Rainy day plan b

When is the latest you can make the change and everything still go smoothly? I would wait as late as possible without pushing things too far.

They were calling for a huge downpour of rain on our wedding day. Greater than 80% chance of rain during my wedding, and I was so upset. The night before we made the decision to go ahead and use the backup space. The morning of the wedding came and it was sunny. We went ahead and scrambled around to move everything back to the original spot, and we had our outdoor wedding as originally planned without a drop of rain.

FWIW, our backup plan was a building just across the yard from our outdoor location, so it was a fairly simple change of plans. You would have to take your own situation into consideration on that.

The night before. Our venue didn't actually require it until around noon the day of, but it had rained all week. We figured that regardless of whether it actually rained that day (and it did), that the ground would be way too gross from the week of rain to want to be outside.

I think you need to have a back up plan, as with any outdoor ceremony but I wouldn't make the call 6 days before the wedding. And what does Possible rain mean? It could mean a shower at 9 AM which wouldn't effect an evening wedding, or vice versa. We had our cocktail hour outdoors and in the event of rain the venue would call it by 12PM noon the day of the wedding. The venue also offered outdoor ceremony, and the contract said they would make the call 10AM the day of before they started to set up.

For our Saturday AM wedding, our venue said we had to make the call by the night before so that they could set up everything appropriately. However, our backup space is the chapel on site (instead of the garden as we're planning for) so the worst that can happen if we wait too long is that the venue gets mad at us for making them set up chairs outside for nothing- the chapel has pews and tables at whatnot so they wouldn't be doing much to move it inside.

My venue dictates I have a window of a couple hours to make the final decision where they should set up.

I'm having same problem. They predicted sunny weather tell a few days ago now say possibly rain... Ugh... We are doing it at our home so worse comes to worse we can move inside the house but really don't want to. Good luck and Congratulations

I requested we make the move if there is lightning, heavy rains or extreme wind. Our ceremony is only about ten minutes long, people can have an umbrella. The decision will be made that morning, our ceremony is at 11.

View Quoted Comment We have a plan B. Was just wondering when people made their decisions to use their plan B . This is our predicted weather for the day of. Our venue is very hands off. We are simply renting the hall, chairs and tables for the reception. Everything else is us and our planner. Our reception is in a public park and totally up to our discretion.

Living in Florida, this was one of my biggest headaches when trying to find a venue! I got lucky with my venue! Our ceremony is outside on a deck over a lake but it has weather blockers that are basically invisible, for rain, wind etc. Hope everything works out for you OP!!

I believe my venue makes us make that call 2 hours prior to the ceremony start time. I’m planning an outdoor ceremony on a patio, but if it rains it will move into the chapel on site. Hopefully the rain holds off for your big day!

Our venue is all outdoors so our plan B is tenting. The rental company told us they needed to know 5 days before !

I'll make the call the day of as we set up. It'll be an easy switch since we're getting married on the balcony we can just move things to a room with a fireplace we wouldn't otherwise use. But like PP said, it depends on your situation. We have the entire clubhouse all day

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Just because the ceremony is only ten minutes long does not mean guests will only be outside for ten minutes. Lots of people make a point to show up early and will probably be outside for half an hour or longer. Even in a light rain thats long enough to be wet and uncomfortable and an umbrella won't protect your guests from any rain that is moving sideways due to wine and air movement. Rain rarely falls straight down. If there is any kind of rain happening you should move it inside for both yourself and your guests. how do you plan on keeping yourself dry? Do you really want to be holding an umbrella during your own ceremony?

@OP - I would look at your contract with your venue and see when is the latest you can move it. If the back up site is different then the current ceremony site I would do it at least 48 hours in advance to give yourself plenty of time to notify guests about the change. If its on the same site and just moving from outside to inside - whenever the venue tells you you can is fine.

View Quoted Comment I should have said our ceremony site will be in a building with no walls? Like you find in a park? Blanking on the word!! So if there is light rain there is a roof. I am more worried about strong winds. We will see.....

A pavillion! Our ceremony is in a pavillion. Lol....i looked it up!

Both our wedding and reception are outdoors, so I've been obsessively checking the weather forecast! We reserved a tent in case it rains. The rental company gave us up to two days before the wedding to cancel the tent.