Getting Married in a Heatwave: When to Take Your Photographs

The Met Office and UKHSA issued heat health alerts across England on 7 August, with temperatures forecast to reach around 36C in the South East and East Anglia by Thursday 13 August. That includes Hertfordshire. It is the fifth hot spell of the summer.

The BBC covered what this is doing to weddings on 4 August, and it is worth reading: emergency marquees, ice cream vans booked at the last minute, venues hiring air conditioning at a premium, and bridal searches for fans up five times on 2019. One florist reported the flowering window for peonies and roses shrinking from two months to two weeks.

What that piece did not cover is the photography, and it is the part of the day most easily fixed. Here is what I actually do when it is 30C or more.

Is it too hot to get married?

No. But a hot day needs a different plan rather than the same plan endured. Almost everything that goes wrong on a scorching wedding day comes from following a timeline written for a mild one.

The two things worth changing are when the photographs happen and how long anyone stands in direct sun.

What does 30C actually do to your photographs?

Three things, and none of them are about the camera.

People squint. Direct overhead sun means everyone is half closing their eyes, and no amount of editing fixes a squint. It also throws hard shadows down faces, so one half is bright and the other is dark.

People look hot, because they are. Flushed faces and damp foreheads photograph exactly as they look.

And makeup moves. That was the first thing the bride in the BBC piece mentioned, and it is the one couples never plan for.

When should wedding photographs be taken on a hot day?

Later. On a day in the low thirties I would far rather photograph at six in the evening than two in the afternoon.

The light late in the day is kinder, lower and warmer. Nobody is squinting. Everybody has had a drink and stopped wilting. You get better photographs of more comfortable people, which is the whole argument.

If the schedule will not move, we shoot indoors through the worst of the heat and go back out when it drops.

Where should the group photographs go?

Into shade, or indoors.

This is the part couples find surprising: shade is not a compromise on a hot day, it is better light. Open shade is soft and even. No hard shadows across faces, no squinting, no half lit expressions. A shaded courtyard or the north side of a building will beat full sun every time.

Indoors works too, and on a day like Thursday it may be the only sensible option for the formal groups.

What to ask your venue

Hertfordshire venues vary enormously in how they handle heat, and it is worth asking before the day rather than discovering on it.

• Is there genuine shade outdoors, and where is it at four in the afternoon rather than at ten in the morning?
• Can the ceremony room be ventilated or cooled, and does it face the sun?
• Is there an indoor space that works for photographs if outside becomes unusable?
• Where will elderly guests and small children sit between the ceremony and the meal?

The short practical list

What actually helps, in order of how much difference it makes.

• Plenty of ice water, visible and easy to reach, not waiting on table service.
• Umbrellas. Plain ones, several. The most useful object on a hot wedding day, and they photograph well.
• Shade to sit in during the gap between ceremony and meal, which is when guests suffer most.
• A later slot for photographs, agreed in advance with everyone who needs to know.
• A room indoors held in reserve for the formal groups.

The one thing I would change

If you are marrying in a heatwave and can change only one item on the schedule, move the photographs to the end of the day. Everything else on this list is comfort. That one is the difference between pictures of people enduring a day and pictures of people enjoying it.

I photograph weddings across Hertfordshire, Hitchin and London, and destination weddings in Italy, where planning around heat is simply how you work.

Written on 10 August 2026, during the fifth heatwave of the UK summer. Temperature forecasts and alert dates are from the Met Office and UKHSA. Wedding industry figures are reported by BBC News, 4 August 2026.