Whatever the Weather We’re Better Together

If the Weatherman could actually control the climate he’d be the best paid man on the planet. Brides-to-be would be lining up at his door to line his pockets with some cold, hard cash to ensure warm, dry weather for their wedding day. Strategies for selecting dates promising favorable weather range from consulting the Farmer’s Almanac to just picking a day on the calendar, crossing fingers, and hoping for the best. Unfortunately, when it comes to wedding day weather there is no guarantee. We’ve learned two things about wedding day weather over the years. 1. Always have a contingency plan if you’re planning an outdoor wedding. Better to have an impromptu indoor wedding in the event of a monsoon than to blow the budget sending a groomsman to Target for every rain poncho and umbrella available. 2. Whatever the weather we’re better together. Meaning, at the end of the day you’ll still be married and your wedding will be full of wonderful memories. If unwelcome weather crashes the wedding it may prohibit outdoor photos but it’ll only enhance the wedding day stories. We even had one bride who was married in a hotel lobby during a hurricane. It was more of a boutique hotel, no ballrooms or event space to relocate her beach wedding indoors. Recanting the story for us a few months later she shared this sentiment, “While we obviously wouldn’t have chosen to get married in those particular circumstances it made us realize that if we could make it through a hurricane and still say ‘I do’ then we could make it through anything.” Weather can't stop true love's sunshine.

Don’t borrow trouble

Among the best pieces of my advice for brides is to choose vendors for your wedding that you are comfortable with and trust. Do your due diligence in educating yourself about the outcome you want. Choose vendors that have good values, customer service philosophy, appreciate your desired outcome, and make suggestions to help you achieve your wedding related goals. Then place that piece of the wedding in the hands of the professionals you have chosen and make your best attempt not to borrow trouble. Now you might ask, “What do you mean by not borrowing trouble?” Good question. Partly I mean refrain from worrying about outlandishly unlikely potential problems that could possibly arise at some point in time. For example: You probably drive home from work every day. Do you constantly run scenarios of things that could go wrong in traffic? “When I stop at a traffic light someone dressed in a gorilla costume could run up to my car carrying a mattress and fling themselves on top of my vehicle in an attempt to mattress surf when I resume travel to my desired destination!” That’s not a helpful thought process to engage in if your goal is to have stress-free drive time. If you’re gunning for a panic attack, maybe… but not stress-free drive time.

My point is that your florist is probably not going to love fielding phone calls regarding your impending feeling of doom that the country of origin of your dream wedding flower is suddenly going to completely run out of or have their entire crop of said flower demolished just in time for your wedding. That’s not a productive use of time. And honestly, if that happened your florist (if you’ve picked a true professional) will have a plan to save your bridal bouquet from unrestrained ugliness. So don’t spend your precious wedding planning time concocting absurd “what if” scenarios. A volcano most likely will not erupt at your desired honeymoon location, a herd of elephants will most certainly not break loose and ruin your engagement photos (cause face it, elephants would clearly enhance any engagement photo), and *if* you light a floral centerpiece on fire by accident your venue is required by law to have a fire extinguisher handy.

Granted, there are difficulties that may occur during the wedding planning process, but I have help for you there too. One of my mentors encouraged me recently not to waste time worrying because, “You’ll always worry about the wrong thing.” That was the most liberating philosophy about worry that I’d ever heard! You’ll probably have some sort of hiccup in the wedding planning process but if/when a problem surfaces it’s best to realize that every problem has a solution. Energy is best expended in finding a solution or finding the person or company that can help you create a solution instead of lamenting the fact that a problem presented itself. Often if you waste time focusing on the problem you’ll lose valuable time that would bring about a more speedy resolution and minimize your stress level. You need to enjoy the journey and not just the end result of your planning efforts. You only have the opportunity to plan your wedding once and being stressed out of your mind is certainly not the way you want to remember the process. So take a deep breath, curb the conspiracy theories, and remember the key point: Don’t borrow trouble.