Furry Creek Wedding during crazy Vancouver storm

Creative rainy wedding day pictures from Scenic Furry Creek country club.

How many times as a wedding photographer did you come across a perfect bride and groom who are full of energy, love life and wedding photography and their story captured in beautiful pictures is very important to them. They also choose an amazing scenic venue such Furry Creek Country Club on Sea to sky highway close to Squamish to celebrate their day. And then the storm of the year comes!?

This is a story from one of those weekends which will be remembered in Vancouver area for long time. The day when wedding parties stayed without electricity or got soaked in a crazy storm which hit the Pacific coast in full speed. If you had a chance to golf at Furry Creek Country club then you know how amazing this place is. Ocean at your finger tips, greens nicely placed at the amazing lookouts and trails joining them together via tunnels and bridges. A dream to play at.

For Megan and Justin this was their playground for their wedding day. We met last year and since their engagement shoot in Justin’s muscle car we clicked like we were buddies for ever. This is a kind of cool trust relationship you love to feel when coming to photograph a wedding. So they new me, I knew them what could possibly go let’s say wrong? Hm, there is one thing at every wedding you cannot have guaranteed. That is the weather!

A huge storm came that morning from the Pacific ocean and the rain was pouring like never before. The storm picked up speed and the wind was tearing apart forests, the trees were falling on roads and there was a bride getting ready in this. When I hit the road from North Vancouver to Furry Creek and just passed West Vancouver the weather turned really nasty. The visibility was like at London’s early morning smog, the trees were touching the ground and the wind was so strong it was sucking the water from the Howe sound upwards! A real sight to see for a storm hunter. Well, I was about to photograph an outdoor wedding ceremony :).

When I parked the car at Furry creek I had no idea what we will do so after meeting with Megan and then Amanda – Wedding and banquet manager I was informed the outdoor ceremony was canceled and moved indoor. That solved the problem with wet guests and saved bride’s make up.  But what do we photograph for their album with a scenic amazing imagery they had in minds when they chosen me to be their photographer? We were about to find out.

After a ceremony which took place in Creekside room we were supposed to have family portrait session as we planned so they could go and enjoy the cocktail hour. Well the rain slowed down juts as we walked out of ceremony room and guests started to congratulate the wedding couple. There was a chance in the air I could take the bride and groom out with the bridal party since the rain was slowing down more and more. A quick word with Megan and Justin if they want to risk it and get on the golf cart and go for a ride around the golf course down towards the ocean. Both of them were excited to see the rain is slowing down and said YES right away. So I had a quick word with Amanda and explained here that couple would love to try their portrait scenic session have first. She understood how important it was to them and organized two cards for us ASAP and we could hit the trails. Megan and Justin equipped with their BW umbrellas drove their cart, Amanda drove me in the first one with my 2 cameras strapped on me. I left the rest of the gear in the Pacific banquet reception room to keep it away from rain and to be fast and efficient if the weather turns its back on us 🙂

The grounds were soaked in. The wheels of our carts were slipping and when we were going downhill through the greens and muddy paddles there was one time when Justin turned his cart muscle machine into a drifting beast and guy had a blast despite the water splashing all over :).

The rule was, quickly move from a location to a location, get some scenic oriented images done without being wet too much and move back to venue for more family and bridal party pictures. Guess what. The rain has returned after we took first set of pictures at the ocean! Now I do not know how brave as a bride you have to be to suck this up. But Megan went all 9 yards with this. She simply said we are here, we are shooting. I did not need to hear more, with a help of Amanda who was this time instead of Manager a lighting assistant holding wireless flashes for me we flew from one green to another.

Then through the tunnel to a bridge and from there through another tunnel back to the venue. All of us wet, the bride and groom the most yet happy to be in cozy warm place with a set of priceless memories for the happy duo ;).

To make this post shorter, we managed to get out 2 more times for some creative shots that night, and the party time was a joy to photograph as a grand finale :).

And when you think after the darkness comes and there is nothing to create outside at Furry Creek, think twice. When the rain stopped for a minute we still managed to get out and shoot more images like this. Wait a second you do not see the couple here. Well this is how the same place looks like when I put some flashy creative twist to it for them in the next image.

Thank you Megan and Justin for being such a great couple and your trust in my skills to create for you unique wedding pictures.

Have a great bon voyage in your life and I am sure your cool happy ending adrenalin stories will play a big role in it 🙂

Jozef – Furry creek wedding photographer