Europe is a place we went to schools and a place we have lot of sweet memories. It definitely carries special meanings to have our wedding portraits taken there. As our careers brought us to California, it created some considerable logistical challenges for our trip. Not only did we need to take a long flight, we also needed to bring our attire and photography gear all the way to Europe and set them up on the road! On top of these, we had an aggressive plan to visit 5 cities — Oxford, London, Paris, Versailles, and Loire — in two weeks. But nothing is insurmountable. As you can see the wonderful pictures from our albums, it simply required some prior planning to ensure a smooth and fun trip.


A mock trip
A lot of small details were not easily noticed until we ran through the procedures once. We came up with the idea to have a mock trip: we put our gear and gown in a carry-on travelbag and pretended that we were taking photos on the road. We headed to the same college campus where we had our first shots. The campus, with its European style buildings and a gorgeous garden, is very similar to the places we would be visiting. It is an excellent playground for our rehearsal.


Pack light The large suitcases were not an issue as they stayed in the hotel most of time. However, we would move around with our photography gear and Rain's accessories. Packing light would be essential for the cities where we planned not to drive. Thanks to our mock trip, we knew exactly what to pack and bring along on our photo shooting days.


Dealing with the wedding dress In the trip, Rain needed a way to move around with ease and keep the wedding dress clean. We figured out that Rain could wear a pair of light-colored shorts and only put on the skirt over the shorts just before taking the pictures, and take it off once done. It worked out well in our rehearsal. In the photos, there was simply no trace of the shorts beneath, so we did this during our trip.


Lessons learned from the rehearsal Peter got a boost from our first trial and decided to further challenge himself to use a proper film camera (a Canon EOS model) this time.

With the experience from the first shots, we were much more at ease at posing and composition. However, we went to the campus too late in the afternoon. It was too dark and Peter had not yet mastered the exposure techniques on films. At the end, we had a lot of nice poses, right compositions, but poorly lit pictures.

We were so disappointed but not discouraged. We did not give up. Instead, we reviewed the photos together. Peter did his research and found that the bad pictures had more to do with the environment than his skills. We learned not to fight with Mother Nature when the lighting was not right.

Overall this was an excellent rehearsal. It gave us a clear idea of how to pack for the trip. It also helped us set a realistic expectation on the results and feel easy when things were not under our control. For instance, the weather was really bad when we were in the Loire Valley in France. It rained intermittently, and was consequently rather dark most of the time. The place was still pretty but just was not good for taking outdoor pictures. Therefore, we decided to simply forget about taking photos for a day or so. Instead, we relaxed and enjoyed the moment together. We only took pictures when it brightened up.