Indoor & Outdoor Weddings Face-Off

Indoor wedding?
Outdoor garden reception?
A combination of the two or another Plan B?
Brides wring their hands about having their wedding inside or out. The fact is: whether you're getting married near your home or having a destination wedding, brides need to weigh the pros and cons of each option before committing.. And if you're organized, prayerful and know what your greatest dreams are for the day, you can pull it off with minimal stress. Or at least less stress than you expected.

photo credit: Jonathon Borba

Pros and Cons of Indoor Weddings

The cons will not surprise you. If you're getting married during a dodgy season or season in transition - like spring - then you could be planning for a garden ceremony and end up with a wash out. A BT pal of ours just told us about attending a wedding recently (October) that was to be an autumn sunset celebration in the mountains. The clouds rolled in, the fog covered the view and everyone got soaked. It looked nothing like the bride hoped for, but it was still fun - just soggy.
If you get married indoors, this is not an issue. 
And we'll add two more words here for good measure that will mean a lot if you live in the deep south: air conditioning. Having cool air indoors means comfort for all. 

​If you decide to get married in a church, barn, country club, lodge, private home, or the like, you do get creative freedom over the décor. The place is a blank canvas to be filled with flowers, colors, fabric, movie screens, a huge gospel choir, whatever you like. 

Time of year is not an issue if you choose to get married indoors. Not only do you forego sweating over weather, you can choose a winter holiday with snow on the ground and still celebrate all hours.

A downside of getting married indoors comes down to one word: confinement.
If you can rent or have access to a large venue where people can book their rooms or cabins, wander, hike, play games or golf, explore, etc, then why not contain the event to a single place? 

The ceremony itself is another issue. You'll need to consider space. Confinement is great for small weddings, but not for a big one. Brides and their planners will need to make sure that the photographer, musicians and other vendors know the space or can get to know it and find areas to tuck in and perform their duties. Our photographer friends tell us that they need to be able to move around. Keep this in mind if you're thinking about going indoors for your wedding and reception.

Pros and Cons of Outdoor Weddings

If you can rent a tent for a wedding where there might be rain, you've got a perfect set up for 
a win-win situation. If weather is on your side, then you're golden. There's plenty of space for guests on lawns and in gardens to eat, roam around, mingle, and play. The biggest pro of an outdoor wedding is definitely that it can have scope and be expansive. There is room for a bit of everything: the band over here, the dance floor laid out, the tables for a sit down dinner or lots of buffet stations, a fire pit, a bar with extra chairs for private conversation - the sky is the limit. 

An outdoor wedding means that you can spend less time and money on decorations, because Mother Nature does her part. Waterfalls, natural gardens, hedge mazes, lawns, mountain vistas, you name it. You don't have to over-spend or over-think your flowers and backdrops.

Natural lighting is also on your side. Wedding photographers love to shoot in natural light, even if they bring portable lighting and extra set-ups. The bridal party and guests also look better in natural light during the less posed photos and for evening events, couples can string up twinkling lights, Edison bulbs, hurricane lanterns and the like for even more intimate settings. 

photo credit: Valeria Boltneva

Whatever you choose for your ceremony, you'll find that your guests love you whether they are wet or dry, seated or standing, inconvenienced or pampered. 
But just in case they AREN'T THOSE PEOPLE.... do your homework.