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How comfortable are you with risk? In order to be comfortable planning a backyard wedding, you have to be a risk-taker. You have to be comfortable with change, and you must be OK with both implementing a back-up plan and all of the associated costs of said back-up plan.
Whenever I am lucky enough to have nice weather at a clients’ wedding, a guest will inevitably remark about it, and my joking response is “it costs extra.” 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. You can also pay professional meteorologists for their forecasts.
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. There was nothing we could do but wait to see what wreckage it brought to the tents we already had installed.
And we are not climate deniers around here. The climate is changing. I can see it in the way that March and November weddings are becoming more popular in the DC area. And the weather is more unpredictable and extreme. DC recently saw three 90-degree days followed by five 60-degree days in the middle of May. Our weather swings, for sure, but not like this.
There is another risk that is less talked about with backyard weddings. There is an inherent unknown with home weddings that doesn’t have to do with the weather. A wedding venue that does 50 events per year knows how the space is best used and understands how the guests prefer to use the space. That institutional knowledge is missing with a backyard wedding. With every home wedding I do, I learn lessons and would change a few things if I got the chance to do a second wedding at the same property. But usually, there are no do-overs or second takes with backyard weddings.
Which brings me back to my point – a home wedding comes with risk. The chance that your plans will have to 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?
If so, check out my foundational blog posts about: backyard wedding tents, wedding tent flooring, professional lighting for your backyard wedding, restrooms for your backyard wedding, utilities for your backyard wedding, and making a smart transportation plan for your backyard wedding.
