Outdoor Summer Wedding Pitfalls to Avoid

Planning a wedding is usually pretty stressful. Multiply that by 100 if you are planning an outdoor summer wedding. With the right checklist, however, you can avoid some serious pitfalls. Having survived an outdoor summer wedding, I hope future brides can learn from my hard-earned wisdom.

First and foremost, and also most easily overlooked by do-it-yourself summer wedding planning brides, is to check on cicadas! You can find out on the internet when your state is due for an attack of the 13-year species or the 17-year species. Simply Google cicadas and search for a brood map. It will show you all of the years and locations for cicadas to make their unwanted appearance.

Three weeks before our daughter's June wedding, my husband casually mentioned that we might be having a cicada infestation. After forty-five minutes of cursing and alternate screaming and muttering, I finally found and checked a brood map on the internet and was able to calm down. This was only after frantically visiting web site after web site, searching for information while having visions of cicadas drowning out the sound of the pastor and the music, the bride's dainty, satin-clad feet crunching on the hard-shelled pests and dragging their crushed bodies along in her floor-length veil, and picturing guests flailing around to avoid being "kamikazied" or picking the red-eyed creatures out of the veggie dip. I even went so far as to send an URGENT email to my daughter, telling her we had to try to find an indoor venue and call all of the guests with the change of location. My heart still begins beating much too fast as I recall my intense but short-lived panic.

On a related theme, don't forget to spray for insects and carefully place any bright lights. I have attended several outdoor weddings in the past few years, and I took careful notes as I watched the bugs falling onto the bar and the gift tables. The bright lights above the bar attracted some mighty fine specimens of June bugs, which had the annoying habit of dropping (or perhaps diving, who knows?) downward after their frantic flying patterns. It was not very appealing, to say the least, to find a big bug suddenly swimming around in the white wine that you so patiently waited in line to request.

Another chart to check is what time the sun will set during the time of year you have the wedding. If you picture romantic lighting for a dusk wedding, but the sun is still blazing at the time of the ceremony, you have not planned ahead. This is fairly easy to do by using an almanac or searching the internet.

Music is a must for any fun wedding, but an outdoor wedding takes a lot of power for the sound system to do its job. Make sure that your sound system is big enough to project loudly enough when there are no acoustics to help out.

Floor-length dresses may not be a practical option for an outdoor wedding. Depending on the surface of the area, the bride's gown could easily be ruined, along with those of the bridesmaids. Check out tea length options. If none suit the bride, then make sure there is a runner in crucial spots, and clean the dance and dinner area as well as can be done. A power-washer should do the trick if the floor is cement, and a few fans should dry the surface completely. Keep in mind that even though the bride chooses a long dress, the bridesmaids do not have to do so. Wedding rules have become much more flexible each year.

Make sure that there are electrical outlets available for not only lighting, but also for music and microphones during the ceremony and reception. You may need a portable mike for the pastor. These are things that should be investigated early. Heavy duty green extension cords do exist, blend into the outdoor setting, and are easy to procure if these things are arranged before the last minute.

If a wedding cake is being provided by a professional, be sure to ask about displaying the cake in hot weather. Our vendor knew all about freezing the cake for a certain amount of time beforehand and exactly how long it would stay cool until serving time. It also helps to have a small "fancy" cake for display, along with several sheet cakes, which can be refrigerated until time to serve them.

It's seems a bit obvious to warn brides to have a Plan B for rain, but one wedding I attended was happily optimistic and did not do so. Just for that small optimistic per cent, I have mentioned it here. PLAN FOR RAIN.

If the weather cooperates, a summer wedding outdoors can be one of the most beautiful and memorable events ever held. With a little planning and a lot of luck, your wedding could be just that!