Tips for Outdoor Wedding Receptions

Last week we covered our top tips to consider when planning an outdoor ceremony. If you missed that one, you can catch up here! You will find a couple of the same tips apply to planning your outdoor reception as well – so we’ll cover those briefly and then add on a few that are more specific to outdoor wedding receptions! Here we go:

Ceremony Site

As with the ceremony site, first and foremost you will need A) an indoor backup plan, or B) the willingness to dance the night away in less than ideal weather. Keep in mind that while toughing out rough weather for 30-60mins during the ceremony is one thing. But as the evening cools down and people get hungrier and more tired – the likeliness of them toughing it out through an entire reception is not quite as high. So I would very much recommend having an indoor backup plan for your reception if you’d like the majority of your guests to stick around!

Outdoor Wedding Reception

Outdoor Wedding Receptions generally don’t start until the evening, so there usually isn’t much to worry about as far as natural lighting goes. Having said that, once the sun has set… that’s it. So you’ll need to make sure you visit your venue beforehand in the evening and see what (or if) any kind of lighting is available and what extra lighting you may need to provide.

Having said that; you’ll also need to check whether the site has electricity, as you’ll need a source for the lights, generators for your caterer’s kitchen appliances and amps + speakers for your band or DJ.

Depending on the time of year you’re getting married (and the location of course), evenings typically tend to cool down a bit. So having some heaters to place throughout your reception space is not usually a bad idea. If it’s going to be really chilly, providing some extra blankets is always a nice gesture for your guests.

I hope this little series has been helpful! Again, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions in the comments below or shoot me an email here: Stefani@StefaniCiottiPhotography.com. Also let me know if you have any other pieces of advice or suggestions you might add to this in the comments below – I would love to hear them!