The Risk of a Backyard Wedding

I was chatting with my good friend Saundra Hadley recently about at-home weddings, and she made a brilliant point: in order to be comfortable planning a backyard wedding, you have to be a risk taker. And she is absolutely right!

Whenever I am lucky enough to have nice weather at a wedding where I am working, someone will inevitably make a comment to me about it, and my usual joking response is “it costs extra” and the punchline always gets a laugh. But the hard truth is that we do not know what the weather will be like on your wedding day. Yes you can check the Farmer’s Almanac before you pick a date, and yes you can stalk the 10-day forecast. But I have bad news for you. You cannot plan on the weather. Remember the Derecho storm of June 29, 2012? The one with the hurricane force winds and weird, crazy thunderstorms? That hit the DC area around 9 pm and only lasted about 30 minutes? We had about 5 hours notice on the Doppler radar. No joke.

Which brings me back to my point – an at-home wedding comes with risk. The chance that your plans will change. The possibility that your wedding might not be exactly as you’d hoped. And the risk that you might have to spend some more money at the last minute to ensure that your guests are comfortable and safe at your backyard wedding.

Are you up for it?

Rainy photo courtesy of Kurstin Roe Photography.