I am shooting a wedding in a couple of hours, and it's been raining off and on all day. When I talked with her in my pre-wedding consultation, she was extremely hesitant to go outside at all, and she especially stressed that if it was too hot, or too humid, or too wet that there'd be no way she'd go out and take pictures. I wouldn't feel that this is such a problem, except that her church is basically a big auditorium with no special "church-ey" details... it looks kinda like a high school auditorium with a permanent drumset onstage. Help!! I'm stressing because I really want to make some great images, but I'm concerned that I won't even be able to convince her to go out at all. And I really doubt she'd go for the umbrella shots, even if I promised it wouldn't mess up her hair....

Any ideas or suggestions?!

...vodka

but seriously... if you're relaxed and excited about producing great images and that shows, it will rub off on her. If you're doing the shots after the ceremony you can tell her that she's already married and she'll never wear the dress again anyway!
If there's a spot with an overhang where she wont get too wet you might be able to get some better light, etc right there. Good luck, I feel for you! The first wedding I shot it rained non-stop the entire day, and it was dark by the time the ceremony ended! Fun stuff

Really though just stay positive and happy about it... I've seen some brides get really upset over the weather.

Hallways... Stairways... and brick or interesting textures anywhere????

Use them!
If she doesn't want to go outside, it's not a good idea to try to force her out. try to gently persuade, and if that doesn;t work, dazzle her with your indoor creativity!

Scout out the whole place and look for interesting opportunies... even a plain white wall CAN work..

good luck!

You can Do it!

Hey all,

I'm interested to see how this turns out! Best of luck and let me know if discover any good tips. I've got a December wedding on the Oregon Coast....rain??? I'd bet my life on it (well almost).

Kevin

thanks you two... Amber, great ideas about the halls and stairs. i don't remember anything real spectacular popping into my memory with that, but that'll be the first thing I check out when i get there. the other stinky part is that there isn't much natural light anywhere in the church, and since it's cloudy the light that does come in isn't that strong. Yikes, all the worries.....

i'm mostly concerned about the family "formals" indoors because i don't have the set-up to properly light the whole place, and i'm just crossing my fingers that what light does come in and my 580 will do the trick.

thanks for your help! i'll be sure to post some images whenever i can!

anybody else with more suggestions?

i love that everybody has a different take on it and handles things like this differently.

I love shots with an umbrella. I did some in seattle while it was raining. if you have enough, everyone in the family could be holding one. Just an idea.

if the ambient light is really low for the formals, throw the camera on a tripod and drag the shutter to fill in the background. Be careful with the long exposures though... if there's too much ambient then you'll get motion blur from your subjects. I've never resorted to the tripod but I carry one just in case.