Outdoor weddings are a fantastic choice for a beautiful and romantic wedding location. They enable dreamy and luscious photographs for the album and can be a splendid affair for you and your guests.

As most will know outdoor weddings will be incredibly dependant on the weather. Countries with interchangeable climate conditions such as the UK are prone to unpredictable summers whereby in some years it may last several weeks whilst other years may only be few days! It can be incredibly hard to know the right time to book the wedding venue and most brides just aim for July/ august in the hope of a warm sunny day. It is a huge gamble with decorations, flowers, seating and the ceremony setting all in place to have it washed away with a change in temperature.

But this quick guide will give some ideas on how to prepare for an outdoor wedding.

Backup

The most obvious plan every wedding planner would be to create a backup plan, this is even more prominent if you are having an outdoor wedding. Things change and its important to be ready for this if the weather does choose to take a turn for the worst. Due to the vulnerability of the weather in the UK it will seem as if you will be planning two weddings but it will pay off if the backup plan needs to be put into action. The venue should be able to help out with this, but be sure to tell your decorators at the venue what you will be doing if the heavens were to open.

Perhaps the venue has a tent or large gazebo that your wedding party could use during the ceremony so you are somewhat outside.

Furthermore, if it does choose to rain the night before, your guests will end up with muddy and soggy shoes if your wedding is on a grassy area so also think about possible solutions for this, maybe the hotel has another location on concrete that you could maneuver the ceremony too, so you still have the opportunity of having an outdoor wedding.

Wind

Wind is another temperamental entity that won’t necessarily destroy the wedding but can be incredibly annoying. Make sure you plan your hairstyles of yourself and the bride’s maids. It won’t look too attractive or comfortable to have hair blowing like a Mariah Carey video whilst your saying “I- do”. It is also important to remember the wedding decorations, if you choose to have flowers and other decorations outdoors make sure they are affixed down and secure. Finally remember to tell your guests to be dressed appropriately if you expect the wind to be a bit of a pain, so they can plan for a cool breeze. Once again a back up plan for the wind is always good and if you do choose to have a tent make sure the tent can withstand the winds.

Sound System:

There is nothing worse than going to a show or a ceremony and not being able to hear what is going on, this is even more so the case with outdoor weddings.  You, your partner and the ceremony conductor will be battling the earths elements, background noise and other outdoorsy sounds. A simple solution to this would be to hire a basic sound system, your DJ may even be able to sort this out for you since he will be arriving with the sound system.

Decorations:

Decorations are a very important part to any wedding, it holds the days theme and transforms a room or setting to a wonderful dream. Having an outdoor wedding does require fewer decorations simply due to the natural beauty of your location. However it is often quite popular to compliment the outdoor ceremony with a simple bow for the back of the chairs or a white chair cover set up, flowers to adorn the isle with lanterns or lights to enhance the setting- the choices are immense and really make it personal to the couple.

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