Outdoor weddings - From a guests perspective

We both ended up putting on as many of his shirts as we could over our dresses. During dinner, we wrapped them around our legs. Please.... Consider your guests. No one is going to tell you your wedding sucked because they were so cold and wet that they couldn't truly enjoy themselves. The bride apologized for it being so cold, and they thought about propane heaters, but they figured everyone would be fine. They probably could've left off the champagne that literally no one drank and rented a few propane heaters. Would you want to see this strange chick in a Harley Davidson tshirt over her dress walking around your wedding?

Oh that sucks!

How awful!!!!!!

That's rough. One of my friends had an outdoor wedding on a VERY hot day with limited seating; if you're going to have limited seating, it's a good idea to let your guests know even if you don't want to plaster it on the formal invitation. One guest almost passed out and had to be golf carted around by the property owner. Also, the ceremony was held a couple hundred feet from a very busy road, and they didn't use a microphone so I can't say I actually heard any of the ceremony =\

That's awful. And I feel bad for the bride. Sometimes you just can't prepare for that type of weather. She had probably been so excited for her day and like all of us, pray for nice weather. Instead of thinking about how uncomfortable you were and how your day was ruined, think about the bride. It was her big day.

The thing is @itsalovestory is when you invite people, doesn't matter if It's 20 or 250, you then have to think about them. If it's just you and your FH then it can be all about you.

I got married in the fall in Minnesota. It could be a perfect fall day at breezy and 60, it could be 30 and snowy, it could rain, snow, tornado, blizzard, sun shine... Anyone of those could happen because the seasons are changing. I wanted an outdoor wedding but chose an indoor venue because of all those possibilities. I figured if it snowed, we'd all be warm. Or if it was 60 we could have the doors open and use the outdoor patio.

Guess what? It was a record high of 77 that day! We had the AC on! So if we had an outdoor wedding everyone would've been hot. Indoor took into consideration all of the guests and weather possibilities.

I feel your pain. As you might imagine, I have seen this all....way too hot, way too cold, buggy, humid, windy. None of it is good, and any one of those conditions unravels all the time and money you've spent on this shindig. It's hard to enjoy a wedding when you're uncomfortable.

If the possibility exists, you either find a way to solve it or find another venue. Because as uncomfortable as we all are, you'll be even more so (because you're wearing way less, lol). I had a bridal party last november, outside, who all wore long underwear under their gowns.....I've had brides whose teeth were chattering so hard they could barely say their vows.

And the look on the guests faces is priceless. And not in a good way.

That is awful!

@Itsalovestory I don't care if my day was ruined. I would've been home cleaning the house and tearing up old carpeting in our guest room. I don't know the bride or the groom. I was my friends last minuet +1 because her and her bf recently split up. We live in Arizona..... February in Phoenix could be 50° or it could be 100°. It could be nice and sunny, or it could be freezing rain. It's all up in the air around that time out here. When planning our wedding, we took all of that into consideration and had a backup plan for each and every possible threat. We rented a tent that was kept in the ranch that we paid $1200 for but didn't use. The ranch had those giant fans on hand to cool off the ceremony and reception area if it got too hot. We rented propane space heaters, hot coffee and tea for people to keep warm if it was too cold. We even provided Off bug wipes just in just it was a humid day and the mosquitoes were out. On our wedding website we made sure that people knew the extreme variations of weather we get out here and suggested to keep an eye on the weather before packing. We even included a link to the venues location on the weather channel. All they had to do was click the link and BAM! They knew what the forecast was. It ended up being in the 70's° during the day and in the mid 40's° at night. Did we need the $1200 tent we rented? No. But knowing it was there to provide our guests with shelter was a comforting feeling. We didn't use the fans either, but we did use the giant propane heaters we rented. There really is no excuse to not making sure your guests are comfortable. We didn't use our wedding insurance either, but again... Knowing that it was there just in case, is a comfort. I will give them that someone did end up starting a fire in a pit later in the night, but the Ranger came and put it out since it's fire season in AZ or something like that lol. We get these huge forest fires that spread miles and miles. People and animals are killed. It's horrible.

Well now that you explained they couldn't actually have fires i do sympathize with them a bit more. I agree that you need to be prepared for all types of weather but I still feel bad for this couple. That would be terrible. People didn't even go out to see her walk down the aisle? You sat in your car half the night? I can't imagine how terrible the bride must have felt all night because her guests were too cold to care.

Every outdoor wedding I have been to has been uncomfortable for some reason or another and the bride and groom refused to move it indoors, even when it was raining before the ceremony.

I am now starting to roll my eyes at just about everything it's-a-love-story posts. No, there is no reason to "feel bad for the bride". The bride planned this wedding, and being excited for her day and "praying" for good weather is not how you properly plan an event. The bride could have (and should have) had a plan B for bad weather.

It's called being an adult and considering your guests first when you plan your wedding. It's not fairytale land where you just hope and pray for a good day, and hope it all works out in the end.

This. This is why I chose an indoor venue.

I agree about every possible out come. But I do wonder if this bride had an extra 1,200 dollars to spend or how she could have know no one was going to drink the champagne.

I do feel bad for the bride. Sounds like the weather is extremely unpredictable. But why she choose not to do a plan B when she saw that it was going to rain.....

Same here! Our venue let's us decide the morning of whether we want to go through with the outdoor ceremony, or have everything set up inside instead. Not having a backup option like that would have been a deal breaker.

We are planning on having an outdoor ceremony, weather permitting. We will be having a simple ceremony under a wedding arch with chapel seating and adequate chairs for ALL of our guests. We checked out venues that would not allow for enough chairs for our estimated 150 guests. Immediately, we eliminated those places. We didn't like the idea of any of our guests not sitting, even if only for a short time. Also, we have a backup plan in place, whether it's too hot, too cold, windy or rainy. You never know in New England in May... the weather is funny like that! If Mother Nature does not cooperate, our ballroom will be set-up in a similar way with chapel seating. But I'm really hoping for a comfortable, sunny day!

We looked at one hotel venue, with the choice of the reception in a smaller or larger ballroom in the hotel, or at the site of formal gardens, across the street. We nixed the formal gardens, because it would have mean a lot of walking, on sloping terrain, to get to the ceremony site, with an un-air conditioned tent, for the reception.

At the hotel, we could have the ceremony at a grotto, adjacent to the property, or in gardens behind it, that had beautiful fountains. Thank God we chose a completely indoor location, where the hotel did off-site catering, for both ceremony and reception.

The day we married was unseasonably warm, with high humidity - think SAUNA! We went to take photos outside and opening the door was like opening an oven. If we had the ceremony outside, I'm sure some guests would have been watching, out of the hotel windows, or keeled-over, if in the seats. It rained, during our reception, but didn't alleviate the humidity. If we had chosen the tented reception, at the gardens, it would have still meant a 50 yard walk, to the restrooms.

I've been to 3 outdoor wedding ceremonies - one where the weather was fine, two where it was boiling hot. One was in FL, in the fall. The ceremony, guest chairs were set-up, where we had to face into the sun. In photos afterward, our faces were still beet red. The cocktail hour food was set-out on a porch. Soggy crackers, sweating cheese, etc. ... not appetizing.

We are having an outdoor wedding 5/20 next year...gosh you've got me thinking about all ranges of weather possibilities...the ceremony is outdoors under a huge tent ...blankets just in case and hand fans as well are now a thought...the weather has been crazy

This is exactly why we went with an indoor wedding. Outside, it could be balmy and beautiful or it could be a miserable, buggy swamp. Or a chilly, clammy mess. It's northern Ontario; literally anything is possible. Inside, it will be 23 degrees centigrade with zero chance of rain, wind or insects.

I'm really impressed you stayed for dinner. I would have bolted.

I don't know why people have weddings outside at this time of year (at least here in the north). End of April is too cold. Outdoor weddings are pretty much for possibly the end of May to the end of September. No one wants to be outside when it's cold.