Rainy weather will give great opportunities for wedding parties to take unique and artistic photographs. Gray skies actually offer the most flattering natural light available for portrait shots.

Normal satin wedding heels can be swapped for bright rainboots.

Umbrellas can turn into great gifts for guests as a practical and colorful reminder of a joyous and memorable occasion (after all, nothing brings people together better than huddling for cover!).

And if the sun makes a brief appearance, you and your new spouse have a chance at a fabulous rainbow photo op!

Rain or shine, the Swank team is here to help make your day perfect! If you are planning an outdoor ceremony or reception it is important to have a “plan B,” in case of inclement weather. Always check with the venue to determine if there is an indoor option in the case of rain, such as an extra room or event space within the venue. Many venues will include this “rain option” free of charge, however it may be the venue’s policy to charge a room rental fee if the ceremony or reception has to be moved indoors. Be sure to check the venue’s policy on rain option/room rental fees when deciding whether to book a venue so that you can avoid any budget surprises later on! You can also have the ceremony in the same space you were planning on using for the reception, and simply “flip” the room while your guests are enjoying cocktail hour.

Tents are also a great option to protect your guests. And we’re not just talking about rain! Wind, heat, cold, insects and other environmental conditions can drastically effect how comfortable your guests are at the wedding. A tent not only offers shelter from the sun or rain, but if tent sides are used, you can protect your guests from whatever may blow into the tent. Tent sides can also be raised or opened to help with ventilation. Some tent companies offer “rain insurance” tents: you put a deposit down on a tent in case of inclement weather, and then you decide a day or two before whether you want to go ahead and have the tent constructed for your event. This can be a great option because if you’re really hesitant to use a tent, since you can check the weather report and have a better idea of what the weather will be like. However, if you decide to go ahead and use the tent the rental fees can be higher. Other tent rental companies don’t offer rain insurance and require that you put a deposit down and then pay the remainder of the tent two weeks before the wedding. For those of us who don’t own crystal balls, this type of policy makes it VERY hard to decide what the weather will be like! Also, depending on what your venue is like, you may need to rent additional items for the tent (i.e. flooring, tent sides, heaters, extra lighting, etc) If you are thinking about renting a tent for your wedding, the best course of action is to get a thorough quote from the tent rental company about what elements you would need to rent in case of bad weather.

Whether or not you believe in “rain is good luck,” Swank Events will be there for you to make sure your every detail unfolds flawlessly- rain or shine!

One tip we’ve found to be super useful and imperative when it comes to planning your event, especially if you’re planning your event on a budget, is to determine the three non-negotiable pieces of your event. What do you absolutely HAVE to have at your event – and what are those three things you are not willing to compromise on? Are floral arrangements, a DJ and food going to take up the bulk of the budget? Maybe you are willing to pay less for the food in lieu of having a photo booth? Determining where the majority of your budget is going to go in the beginning of your planning process will make planning the other details that much easier.

Fortunately, with Etsy, Pinterest, the multitude of wedding and event planning publications, and your personal Swank team there are tips and tricks everywhere to finding inexpensive and easy ways to create unique and elegant additions to your big day. For example, at Jess and PC’s Food Truck Wedding (blog post on their amazing day coming soon!) mason jars were used for the floral arrangements as center pieces as well as the floral details over the entire ground of the wedding. The mason jars also served as glassware for the cocktail hour. Guests were able to write their names on tags tied around the top of the jars. The jars also served as pen holders for the Mad-Libs that were on the backside of the menu! This one inexpensive piece was used for a multitude of details all over this wedding – and the best part of all, everyone could take their mason jars home to reuse for their own purposes, and as a reminder of the great celebration of the wedding of Jess and PC. This inexpensive detail went a long way in detailing and decorating for this outdoor wedding. These small details and creative means to an end are what your Swank team is here to help you find!

Swank Events has experience in planning on both ends of the budget spectrum. No matter what the event price tag, the Swank team will be there for you from beginning to end with top notch service and advice to provide a memorable, comfortable, and joyous celebration! Check out our services page for a list of all our services. If you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, or if you have a specific question, use our contact page and one of the team members will be in touch with you with some answers!
Happy Fall!
Swank Events

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found the idea of a guestbook to be somewhat well, pointless (“here! Sign this book so I can immediately put it in the farthest corner of my attic!”). Fortunately, lots of savvy brides and grooms these days are agreeing with me and getting creative when it comes to the concept of a guestbook! One such example of jazzing up the tired guestbook tradition is doing a photo guestbook, where typically a photobooth is rented and guests can snap fun photos during the reception. These photobooths are GREAT fun, and most of them print two photo-strips: one for your guest to take home with them, and the other to be placed in a photo album which the bride and groom can take home and flip through later. The only downside to renting one of these photobooths is they tend to be costly (averaging $600 – $2500 in the greater Boston area), especially for a couple who is trying to stay within budget.

Fortunately for me, there are amazing couples like Maddy and Collin out there who don’t let a modest budget keep them from having a fantastic wedding day! When budget constraints made a rented photobooth out of reach, we decided to simply create our own! First, we reached out to their close friend/uber talented photographer Laura Bernier to provide the “photo” part of our photo guestbook. We then picked out a well-lit corner of our reception venue for the guests to pose in, and gave them chalkboard quote-bubbles (thanks to Linden Lovebirds on Etsy!) so that they could write a personalized message or words of advice to the bride and groom. Then we let Laura snap away! The results were a collection of amazingly fun, original photos of Maddy & Collin’s nearest and dearest. And I can guarantee that these photos won’t be seeing the inside of the attic anytime soon
Many thanks to the fabulous Laura Bernier for sharing her work , and to all of Maddy and Collin’s guest for making these images so freakin’ fun!
Cheers!
Kelli