Choose the shelter before the day
Rain changes an outdoor portrait plan. Name an indoor room or a covered entrance before the wedding, while you can still see it in daylight. Pick a place you would still be glad to have in the photographs.
Confirm it with the venue
Ask the venue, in writing if you can, whether photographs and film are allowed in that room on your date, and for how long. A lobby that looks open on a tour may be reserved for another event that afternoon.
Confirm access if the backup is off the property
A museum, a hotel lobby, or a public building is only a backup if you can enter it in wedding clothes, with guests, at that hour. If the place is on public ground in the National Capital Region, confirm permission, any fee, and the hours with the National Capital Commission or the owner. Do not assume another couple’s plan still applies.
Decide which portraits move and which wait
Family photographs are the group most often worth moving indoors so people are not kept in the rain. Portraits of the two of you can wait for a break, or move under cover with you. Agree on that order before the day, so nobody is guessing in wet clothes.
Use the same plan for film
If the day includes film, the sheltered place has to work for a camera that stays with you, not only for a few still photographs. Tell your venue and your team which room is the rain plan.
Have a date and venue in mind?
Share your Ottawa venue. We’ll talk through a sheltered portrait place and how travel from Montreal would be quoted.
Talk about your wedding