The ceremony of Anna and Brian at Grant Park

Wedding Planning absolutely must include environmental considerations- which are an integral part of all wedding ceremonies.  Ignore this and risk disaster.

COMFORT The audience must be physically comfortable for the duration of the ceremony.  An outdoor wedding planned for a late Spring or early Fall day,  which turns out to be 56 degrees and drizzling will mentally remove your guests. By the same token, a wedding taking place on a 103 degree August day will achieve the exact same result.  

Your guests will get the maximum enjoyment of your wedding ceremony only when they are within a comfortable environment.  The more comfortable an audience is the more they will be mentally present for your ceremony.

NON-COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT  Clearly the best environment for a wedding ceremony is a location with no audio or visual distraction.   Nothing should compete with you for those 30 minutes. An audience will always turn its attention to the most entertaining event within eye sight.  When considering a setting for your ceremony always ask yourself what will compete with you at that location?  A non-competitive environment will place the audiences' attention completely on your ceremony.

NOISE   Although seldom anticipated by couples planning their ceremonies, noise can and will: 1) remove the focus of your audience, 2) destroy the audio portion of your video taping and 3) create a situation requiring the ceremony to stop.

Examples:
- Outdoor ceremonies held too close to large airports, roads or railroad tracks. 
- Indoor air-conditioning or heating units that decide to kick on mid way through your ceremony.
- Outdoor ceremonies when the ground keepers or next door neighbors start up their lawn mowers.  The neighbors' dog can be just as effective.
- Auto rewind cameras that your guests have brought and which now begin whirring away as they rewind the film during your vows.
- Babies or small children who begin crying and their parents will not move them to the rear. 
- Cell phones.
- Banquet facilities that fail or forget to turn off their 'house music' during your ceremony.

Remember to ask yourselves... What can go wrong once my ceremony begins? Then remove the threat. 

RAIN  If you are planning an outdoor ceremony you must have a backup plan for rain.  Typically, couples having a large outdoor wedding and reception will have rented tents for that occasion.  If it rains, the ceremony is moved under the canvas.  Other couples, in the event of rain, will forgo the outdoor setting and have the ceremony at the waiting reception site.  Whatever your plans might be: if you're having an outdoor wedding ceremony, you must make plans for rain.