Chicago Wedding Photographer | Allori Photography

You have been watching the forecast for two weeks and the cloud with thunderbolts seems to move off every day except your wedding day. Now you’re two days out and the hourly forecast is released. Mild panic attacks set in as you are not at terms with the fact that it will rain on your wedding day. Or hey, it’s Chicago it could be sleeting. That happened two weekends in May this year. Ok, back to the point where I try to keep you from stressing out. Although our weather is insanely unpredictable in Chicago, it can be conquered with a plan.

Celina and Beau’s wedding morning was gorgeous. When we pulled up to Holy Name it was 75 and sunny without a cloud in the sky. 45 minutes later there was a wall of those black green tornado looking clouds. As luck would have it Celina and Beau are probably the most easy going people I have ever met. They knew I had a plan and really showed no signs of concern. I like to create an A list and  B list of locations to shoot. One for ideal locations if it’s sunny and one as a backup in case we need to retreat indoors. The beauty of it is with a little planning you can bounce between A list and B list locations. We set out for our first location but the rain was coming down in sheets, so we took a little detour. The guys were starving so I figured detour number one should involve food. We pulled up to Corner Bakery and dropped the guys off. As luck would have it we found a break in the rain. 5 quick minutes of shooting with the girls and 15 not-so-quick minutes of eating and we were off to our next location.

Of course the rain came back and we retreated to the Westin River North. My favorite rain day location. It has gorgeous light, a great view of Chicago, and it is covered from the rain. There are some big trees down by the river that really work well to keep everyone dry.

It was really important to Celina to get a picture by Buckingham Fountain. Watching the radar and the sky, since the two don’t always reflect the same thing, I guessed and it happened to be a perfect time to shoot there. We only had 10 minutes before the downpour ensued. We missed the rain and headed back to the hotel. The last shot is one of my favorites from the day. I think it will show even if you have to resort to using your hotel room for pictures there’s always something fun that will come out of it.

In case you still don’t believe you can have great pictures when it rains on your wedding day I included a little video at the end to show just how much rain we were working in. Don’t worry, no groomsmen were harmed or soaking wet in the making of this video. They were under a tree. And yes your photographer should do more than shoot pictures on your wedding day. I will do anything to make the day run more smoothly. In this case I am the umbrella man.