On Wedding Day Weather

I thought about saving this post for closer to my actual wedding recaps, but then I remembered that June was one of the most popular wedding months (we have 5 bloggers celebrating in June: Coyote, Fox, Mink, Unicycle, Wizard) and thought the advice could come in handy!

I wrote back in February how I was considering options for inclement weather. Well, as the wedding got closer, I was actually preparing for a small flood...and cold. April and May were pretty mixed in Philadelphia and I didn't want to be caught unaware!

At a Phillies game in mid-April...FREEZING

So, I kicked my "alternative" plans into high gear with a few key purchases and preparations.

First, I bought some wind-resistant golf umbrellas.

6 were in our wedding colors

We also had a personalized white umbrella - are you shocked by my choice?

Then, I succumbed to temptation and purchased some cute blue polka dot wellies from Rue La La (one of many wedding purchases from the site).

Link to boots on Chooka's site - I got them on sale, though!

Finally, I had a complete wedding day schedule drawn up in case of rain (would change our picture locations / timing, etc). I was totally prepared. In April.

Why do I share this? Well, once I finished preparing, Mr. Turkey and I decided to accept that (less than desirable) weather was out of our control and not to stress over it*. For some reason, we were fairly convinced that we would have rainy day pics for our May 12 wedding (secret yay).

However, with this revelation, we decided to run a study on the 10 day forecast (for the blog). Each morning, I would take a quick screenshot of the forecast from the weather.com iPhone app. I can honestly say I really didn't look at anything to the right of the screen - just ensured 5/12 was on there and took the picture.

Screenshots from each day (-1) of the 10 day forecast

Spreadsheet in case you can't read the tiny print above

Now, to be clear...despite the fact that Mr. Turkey and I weren't closely tracking the forecast on an hour-by-hour basis, we received plenty of updates from friends, family, co-workers, waiters, etc. So, it wasn't like we were completely in the dark!

Anyhow...onto the analysis (you know from my previous posts that I like data). There is likely variation throughout each day (I remember one co-worker telling me one day mid wedding week that there was 40% chance of rain), but I chose to take the screenshot at approximately the same time every day to have some level of baseline. 

Here's what happened in 10 days:

• The low changed 8 times and varied by 7°
• The high changed 7 times and varied by 8°
• The chance of precipitation changed multiple times (between 0% and 10%)
• We ended up with the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows (80°/51°) on the actual day - no precipitation

Brother Turkey rockin' the shades

So, the actual weather was "on" (temperature-wise) what the May 12 forecast said. But if I had gone by other days' forecasts, I may not have needed sunscreen during the day and our guests could have foregone a shawl at night. I realize the swings weren't that drastic, but they were significant enough.

Anyhow, this post was just a long winded way of suggesting that, if at all possible, try to "let it go". The days before your wedding are busy enough to take something like this off your mind. Weather isn't something you can control and, if my forecast analysis tells you anything, you can't truly "trust" the prediction until you're very close to the day (e.g. someone getting married on June 1 or 2 would have more accurate information that someone on June 8 or 9).

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Oh...and a quick question for you all before I close this post.

I am unsure how to focus my next few posts...honeymoon recaps (while it's fresh) or more wedding-related "stuff" (additional paper products, website, etc). Don't worry - there will be recaps too! I just have to patiently wait for our professional photos.

What should Miss Turkey write about next?

A) Honeymoon recaps
B) Wedding-related posts
C) Other (hit the comments)

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Are you nervous about your wedding day weather? How are you preparing?

*Please note that this decision was a lot easier due to the fact that we did not have any outdoor events planned besides photos. If we had an outdoor ceremony or reception, I would have probably taken the 10 days off to do anti-rain dances.