Thirty three degrees Celsius.
That is how hot it was the afternoon this photo was taken at Melton Estate Vineyard, just west of Christchurch.
While the plan post wedding ceremony had been to take photos of the bridal party amongst the vineyard, there were two problems. One, it was blazing hot. Two, the grapes were all wrapped up in a protective white fabric.
Bride portrait. Photo © Thomas Pickard | www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz
Though I couldn’t do anything about the fabric over the grapes, I could do something about the heat.
When I suggested to the bride and groom that we take the photos in the shade, they readily agreed. And who could blame them? The groom was sweating just standing there in his suit and he was already in the shade. It was ludicrous to think I would take a group of adults and stand them in the blazing sun and hot wind, and expect them to look happy on their wedding day.
Prior to every wedding I go through a detailed wedding planning process with my clients. It covers the obvious things like timings throughout the day, to more obscure things like family issues I should be aware of. It also includes any photo location wish list the client may have for their photos.
While having a plan is great for the wedding day, it is just that - a plan. Things change. In can be an ambulance turning up for a guest at a wedding reception, which happened at one of my first Christchurch weddings. Or it can be an unexpected disagreement between a bride and her father, in front of everyone at the reception. It can be the rain or like in this case, it can be the heat and wind.
So to all my previous wedding clients out there, thank you for being flexible on your wedding day, despite the best laid out wedding day plans.