Chicago Engagement Session in a Downpour | Eden & Alex

Wanting unique Chicago engagement photos? There are ways to get this done without Mother Nature, but she sure did put on a show for Eden and Alex.

The best plan is winging it.

Everyone thinks that kissing in the rain is like that scene from The Notebook and it might be like that, I cannot confirm. But, when you’re the one on the other side of the camera, I can confirm you are praying that you have useable work and are full of anxiety that your couple is going to want to reshoot. 😂 This session with Eden and Alex was supposed to be a perfect lil end of September engagement session full of Chicago style hotdogs and lake front sunset walks per my engagement session guide, but the morning of the session the forecast showed rain.

What I usually do in these scenarios is the following 1. offer a reschedule or 2. say “if you’re willing, let’s roll.” Due to the couples schedules they opted for option two and not gonna lie, I am so glad we stuck it out because I have never shot engagement photos in conditions like this and it was amazing.

How it went.

We started off grabbing a quick hotdog down the street from the Montrose Bird Sanctuary, and just as we finished up there we started getting a little bit of a drizzle, but it was no biggie so we carried on. The couple changed into their second look as soon as we go to Montrose, and from there we snapped some photos in the bird sanctuary area. We then made our way down to the lakefront trail. At this point, it started drizzling a bit more and the sky was an absolutely ominous yellow/green color, but there wasn’t any thunder or lighting so we again carried on.

Within a literal blink of an eye, that drizzle transformed into monsoon kind of rain and thunder, but we were already soaking wet so we just ran with it until I could no longer see straight. It was chaotic and messy but brilliant all at the same time. In the moment, it was a bit stressful for me because I strive to serve my clients in the absolute best way possible, and the rain had my anxiety take over.

I quite literally believed in that moment that I didn’t do my best because I worked quickly to try and get everyone back to their cars safely. But once I got home and uploaded to my computer I realized that I was very wrong, and had created some amazing, incredibly unique engagement photos. (But my anxiety had me edit the whole session in a few days and send to my client saying “if you want dry photos we can shoot again no charge!!” but they absolutely loved them.

And to top it off…

We had a videographer with us filming a branding video for me and I felt terrible asking him to stay with but he was happy to lmao. He did an absolutely amazing job compiling this session with another session I shot over the summer. Joe Lotz is his name and he is one of the few videographers in Chicago I recommend to every single one of my clients looking to hire a videographer. Here’s the video Joe made for me. And here’s his website if you’re in the market for a videographer for your wedding in 2023 or 2024!

Scroll to see some of my faves from this session!

Shout out to these two for absolutely crushing it and braving the weather!! And special thanks to Joe Lotz for also sticking it out for me.

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All photos © Arielle Gallione 2022