What To Do When It Rains

Hi All, I have a wedding this Friday and the weather here in the UK looks like it could well be a wet one.

I'm shooting in a gorgeous venue - a very old hall set in its own grounds surrounded by fields and woodland. The building looks great, there's a river and bridge nearby too.

However it looks like rain. Inside, the rooms are dark, crowded with furniture and the only open space is a lobby between the bar and ceremony room. I may be able to use the staircase and the lobby, but imagine with the lack of light and it being a walkway, this may not be possible.

What do you guys do about the group shots when it's raining outside?

Tough one. I am in southern Arizona, so we don't have weather - always hot and dry. From your description, I would try to use the furniture to my advantage. Use OCF for the lighting and arrange the participants in a more informal set of poses on and around the funiture. There is nothing written that says the formal portraits have to be truly formal - i.e. all standing a line or grouping. I see this an excellent opportunity to exercise your artistry and create some truly unique portraits.

Portraits of the bride and groom in the rain could look really nice. If they don't want to get wet, then a giant umbrella could also make for some unique and attractive (although a bit less formal) pictures.

Umbrellas, backlit rain, reflections, wide shots with them out of the rain and you in the rain with an assistant holding an umbrella. Find another location, a museum, a library, a cafe.

Check this out, I can't see the pics from work but I think it's the one they did in the library. Some great ideas in there.

Also check out the ordinary - extraordinary cards from Jerry Ghionis, I think there's an iPhone app too. Amazing stuff.

Ask the bride and groom.

I had a bride one time who was going to have an outdoor wedding "rain or shine". And she meant it. They were perfectly happy getting married in the pouring rain so I had to adapt myself for the situation (I packed a lot of rain gear! Luckily, it only rained the morning of their wedding not for the ceremony or the portraits. But if a bride and groom really want to shoot outside, let them have their way. If they want indoors warn them of what's available there and see what they say, that way everyone is on the same page.

We have had a few down pours cancel the outdoor shots after the wedding over the years. We either wait it out, try to shoot after it stops (if possible) or come up with another alternative. Bars work well if the couple wants to go in for a drink and get a little crazy. Otherwise covered structures that you can shoot out to the rain works. This shot that ive posted was on the back side of a tornado.. it was bloody pouring so we went to the airport hanger and shot out to the skys as the storm was rolling through. About 10 minutes into the shots it stopped. The guys at the hanger took another 5 minutes to roll it on the runway, and we clicked off shots for about 10 minutes before it started pouring again......Sometimes you just get lucky

Living in western Oregon I shoot in the rain quite a bit (since 95% of weddings I shoot are outdoors). Most people here just go with it and some even embrace it (like the couple in the drift boat).

Thanks for the replies everyone - there's some really good ideas there. I think I have to plan for either shooting outdoors, or indoors depending on the wishes of the bride and groom.

I'll pack some light stands so I can put my flashes off-camera for use indoors with the furniture (I like the idea of the chairs and posing people in different heights etc. There's also some nice large fireplaces too).

For outdoors, I've got some 'custom' (read: home made) water proof bag/sleeves for my camera to protect them, and I've a large umbrella which will photograph well in black and white. I love the idea to bring in the reflections and rain drops too into the shots.

Fingers crossed it'll be dry, but in the UK, in October, it will be luck if it is.

heavy rains this last weekend sent us to the nearby university - most buildings are open, we let a security guard know what we were doing - his response was pretty much a "I can tell this is a wedding just by looking at her - go ahead, we get this a lot"

before heading to the reception, B&G wanted to rehearse their 1st dance once more - 1st time with the dress on - and quite a number of people stopped by and watched...

we've hit a library, bookstores, malls and indoors farmers market in the past... most places love to have these feel-good moments come by - you'll see mostly smiles from staff, customers and passersby...

SMP_Homer wrote in post #15131126
we let a security guard know what we were doing - his response was pretty much a "I can tell this is a wedding just by looking at her - go ahead, we get this a lot"... most places love to have these feel-good moments come by - you'll see mostly smiles from staff, customers and passersby...

A wedding dress is the ultimate trump card

Did someone say "rain"?

jcolman wrote in post #15134543
Did someone say "rain"?

Simply, AMAZING!
Great shots, I might try this, this Saturday, apparently it will rain here in Toronto.

jcolman wrote in post #15134543
Did someone say "rain"?

If you do anything when it rains, just do this. Sorted!

Amazing photographs there mate, well done!

Amazing!

Love the use of the backlight on all of these. I haven't had too many rainy weddings in an urban environment; love all the reflections from the lighting on the wet pavement, too.