Outdoor Weddings: Pros, Cons, Tips and Ideas

Are you and your fiancé beach lovers? Is your idea of a great time sampling wine at a local vineyard? Do you enjoy strolling through parks and nature preserves in your area?  

If so, you and your groom-to-be may be perfectly paired to host an outdoor wedding!   But before you begin to seriously contemplate this as an option, ask yourselves the following question: Are either of you perfectionists? 

This is super important, because if even one of you is mildly obsessive about putting together a flawless wedding, rethink the outdoors as your venue. 

That’s because Mother Nature is extremely impulsive. And an outdoor affair requires one hundred percent cooperation from the elements. But as we all know, the weather can be so unpredictable that it can often throw even the most seasoned wedding planners for a loop.

I’ll never forget some of the wedding horror stories celebrity event planner and Celebrations Expert Michael Russo once told me – all weather-related. And not the least of which was during pop star Kevin Jonas’ nuptials on Long Island in 2009, when a blizzard blew a record 26-plus inches of snow right over an outdoor tent set up for the reception, on the grounds of  the magnificent Oheka Castle!

Imagine something akin to this happening at your meticulously-planned outdoor wedding and then consider if you’d think of it as your worst nightmare or mildly comical and manageable. The answer will signal if an outdoor wedding is right for you.