Guest blog: Your Wedding Weather – How to use weather history to plan your wedding day

In this guest blog, Wedding Planner Falade Kunle Tom describes how to incorporate historical weather information into your wedding planning

It’s over 5 years now that I have been handling events for various clients, especially wedding events. From experience, it is easy to have control over a number of things that include the guest list, the wedding needs, the location for your reception and possibly other details. However, one thing stands out that is difficult to have control over and that is your wedding weather. And I must confess, having a handful of religious prayer is not enough to be careless about your wedding day’s weather. I have seen many people resort to prayer on their wedding day, once the cloud began to gather and looked like it was going to rain in most cases.

However, if you have made up your mind to go for an outdoor wedding reception or probably ceremony like most people would prefer in my country here, you should consider technology options that can mitigate your weather risk.

Identifying best dates and time for a perfect wedding weather

While a lot of wedding couples and folks would prefer looking for a dry and comfortably warm day for their wedding and forget that their “perfect” wedding weather is quite variable. It is imperative to consider the wedding venue based on factual data instead of a simple hope and prayer. If assuming a perfect weather temperature for you is between 65-80 degrees, all you need to do is to look out for the time your wedding location experiences that average temperature or range using an historical weather analysis tools such as a Weather Event Planner. By inputting your location you can get the temperature and precipitation of any location all through the year.

Weather Event Planners can highlight the best dates to plan an event such as a wedding
Weather Event Planners can highlight the best dates to plan an event such as a wedding

An important factor that most folks don’t consider when planning for a wedding aside from the actual day is the time of the day to hold such outdoor event. If the plan is to start the event in the evening, you need to understand that the temperature will automatically fall, and it won’t be in your best interest to select a day based on the high temperature alone. Taking your perfect temperature range to be 70-85degress, in most cases, an evening summer event would be more sensible than a late spring or even an early fall event which will probably experience a cold night

Back up plans are essential

It is often said that that weather is what you get when expecting a climate. So true is the saying as I have experienced a period of near accurate prediction in the past as a wedding planner. In a nutshell, there are times you would need to make a backup plan in case your predictions fail as weather averages give no perfect guarantee. The fact that your chosen day is averaged on the high side of 75degress does not mean there might not a chilly or sweltering period of 50 degrees and 95degress respectively.

Unless you are very sure you are picking a dessert for your wedding event which is very unlikely, you might need to give a chance to the possibility of experiencing a rainfall. As such, it would be wise to determine in the eventuality of a precipitation or high temperature by determining the approach to relocating your event venue and where exactly you will be relocating to. Also, while the planning is ongoing, try as much as possible to carry your florists, caterers, musicians, logistics directors, and other likely key players along. And in trying to ensure a relocation to a climate-controlled environment, the health and general comfortability of your guests should be your number one priority as there might be elderly people among your guests who could be sensitive to cold, heat etc.

Check forecast a week before your wedding

Aside the unique functionality that the weather event planner provides for Historical weather analysis, it also avails you the opportunity of forecasting the weather using its forecast weather engine. With that, you will be able to get a perfect idea or additional idea of what might likely happen on your wedding day in terms of the weather.

However, it is noteworthy to state from experience as an event planner that it is easy to get a more reliable forecast few days before event than weeks or months before the event, except in the case where you are using an historical analysis tool to find likely weather patterns.

It is also noteworthy that forecasting a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms could be quite challenging because the storms are most often unpredictable and widely scattered. Situations like this mostly leave some parts of an area drenched and another site close-by very dry. Issues such as these could be conveniently assuaged by getting a guest weather expert who could handle a radar role for you. Such radar information is mostly available on some weather apps, and with that, you can get an early warning from your weather expert in case there is a possibility of experiencing a storm.

Embrace any weather eventuality

The fact that you found it difficult to control or predict the weather shouldn’t necessitate unwarranted stress for you. First, you need to understand all the ranges of weather possibilities on the day of your wedding and making adequate preparation for all eventualities, you would have ensured that weather issue and thought-provoking stress is let off your to-do list. Preparation for any eventuality creates a wonderful euphoria on your very special day, come rain or shine. An historical weather analysis tool such as Visual Crossing Weather Event Planner can greatly improve your chances of choosing a good date and time and reduce stress.

Prepare for any weather that might happen on your wedding day
Prepare for any weather that might happen on your wedding day

Conclusions

Many times, I have been asked by couples getting wedded what the weather could likely turn out to be on their wedding day. While a greater percentage believe that it is not a good omen for the rain to fall on their wedding day, few others believe that rain on a wedding day means good luck. For me, even if the old wives’ tale that rain on your wedding day brings good luck, trust me waking up early in the morning to behold a drizzle and grey skies would make any bride or groom feel much distance away from lucky.

Adopting an historical weather analysis tool such as Visual Crossing Weather Event Planner into the event planning processing will not only keep you well informed of likely eventuality but will also get you informed about the weather history of your chosen date of the wedding.

Based on the data, for example, if you are in the UK, contrary to the common opinion, April turns out to be the best month for a dry wedding as it experiences the driest period of the year. The 15th of April has been chosen by some meteorologists as the driest day on the average. It has also been noted that the wettest month of the year is November, having 11th as the rainiest ever while August looks more to be wettest when it is spring and summer.

Having data like this can be incredibly valuable when planning a once-in-a-lifetime event such as a wedding. Using historical weather and climate data to provide information about the temperature, chance of rain and much more helps the bride and groom prepare more intelligently and reduce their stress for their great occasion.

Kunle leads an experienced team of professional event planners in creating ideal weddings, parties, meeting, fundraiser, retreat, corporate conference or other event. Contact Kunle at Falax2016b@gmail.com