Where to even begin. As a photographer you always hope that there's good weather, that it's warm and dry so the guests can enjoy themselves outside, and that there's some golden light at some part of the day to get some real magic. At Mark and Ellie's wedding at Clearwell Castle, we had none of that. It was dark and cold, and rained on and off most of the day (much more on than off) and when it did rain it was torrential. But I had THE BEST DAY. It was one of those weddings where everything I touched turned to gold. It had stopped raining for just long enough that I could do all of the group photos outside then have a solid 20 minutes with the bride and groom who absolutely smashed their couples photos.
In the evening, once it had gone properly dark, the bride and groom surprised their wedding guests with a fireworks display. Often, when it has been damp or wet, smoke tends to hang fairly low in the sky which is what happened here. However, it made the resulting images have a totally unique feel.
Here's a shot with the sparkler-firework things (I genuinely don't know what they're called but they're a) awesome and b) brighter than the sun)
Later in the evening, after the first dance and evening food, we experienced quite the storm. The bride and groom had purchased a couple of smoke grenades for use in a dramatic photo (they said they were against the idea of just standing there with them so it was up to me to come up with something special.) Blue smoke + extreme rain + off-camera-flash = EPIC. I only took 4 photos with this setup (below) - I knew as soon as I had taken the first image that it was going to be one of the best images I'd ever taken. One that is really going to be difficult to top.
Once the bride was safely inside, the groomsmen joined us for a cigar photo. I used a similar setup as with the blue-smoke/rain photo above, but used a white smoke grenade (in the hands of the best man) and some loud party music to create a totally different atmosphere.
Location: Clearwell Castle.
