Preparing for weather at your outdoor wedding

When it comes to choosing a venue, many couples choose to go with one that is at least partially outdoors. Maybe it’s because of the view, or maybe there’s just more space outside. There’s something intimate and romantic about a garden or backyard ceremony. Done right, outdoor wedding can be magical. But getting married outdoors means that you’ll need to think about weather. Here’s six tips on how to have the perfect outdoor wedding.

Have a weather plan

Your ceremony might be beautiful, but what happens if there’s wind, rain, or snow? A quick search of YouTube shows how easily wedding ceremonies can go wrong due to weather. When you’re in the moment, the last thing you’ll want to do is to solve weather problems. By thinking about a weather plan in advance you’ll be one step ahead in making sure that your wedding happens beautifully no matter what.

Talk to your venue

If your venue has outdoor spaces, then they are used to dealing with weather. Talk to your venue about what to do. Your venue will likely have suggestions, like using indoor space as backup or setting up a tent. They may even have a list of preferred vendors to help you plan for weather. No matter what, they’ve seen what works best in their space.

Talk to your vendors

It’s not just the venue that needs to plan for weather – your vendors will need to make adjustments too! If it’s forecast to be cold, make sure the caterer has a plan to keep napkins and linens on tables and covers for heated plates. If it’s windy, make sure your florist knows to secure big items like the wedding arch or tall centerpieces. You don’t want your expensive wedding flowers to topple over in the middle of your ceremony! Check your local forecast and contact all your vendors a week before the event to see what they need to be successful.

Be flexible

Maybe you wanted your photobooth or DJ in a particular spot, or maybe you had a minute by minute breakdown for your reception. When it comes to weather, we don’t have much control. Know that you might have to make last minute or real time adjustments to your layout and timeline when weather happens. First dance under the stars at 8 PM? You might want to rethink it if it’s pouring. A great idea is to hire a day-of-coordinator (they will manage your vendors and timeline for you) so if weather happens they can step in and save the day.

Get insurance

Sometimes the weather is so bad that it’s impossible to have the wedding. Maybe a bad storm causes the venue to flood, or winter weather prevents the bride or groom from being able to fly to their destination wedding. There’s thousands of dollars on the line, and much of it is nonrefundable. Getting a wedding insurance policy will give you peace of mind – it covers the cost of the wedding if it can’t happen (and most policies also protect you from personal liability and vendor no-shows, too). You can get a great wedding insurance policy for a few hundred dollars. Check out this researched ranking of some popular wedding insurance policies.

Have fun

So it rained on your wedding day. Is it what you pictured? Maybe not, but now it’s part of your wedding story. There’s not much we can do about the weather at the end of the day, but there’s a lot we can do about staying present and having fun. This is one of the most important days of your life. So take a breath and enjoy the moment. It’s time to enjoy your wedding!