I'm no stranger to shooting in the dark. I love night shots and try to get some in at all my weddings. But I don't like the whole set of formals to be in the dark. So I was a little worried when I woke that morning to find cloudy skies and a chance for showers. That meant it would get darker faster.
The universe decided that wasn't enough of a challenge so it decided to throw a nice little power outage at us just a few hours before ceremony time. When I arrived the ladies were trying to have their makeup done by the open doors and windows. Curling irons were out of the question and some of them had their hair only half curled. A wreck down the highway had caused the power to go out all over the area and was also preventing many of the guests and family members from arriving on time. Not only would I be shooting the getting ready in the dark, but they would delay the start of the ceremony to let some of the guests arrive so I'd be shooting formals in the dark and maybe some of the ceremony too.
I was up for the challenge. At first I set my double light set up around the room and started shooting. Then I realized that the photos were not telling the story. I have no problem adequately lighting a room. But the room isn't lit. It's dark. The ladies were using the lights on their cell phones to find their way around. So I turned off the strobes for much of the time and used the lights that were there to tell the story of getting ready in the dark.
The staff at Boulder Springs was on to solving the problem and had set out to round up some generators. But they wouldn't arrive until around ceremony time. They'd be helpful for the DJ to provide sound and to get the reception going, but weren't going to be helpful to the ladies to get ready.
The officiant, fortunately, kept the ceremony short and simple so we could use what little light we had left for the formals but by the time we were done it was pitch black out there.
Candles lit the reception hall beautifully and the guests found it exciting to have their candle-light dinner.
The lights came back on during the first dance -- causing cheers from everyone except me because I was all of sudden very overexposed and had to quickly adjust to the new light. It was a fun wedding and I admire how the bride and her family kept their cool the whole day.
And that's another one to add to the "have you ever been to a wedding where this happened"-collection.
Lisa On Location Photography
