Raleigh wedding photography at Fairmont United Methodist Church and Mia Francesca

August 14, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Since I am best known for being an outdoor wedding photographer, occasionally I'm asked the question "can you photograph my church wedding ceremony with an indoor reception?' My answer is a resounding YES! Of course I can, lol! In fact, I'm 100% comfortable taking photographs indoors and am one of the few professional photographers in the area who can deliver exceptional photographs in ANY lighting conditions imaginable.

A great example of this premise is this lovely wedding that I photographed in Raleigh at the Fairmont United Methodist Church a few weeks ago. The yellowish-lighting was very dim inside the sanctuary and the church had imposed restrictions on where I could stand during the ceremony (only at the top balcony at the back of the church from about 80 feet away). In addition, the church made me adhere to a strict "no camera flash" policy. A challenging photo situation for many for sure! In fact, a quick search on Google will show that few wedding photographers in the Triangle know how to deliver great color photos of weddings captured inside at the Fairmont United Methodist Church. This is because most others are unable to use the dim lighting & colors to their advantage. To cover up their ineptness, they 'll often resort to converting all of their clients wedding ceremony photographs to black and white images to avoid odd results in post processing. This is likely due to a lack of professional experience while using lower end camera gear. Luckily, I have the gear and the experience to handle this sort of challenge so I was still able to photograph the wedding ceremony from the balcony and deliver great color images with no problems whatsoever. Everything turned out great an the couple loved their wedding photos which is all that matters to me :)

Once the family formal's were completed at the church, the wedding party and I hopped on the Raleigh Trolley and drove downtown to the Moore Square area to get some fun group pics along with a few portraits of Kelly and Bradley together. As the sun sank low in the sky, we then headed to the Boylan Street Bridge to capture that iconic Raleigh skyline in the background of their wedding party portraits. It was nearly dark by the time we finished up so figuring out a way to light these group photos properly was interesting. Happily, my Canon 5DS preformed beautifully and the photos were easy as pie to capture!

Kelly and Bradley's reception at Mia Francesca was a continuation of the challenging theme. Although beautiful, this huge restaurant was very dark inside and required the use of my flash to be able to get all of the fun candid photos during the party. Again, I experienced zero problems taking pictures in here and ended up having a wonderful time capturing the couple and their guests having fun throughout the night. Lol, at one point the Bride and Groom got a little overheated on the dance floor so we were graciously invited by the event manager to step inside the restaurant's giant walk in freezer to cool off! What a rush!

To wrap up the night, one more lighting puzzle awaited me as Bradley and Kelly made their exit surrounded by sparklers waved on by their family and friends. Again, it was important to me that I got this right so I went outside before the couple made their appearance to set up my exposure while the guests lit their sparklers. It worked out perfectly and it was just awesome to see how happy everyone was in these last fleeting moments!

Check out the photos below and cheers to the challenges of creating gorgeous photographs in every light :)