Sarah and Justin's Navy and Champagne Woodsy Wedding Day | Oregon Wedding Photographer
“My wife and I were married on the hottest day of the year (actual record-breaking temps), but this did not stop us from having the most amazing day of our lives. Madeline Rose, aka Mads was simply the best photographer we could ever ask for. It has been 7 months since our wedding and we are still raving about the photography experience.”
- Justin and Sarah
When you plan your wedding you’re probably picturing a sunny day, and might have a back up plan for rain. But what about HEAT y’all? Sarah and Justin got married on the hottest day of the year (seriously, it broke records) but lucky for them, your girl was raised in the south and knows how to handle some heat and humidity with a big ol’ smile.
The first thing I insisted on that July day was changing our portrait locations. For Sarah and Justin’s first look, I picked a spot much closer to their getting ready location than I was originally planning on. But when it’s over 100 degrees, even standing still is going to cause you to sweat, so you want to walk slow and stay close by.
Shortening our time outside before the ceremony was task number two, and this meant cutting down portrait time. As a wedding photographer I’m usually fighting for even just a few extra minutes of portrait time to give you those gorgeous pictures together, but on extreme weather days it is SO much more important to experience and enjoy your day. So I worked with my second shooter quickly and efficiently to get a good variety of portraits in a super short amount of time (it was okay that we were red faced and drenched as long as Sarah and Justin weren’t!!!) and get these two back inside for water and a cool down.
The last big change to the day was moving almost all of our formal photos to golden hour, during the reception. Luckily Sarah and Justin didn’t have too many family combinations, so we were able to take those photos before the ceremony. But all of their wedding party photos, and a lot of their husband and wife portraits, were taken during golden hour. I haaaaate taking couples away from their reception and usually keep my sunset sessions short, but I had to choose whether to A) push 20 people to smile during the HOTTEST part of the day before the ceremony even started and start them off on a grumpy foot OR B) Assure everyone that while their hair, makeup, and suits won’t look as nice later in the day, they will FEEL so much better and be able to have more fun during formals (not to mention the whole day) which will reflect in the final photos.
And boy oh boy I’m SO glad that everyone trusted me to push formals to golden hour, because holy cow, these are some of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken. It’s hard to know if the joy painted on their faces comes from the excitement of the day, or just the relief that the temperature had dropped into the upper 80s, which, ooph. A few bottles of champagne may have also played a role, but whatever it was, the photos are beautiful and I’m so glad that everyone was flexible and never let the heat get them down. These are some real troopers.
So if you have a summer wedding and are thinking about alternative weather plans, please make sure to include heatwaves on your list right below rainstorms. As long as you’re flexible and have even just a loose backup plan with your vendors, the weather won’t dampen your day one bit. You’ll be surprised how quickly it all turns into another funny story :)
