The Rain Plan: What to Ask Before You Book an Outdoor Wedding

A meadow with a view is the reason a lot of people get married in this valley. It is also a room with no roof.

Every outdoor venue will tell you it has a rain plan. The useful conversation is about what that plan actually is, and it is a conversation to have on the tour, not in the week of.

Go and stand in the backup

Ask to see it, at the same time of day as your ceremony, with the lights on. A barn that is beautiful at seven in the evening can be a storage room at two in the afternoon. A tent that exists on paper is not the same as a tent you have stood under.

The real test is simple: if it rained, would you be happy? If the honest answer is that you would be disappointed but you would cope, that is worth knowing before you sign, not after.

Find out who decides, and when

This is the part that catches people. Ask three things:

1. Who makes the call? You, the venue, the planner, or the tent company. 2. When? Most tent companies need a decision the day before at the latest, and some need two or three days. That is usually longer than a forecast is reliable. 3. What does changing our mind cost? Ask for the number, in writing, before you need it.

A venue that answers all three without checking has been asked before, which is a good sign.

If the plan is a tent

A tent is a real cost, not a small one, and it is rarely just the tent. Sides, flooring, lighting, heating in the shoulder seasons, and a generator if the field has no power. Ask the venue whether the tent price they quote includes the flooring, because a marquee over wet grass is a different evening than one over a floor.

Tent companies on the list include Cantele Tent Rentals in Ghent, Big Top Tent Rentals in Cairo, Upstate Tents and Events in Troy, Cartwright and Daughters in Patterson and Allstate Party and Tent Rental in New City. The full list is at rentals.

The things nobody thinks of until it is raining

• Where do 120 people stand between the ceremony and dinner? Cocktail hour outdoors is the first thing rain takes away.
• How do guests get from the parking area to the door? In the Hudson Valley that is often a field.
• Umbrellas. Plain ones, in bulk, look considered. Assorted ones do not.
• Where do the photographs happen? Ask your photographer for their covered options at your venue, and ask before the day.
• The shoes. Tell your guests it is a lawn, on the invitation or the website. They will thank you either way.

Venues that solve it indoors

Some places simply have a second room you would be glad to be in, which removes the decision entirely. Our venues that aren't barns and historic properties collections are two places to look, and both are worth walking with the rain question in mind.

Nobody books a Hudson Valley wedding hoping for rain. Having a plan you would genuinely enjoy is the difference between a forecast that ruins a week and one you can ignore.