Fairytale After Session: Syd & Kyle (in a downpour)

December 18, 2025

🌧️🏰💫 Syd & Kyle dreamed of fairytale After Session photos, and embracing a sudden downpour made it pure magic.

As a Fairytale After Session Photographer, I captured the joyful presence of these newlyweds (and their dog, Hamlet) as the rain brought their fairytale Winterthur photos to life.

Fairytale After Session Photographer captures bride and groom kissing in the rain in winterthur kissing tower — Twilight, falling raindrops, lush greenery, and a castle. **Does it get any more romantic than this?**

Fairytale After Session Photographer captures bride and groom wearing flower crowns and holding hands while walking their dog hamlet at winterthur wedding venue — Yaaas! I love that the **After Session** provided them with a chance to incorporate their **floral crowns and their dog**!

The best parts about working with Lisa

Kyle laughs, “I’ll be honest, I was a bit worried about Lisa’s equipment in the rain! It was raining really hard, but she never hesitated to keep working. I would’ve understood if she called it and had to reschedule, but Lisa wanted to work the rain into the photos, and found spots and poses that allowed it to not only work, but elevate our photos!”

Syd adds, “When the rain started coming down, I was a little disappointed to be honest, but Lisa was there hyping us up just as much as she did on our wedding day and even showing us on her camera how the pictures were turning out, and that made me feel a lot better.”

best Fairytale After Session Photography of bride and groom standing under arch in the rain at winterthur wedding venue — It was my honor to be Syd and Kyle’s **hype gir**l! Not only did we all embrace the rain, but we **had a blast doing so** and I think it really **elevated the creative aspects** of their photos as well!

Why we chose an after session

Many couples ask me, “What’s the point of an After Session?”

Syd and Kyle answer, “We wanted more time to capture photos we might miss on the wedding day, and not have to worry about getting a photo in every location that day.”

They laugh, “It was also an opportunity to take photos with our dog, who is a bit too excitable to be around on the full wedding day!”

You can read all about it on my After Session blog, but other reasons couples choose to book an After Session include:

Less pressure
Slower pace
Fewer eyes on you
More time to be creative
Freedom to explore unique locations
Wearing different outfits and hairstyles (stay tuned, Syd wears a floral crown!)

candid Fairytale After Session Photographer captures black and white image of bride and groom smiling at each other in the rain with rain drops on their glasses — Rain isn’t on the list, but I feel like these two might have folks adding it! How cute are they with raindrops on their glasses and beaming smiles on their faces?

award winning Fairytale After Session Photographer captures bride in groom in window of the kissing tower at winterhur, with rain falling around them outside at night, lit up to look like stars — This photograph was the biggest challenge. It literally **broke one of my cameras (good thing I have 4)** I will talk about it more in a bit, stay tuned…

Fairytale After Session Photographer: Floral Crowns

Syd shares, “The crowns were made by our florist, Sarah (Natural Florals), they were actually her idea! They totally fit our fantasy vibe. Syd got hair and makeup done from Gloss Salon Delaware. We wanted to recreate the same look as the wedding day.”

If you’re drawn to the fantasy elements woven throughout this After Session, you’ll love seeing how Syd & Kyle carried that same vision through their entire wedding day. You can explore more of their fantasy-inspired wedding and the beautiful photos that bring it to life in their full wedding blog here.

Including their dog: Hamlet

Syd smiles, “Getting to take photos with Hammie was so important to me. We joke that he’s our son. He just has so much personality (and sometimes sass!) for a dog that he really is a full member of our family, and I couldn’t imagine taking photos without him. Having the After Session was great because we only had to worry about lint-rolling one person instead of the entire bridal party.”

Kyle adds, “We always knew we wanted photos with Hamlet, but the stress of fitting that in on our wedding day with all the other itinerary was too much. So having the After Session for that was great.”

Fairytale wedding Photographer captures candid photo of bride and grooms dog hamlet with his tongue sticking out — Their dog was the absolute sweetest and his adorable whiskers and tongue were the total emphasis of my shot!

We Decided to Go for It!

Our first thought was to stay under cover, but we realized it wasn’t going to pass anytime soon, so we decided to go for it!

Kyle says, “I was slowly realizing the storm we thought was coming later at night was there now. I was open to trying to work with it and glad Lisa had great ideas and really gave us the confidence to go for it!”

fantasy inspired wedding Photographer captures black and white image of bride and groom walking in the rain at winterthur and laughing while holding umbrellas — Oh my goodness, **kids in a candy store**… Can you only imagine how most folks would have taken **“rain during their wedding photos”**? I am so glad that they were game and **thrilled** to hear that all **my hyping really did push them over the edge!**

Dry with the Rain Between Us

My second idea was to photograph the rain, but stay dry. Here I was under cover, and so were they, so I could capture the rain between us outside while we stayed dry!

Moving to Another Dry Space

Kyle smiles, “Splashing in the rain definitely made us laugh, we will always remember that.”

Isn’t life like this, though? The hard times will come, but keeping a positive attitude and making the best of what you’ve got, it’s kind of a huge secret to making life and relationships work in the long haul.

Fairytale After Session Photographer: Monet’s “Water Lilies” Vibe

I am a huge fan of Monet and impressionism in general, and I felt like his paintings were coming to life right in front of me. I used a motion blur affect (slow shutter speed) here and also a very shallow depth the field to give it almost an impressionistic vibe. Mother Nature helped me out with all the “brush strokes” from the rain!

THIS is a fairytale!

Kyle says, “What really stands out to me was standing in the kissing tower, and then running out into the rain afterwards and kissing in the rain.”

It’s a total movie moment…

Fairytale winterthur Photographer captures bride and groom kissing in the rain in the window of the winterthur kissing tower — It really took some **finesse to get the lighting just right here.** I wanted to capture the twilight and the mist in the forest as well as the castle walls, the turret itself, and the **lush foliage**… On top of that I really wanted to **illuminate the rain**!

Raindrops or a galaxy? Fairytale After Session Photographer

This is not photoshopped, I backlit the raindrops from behind them and had my assistant (Kris, who was also soaking wet and a super trooper) aim the flash to illuminate the raindrops while allowing the light building facade to fall into shadow.

It was pretty tough, given that I was trying to communicate from under an umbrella drenched in the rain from proably 20 yards away about how to aim the flash, but somehow we pulled it off and created some magic with our teamwork here.

When I looked at my camera, I was like wow it really looks like a sky full of stars!

OMG We were SOAKED!

Syd laughs, “After feeling stressed all night about the rain, checking the weather every 5 minutes, and trying our best to stay dry to protect my hair and makeup, and dress!

It was completely freeing to just say, ‘F it’ and run into the rain, let myself get soaked, and play and splash around in my heels!”

authentic winterthur photographer captures bride and groom kissing in the rain — Syd shares, “It was completely freeing to just say, ‘F it’ and run into the rain, let myself get soaked, and play and splash around in my heels!”

The raindrops on their glasses, though!

Kyle shares, “Syd was looking through the photos on Lisa’s Instagram post, and her initial reaction was, ‘Wow, look at these beautiful people,‘ and then she realized it was us. I think that speaks to the effect of the rain and how we look in it.”

authentic Fairytale wedding Photographer captures black and white image of bride and groom smiling at each other in the rain with rain drops on their glasses — Kyle shares, “Syd was looking through the photos on Lisa’s Instagram post, and her initial reaction was, ‘Wow, look at these beautiful people,’ and then she realized it was us. I think that speaks to the effect of the rain and how we look in it.”

OMG I love that, haha!!

At the end of the night…

Syd and Kyle describe their After Session experience in one word: “Unexpected.” 🤍.

I cannot wait to hear their second word, now that they have seen all the photos!

Slideshow: Fairytale After Session Photographer

VENDORS:

Venue: Winterthur Museum
Bridal Attire: L&H Bridal: Couture
Groom Attire: Sagets Formal Wear
Florist: Natural Florals
Hair and Makeup: Gloss Salon Delaware

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