The Summer of 2013 will be remembered for amazing weddings in and outdoors! Congrats to all couples who started their journey! 2013 will also be remembered as a very wet summer for many outdoor weddings, because it basically rained every weekend. When treated with respect , rain can be “no big deal’. When ignored, rain will devastate your outdoor wedding or ANY outdoor event. If you do not “Plan for Rain’ you are placing the success of your event and the safety of your event in harms way. So, if you are planning a beautiful outdoor wedding, please make sure that you are proficient in these steps:
- Get the “Weather.com” app on your mobile device and learn how to interpret its moving map. The number one problem I see is people not knowing how to understand what a storm is going to do. This is inexcusable.
- Have a Tent. This will also help your guests and vendors deal with all elements including blazing direct sunlight. Our Knoxville DJ company is placed in direct sunlight often and our equipment and staff basically melt.
- Take every umbrella your immediately family owns. If you take an umbrella it won’t rain, if you leave it at home expect to get wet. Having 20 or so umbrellas on hand helps your ushers with the elderly and any group that may be caught out in a storm. Grab a couple of boxes of over sized garbage bags, these will become waterproofing for everything. Get the largest size that you can find!
- Have an understanding that you must evaluate severe weather as well and move your group indoors. Rain is one thing when raindrops are pouring on your guests as they scramble for shelter, imagine those raindrops as golf ball sized hail. This would create a horrible situation if these guests are left defenseless in the path of a storm.
- Consider purchasing a Special Event Insurance policy.
- Dedicate a member of your immediate family to keep an eye on the radar. As your DJ, we watch closely the radar as A.) We don’t want your wedding ruined and B.) Selfishly we have several thousand dollars worth of electrical equipment that is ruined by even a drop.
Do NOT let a 15 minute rain shower effect the rest of the evening. I have seen Brides and Party planners panic at the sight of rain and try and “beat” it by moving the ceremony up 10 minutes, only to have everyone monsooned on and a very upset group of people. What if instead of the above scenario scenario, everyone came inside, let the shower move through, wipe down the chairs, everyone has a seat, the ceremony begins with a big rainbow above. Which of these sounds best to you???
I hope this helps some of you planning outdoor events. I do not want to scare you, I want to prepare you. Believe me, my experience with rain disasters is a very scary thing that you do not want to see! No matter what happens, do NOT stop smiling! 😉
This is a GREAt article, especially for weddings in Tennessee! Love this! Thank you so much for sharing all these great tips! We completely agree with all of them!