Harrison hot springs wedding

Great location combination Princess and Pea B&B for getting ready, White Chapel for the ceremony and Harrison hot springs wedding resort reception. Simply romantic, different and beautiful. You think you have everything planned, plenty of time for every event and then the weather man says – rain all day long. Not juts a shower or drizzling, it was pouring at us non stop. Well as a photographer you might think umbrellas and that is it. This day was windy kind of stormy way so no umbrellas would save this gorges looking couple from being soaking wet. The decision had been made very quickly after we saw the elegant dress we agreed to shoot everything indoor. So here it is how it went.

Light is what I am after, and there was literally almost none great light through the whole day for me to work with. The Princess and Pea getting ready pictures were probably the most favourite for the bride, so I had to really work out the angles and compositions on this dark sky day. The owner of the B&B had almost all the windows hard wood blinds blocked from the outside due to the winter season, so I was literally running up and down to find the ones which I could use for interesting creative preparations shots. Otherwise great place was like a light trap and we had to work fast so we did not delay ceremony.

Otherwise amazing rooms were completely dark and yellow bulbs were not among my favourites, so I mostly managed to create all the portraits and the staircase and narrow hallway. The amazing soft light was to its best there. When I had everything I needed, we drove to the ceremony location in Chilliwack. If you are from Vancouver and know how people drive when it is pouring rain, then guess what. A big accident on Fraser Hwy 1 made us turn the car around and the delays could start. I quickly called the groom what we are experiencing and the bride still at getting ready place was notified the road is closed look for alternative. I love this adrenalin rush at the weddings but enough is enough 🙂

Corey was waiting for us to arrive and most of the guests were already there as well. We did couple candid portraits and once the bride was in the house the pianist could start the ceremony.

There are 4 decent windows at the chapel, so I decided to run the whole ceremony on natural light settings. Looks really classic specially in B&W edits. The yellowish lights in the ceilings mixing with the flashes and ambient light would give us a headache with skin tones and this way the whole bridal party could enjoy the venue without me disturbing them with running strobes in their faces. Small detail but for some people it can get really irritating 🙂

After the ceremony there was supposed to be a family portrait session outside. We already discussed this with Hilary and Corey that getting wet is not an option so I quickly set up my portable studio stands with umbrella for softer lights and we run the session where else – indoor again 🙂

And because we knew it was raining pretty much across the BC we also planned to shoot some creative indoor formals of the couple at Harrison resort and spa.

Congratulations to Hilary and Corey, they really had a great attitude and despite the chilli day they enjoyed it and it was my pleasure to be their wedding photographer.