When to have your Ceremony.
I’ve met a ton of couples this year who all share the same question, “What time is the best time to have our ceremony?”. That my friends is a very, very good question. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with an easy answer but I’ll try to go through a couple of scenarios that work for most weddings. Let’s say that you are having your wedding at the coast. Now, in Oregon the X factor is mostly always rain and when and where it decides to rear it’s ugly head. Taking that out of consideration, if you are to have a wedding at the coast the most optimal time would probably be early in the morning or later on in the evening. One of the worst times is probably the three hours surrounding mid-day. When the Sun is high and really bright it creates harsh shadows below the eyes and across the face. The difference between the lit section of the face and the side of the face in shadow is pretty drastic. It is possible to fill in the shadowed areas with flash but during a ceremony it’s pretty tough to light it while being on the move. Also, many couples get married at the coast for it’s beautiful view. More often than not, if the wedding is at the wrong time of the day, the ocean will become a bright white background so the scenery is negated by harsh light. Two things to take into consideration is this, if you have the ceremony and photos in the early morning the light starts out great but generally gets worse as the day goes on. If you have the ceremony closer to sunset, the light is good and gets better. Scenario number two. You are having your wedding in a valley with hills on both sides. I ran into that situation a couple of times this year and it was really challenging. The main reason is that the light is good only for a brief moment before it disappears behind a hill or mountain. So the optimal shooting time is really, really short. If that is your scenario, probably the best thing to do is to make sure there is some sort of external lighting. Check out with your photographer what the light looks like when you are thinking of having your ceremony so that you can come up with a plan to have the best photography opportunities possible. Generally, it is my opinion that the late afternoon is the best time to do photos and have the ceremony but again, a schedule and working out a plan with you photographer is key. It’s funny when I tell a bride that I hope it’s cloudy on the wedding day and I get a confused look from her. The reason why clouds are great is because they diffuse the light, making it really soft and even. I particularly love them because I can get some awesome and dramatic backgrounds for photos. So kids, we have learned a couple of things today. One, mid-day is bad for photos. Two, early morning and early evening is the best times. Three, clouds are good…very, very good. Four, rain isn’t the end all, because we live in Oregon and umbrellas are sold everywhere! Scroll down a couple of posts and you will be able to see some photos with clouds and sunset. More posts coming very soon, stay tuned!
