How to Prepare for a Rainy Day in Paradise
We are sometimes asked by our Indian destination wedding clients about how to prepare for inclement weather. What happens when it rains? As beautiful and breathtaking our destinations are, Mexico and the Caribbean are known for seasonal and sometimes unpredictable weather. As such, we take great importance in making sure that your wedding investments (including decor) end up being utilized rain or shine. In this blog article, you will find some Shaadi Destinations events that took place in rain back-up locations over the past few years!
As wedding planners, we always ask our couples to refrain from checking on forecast apps until 24 hours before the actual event as they’re almost always wrong in these destinations. We have attended so many client weddings where the apps will say it will rain for the next 7 days, but then it doesn’t rain the entire trip! Going through these apps so many days in advance will only serve the purpose of stressing you out when you should be E N J O Y I N G every second of your love story.
This boho chic ceremony was supposed to be set-up on the beach! We were able to move it that morning to the Glass Room at the Grand Palladium Convention Center and take advantage of the floor to ceiling windows which brought in so much wonderful natural light! Courtesy of Andre Gouin Photography
Shaadi Destinations always is careful enough to book a backup location for every outdoor event from day one. This means that even if you picture a beautiful ceremony at the beach, an indoor or covered location is already held for you. So take a deep breath now that you know a Plan B is already in motion!
For evening events such as Sangeet, the “weather call” (aka meeting with the on-site coordinators to discuss the weather and discuss a potential move to the backup location) will take place that very same morning. For morning events such as your Pithi, Sikh Ceremony, or Hindu Ceremony, the weather call should be completed by 9pm the night prior as the set-up will occur overnight.
A bohemian Reception at Hard Rock Riviera Maya that was originally supposed to be set-up outside at the Solarium was moved indoors with just enough time to recreate the entire look with a totally revised venue layout! Courtesy of Button Up Photography
During your weather call, make a decision that’s going to allow you to fully enjoy your events. Tranquility and peace of mind is always recommended. Listen to the advice of the people that might be a bit more familiar with the weather and trust that whatever decision you make will be the right one! Making sure that you are ready for both scenarios ahead of time will definitely make life a lot easier for you and remove the stress from that conversation when down in paradise. Planning in advance gives you the chance to reuse and possibly rearrange layouts and decoration setups with minimal waste.
While rain in the tropics can be unpredictable, we do benefit from being able to plan more proactively for “rainy season”. This season tends to run from August to October, with it peaking the last two weeks of September and the first two weeks of October. If your wedding falls in this time frame, you will benefit from the year’s lowest rates but it also means you should pre-plan your rain back-up ahead of time.
We simply can’t get enough of this iconic rain shot! While they were able to celebrate most of their reception outdoors on the beach (where this shot was taken), this SD couple and their guests were quickly reaccomodated in the indoor lounge at Generations Riviera Maya where they partied until the early morning hours! Courtesy of Jhankarlo Photography
When planning your decor, be sure to think of ideas that might work for an indoor event as well, in case a backup location becomes a necessity. Also, always remember that this is a team effort and your wedding coordinator will ALWAYS have your back and only seek for your best interests.
Work with your Resort Planner and Decor Vendor to elaborate a Plan B in case you had to move to your backup location. Say you were to have that beach Sangeet with string lights all over the place. Our plan B, as wedding planners, would be to check and see if string lights could be changed for wall draping in case a ballroom was needed (just to set an example). If we had gone for a more casual look for an outdoor event, I would definitely try to aim for a more “formal-ish” look as a Plan B that would still match the rest of it. And of course, ask when you must let them know by!
This Sangeet was to be held in an outdoor plaza but was moved to the Convention Center at TRS Coral - we decided to bring the bistro lights in with us and turned all the lights off above to create an intimate starry-night look and feel! Courtesy of Federico Salmeron Photography
Make sure to add weather call meetings with your on-site coordinator for each event to your event timelines. This will help everyone be on the same page.
Here are some tips on what to keep in mind while figuring things out:
Discuss ahead of time with your decor vendor what might you be able to substitute if needing to move indoors - for example, your decor vendor might be willing to swap out your string bistro lights with draping for the ballroom if you need to move indoors.
For your wedding ceremony, don’t forget to plan for a back-up Baraat route as well!
Prepare draft emails to send out to your entire wedding group with the back up venue plans to save time and efforts of having to write them up during your wedding weekend (as a backup, we know your Aunties will do a great job passing the information around over WhatsApp!)
If you end up with spare time, feel free to create a backup venue layout map as well to share with your decor company in the event of needing to move into a ballroom.
Typically the rain might impact just one of your events since it rarely rains an entire weekend! When we have couples who have planned outdoor events on day 1 and indoor events on day 2 or 3, we often work to swap venues across the weekend to re-create a balance of indoor and outdoor depending on the forecast for the weekend!
Let go and TRUST - the one thing no one has control over is the weather. You can always choose to trust that everything will work out great!
A tropical Sangeet night with an iconic printed dancefloor that was moved to the ballroom at Hard Rock Riviera Maya; Courtesy of ButtonUp Photography
For those of you who have not yet picked your dream wedding venue, stay tuned as we will be sharing a list of some of our favorite resorts that have the best rain back-up locations! One thing we can assure you, we’ve got your back on this one! And so does the entire team working behind the scenes. You’d be amazed to see how everyone comes together to make the most out of every situation sooooooo take a deep breath, relax and get ready to see some magic happen!
Shaadi Destinations is the premier, award winning, modern-day destination wedding travel agency for South Asian couples seeking a streamlined process, incredible experiences, and a party friends and family will never forget! We save our couples thousands of dollars while throwing them the wedding festivities dreams are made of.
We live and breathe destination weddings - with just one consultation, you will be light years ahead in your destination wedding planning process. In less than one week, Shaadi Destinations will find you the most perfect resort that meets your needs, your budget, and your desires. With our vendor relationships and pre-negotiated exclusive perks at resorts across Mexico and the Caribbean, we are confident we can find exactly what you are looking for. You'll find we have the best rates, best incentives, and best booking experience.
