Everybody hopes for good weather on their wedding day, a lovely day hanging out in the sun is fantastic but unfortunately we have no control over the weather so it is helpful to know what to do about rain on your wedding day. I live in Bristol and mainly shoot weddings around Bristol, Bath and the south west where there is beautiful, lush green countryside which attracts people from all over the country to get married here. However, that same gorgeous countryside is here because it rains a lot, so rain at weddings is something I have had to deal with a reasonable amount.

It doesn’t have to be a disaster though! There are a few things you can do as part of your planning to be prepared for rain. I will also explain how I deal with wet weather at weddings, so you don’t have to worry.

First off, talk to your venue about what their wet weather plan is, they will have one! If you are putting on your own outdoor, marquee style wedding, make sure you have enough room for everyone to spend the whole day under cover if necessary. Talk to the hire company about wet weather, they will be able to advise you on the size of tent you need, where to place the toilets, whether it is a good idea to lay some hay down on the main routes that people will walk, that sort of thing.

I always say to couples that it is best to prepare for rain and then be pleasantly surprised if it is dry.

What do you do for photos if its wet?

I keep a close eye on the weather throughout the day, I have a very handy app that does hyper local forecasting (it’s called Dark Sky if you want to download it yourself) which will tell me what the rain is going to be like for the next hour in the location I am in. Quite often, rain only lasts for a short time so we can just push the photos back a bit and there really isn’t any disruption to the day.

If the rain really isn’t going anywhere though, I will go for a scout around the venue and find somewhere dry to set up for the group photos. I always take flashes, stands and light modifiers with me to every wedding so even if the only place to do photos is a dark barn (like this wedding below) then we can still get some nice photos. This even makes for some interesting backgrounds to make your photos a little different.

How will rain on the wedding day affect the couples shoot?

Obviously the same applies for the couples shoot, we can wait for a gap in the rain to go outside but if it just doesn’t materialise, I will find some shots to do inside. Below you can see a few examples from a very wet wedding where I did most of their couple photos around the venue.

Rain can be GOOD!

If you can brave the rain briefly there is a type of photo that we can do that looks amazing, I will back light you with flash which pulls out the rain to make it look like hundreds of little sparkles around you. It is a simple technique but there is so much you can do with it and it looks amazing!

Obviously we will get you both an umbrella so you stay dry, I’ll get a bit wet but my cameras are weather sealed and I don’t mind being a little damp to get great looking shots.

The rain often stops around sunset

Even on days where it rains heavily through the whole day, it quite often stops around sunset, that means we can nip out and do a sunset shoot. Add in the dramatic sky you often get or some puddles for reflections and this can make for some lovely photos.

Rain doesn’t have to ruin your wedding, hopefully as you can see from these photos, there are options and it can even lead to some lovely photos!

If you are getting married around Bristol, Bath or the South West of England and are looking for a wedding photographer, I would love to hear from you. Check out my portfolio and if it looks like your sort of thing, get in touch.