Opinions on outdoor receptions

[PinkSleepingBeauty]

Hey! Anyone held an entirely outdoor reception, at say, The Marina? Or Summerhouse, Epcot etc? I've seen a couple of pics on the Disney website. Just wondered how people got on with the weather. In October would it be too hot for an outdoor reception? Are disney able to provide parasols/umberellas for the tables so that everyone isn't sat in direct sunlight? And I guess there is always the rain risk..... I'm just tryng to think of all of the possibilites before we decide which type of reception we want... Any advice or opinions are, as always, greatly received! Thanks!

 

[PrincessShea]

I don't think it's a good idea. October is hurricane season. You never know with the weather. You could spend months planning and obsessing about all the details and then end up in a ballroom that looks nothing like you imagined. I think it would give you more piece of mind to arrange a reception indoors.

 

[pezaddict231]

I know there are brides that have done it, but I would be too nervous having the entire reception scheduled for being outdoors since our wedding is during hurricane season too.

The weather in Florida can be very unpredictable. For example, last year a coworker went to Disney in May which is normally a beautiful time to be there. There were freak storms coming through that week and it rained every single day. Not just rain showers, downpours every day for hours on end. I think FL got over 21 inches of rain that week!

Have you considered doing part of the reception outdoors and the rest indoors? The Summerhouse or Marina would be a great spot for your cocktail hour. We're using Whitehall Patio, if it rains, we'll just use Whitehall room and we have St. Augustine room for the reception.

I would say with the GF locations you'd be safer since the back-up locations at the convention center would probably fit more with your theme. At Epcot, I'm not sure what the back-up locations are but you may end up with something that really doesn't work with what you envisioned.

Are you going to have dancing at your reception? Or just dinner and mingling? For dancing I'd definitely vote for an indoor location since it'll have a/c

 

[PinkSleepingBeauty]

Thanks for the replies and the advice. I think you are right, I just fancied doing something different. I'm such a worrier and I know i'd be panicking about the weather all the time!! I like the idea of the cocktail hour outdoors. There will only be 20-25 of us, all coming from UK, and some of the guests have never been to Disney so really want it to be a fun, memorable day them all to enjoy

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

I agree, as beautiful as an outdoor reception would be, I would personally be way too worried about rain. I know I would just stress out about it every day until the wedding. We were actually planning on having our cocktail hour at the GF marina, and the GF summerhouse would also be a great spot for a cocktail hour. We have pretty much decided against it now because it will be June and HOT! But I think it would work well for an October wedding. Then if it does happen to rain, you could just do the cocktail hour at the reception venue!