Are you worried about wet weather affecting your wedding photography? Some wedding photography clients worry that wet weather can ruin wedding photos and you won’t get great wedding pictures. But rain, wind, snow and storms can produce exciting conditions for wedding photography, so don’t despair if the weather forecast before your wedding day is a little undesirable. Read on to find out more…

Wet Weather Wedding Photography

Whilst it’s pretty undesirable, and everyone wants gorgeous sunshine on their wedding day, wet weather wedding photography has it’s own fantastic sense of atmosphere when done professionally. Off camera flash and light control can be key to illuminating the raindrops and making them stand out to create a wonderful, romantic atmosphere in your wedding photograph. This can involve some creative placement of the bride and groom, and using flash to expose the photograph and underexpose the background. This shot was taken in a grey car park, with eh couple sheltered under a doorway looking out over a summer thunderstorm. The amount of rain thundering down created this wonderful pattern of raindrops.

My white lace, waterproof umbrella is a great wet weather wedding photography tool. If you’re planning your wedding, you may want to consider buying a wedding umbrella that matches your wedding dress. Remember, this must be a wedding waterproof umbrella, not a summer parasol, otherwise you will still get very wet!

Let’s have a look at some wet weather wedding photography case studies:

Sam & Laura, wet weather wedding photography at Chapel Barn

Again, here’s this lovely wedding umbrella saving the day to create beautiful wet weather wedding photography. This wedding had a consistent summer drizzle throughout the day, rather than the sudden downpour in the previous example above. This meant that there was less rain to show up in the shot when using the umbrella, but as the day was lighter, we could still use some of the barn’s rustic walls as a background.

Sam & Laura were great, and really embraced the wet weather for their wedding photography shoot. I loved this shot of them walking in the rain together towards the lake at Chapel Barn.

You have got be brave and up to get a little wet if you want shots like this. They’d booked Chapel Barn in West Sussex for their wedding as it has a beautiful lake on the estate, and they were determined to still get some photographs by the water. It’s totally up to you as my wedding photography client what you’re comfortable with when dealing with wet weather. If you want to don some wellies and trudge through the mud, I’m all for it, but if you’d rather be strategic and keep your wedding dress immaculate, then we can certainly get great wedding photographs whilst keeping the wedding dress dry. See Chris & Joanna’s wedding below for shots without getting the dress wet!

Wedding Photography: Rain, Showers and Indoors

Here are a few different examples of more wedding photography in the rain. Chris and Alice below had a summer thunderstorm interrupt their wedding photography on a hot summer day. We waited a half hour for the rain to pass and the sun came back out for the rest of the day. This meant that we did the wedding group photographs indoors, but by adapting our plans to suit the weather, we got a chance to use the gorgeous summer sunlight at Slaugham Place. The rain made everything really lush and the background of this shot as a few raindrops falling off the trees in the background.

Martin & Sarah had a romantic stroll with me through the lanes in Brighton, which suited black and white photography more in some occasions, but I loved how busy the shot was with people holding umbrellas in the background and how carefree they are whilst walking in the rain.

Doorways at grand houses, hotels and country estates can work really well for indoor wedding photography when wet weather can prevent you getting outside for your wedding photography. Again, we were lucky later to have some gorgeous sunshine for some wedding portraits at golden hour, but this doorway at Cain Manor, and some gentle posing of the bride and groom together produced this shot in the entrance at Cain Manor in Surrey.

Joanna & Chris, wedding photography at Edes House

Winter weddings can be a bit unfortunate when it rains, but a wet wedding is nothing to worry about when it comes to your wedding photography. Joanna & Chris had their wedding at Edes House in Chichester, before going to the Harbour Hotel for their reception. This gave the chance to try out my new white golf umbrella, rather than the lace umbrella you saw earlier. I have two umbrellas to match different style of wedding dress. The golf umbrella is bit bigger and Joanna challenged me to not get her wedding dress wet by going outside and I was happy to deliver. Doorways are a great way of framing the bride and groom in wet weather, and keeping people dry whilst I go out in the rain to capture wet weather wedding photographs (don’t worry, my camera is a lot more robust in wet weather than wedding hair and dresses!) I used a flash inside the building to illuminate the background and catch some of the rain in the foreground.

We shot the group photographs inside Edes House, using professional lighting equipment and using the ornate decor as a backdrop. I always bring all my wet weather wedding gear to every wedding, just in case…

When it gets darker early on winter weddings, wet weather wedding photography doesn’t stop there! I love using the darker afternoons to create more atmosphere with the ambient lighting of hotels and buildings, and even adding my own fairy lights to the shot to get creative with indoor wedding photography. Again, I use my lighting to ensure correct exposure, create silhouettes and backlighting and to create atmosphere in the wet weather or indoors.

Alistair & Sarah, wedding photography at Dale Hill Golf Club

Sometimes when the weather really is dreadful, and this was cold, wet drizzle at a September wedding at Dale Hill golf club, you need to get really creative and look for opportunities for composition in wet weather wedding photography. Alistair & Sarah were so patient with me whilst I set up lights for their wedding photographs both inside and out when we shot these photographs. Wet weather wedding photography can take a bit longer, as there’s more tweaks to the lighting that sometimes needs to be done when you’re creating light and atmosphere but I always try and minimise disruption by setting up the lights beforehand and leaving the bride and groom to enjoy their wedding day. This shot used a snoot, best described as a sort of light funnel, to create a spot light on the couple and darken the exposure around he rest of the picture.

As I mentioned before, it’s amazing what you can do with a car park! Both of these shots are taken with the car park in the background, using a flash behind to illuminate the rain and controlling the exposure to underexpose the cars in the shot. There’s a little bit of Photoshop editing that needs to be done sometimes to completely eradicate the cars in the shot, but the pattern of light and dark created by drizzle and some beautiful symmetry, can make the car park in a golf club look amazing in the grey drizzle.

Preparation

I do love the challenge of wet weather wedding photography, and I get a little excited about shooting in rain. But be prepared if it does rain on your wedding day. Consider having some umbrellas for both yourself and guests to use if the weather is undesirable and you may want to buy one that matches your dress. Wellies are also great if you’re getting married somewhere rural, even if the weather forecast is good. Having lots of time in your wedding schedule for wedding photography is also always good. I don’t want my clients to be standing around for ages whilst they’re having their wedding photographs taken, and I want couple to be with guests enjoying the day wherever possible. But if you have a half hour of flexibility for wet weather, this can help things not feel rushed and chaotic if you have wet weather. I hope this blog post puts your mind at ease that we will still get great wedding photography in wet weather!

For more wedding tips, check out Wedding Wire: www.weddingwire.co.uk/wedding-tips