What If It Rains On My Wedding Day?

Okay, so you’ve booked your wedding and you’re determined that by willpower alone it won't rain on your big day.

You’ve got everything crossed, you’re knee deep in 79 years’ worth of MET Office data and you’ve done a little dance in your garden. 

Well, sorry, but if low pressure isobars are hovering next to Michael Fish’s index finger, then all the will in the world can’t save you from getting wet on your wedding day.

But there's no need to panic, because with a little preparation, you'll handle the rain far better than you might think. The build up to a wedding is an unnecessary pursuit of perfection: it's your worst fears bred into worst case scenarios set to the soundtrack of Psycho. Take it from us, when the day arrives you'll handle whatever it is that crops up, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

Here are a few tips to help you get started. 

1. Use the MET Office website to see the average rainfall for the month that you’re marrying in. You can start by looking here. Of course, averages are only useful up to a point, but it will give you a more realistic expectation of what could be coming. 
   
   
2. Make sure that you have comprehensive wedding insurance. We’ve posted about this before. You won’t get money for drizzle on your big day, but if the weather takes a turn for the worse then you might have water or storm damage to contend with. Adverse weather is even more problematic in rural areas where access can be cut off in a matter of minutes.  Georgian country mansions have been known to suddenly develop whopping great big moats.
   
   
3. Start shopping for big umbrellas and fancy wellies before the
   
   big day arrives. You can have some real fun with these, because they’ll both make for appealing accessories and double up as props for any outdoor photography.
   
   We’d definitely recommend working anything like this into the theme of the wedding – even if the guests won’t actually see them. It’ll make you feel better: having something in-keeping with the wedding to swap out the fancy shoes with. With the umbrellas, you can buy large white ones from eBay without much issue, but don’t leave it to the last minute. We’re sure that you’d rather not have Auntie Jan’s spotted-with-three-spokes-missing umbrella leading you out from the car and into the venue. 
   
   
4. Ask your photographer to find some interesting areas to be photographed next to: small nooks, brick walls, below balconies, under overhangs and beneath tree branches. The rain will give an opportunity for everyone to be a little more creative, and it'll really showcase the talents of the photographer. There are some stunning examples on the internet of wedding photography shot during rainfall, and they often make for more interesting images. 
   
   
5. Talk to the venue and any service providers you've hired to see what they recommend for rainy days. No doubt, they'll all have a few tricks up their sleeves to help the day run smoothly.
   
   
6. If you’re going to be wearing make-up, then make sure it’s waterproof. Nobody wants to look back at their wedding photographs and see Gene Simmons. Unless, of course, you do... Keep a small bag of makeup in the safe hands of a member of the wedding party, too, so that there’s chance for last minute touch-ups.
   
   
7. If your venue parking is in a field, then it might be worth trying to cut a deal with local businesses: pubs, schools, colleges, retailers etc, to see if your guests can park on their property (providing of course, they're nearby). This will lower the risk of cars getting stuck on muddy fields, and it'll help reduce the amount of outside being trekked through the venue.
   
   

As much as we'd all love warm sunshine on our wedding day, there's no need to panic over a few drops of rain. The trick is to be prepared and to be ready for it. You're getting married because you want to spend the rest of your life with that ONE person that made all of this possible, and that is something that is 100% weather resistant.