Entertaining

Planning a cottage wedding: Dealing with mother nature

The good news is you’re not having your wedding at just another banquet hall. The bad news is you’re likely to be faced with bugs and the threat of foul weather. So, while every bride and groom dreams of a sunny, perfect day, you’ll need to plan for other possibilities.

Be prepared
Have a tent—for intense sun and summer storms—as well as having blankets, sweaters, or jackets on hand for cool nights.

Plan ahead
For those who think they can control the weather? Hedge your bets and take a peek at Environment Canada’s website where they issue forecasts one year in advance.

Bugs
Every cottager, of course, has tricks for coping with those annoying party crashers, bugs, but scheduling may be your best insect repellent. Haliburton-based photographer Russ Duhaime, for one, is quick to point out the perils of holding your event during black-fly season. Duhaime remembers one spring ceremony he shot where “the bugs were so bad we had to keep members of the wedding party in a van during the photos. To reduce their exposure to the black flies, we rotated them through.”

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