Planning for the Weather

Mother Nature is an unpredictable beast and is the biggest, uncontrollable variable for our weddings, especially those with outside portions. This wedding season (which has only just begun), Alberta has seen wildfires and the resulting blankets of smoke, tornados and other severe storms, flooding, and higher than normal temperatures. So, how do we plan weddings when Mother Nature can wreak havoc at any moment?

Consider your risk

Look closely at the city or location that you are looking at hosting your wedding. What are the weather trends and risks that exist for that area at the time of year of your wedding? What are the daily temperatures? Is there a storm season? Is there a flooding risk typically? And so on. Once you know the risks, you can make the next decision when it comes to your wedding. What kind of venue should you host it at?

Outside or Inside

Indoor weddings have fewer risks associated to weather. They aren’t zero, but they aren’t the same as an outdoor wedding. So if you want to protect yourself from weather impacting the site of your wedding, then you may want to choose a completely indoor wedding. While the risks are not as great in an indoor venue, you still need to ask the venue how they assess weather risks on the day of the wedding and implement safety plans.

Outdoor Ceremonies

For outdoor ceremonies, we always have a back up plan just in case the weather is problematic on the day of the wedding. If you can, negotiate an indoor space at your reception venue if the outdoor ceremony is off-site. If the outdoor space is at your venue, ask about the back up space for the ceremony if it has to be indoors. Will it impact anything else to do with the wedding? Sometimes it could affect seating arrangements or timing to flip from ceremony to reception.

And then think about what kind of weather will make you go from outside to inside, and draw that line now months before the wedding. It will help you make these decisions on a day where emotions are high. For example, if it is raining then we will go inside and we will make that decision by 12pm on the day of the wedding. Most people consider rain, but have you thought about heat or smoke. These two are becoming more relevant. High temperatures can be just as dangerous as a thunderstorm or the rain and will be just as uncomfortable for your guests. Same thing about smoke. Will it impact your guests and make them uncomfortable?

Tented Wedding

For tented weddings, you need to have an adverse weather plan and know the limitations of the location where the tent is going and the limitations of the tent itself. At what points would you have to evacuate the tent? And where would you evacuate to? Who is in charge of making that decision? These details need to be ironed out well before the day of the wedding and communicated to the person making the decision and to all of your vendors.

Mother Nature is always going to throw us curveballs when it comes to hosting weddings and events. But the best thing that you can do, is to have a plan in place and someone who will make that decision. This is one of the things that your wedding planner can assist with and makes us very valuable. We have likely experienced a few things and can draw up these plans very quickly.