Weddingbee Blog

I attended my cousin’s wedding two weekends ago, and it inspired me to share some thoughts on preparing for unfavorable circumstances. She planned her wedding to be a very casual, laid-back affair, all in about four months. She chose a day in the middle of summer, when the average temperature is 83 degrees, in a state that enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year. She chose not to rent a tent. And guess what happened:

(not her wedding, but a very close representation)

On that midsummer afternoon, in our notoriously sunny state, it poured down rain. The high was only 55 degrees. It was a cold and wet afternoon.

Don’t get me wrong—I have no problem with rainy weddings. In fact, the reason I moved to Oregon, where I was fortunate enough to meet my Mr. Husky, was because of the rain. And rainy wedding photos? Well, I happen to find them adorable:

(clockwise from left: source, source, source, source)

But there are some thoughts that I had, for both the marrying couple and for their guests, that can help make that unseasonably cold day in June seem less miserable.

For the Bride and Groom:

• Have some kind of backup plan. I realize that most June brides wouldn’t necessarily believe they would need a tent for their wedding. But if it is a completely outdoor event, you will need to somehow protect your guests from the elements. This could be a bucket of umbrellas from the dollar store, or it could be a tent. Do you have any family that would lend you some kind of cover? Mr. Husky and I purchased three 10’x30’ tents for our own wedding and ended up bringing one to my cousin’s wedding to help out. Maybe an event rental place in your area will let you place a tentative reservation on a tent, to be canceled if it’s not needed. Can the festivities be relocated to a building, or a covered shelter somewhere on the property?
• Bring a lot of towels. Between the time the chairs were set up and the time the wedding ceremony began, over an inch of rain had fallen. The tent offered protection to some of the chairs, but many others were left outside of it. If it weren’t for the towels to wipe the water from the seats, there would have been a great many guests standing.
• Enjoy it. Pull on your cute rain boots, pop up the umbrella, and smile! Some of your guests will be ill-prepared for the inclement weather and will likely leave early. But most others will come, umbrellas in hand, ready to party with you—rain or shine!

For the Wedding Guests:

• Wear appropriate clothing. I know, I know—you’ve had your outfit for this wedding picked out for weeks. Or maybe you purchased a dress just for this occasion. Either find a way to make it warm enough, or find something else to wear. Maybe add some winter stockings or a heavy cardigan. Either way, if you are going to an outdoor wedding and it’s cold and wet outside, dress for the occasion.
• Wear appropriate shoes. Along the same lines as above, but probably more important. I had a pair of shoes that I planned to wear that went perfectly with what I had decided to wear. After seeing what was happening outside, I opted for a different pair—one more fitting to the squishy soil.
• Do not call the bride that morning to complain or criticize. At 5:30 on the morning of the wedding, my cousin started getting calls from various friends and relatives, asking her what she was going to do to fix the problem, if she was going to cancel the wedding(!), and complaining that it was too cold and dreary to be outside. This was not helpful. She spent the morning in tears—not because of the rain, but because the very people who were supposed to be supportive and helpful were the people that were so critical of her failure to be prepared for the rain.

What advice do you have for rainy-day brides? Do you have a backup plan in case there’s rain on your day?