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Wedding Ceremony Location

Information about choosing your Wedding Ceremony location by Rob Dose

Garden Wedding Ceremonies
The most common type of wedding ceremony that I shoot are garden weddings. A Garden Wedding is simply a wedding ceremony held in a garden, often in a gazebo or under a large tree.

Often the location is chosen before you decide to have a garden wedding. Sometimes a spot feels just right. Whether you have already chosen or are still looking for a location there are many factors that you have to consider to ensure that you get the best out of your wedding photographer;

When working out whether the light for the ceremony is going to be sufficient you should visit the location the year before the wedding and see what the light looks like during that time of the day. The things that you do not want to see most of all is spotty shade from nearby trees. Full sun or complete shade is desirable however spotty shade is terrible. Also consider what the background to the ceremony will be. You want everything to look as picturesque as possible.

Church Wedding Ceremonies
The traditional church wedding is relatively unchanged over the last several decades andrepresemt a major percentage of the weddings that take place in WA.

Many priest will tell their soon to be brides and grooms a list of rules for photographers to abide by. Unfortunetely many mishap photographers with no respect for the church or the ceremony have given all photographers a bad name. It is unsurprising considering the number of individuals who believe owning a camera is all it takes to be a professional photographer.

Some of the common rules for churches are as follows;

As a wedding photographer I cover between 95-100% of every wedding using naturally occuring light only. This includes late into the reception where my highly specialized equipment and technique makes shooting without a flash a possibility. During all ceremonies including churches no flashlight is used to ensure my presence is not noticed.

All priests will have variations of the rules they give out. Some will not have any while others may have a lot! A very rare few completely prohibit access to the church for photographers and video crews and this should be discussed with the priest before booking a photographer.

Beach Wedding Ceremonies
Beach Weddings are considered a very Australian thing to do. With beaches like we have in Western Australia there is absolutely no way you could go wrong choosing this option.

There are practically no rules to worry about when planning the ceremony from a photography perspective except for one important fact. The direction of the sun will make or break the wedding photography. If the ceremony starts around 3pm on a summer day then it is still quite high in the sky however the worst thing you can do is position yourselves with the sun directly ahead of the bride and groom. This will cause two problems. The background will be significantly brighter then the foreground. This is not a problem for normal eye sight since our eyes have a very large dynamic range for sensing detail however camera sensors and film are quite limited in this aspect and it becomes a choice of exposing for either/or without resorting to high powered flash lights during the ceremony. The best option for stunning scenery in your wedding photographs is to position the sun on a side angle or behind the ceremony.

When planning your beach wedding always remember members of your family who may not be up to a treck across the beach.

Ocean/Boat Wedding Ceremonies
Weddings on a cruise are another emerging trend in WA with a number of affordable charter companies offering all night hire of a cruise vessel up and down one of our glorious rivers or off of our beautiful beaches. These wedding cruises are normally smaller in size then a traditional wedding due to the limited space on the deck however it really depends on the type of boat you are on.

A boat may seem like a hard place to do a photo shoot however the interesting architecture of most vessels along with the wide open views out on the water make it a fantastic place to shoot a bride and groom on their wedding day.

Wedding Venue Specific Ceremonies
Many wedding venues have locations permanently selected for wedding ceremonies. I have never encountered any problems photographing these spots because they are usually chosen after years of trial and error. If you are having your wedding at a brand new venue (the Sebal in Mandurah for example) then I am more then happy to discuss all of our options with you.

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