In case of rain....

I have a wedding coming up this Friday - and the weather forecast (being Winter here in NZ) is not looking all that fantastic. It will be my first wedding where the weather hasn't been fantastic so i'm a little stuck for ideas in case of rain...

The ceremony and photos are to be held in local botanical gardens with the ceremony in a giant greenhouse - that part i'm not concerned about.

I'm just wanting to get some creative ideas that I could possibly use.... I have 4 big plain white golf umbrellas - but I havent seen many photo examples with umbrellas used, so I'm struggling with poses etc... I'm really hoping we can get out and about in the gardens and not have to use the backdrop of the greenhouse for every photo, but need a backup plan :S

Help... hehe

I think it was Robert Watcher who has shown some images with umbrellas..it may have been on a different forum, but they might be on his website!

Kissing under umbrella, unbrella down (if it isn't raining), running with umbrellas ..etc.

And if you dont have rain, you might get some cool looking storm clouds. If they dont care about getting wet - some barefoot splashing in the puddles shots would be cute.

This has got me thinking... I have a bridals session coming up and I'm concerned about the weather because it's been raining almost every day lately.

I was thinking if it rains I could take her photos inside this conservatory at a local botanical gardens complex (see here: http://pics3.city-data.com/cpicc/cfiles1​9152.jpg) but I remember being extremly uncomfortable in there during the summer last year when that photo was taken. It's extremely hot and humid inside there, mainly because it lacks decent vetilation due to its age. If they'd rebuilt it last year like they had planned this might not be an issue, but... it's hot and humid. You can't be in there long at all without breaking a sweat. What am I to do?

I know of another botanical garden across the city that has a nice, small chapel on the grounds...but no flowers or anything, just a tiny chapel building. While I think it would make for nice shots, I really want some of her with flowers and plants. Hopefully I can work around that.

But enough rambling, what else could I do besides the sweltering conservatory and the somewhat boring little chapel?

PS... I decided to tack this onto this existing thread rather than creating a second "incase of rain" thread!!

Just thought I'd chime in with a little story about weather and weddings..

I got married on April 21st in an outdoor ceremony. We both love weather, and hate being inside, so we 'made the call' to do it outside no matter the circumstances. (We both thought it'd be hilarious and fun to get married in pouring rain, if it were the case). Anyway, it didn't rain, it snowed.

Long story short, we got some fantastic pictures. It was gorgeous, light, dry, perfect snow. Some of the guests weren't too keen, we politely told them they were more than welcome to not attend.

Anyway, on to advice, sorry for the rambling. Clouds can be a nightmare to shoot, as they've got a tendency to blow out like crazy in most situations, so maybe umbrellas wouldn't be so bad (for blocking the sky!). Maybe position both to not only cover the b&g, but provide a neat backdrop.. angle them kinda like \ / and tilted far backwards? Maybe a couple cute shots of them 'hiding' from the rain under the umbrellas on their wedding day, like little kids running off from the rest of the adults and hiding out...

I dunno, probably sounds silly. Just trying to bounce around some ideas. Good luck!

One thing to watch out for is rain drops causing puffy spots on the wedding dress...so if the plan is to stay dry...make sure to keep the bride nice and dry. Shooting when the weather isn't great can offer all sorts of shots that you might not get otherwise...just be prepared.

Thanksk for the help - I've got 4 big white golf umbrellas that are pure white with nothing on... I'm hoping they wont mind if its drizzling.. I've sussed out a few locations at the gardens that are under cover kind of and would be great back drops - its just walking out in the weather to get there

A friend used a great big beach umbrella to get the bride and her dress nice and dry from one location to the other. Worked really well.