Outdoor October Wedding??

The venue may be free, but to have a ceremony and dancing outside you need to plan for the weather. That means tents and having heaters available (my daughter's wedding was mid-October...it was 62 degrees for the ceremony outside...but at night the temps dropped to the 30's. We were glad the reception was all indoors).

Would you be able to move the venue's tables and chairs outside? If not, you're going to need rentals.

Your free venue could actually end up costing as much as another you pay but has everything you need.

Yeah I’d be leery of that. Weather is so unpredictable. You don’t want your guests to not enjoy themselves because it’s so cold 🥶 An outside ceremony may work but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have your entire day outdoors in October.

You can plan for an outdoor wedding, but you also need to have a backup plan.

We are hoping for an outdoor April wedding in NJ - but we have a backup plan at our venue in case of rain, cold or snow (still totally possible in NJ in April).

ETA: We are only hoping for an outdoor ceremony. The reception will 100% be indoors. If the venue can't host an indoor reception it might make sense to expand your search of venues to find one that can.

Outdoor wedding CAN happen in mid-October, but as you know, midwestern weather can be fairly unpredictable. Mid-October bride here, Chicago. We had dreams of having the ceremony in this gorgeous front garden....and then it was cold, windy, overcast and some rain sprinkled. THANKFULLY we had a backup plan to go inside - or else we would have had about 100 miserable guests.

I think it's GREAT to have an outdoor, fall wedding! But...a backup plan is a MUST.

OO that is tough. October can be unpredictable but it is usually on the cold side. You'd need to get tents and heaters if there is no indoor option, which would make you end up spending some of the money you thought you were saving by choosing that venue.

I get scared at the though of outdoor weddings with no indoor option.

Even for my August wedding I made sure to choose a venue that had an indoor option - and good thing too! We ended up having to use it because it rained basically all day.

What is the typical temperature for the evening in your town in October? You can google it online, find averages and records & chance of rain and all that. I think it's fine if there is limited wind, no rain/snow, and it's 50 or above. I'd plan on providing heat lamps & fire pits & telling guests to wear warm clothes though.

I would definitely have a plan B. Where I live October is the warmest time of year so our outdoor wedding in October was great. But I imagine the Midwest is quite different. Could you afford to rent a tent if it’s too cold or there’s rain/snow?