One Thing Couples Don’t Think About on their Wedding Day

 

WIND!!

I can’t tell you how many times wind alone has messed up wedding decorations, wedding hair, how many times its broken glass, and more during a wedding day. As a wedding photographer, I take the time to notice all the details that make a wedding day (obviously to take photos of everything!) and almost every wedding I shoot, especially on this side of the mountains, wind is always messing things up.

Last June, I had a gorgeous wedding at Gilbert Cellars Winery in Yakima, and all of a sudden, this giant gust of wind came barreling through their reception area (that was inside a barn by the way) and blew everything everywhere. Their delicate decorations, their flowers, everything was blown right off the tables and we all had to re-decorate basically everything. It worked out, but still an inconvenience.

A few weekends ago, I had a backyard wedding I was shooting and the temp dropped so naturally, the wind picked up. Big time. So all the table cloths and centerpieces were flying everywhere!

Have no fear! Here are some tips to help avoid extra set up and keep things from breaking!

First of all, you can keep things tied down with string, burlap rope, twine, anything you can to make sure table cloths and special decorations don’t fo flying. Also, make sure you get heavier decor pieces like vases to hold flowers so they don’t get blown over and break with glass everywhere. If kids are going to be present at your wedding, make sure not only you have a dust broom and dust pan, but weigh things down better. Rocks, duck tape, anything you can use.

It might look lame, but trust me, you’ll be thankful when the sound of shattered glass doesn’t interrupt your vows (that also happened- but if that happens, you can yell “Mazzeltov!!”).

On the Banter here, I wrote a post about what to have in your wedding day emergency kit. Well, I highly recommend keeping some duck tape, extra twine, and rocks to help stabilize any tall flower pots, candle sticks, anything that might be blown over by the wind.

Couples never think about the wind causing any problems, and too many times I’ve seen vases break, re-decorating due to wind, etc as a wedding photographer. So if you’re getting married on the east side of Washington, always prepare for wind.