a day in the life of a wedding planner…
We want our couples to be happy on the day – of course we do! Creating happiness is our job…
Creating the weather. Well, we haven’t quite mastered that dark art yet, we’re still in the hands of Mother Nature for that. Fortunately we have solid Plan B’s for every part of a wedding day and can quickly switch up from one to another.
Our bespoke wet weather awning attaches to our wedding barn so that we can keep everyone dry in the rain. It has a clear roof and sides to keep the open and light feel in the barn.
If the weather forecast is dry for the wedding, we take the awning down. If the forecast is uncertain (lost count how many times this year I’ve had that…) we usually put up the frame but not the canvas. On the day of the wedding we decide whether to take the frame down (it’s going to be dry) or put the canvas on (not dry). Most couples prefer to err on the side of caution (as do I) because you really don’t want guests getting wet during the wedding ceremony – so not a good thing.
When Amy & Nick got married here last month, the weather forecast was not good. We already had the wet weather awning and the adjoining canopies for wet weather arrival drinks up from the previous week’s wedding which had also been – wet.
Amy was clear she didn’t want the wet weather canopies up – she wanted the open space on the horseshoe. No problem.
Except there was a problem. An official wedding planning problem. The weather forecast for the following day was not good. So not good in fact, it was predicting rain at exactly the time the guests were due on site. Sigh.
The day before the wedding I agreed with Amy that we would revisit whether to have the awnings up or down on the morning of the wedding. The latest time would be 11 am which would give us 2 hours to take them down if possible before guests arrived on site at 1 am. A tight timing but so far, so good. Wedding planning problem solved.
11 am the next day. Forecast still predicted rain when the guests were due to arrive. My feeling was the awning needed to stay up for the sake of the guests. I didn’t think we could afford to take the risk and it had already rained that morning at times the forecast said it wouldn’t. Amy really wanted the awning down. We both really wanted to make sure guests would be dry. What to do?
As it was so important to Amy to have the clear space if we possibly could, I came up with the idea that if Amy could provide us with 5 willing, strong volunteers, a team of 7 people could take the awning and all the canopies down in 30 minutes and if she was willing, that could take place whilst the guests were having arrival drinks at the top ponds so we could make the decision at the very last moment and she could have what she wanted if it was at all possible. Wedding planning problem solved (again!).
Luckily the forecast was wrong. Really wrong. In a good way. When the guests arrived on site, it was a beautiful summer’s day. Boy, do I dream of accurate weather forecasting!
So here are Amy & Nick’s guests having arrival drinks on the top lawn…
and here are the best men and ushers starting to take down the wet weather canopies under the expert direction of the lovely S and the Ever After crew…
In this next pic you can see some of the clouds that were predicted to give us trouble, but didn’t…
So that’s all 3 canopies down and half the wet weather awning…
Meanwhile the guests are still having drinks on the top lawns, oblivious to the work going on nearby…
Finally all the canvases are off, just the last bit of frame to come down…
Then the Ever After team get the ceremony chairs arranged…
And ta da! We’ve got ourselves a wedding barn ready for a wedding and on time…
And here’s happy bride Amy with her new husband Nick with plenty of reason to celebrate after the ceremony…
So yes, we’re wedding planners and stylists and on-the-day co-ordinators but we’re also problem solvers. How can we make sure that couples get exactly what they want whilst adapting to things changing around us, sometimes by the minute! There’s always a solution to a problem when you know what you’re doing. We want the very best for our couples and their guests and we don’t mind coming up with novel solutions to get it.
It has been unusually wet this year so in my next blog post I’m going to talk about what the options would have been for Amy & Nick if the weather had been wet and I’ve got a ton of great photos to show what happens if you do have rain on your wedding day…
Read what our couples say about how much they appreciate the help and support they get from us both on their wedding day and the months leading up to it…
Credit: All photos by Dan Ward.
