The weather plan, and the other three

A plan is not a hope that it will be fine

Most outdoor weddings have a wet-weather plan in the sense that somebody has thought about it. Very few have one in the sense that matters: a written arrangement with a person who will execute it, a time by which the decision is made, and a named person who makes it.

The difference shows up on exactly one morning, and by then it is too late to build the second kind.

The four questions a real plan answers

Where does it happen instead? Specifically, and confirmed with the venue in writing. "Inside" is not an answer if the inside space is being used for the meal and needs turning around, or if it does not hold everyone standing.

Who decides? One named person, and not either of you. On the morning you will be the two people least able to make a calm judgement about the sky, and the decision will otherwise be made repeatedly and reversed.

By when? A time, set by whoever has to physically move things. Ask your venue and anyone setting up how long the changeover takes, then set the decision point comfortably before that. A plan with no deadline gets deferred until the deadline has passed.

Who has to be told, and how? The list of people who need to know within minutes — the officiant, whoever is setting up, the person handling music, anyone arriving with something that goes outside. Write the list now; nobody assembles it well at eight in the morning.

The other three plans you also need

Rain gets all the attention because it is visible. Three other failures are more likely to actually affect the day, and none of them takes long to plan for.

Somebody essential does not arrive. Anyone whose absence stops the day happening — the officiant, whoever holds the rings, whoever is driving people. For each, know who would step in and have a number for the person who could reach them. This is a five-minute exercise.

A supplier does not turn up or cannot deliver. Ask each supplier what happens if they are ill or their vehicle breaks down — many have arrangements with others and it is a normal question. Get the answer before the day rather than discovering there was no arrangement. Choosing suppliers covers what else is worth asking.

Somebody is unwell on the morning. Usually a guest or a member of the wedding party, occasionally one of you. Nothing here can be prevented; what helps is that somebody other than you knows what everyone was supposed to be doing, so that a gap can be covered without anybody asking you.

The document that makes all of this work

One page, printed, in more than one person's pocket. It carries the running order, every supplier's phone number, the decision times, and who is responsible for what.

It works because it moves the day out of your head. Every question that would otherwise reach you — where is this, when does that arrive, who is picking up whom — is answered by somebody looking at the page instead of finding you.

Print it. Phones run out of battery, signal fails at rural venues, and the person who needs the number is frequently not the person holding the phone it was saved on. The day-of timeline is the version of this the site builds for you, and it is worth doing after the seating plan and before the final fortnight.

What not to spend money on

The instinct is to buy the problem away — hire the covered structure, book the second space, add the contingency. Sometimes that is right. Frequently the useful version costs nothing: a confirmed indoor location you already have, a decision maker, a time, and a phone list.

Nothing on this site tells you what anything should cost or whether a given contingency is worth buying, because that depends entirely on your venue, your date and your situation. What it will say is that an unwritten plan is not cheaper than a written one — it is the same plan without the part that makes it work.

On the day

Hand it over. The purpose of every arrangement above is that on the morning you are not the person watching the forecast, counting umbrellas or ringing a supplier. Somebody else is, and they have the page.

The final fortnight is where the phone list and the decision times get confirmed, and it is the last point at which any of this is easy to arrange.

Editor's notes

Written by Wedding Checklist Free about the piece above — not reader submissions.

1. The decision maker being someone else is the load-bearing item

   Everything else on the page is a list. Naming one person who is not either of you, and giving them a deadline, is the part that changes the morning — without it the decision gets made four times, reversed twice, and lands back with the two people who are least able to make it calmly.

2. Three-quarters of the post is not about weather

   Rain gets the search traffic and it is not the most likely failure. Somebody essential not arriving, a supplier not turning up and somebody being unwell are all more probable and all less planned for. The page keeps the title people search and spends most of its length on the things that are more likely to matter.

3. No position is taken on whether to pay for a contingency

   Whether to hire a covered structure or hold a second space depends on the venue, the date and the situation, and this site prints no prices and makes no spending recommendations anywhere. What it will say is that an unwritten plan is not a cheaper version of a written one — it is the same plan minus the part that makes it work.