Couple poses for photo as fire rages in the background

A couple who decided to turn their wedding day misfortune into a photo opportunity have sparked divide with their unusual wedding photo.

A US bride and groom have been accused of “poor taste” after posing for a less than conventional wedding photo.

Katie and Curtis Ferland tied the knot over the weekend in California’s wine country, close to where the Kincade fire has burned more than 75,000 acres of land and forced nearly 180,000 people to evacuate.

Wedding photographer Karna Roa told The Guardian the Illinois couple had been planning their destination wedding for a year.

The nearby fires meant some guests had to leave their Airbnbs, and most of the wedding events moved indoors as a result, she said.

While posing for wedding photos, the couple’s wedding planner Sara Sugrue suggested they wear protective masks.

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The couple's wedding photo. Picture: Karna Roa

“When the couple put on the masks and it came time for this photo, I immediately thought of the American Gothic painting from 1930 and how that painting represented the normal for America of the time period,” Ms Roa told Fox News.

“All of a sudden this moment represented the new normal for wine country in October.”

For Ms Roa, the Ferlands’ wedding was the fourth in three years that she’d photographed and had been impacted by nearby bushfires.

The photographer said she was happy for the unusual photo to get attention if it meant more people were aware of what was happening in the region.

“As long as it can bring more attention to the wildfires and the problems that Sonoma and Napa County and Northern California are facing, then I would love more people to see it,” Ms Roa told local news station WKRG.

However, the photo has received a mixed reaction online, with some people accusing the couple of treating the devastating fires as a “joke” and in “poor taste”.

Firefighters look on as a structure burns during the Kincade fire. Picture: Philip Pacheco / AFP.

“Two questions. First one is why? Second one is huh?”

“People are losing everything and they wanted to go viral. Make better decisions people.”

“To each their own, but I’d have trouble celebrating what should be the happiest day of my life … while just mere miles away, families were undoubtedly experiencing the most devastating day of their life.”

“Do they think the fires are a joke? As someone who has had to evacuate my home I do not find this entertaining at all.”

“Poor taste … these fires are catastrophic and they’re posing for wedding photos for personal attention.”

Other comments included calling the snap “weird”, “a tad much” and “too dramatic”.

But others couldn’t see the problem with the photo, and congratulated the couple for going ahead with their wedding and getting a “memorable” photo despite the nearby fires.

“The date was planned and they soldiered on! Many happy returns!”

“For better or worse through the fire I pray their love last forever.”

“If they wouldn’t cancel it … they made it work. Cancelling a wedding isn’t cheap at all.”

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This Handmaid’s Tale-inspired wedding photo was slammed as ‘tone deaf’ by outraged social media users. Picture: Van Daele & Russell Photography.

‘TONE DEAF’ COUPLE’S WEDDING PICTURES SLAMMED

Earlier this month, a Canadian couple was criticised after they posed for a Handmaid’s Tale-style wedding photo.

The newlyweds — Kendra and Torsten — posed with women in handmaid costumes in front of “The Wall”, which is featured on the show to display the bodies of executed dissidents.

After it was shared online, the couple were criticised, with the photo labelled “incredibly dense” and a “tone deaf” tribute to Margaret Atwood’s work.

But Van Daele & Russell photography, the photographers behind the shoot, later defended the photos and said they had been taken to send a message.

“I knew when creating the image that it would possibly upset people, but that’s sort of the point … to WAKE PEOPLE UP,” they told the NY Post in a statement.