When shooting a wedding, I always try to attend the rehearsal. While it is true that the main parts of weddings are similar I have found that each does something slightly differently. It is by attending the rehearsal that you get to see what is planned.

Often the wedding rehearsal is my first opportunity to look over the venue with the wedding will take place. This is vital in knowing how you can best cover the ceremony. The venue for Ollie & Jess was an old church that had a single aisle down the middle. That meant that there was no way I could change position once the ceremony had started. It would therefore be up to my second shooter to cover the other angles.

The rehearsal is also an opportunity to discuss any restrictions that the officiating minister may have. This is particularly important if the ceremony is taking place in a church. There may be places where you cannot go. For a more civil service, it is an opportunity to talk to the celebrant about anything special planned. Ollie & Jess chose a venue that was built as a church. It was no longer consecrated. Therefore, there were no issues that I needed to take into account.

The rehearsal is also often the first opportunity that you will have to meet the wider bridal party. Before this most conversations have only occurred with the bride and groom and maybe their immediate family.

Generally at the rehearsal the party will run through the way that the proceedings will happen at least a couple of time. I use these opportunities to determine what is the best place to stand and also to give me some idea as to the focal lens I will need to cover. 

This gives the photographer the opportunity to practice and be confident that on the day you can capture the images needed. Although I do deliver images from the rehearsal to the couple, there is not the pressure as there is from the ceremony.

The rehearsals are usually held the night before the wedding. Therefore, they will not necessarily give you a good idea of what the light will be like in the church. The rehearsal for Ollie and Jess occurred after dark. As a result, I could not gauge what light I would be dealing with. It does give you an indication though of what will be the worst light that you are facing.

As I will not use flash during a ceremony, this meant cranking up the ISO.  Fortunately, this is not the issue that it once was. Even though I had to set it at 16,000 the camera produced quite usable images. They were even better after running them through the denoise routine in Lightroom. This routine had come into use a couple of months before. 

I was truly amazed with the images that came out.

By the end of the rehearsal, I had a clear plan of what I needed to do for the big day tomorrow.