Reflections from a bride whose outdoor ceremony got rained out
I got married last Sunday at a beautiful venue with an incredible outdoor forest area where we planned to have our ceremony. From the very beginning of wedding planning my biggest wish was to have an outdoor ceremony in the spring. I worried about the possibility of rain throughout the whole planning process, although fortunately our venue has a beautiful covered patio area to use when the weather necessitates it. The forecast leading up to the big day wasn't looking great, and got worse as we got closer. By the morning of our wedding, the prediction was relatively dry weather until *right before* our ceremony, when it would begin to storm. We made the decision to go forward with the rain plan.
It did, in fact, rain during our ceremony. Torrential rain, so loud that I could barely hear our officiant at times. It was my worst fear, and yet somehow it was the most perfect, magical ceremony we could have asked for. The storm was powerful and emotional and seemed to wax and wane at the ideal times, I was worried about being able to hear our officiant when repeating our vows but the rain slowed immediately before that part of the ceremony, right on time.
Afterwards, *so* many guests told me how ethereal the rain was. A few asked how we managed to coordinate with the storm, if it was a paid actor lol. They had no problem hearing the ceremony because the speakers were facing them. The pictures turned out incredible and the rain really enhanced our day. Thankfully, because it was relatively dry before that point, we were still able to take pictures outside in our original ceremony spot so it didn't feel like we missed out on anything.
TLDR, and the reason I'm posting this, is to say please don't waste your energy worrying about the things you can't control. Have a plan but be prepared to roll with the punches. It worked out so well for us because we embraced the situation and had fun with it, the day would have been totally different if we'd gotten upset. You only get to live through your wedding day once and it's not worth wasting it getting upset over what's out of your control.
Adding a pic of my amazing sister holding up umbrellas for both herself and the photographer so we could get some cool shots framed by the rain (so hopefully nobody tries to accuse this of being AI.)