What Should You Do If It Rains On Your Wedding Day?
Having a rainy wedding day is not the nightmare scenario you think it is! However, having a rainy wedding day without a back-up rain plan, especially if you are incorporating outdoor spaces for your venue, reception, or both, is.
Here’s my rainy day preparation checklist developed over many years of helping my brides prepare for the worst while still making it one of the best days of their lives!
1.) Does your venue have a rain plan? If you are working with a wedding planner (which I always recommend), do they have back-up plans in mind?
As your wedding approaches, who isn’t watching the weather app religiously? How is the humidity going to affect your hair? Will the reception be too hot? Will the field be muddy? It’s easy to get up caught up in the spiral of what could go wrong. But the people you’re working with, I promise you, have been here before and still want you to have a joyous, memorable day.
Prior planning keeps inconveniences from becoming disasters. Also, if there’s a plan in place, you’ll have peace of mind as well that come your wedding day, rain or shine, everyone knows the next step.
2.) It’s raining on my wedding day. What now?
As your photographer, I always scope out back-up locations around your venue ahead of time. But, let’s be honest, not all venues have beautiful indoor spaces for portraits. You may not want your photos there. Let’s chat ahead of time about our photography rain plan, putting you at ease and helping me be ready to assist in problem solving.
Fun fact: I always bring 15 clear umbrellas with me to every wedding in case we need to use them for portraits. I love how they look in photos!
3.) Be flexible.
It’s rarely going to rain all day long. Many of our photo timelines can be re-arrange around the ceremony and reception to take advantage of a break in the clouds or a perfect moment of sunshine.
If it has not started raining yet, but is forecasted for closer to your ceremony, I recommend doing the first look as soon as possible. That way, the entire day opens up as were no longer protecting that special, intimate moment.
Sometimes it works to move things around based on location. For example, if wedding party photos are supposed to be outside at 3, followed by family photos inside at 4, we can delay the outside photos by switching the order and times to try and get better weather.
Admittedly, flexibility like this is only possible if you do a first look. If you’re not planning for a first look, a majority of the photos are taken during the “cocktail hour” between ceremony and reception.
Lastly, and most importantly, keep the big picture in mind. Whether it rains or not, at the end of the day, you’ll be married. That trumps any curveball that could be thrown at you. If you’re set on having your ceremony or photos outside and it rains? Embrace it! You’ll look back on those memories and laughter, because I promise you it does eventually turn to laughter, and it’ll be another bright spot of your wedding day.
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