Like hundreds of thousands of people in NSW, we have experienced stormy conditions over the past week. Strong winds and heavy rain have seen rivers flood, trees fell, paddocks turn into lakes, roads into obstacle courses and thousands without electricity for days. We are all extremely lucky to have such efficient emergency services who have been working around the clock helping those in need.
So what does this have have to do with your wedding? This week I have been lucky enough to be a part of not only one, but two beautiful weddings. Both these weddings have been held in the lower Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury region where we have experienced all the above consequences of a forceful Mother Nature. Yesterday our power was cut the entire day, which wasn’t so bad as we had no wedding on, but what if we did?
Imagine walking into your beautiful, chandelier lit reception room to only have the lights go out, the heating turn off and you & 120 of your guests are left in the dark. I was listening to Henry & Michelle Roth on the Planet Bride podcast today and Henry was speaking about attending a wedding in the Hamptons where this very thing happened. The bride announced ever so gracefully that if anyone needed to go to the toilet they would need to go outside, dig a deep hole and do their business, because without power the toilets won’t flush (and the hole had to be deep so their dogs wouldn’t dig it up). I was chuckling away in the car, but then had the aweful thought of “what if this happened to one of my brides?”. Henry then so fabulously said “it’s things like this that turn your wedding into an event”, and it’s true! It is always the things that can go wrong that make a wedding memorable.
As a girl who has lived in the mountains, where blackouts are a normal occurance, here are my tips to help you continue the festivities long into the darkness of night, without power.
1. Have lots and lots of candles. I have not been to a wedding yet where there were not a million candles around the room. Light them all! It will give the most magical ambience to the wedding and the heat from the flames will warm the room.
2. Keep a flash light in your emergency kit – you never know when you may need it.
3. Check your venue has emergency generators to keep the power on. Also check if they cook with gas or electric. Most commercial establishments will use gas, but it’s good to know. Gas will keep working even if the power is not available, which means you all get fed warm meals.
4. Have glow sticks in your emergency kit. This is a tip I learned from Scouts, and they work wonders in dark situations (and create amazing photos!)
5. Make light of the situation. There is no use bursting into tears, this is a time to celebrate! Like the bride in the Hamptons did, make a short announcement to let everyone know what to do & make sure they do their business outside.
My final tip, which I gave today’s bride: Let all your guests know if the venue is going to be muddy and ask them to all bring their gumboots to walk from their cars to the reception room, where they can change into their fancy heels. It would be aweful if Aunt Betty wore her brand new $200 heels to only ruin them in a muddy carpark.
Your function coordinator will know what to do in case of a power outage, so stay calm and trust the team behind the scenes, and make most of the unique situation while it lasts.
Until next time, happy planning.
Love,
Miss Kiss xx
(Photos courtesy of Google images)
The KISS Proposal 