What is the best season for your wedding photos: autumn wedding photos?

In this series of blog posts, I will be looking at each season and how it will look in your wedding photos. But I am particularly excited about this one, because it is about my favourite season: autumn and how to get great autumn wedding photos. 
At the end, we will have a bit of a round up, just in case you are still unsure what season is the best season for your wedding photos.

My previous two blogs looked at spring wedding photos and summer wedding photos. 

But let’s talk about autumn!

What does your perfect autumn wedding photo look like?

Imagine your UK autumn wedding photos!

Do you imagine yourselves in front of hedges with red and golden leaves, standing on a canopy of fallen leaves in matching golden colours and you are bathed in the warm glow of the autumn sunshine.

Well, is that really what your autumn wedding photos will look like?

They might.

If you are lucky that is!

Reality check: worst and best autumn wedding photo scenario

Best case: you are lucky and nature has turned from a deep green to a beautiful pallet of reds, rusts and yellows, and on your day, the sun is out making those photos just perfect.

And if you are really lucky, the leaves have just started falling, covering the dull brown ground with a layer of gold.

Worst case: autumn came early this year or there was a big autumn storm the night before your wedding, and most of the trees are bare and dead.
And the leaves that have fallen have already turned into a brown mush.
And to top it all off, on your wedding day, the weather is overcast or it might even be raining.

Most probably, you will find yourself somewhere in between.

The trees might only start to turn and still be mostly green with some yellow patches. Not to bad, but not the beautiful flame-like colour pallet you were hoping for.

We can never know in advance when autumn leaves will look their prettiest. This is down to how and why the leaves change colour in the first place.

The leaves change to yellow and red when the chlorophyll in them is destroyed. Lack of daylight is the main factor that starts this process.
If this was the only thing starting the process, autumn would arrive like clockwork!

Unfortunately, temperature and rainfall also play a roll and can push the colourful season by several weeks into either direction.

So really, it’s the same as with the spring blossoms, there is a big element of luck in whether you will have perfect autumn colours for your wedding photos, or not.

Why the difference and what you can do to get the best possible autumn wedding photos

As always, it is all down to the weather.

And with the changing climate, weather pattern continue to change and make it harder to predict them.  

You could ask the venue what the foliage looked like on the date of your wedding over the past few years. But in my experience it is barely worth it.
The window for the perfect flame-coloured leaves photo setting is usually only a couple of weeks long. And in South-East England, it can happen any time between the end of August and October.  

But there are of course other things you can do to make sure will get fantastic wedding photos, even if they autumn-colour backdrop is not perfect.

So what are those things? 

My advice for getting the perfect wedding photo in autumn

Since you will never know whether the leaves will have their best display colours and whether any potentially muddy ground will be covered by beautifully coloured fallen leaves, there are two things you can check.

Are there hedges, shrubs or trees next to hardstanding ground, like gravel or a patio?
If there are, you will find that the venue will clear away fallen leaves regularly, so they won’t turn to brown mush from people walking on them. This means, that you have found a potential perfect photo location for your autumn wedding photos, as long as the plants are in their autumn colours. 

As in any season, I highly recommend to check out any beautiful architectural backdrops that the venue might have.
This can be the beautiful wedding venue building itself, some beautiful space inside of it or even just a tall brick wall. 

So what is the best season for wedding photos

Well, that is a big question which we will look at more closely once we have looked at all the season individually.

I am working my way through the wheel of the year over the next few blogs. We have already talked about your spring wedding photos and summer wedding photos.
In my very next blog, we will be looking at what winter means for wedding photos.

Follow me on social media (links in footer) where I will announce when the next blog is live.

If you are already set on an autumn wedding and would like to find out how I can help you capture it, drop me a message via my contact form.

I look forward to hearing about your wedding.

Bright blessings,

Eco-Wedding Photography from the Handfasting And Pagan Wedding Photographer UK and EU