Like Rain on Your Wedding Day

Street Scenes

There’s a reason cinematographers will spray down a street before shooting a scene, particularly at night. Wet streets and pavements give visual drama and interest to what might otherwise be a flat, black or gray surface. When creating such a scene, movie professionals are in effect copying some of photojournalism’s greatest hits — and, at this point, copying each other and themselves, because the wet street shot is such a standard.

The groomsmen, walking as a pack toward or from the church or venue on a city’s wet streets, may instinctively feel themselves imbued with that Sinatra or Scorsese spirit. If the rain has lightened up or stopped, they’re more free to stroll and, as a group, they’re more likely to lend themselves to some great moments. Let’s face it: some groomsmen can feel awkward in the formal setting of a wedding, whereas many feel just fine showing themselves braving the weather or the mean streets with their posse.

Wet streets can be a hazard, too, of course — but even this can work to the wedding photojournalist’s advantage if it forces subjects to slow down and tread more carefully across concrete, cobblestones and bricks. People interacting with their environment (and with each other in that environment) can make for more memorable photographs than a flurry of scurrying elbows and makeshift ponchos.

Keep Calm and Marry On

In Britain, rain is often a given, and photographers, venues and even brides there can usually take it in stride. And the perverse fact is that bad weather can make for great photographs, which can bring laughter and smiles later inside once you’re warm, cozy — and married.

Even if outdoor weddings are rarer in wet climates than in, say, the dry heat of Arizona or Morocco, participants and guests will be coming and going through whatever Mother Nature decides to dish out. The just-after-the-rain pictures and, with the bride protected by an umbrella, the stepping-from- or into-the-car picture may easily become the personal favorites.

From Europe to the Northwest and Southeast United States, the Caribbean to Southeast Asia, rainy weather is often the backdrop for a beautiful wedding and its amazing pictures.

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With preparation, anxious brides and grooms needn’t fret if the weather turns wetter. Your memories, your faces — and possibly a certain somebody’s bright, white dress — will stand in sharp contrast to the gray of the day, all to be captured by a wedding photojournalist with an eye for atmosphere and ambient lighting.

And from the photographer’s perspective, can we say hooray for rain? Dampness and humidity we can usually deal with and even capture; it’s dust that will drive us crazy.