Shooting weddings in late fall in New England is not for the faint of heart – you never know what you’ll get for weather. It could be rain, snow or a beautiful day like we had for Elizabeth and Alan’s wedding. Lucked out, no doubt about it. I usually have a plan A and a plan B – but I think I had more plans for this one than I could name. I thought the main in-case-of-weather backup was the best – the reception was at the Museum oif Science in Boston and we had complete access to the museum until it closed. I had visions of bridal portraits with dinosaurs looming over them…couldn’t get it out of my head. The plan then was to shoot a few photos inside the church in Harvard Square, head for Memorial drive and shoot Boston Skyline photos then to the Public Gardens for bridal perty pictures and finally on to the reception.
OK, we allowed for the weather but here’s what we didn’t count on.
Parking in Harvard Square doesn’t exist. Out of desperation I finally threw the car in a garage near the hair salon. And then after the salon I walked to the church because there was no parking anywhere near the church either. Missing the ceremony you’re supposed to shoot isn’t high on the cool list – even with brides as cool as Elizabeth.
The ceremony was over at 3:15, not 3:00, then a receiving line, then a few photos at the church, then a few more…and a few more. Then I had to walk back to the garage for my car, then stuck in traffic because some sort of police activity…got back to the church after 4. Sunset, by the way, was at 4:30. I’m sweating bullets now!
We drive to Memorial Drive ( and actually managed to find places for both the limo and me to park) and there’s now about 10 minutes of shooting time – great light but the Public Garden clearly isn’t going to happen.
Balancing late afternoon/sunset light and a little fill flash is an imperfect science – its just not set-it and forget-it time, so the shooting was slowed down a bit.
End result – way cool photos! Sometimes you can fall in a cesspool and come out smelling like a rose – this was one of those days. And we even managed a couple of photos in the exhibit halls of the museum – the folks there were kind enough to let me park very illeagily to shoot quickly then move my car into the garage.
Couple of photos from the salon, especially the cutest junior bridesmaid I’ve seen in a long time and a photo of this amazing church where the ceremony was held.
Great way to wrap up the season…and now I should have a little more time to return to a regular schedule of posts. Enjoy the photos.
