Planning

We had our ceremony outside, but our venue offered an indoor option in the case of rain

I’m too neurotic to allow for an outdoor wedding. 😆 We only considered indoor venues.

Between, wind, rain, heat, cold, humidity and bugs, the conditions would have to be close to ideal for an outdoor wedding to be a plus in my mind. As a guest, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I didn't wish we were inside. With people traveling from out of town there's no way a rain date would have worked. My advice to anyone planning an outdoor wedding is to have a Plan B that you'd be very happy with or choose another venue.

Our wedding is outdoors and I'm just praying to the wedding gods that it doesn't rain, or that it doesn't rain for long! We ended up going with a park pavilion for our venue, so that offers some coverage but they don't have a fully indoor option.


Our plan A was to rent out a small restaurant for an indoor reception, then they permanently closed. Plan b was to reserve the indoor community center but they told us they're closing for renovations 4 days before our wedding. We really wanted to keep everything in town (to keep things convenient for guests so they don't have to drive - we already reserved a ceremony space and cabins to stay at) so the pavilion was our only other option

View Quoted Comment Cool. It takes a lot to decide whether or not you going to have a wedding indoor or outdoor because you have to look at what is best for you.

View Quoted Comment That is great. It is good to have a second option in case the weather changes. Did your price change to have backup option or did it stay the same?

Our ceremony was outdoors, and our reception had indoor and outdoor spaces. If it were to have rained, we would have moved our ceremony indoors, and kept the reception fully indoors too. THANKFULLY it did not rain that day, so we were able to have everything as planned!

We picked a venue that could move everything indoors if needed. IMO this is a must if you're thinking of an outdoor wedding. Fortunately the skies cleared for us at the last minute.

View Quoted Comment It is good to be able to have or try to have a plan b when it comes to having an outside wedding. I’m glad that it worked out for you

View Quoted Comment Everything will work out. Have you thought about renting out a tent or is there other venues that you look for?

View Quoted Comment There isn't really room for a tent. The pavilion has a roof, but the sides are open. Worst case, we could probably get tarps or something to hang down for walls if really bad rain is predicted. We did look at some other venues, but they were out of our budget and there's not really any other venues in town

We looked at outdoor venues and found some beautiful ones but the general cost was astronomical and they had limitations that were deal breakers. The parks were nice and affordable but we wanted to keep everything at one location and the outdoor options didn’t allow flexibility for the reception for vendors or time. We didn’t have a rain plan because we are in Southern California where it only rains at specific times. We didn’t want to deal with heat/lack of shade. Tents were not an option for us (and they don’t function when it rains), so we decided to get beautiful outdoor engagement pictures instead.

View Quoted Comment Nope, no price change. The venue only allows one event to be held per day, so the back-up room is provided free of charge. The reason we chose the venue is because of the outdoor ceremony location, so I was definitely hoping to not need it! But I was very grateful to have that option. Thankfully, we got lucky and had the most gorgeous weather we could’ve ever asked for on our wedding day!

I love how everyone looked at all there options for an outdoor wedding and preparing for your big day. I wish all you the best in your planning and I know that your big day will be wonderful, beautiful and that you want it to be.

We are getting married at Atlanta Botanical Gardens 💜🩶

View Quoted Comment

That sounds so beautiful. I bet it will be so magical.

View Quoted Comment I know I can’t wait the garden will be beautiful. I will share. My wedding is in 97days😱