Outdoor Ceremony Weather

I am getting married outside and it’ll be colder than that. If it’s just the ceremony, have you considered providing blankets, hand warmers and hot cocoa? A ceremony is shorter than a football game, Christmas light gazing and other things that keep people outside in cold temps.

IMO colder than 60 should be inside. I went to an outdoor ceremony that was colder than that (about 50) and guests were clambering to get inside only to be wholly disappointed that the cocktail reception was outside.

If it's gonna be 50 i'd used the indoor option. It's beautiful and your guests will thank you.

The "inside" option still looks to be pretty much outside. Are you planning to have heaters or anything else set up? Otherwise the only difference is a roof. 50 is too cold to ask people to be outside.

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It is just the ceremony and on all of our wedding communication I stressed to guests that the plan is to have the ceremony outside and the weather can be unpredictable so please dress accordingly. As for extras such as blankets and hot cocoa the issue is just the time and money and figuring out logistics this close!

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I am hoping that the weather will shift again and will be closer to 60 by the time of the ceremony. Cocktail hour is in the pavilion space where we can lower the sides to make it more enclosed. I have a tendency to be too people-pleasing at my own expense and some of my family members who I have expressed this worry too assure me that it will be fine and I would love to believe them!

I think both places look beautiful! I'm from Chicago and for me personally (and most the people I know), 50 wouldn't be bad for a ceremony (especially if it's on the < 30 minute scale)! It's probably a know your guest type of thing (i.e. do you have a lot of kids or older guests that it might be more difficult for?). How early do you need to decide?

If I were you I would seriously just not look at the weather until after the wedding is over lol. I was so anxious about the weather leading up to it and a week before when I checked, it was predicting rain. But I didn’t want to waste stress on things I couldn’t control so I flat out stopped looking at it and told myself things would work out. The night before the wedding, I didn’t check myself but my husband’s best man apparently did and told me that it was still predicting rain all morning and afternoon. I had a feeling it’d work out somehow. I woke up and it was 75 and partly cloudy. It was a PERFECT day and didn’t rain until after the reception ended.

Seriously, stop looking at it 😂 it’s so freeing not to worry about things you can’t control! Save your worries for things you can actually change

A wedding ceremony isn't the same as a football game in my opinion. In cold weather, for a football game, I'd be wearing long underwear, jeans, boots, layers of shirts and a jacket. That's probably not what I'm planning to wear to a wedding. I'd be VERY unhappy about a temperature of 60 degrees or less (and, honestly, 60 would be pushing it if I'm wearing a dress). I don't think it's being a "people pleaser" to not make people sit outside in the cold; I think it's being considerate of your guests. Yes, the wedding is the "couple's day," but once they invite guests they have a responsibility to consider the guests' needs. Most venues let you make a decision within a couple of hours of the ceremony time, but I wouldn't plan on asking guests to sit outside in temperatures under 60 degrees.

My advice is to have a back-up plan in case it really is in the 50's or lower, especially if you have older guests in attendance.

I am in a similar situation; we are having an outdoor ceremony in NC this coming weekend, and right now it's looking like the high will be 50 on that day.

I'm really hopeful it will warm up, and we're aiming to keep the total outdoor time to under 30 minutes.

If it's below 60F we've planned for outdoor heaters ($200 to rent for the day) and today I just ordered blankets (24 x $100 on Amazon) which will serve as an additional wedding favor. We will go inside only if it rains or is cold-cold (like 30's); fortunately our venue is flexible about setting up outdoors and moving it to indoors even on the day of.

Good luck!