Rainy Weddings: What Brides Should Know | Wedding Planning Tomorrow will be my FIFTH rainy wedding day in just a few months, and while there are certainly challenges that come with that, I have learned A LOT that I think brides should know when preparing for the possibility of rain! 1. Never underestimate […]

Rainy Weddings: What Brides Should Know

Wedding Planning

Rainy Weddings: What Brides Should Know | Wedding Planning

Tomorrow will be my FIFTH rainy wedding day in just a few months, and while there are certainly challenges that come with that, I have learned A LOT that I think brides should know when preparing for the possibility of rain!

1. Never underestimate the value of a porch! All you need is one good porch to make great portraits. A good porch means it has light hitting it (not hidden behind trees) and bonus points if the walls surrounding it are white or neutral colored. Now as a bride, I wouldn’t expect you to think this much about porches when viewing your venue, but if you’re wanting those gorgeous natural light portraits, a porch guarantees you’ll get them rain or shine.

Check out how many portraits we did just on this tiny porch! It was 100% chance of rain (and snow) all day, but we were still able to get pretty sunlit portraits.

2. Professional Photographers are a must & here’s why: It’s true, I’m slightly biased on this one, but after each of these last rainy wedding days, I’ve thought to myself, “What would they have done if they just had a friend shoot this wedding?”

Professional photographer definition = someone who is pursuing wedding photography as a full-time career & who has a considerable amount of experience photographing wedding days.

I’m not saying other people can’t photograph your wedding, but I am saying that if it’s 100% chance of rain on your wedding day, a professional is much more likely to turn that into great portraits than someone who only knows how to shoot portrait sessions during perfect light. It just takes some practice and creativity!

Also, professional photographers pursuing this as their careers are much more motivated to get great photos despite the circumstances because they actually need them, too! While photographers do put their couples first on wedding days, we want great photos we can be proud of as well. This means we will spend the necessary money to have plenty of clear umbrellas on hand, we spend money on courses that teach us how to handle these situations and we are willing to hire an additional person to help keep everyone dry on the wedding day if necessary!

3. Rainy wedding days can add creativity & interest to your photos. I’m not sure I would have said this one a few months ago, but after shooting in the rain over and over, I have found that there is something interesting and unique about those photos that sunny photos just don’t have.

There is a dramatic, romantic feel about the photos that you don’t necessarily get with sunshine. There is laughter and excitement in the couples simply because they’re thinking, “I can’t believe we’re doing this for photos! This is hilarious!”

While I love the ease of photographing in the sunshine, I have come to embrace the challenge of making rainy wedding days some of my favorite photos.