Winter Wedding Tips 

  Snowstorms

 Unfortunately, if you live in an area that gets a lot of snow in the winter, it’s a good possibility that a snowstorm could swirl up suddenly and wreak havoc on your winter wedding plans. While you can’t predict exactly when a snowstorm will occur, there are some things you can do to deal with it if a snowstorm happens on your wedding day.

Call the church or wedding hall when it first begins to storm. Make sure there is a caretaker or other maintenance person around who will stay at the venue to shovel and salt all the walkways throughout the night. If the church doesn’t have anyone, call a friend, relative or even draft one of your neighbor’s children into standing by at the venue with a shovel and a bag of de-icing salt. Make sure that waterproof mats are laid in the entryway of the venue to prevent anyone from slipping and falling on their way into the church.

If there is enough space in the entryway or in the coat room, set up a table and a small mirror along with paper towels, combs, facial tissues, and anything else that guests might need to fix their clothing or hair after fighting their way into the venue through the storm. Make sure that the bridal party can all make it to the venue. Offer to send transportation for anyone who can’t get there on their own. Tell everyone to bring their wedding clothes in waterproof bags and get dressed at the venue.

If many guests will be driving to the venue, expect at least a few to cancel because of the weather. Have valet parking available to take care of the cars so that people can get out of their cars and into the venue quickly. After the ceremony, if people are concerned about driving to the location of the reception, arrange carpools of guests who have vehicles that can handle the bad weather to get guests to the reception.

If your reception is at a hotel ballroom or banquet room, ask about reserving a block of rooms for your guests in case there is a storm and some would like to stay over at the hotel. If many of your guests have travel arrangements, ask one of the hotel staff to stay on top of any flight cancellations or delays so that your guests can make other arrangements if they need to. You may need to make adjustments to your wedding plans like maybe cutting out your grand arrival at the hall in a horse drawn sleigh or taking pictures outdoors in a picturesque snowy setting if there is a snowstorm on your wedding day, but you may not need to cancel the whole wedding if you plan ahead.