoor wedding, we do the portraits (bridal party, family and bride and groom portraits) outside.  But sometimes mother nature has other plans…right? We can’t control the weather. So what do we do if it rains on your wedding day?

DEALING WITH RAINY DAY WEDDINGS.

1. CASE OUT THE VENUE BEFOREHAND

First thing I do when we book a wedding is drive by the venue. If it is indoors, I look around the outside and pick our portrait spots. I try to do it the same time of day about a week or two before the wedding. I am looking for open shade from trees, overhangs, etc. I want to have a game plan before your day even starts. If the venue is a destination wedding, I either do it the day before or arrive extra early to do this step. This knowledge comes in handy for rainy days as well.

Last August we shot an indoor wedding at a church in Pittsboro. I had visited the church the week before to get ideas for their portraits. So when the storm of the century dumped rain all day, I went into it with a plan. The church had a nice overhang outside the front doors and I shot 90% of our portraits right there.

2. Bring umbrellas.

If the forecast has a chance of rain, I make sure I have LARGE umbrellas in the car for us to shoot under. In the wedding I mentioned above, a good portion of the portraits required me to stand in the middle of the rain to shoot. My hubby held our HUGE umbrella over us so that I could use both hands to shoot. It worked perfectly.

3. Have a change of shoes and clothes just incase.

I always bring extra shoes. Usually more formal ones for the wedding and flip flops for the reception. When I am shooting, I need to be able to move fast. But this also comes in handy for rainy days. No one wants to ruin their dress shoes in the mud. So I slip on my extra pair for the messy shooting and then change back when we are done.

4. Be flexible.

I leave all portrait decisions up to my brides. I want them to have what they want. We had an outdoor wedding a few years ago that the bride REALLY wanted to stay outside. It rained a lot before hand and we had a chat about our timeline adjustments. We decided to wait out the rain and cut the bridal party portraits super short after the wedding. This allowed her to have the bride and groom portraits as normal and wait out the rain pre-ceremony. And as luck would have it, the rain stopped about 15 minutes before her wedding. The groomsmen went to work drying the chairs…

and later the post-rain skies left us with a beautiful backdrop!

5. Check the radar.

I constantly check the radar on rainy days. If the storm has a break coming up, I put my portraits in that timeslot. I want all my couples to have great pictures as bride and groom, despite the weather so I keep the radar open to look for opportunities to deliver that.

6. Bring extra umbrellas.

If the bride and groom are up for it, I put them under umbrellas and shoot away. It makes for some beautiful photos and sometimes you get lucky too. Like Megan and Jason did last year…

 

So don’t stress if there is rain on your wedding day.  We will work to deliver some beautiful portraits still!