The day started out unlike pretty much ever other wedding I’ve shot, with a text from the bride saying, “We are finished with hair and makeup early, and are on our way to the church now.” I think I could count on three fingers how many times this has happened in nine years of photographing weddings! I tell brides to always count on hair and makeup going long, because it almost always does. You can be upset with a day that starts out first thing going ahead of schedule. This made for a very relaxed and fun prep time as both the girls and the guys had plenty of time to get ready before the ceremony took place. This is where things take an interesting turn. Right before the ceremony, I hear someone talk about the weather and how a storm is coming. It’s bright outside though, I can see the sun beaming into the church. Since the windows were stained glass, I made my way to the side entrance to look West, where this storm was supposedly coming from. My jaw dropped! A thick, dark storm front was coming in. Lightning bolts striking faster than a strobe light (slight exaggeration). It wasn’t even supposed to rain today! First thing I thought of was my hard drive at home. I left it plugged in. I hate leaving my hard drives plugged in during storms. Not only that, but my backup hard drive was plugged in too! I was running a backup, again, because it wasn’t supposed to rain.
As the ceremony started, so did the storm. Fortunately, the church we were in was a solid rock. The stained glass covered the flashes of the lighting and the thick walls prevented the sound of thunder from being heard. After the ceremony, I looked outside to determine if outdoor pictures were a possibility… not a chance. It was a downpour and didn’t look like it was going to let up. I told Tyler and Amanda that because it was raining, we would just take our time with family pictures, because where else would we go. It just so happened that this time with family pictures stalled us long enough to let the storm pass. Almost immediately after finishing family pictures, there was no more rain. Cloudy, but no more rain. It was perfect. Not only do I like clouds for pictures, but I love wet ground!! Everything just appears more vibrant when it’s wet. I told the bus driver that we would be going to Ballard Nature Center. He responded by saying, “That’s if we can even get in, Altamont got hit pretty hard. Oh great!! No I’m really nervous about my computer and hard drives. We took some country roads to Ballard Nature Center, but didn’t see any damage. Turns out, all the damage was on the north side of town and boy did it look like it got hit really hard. Large trees and branches uprooted and fallen down. It was pretty intense. Fortunately, Ballard was not hit, and better yet, my hard drives were good. Lesson learned, anytime I leave the house, the hard drives get unplugged!
Outdoor pictures couldn’t have been better. Like I said, the clouds provided such great coverage to give us some nice even light. The temperature had cooled a little because of the storm and the colors were as vibrant as possible. Not only did we have a great setup for pictures, we also had SO MUCH time! After family formals, we had a solid 2 hours before we had to be at the reception hall. We rarely get this kind of time to do pictures, and while this would have been more than enough time, because we had that time, we could afford to wait out the storm a bit. The reception took place at the Carriage House Event Center in Altamont which is on the south side of Altamont, so again, fortunately no damage there. I decided to try something a little different with my lighting as the wedding party and Amanda and Tyler entered the reception. Most wedding parties at Carriage House are introduced and walk down their amazing staircase. I wanted to light the party up in a way that the staircase was seen, but only a little bit and the couple would have more of a spotlight effect on them. I love the way it turned out, especially of Tyler and Amanda. The hard part about this shot was that I ultimately had 2 chances to get a picture. Before or after those chances, they were out of the light too much. It was tough and a little bit risky, but you know, sometimes the best things in life come from take a little bit of a risk, right? The reception, of course, went great. The Carriage House staff was tremendous to work with. Could not have asked for a better day. Congrats Tyler and Amanda! Your day was definitely pretty special!
