Wedding Blog

When we signed the contract with The Abbey we intended on having the ceremony in this little gazebo on the bay. I actually wasn’t wild about the gazebo but it sounded so easy to have the ceremony and reception in one place. Then I started asking about timing and found out that not only was another wedding booked for the indoor ballroom that day (not a huge deal, but annoying that it hadn’t been mentioned), they were also having the ceremony in the outdoor gazebo. I really wanted a sunset ceremony, and in September in Wisconsin that’s around 6pm. The other couple is having their ceremony at 6pm.

I asked about alternatives, they weren’t good. I was upset because we had already paid the full deposit, part of which went towards having the ceremony in the gazebo. The solution that was posed involved our ceremony starting at 7pm, when the sun would be almost set, an hour after the other ceremony. Not happening! I had visions of our musicians shoving people out of the way to set up their equipment. Long story short, I was refunded the part of the deposit dedicated to the ceremony location and started looking at other options.

We really wanted to get married by the lake but also needed a good weather back-up plan. (I will no doubt be obsessively checking the weather in the weeks leading up to the wedding). Then Mr. Sundae suggested having the ceremony in the community where his parents have their condo, something I hadn’t really considered because I didn’t think there was a designated area that would work and had never seen weddings there. But as it turns out, they do have weddings there all the time and even though it’s a little narrow it’s going to work out perfectly. We get the entire area by the lake for the whole day, no other weddings allowed, and use of the large white back-up tent in case of rain:

Mr. Sundae and Lola checking out the space:

There was actually a wedding there the day before we arrived, sad that we missed it but we did get to see the chairs that come with the package:

You can see our back-up plan tent in the picture above. It has sides that can be attached if the rain is really bad, and I love that it’s still near the lake. Our other options involved being inside a room with no windows. It still might be a little risky, but I am just hoping for the best! Here is a view from inside the tent:

The view right behind the trees that will outline the altar:

And the place that I can hardly wait to take pictures in - this is the beginning of the lake path and just a few feet from where the ceremony will be:

Are any of you nervous about weather for outdoor ceremonies? What kind of back-up plans do you have in place?