HOW TO PLAN A MOUNTAIN WEDDING IN WYOMING

Mountain weddings in Wyoming can be challenging. We’ve been walking through a few tips for wedding planning over the last several weeks. Our job as photographers is to observe, and because of that we tend to notice trends that work really well in addition to mistakes that cause unnecessary stress and anxiety for couples. If you’ve missed the first couple posts in this series you can find them here: Post One or here: Post Two. Below are some tips for planning mountain weddings in Wyoming.

I’m going to break things out according to outdoor and indoor venues.

Mountain Weddings – Outdoor Ceremonies and Receptions:

Practical Shoes! Don’t wear stilettos or really high heels for outdoor or mountain venues (not even high wedges). Stilettos will sink into dirt and grass and any higher heel will make it so you or your bridesmaids risk falling or twisting an ankle. Most of the time, people won’t even see your shoes. For bridesmaids, pick some sparkly sandals or go funky with Chucks. For any wedding, indoor or outdoor, have a backup pair of super comfy shoes (flip flops?). Better yet, inform your guests about the terrain and suggest they plan accordingly as well.
Aisle runners – just say no. On grass, gravel or dirt, they just bunch up and people trip on them. They are just too much to mess with for outdoor or mountain weddings in Wyoming. I most often see people tiptoeing around them down the aisle to avoid tripping or getting them caught in shoes. Having an aisle runner most often means people are looking down as they attempt to stay on their feet during the walk down the aisle. Just skip them.
Hire a DJ to help with ceremony sound. You most definitely need a good mic and music system outside so your guests can hear your ceremony. Wyoming wind makes it especially important that you hire a professional so that your guests don’t only hear wind whistling through the system.
Allow for plenty of room between the first row of chairs and the archway area where you will stand. You need space for the archway, your officiant, a mic/stand, yourselves, and all of your bridal party, not to mention space for your most important relatives in the front row. If you have a longer aisle, I like to crouch down in the front of the aisle for the processional, so I can see your bridal party and you walking with your dad down the aisle. Having a little extra room helps me stay out of everyone’s way and ensures I’m able to get this shot. It also makes it so the first row of guests don’t feel like they have to make sure their toes don’t get stepped on by the bridal party! If this isn’t possible, consider making a central horizontal aisle in the rows of chairs. This will allow guests to freely move in and out of the ceremony area if they need to, and it will provide a place for us to park during your aisle walk that won’t interfere with any guest’s views or personal space. The nice thing about outdoor ceremonies is the availability of space – don’t be afraid to spread things out a bit.

Think about the sun! Try to put your ceremony as late as possible in the summer time, when the day is cooler and when the sun is lower in the sky. Three in the afternoon may seem late in the day, but in July, it may feel like high noon on a hot day. Also think about where the sun will be in relation to your guests, your processional, and your altar area. If you can, put your ceremony site in shade. If you have to be out in full sun for the ceremony site, put the sunlight to one side of the ceremony area, opting to put the light on the bride’s side so that it is to her back during the ceremony when she turns to face the groom for vows. This will still be beautiful light that flatters the bride and it will make it so that guests don’t have to look directly into the sun to see the ceremony.
Transportation/Holding Areas: Where will you and the bridal party be before you walk down the aisle? If you have concerns about being seen by guests before your ceremony, have a plan in place to keep yourself hidden until the processional.

Weather: Have a backup plan in case of inclement weather. That could mean a different indoor location or it could mean that you have plans to change around your timeline for the day. We had one wedding that bumped cocktail hour up to pre-ceremony inside the reception tent until the rain let up. Either way, don’t wait until the day of the ceremony to make that plan. Set a “make-or-break” time for yourself to execute your plan B, and make sure you’re fully ok with plan B. We live in Wyoming, after all!

Rain delay at Arista and Jake’s ceremony.

Prepare your guests for the weather and type of terrain they will encounter. Have them bring jackets and good shoes for mountain locations, especially. Warn them about the altitude and hydration in high mountain locations.

Outdoor lighting. For tents, opt for romantic lighting like big lanterns or twinkle lights. If you are having an open air reception, you need to have some light for the dance floor, especially if you are in the mountains without a lot of other outside lighting nearby. For mountain weddings in Wyoming, opt for big cafe lights and lots of them. Also have your DJ bring lights for the dance floor. Think about lights near the bathrooms as well – it will get really dark really fast in mountain locations.

Indoor Venues and All Receptions:

Consider lighting for indoor venues. And I don’t mean in regard to your photographers or the kind of light we need to do our job. We bring our own light. I mean consider lighting in terms of the mood of the room. For a church, you don’t have much control over how the light will look. But for other places you might be getting married or having your reception, think about how the light makes a room feel. There is a very popular place here in Cheyenne that feels like a Kmart in terms of lighting (drop ceiling through half of the room with fluorescent lighting while a couple spots have some huge chandeliers hanging from a vaulted ceiling but those chandeliers are covered from view by more drop ceiling). For some reason, those fluorescent lights get left on along all edges of the room, lighting up the drab yellow walls and fire alarms along all the edges and creating a really weird atmosphere for photos. If your venue has artificial lighting, make sure you like the effect it will have at night, and if not, consider adding different types of light (twinkle lights, large lanterns hanging from the ceiling or big post lanterns in the corners) to create a mood that will compliment all the hard work you put into decorating elsewhere. In general, I’m a big fan of natural light coming in through the windows, complimented by lanterns or small white lights at night. Overhead lights in general tend to be too yellow and too ugly to provide for a nice ambience. People feel too exposed to dance and relax if lighting is too bright overhead.

Della Terra Mountain Chateau reception with soft, romantic lighting. This is one exception where overhead lights might work, but this venue put a lot of thought into designing their lighting.

And speaking of lighting, if you have a DJ, make sure he has LIGHTS with his set-up. You don’t have to do a full lighting package, but you do need some lights on the dance floor. Nothing makes for a more awkward night than people not wanting to dance because all the overhead lights are on. We’ve watched people mess with the lights in a room all night, only to completely turn them off eventually, and then risk people tripping over the tables. (Sidenote: we can’t focus our cameras in complete darkness, so we do actually need a little bit of light on the dance floor.)
Please, please, please ask your DJ NOT to use pin lighting. It’s just not that cool, and what’s even less cool is getting your photos back and realizing there are little green and red dots all over everyone’s faces.
This is so important, it gets a second bullet. NO PIN LIGHTING. Not cool. Don’t do it.

Consider the fact that we have to photograph you while you’re at your head table during toasts. DO NOT put a bunch of flowers in tall vases at your head table or sweetheart table. Keep decorations at that table simple and low lying. Here’s the reason. If there are a bunch of tall flowers in front of you, or if this becomes the place where you put your bouquets in water, what essentially happens is that you hide behind the flowers and vases and your guests only see your eyes. Your photographers become extremely frustrated because if we try to crouch down on the dance floor in front of you during speeches (so we’re not blocking any guests from seeing speeches), I lose your faces completely. If I use any external lighting to light you, often times those flowers will cast a bunch of shadows over your faces. Hang stuff from the front of the table or put flowers on the cake table as extra decoration, but please, please, please do not put a tall vase of flowers in front of you or your bridal party’s faces. Furthermore, it’s best not to have the head table right in front of a large white curtain, wall or sheet. When we do try to light something like that, it just creates weird shadows behind you. If this is the only option, have people giving toasts step out with a mobile mic set-up. In fact, I would recommend always doing this. It is just a more interesting shot and it makes it easier for your guests to see who is talking. They can still turn toward you when they speak, but it makes for better photos when there is a little distance and dimension to toast set-up.