Critical Questions to Ask Your Wedding Venue About Hurricane Season

Weather happens — and if your wedding is in a coastal area, that means the potential for hurricanes. Of course, there’s not much you can do about controlling Mother Nature on your wedding day, but what you can control is working with your venue on a contingency plan. 

Be proactive as early as you can into your wedding planning process: Ask your wedding venue about their inclement weather policy, if they’ll allow you to move or cancel your wedding due to severe weather, and how they’ll accommodate an outdoor event in the worst-case scenario. 

Doing so can ensure you, your guests, and your monetary investment are all protected if extreme weather occurs.

Here’s how to go about working with your venue and adjusting your plans if necessary, with tips from Don Jones, co-owner of The Oaks event venue in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans.

When Is Hurricane Season?

First off, it might be helpful to know some basics about hurricane patterns. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with August, September, and October being the most active months, according to the National Weather Service. 

Accordingly, you don’t need to worry about a hurricane impacting your wedding if you’re having the event in the months of March, April, May, or November since there isn’t an inherent risk. On the other hand, planning a Caribbean or Atlantic Coast wedding for August, September, or October is a risky decision. 

Do You Have to Worry About Hurricanes Outside of the Atlantic?

If you’re having a West Coast destination wedding, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to worry about a hurricane impacting your wedding, as storms rarely reach the mainland in western states, according to Scientific American.

However, you may want to keep an eye out for hurricanes under another name. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some regions of the world may use terms like “typhoons” or “tropical cyclones” instead. In the South Pacific or destinations around the Indian Ocean, it means a hurricane-style storm is on the way.

Typhoon and tropical cyclone season in this part of the world runs May through October.

The 4 Most Important Wedding Venue Questions

If your wedding date and venue location are at risk, you’ll want to be sure to ask your wedding venue about their standard operating procedures during a hurricane or similar storm, especially what happens if you need to cancel or postpone your event, and whether they can accommodate you if you need to move your wedding indoors. 

1. How Does the Venue Decide if an Event Is Too Dangerous?

It’s important to know how the venue goes about deciding whether an event is safe to go on or not, as some may only allow you to cancel and postpone your big day if an organization such as the National Weather Service or National Hurricane Center declares the storm a true hurricane. 

Even so, you likely don’t want to hold your event in a milder tropical storm, either, so pay close attention to the language and wording used both by the venue staff and within the inclement weather portion of your contract. 

“We’ve been rather fortunate that, for as many times as hurricanes came close, we’ve only had one that really tore things up here recently during [2021’s] Hurricane Ida,” Jones says. “We had 100-mile-an-hour winds but, luckily for us, no property damage.” The wedding booked for the day Ida made landfall was canceled, and The Oaks refunded the couple’s payments. Later, the venue began offering BriteCo wedding insurance to guard against such possibilities. 

2. What Happens if You and Your Guests are Impacted by a Hurricane, But Your Venue is Not?

Another critical question to ask is how the venue will be able to accommodate you if the venue itself is fine on your special day, with no rain or bad weather in sight, but you and your guests are impacted by a hurricane, preventing you from traveling to the venue.

For example, maybe you planned a destination wedding on an island that lies outside of the hurricane belt — like Aruba — but you and all your family live in Florida or one of the Gulf states. If the Florida hurricane season rears up and a storm makes landfall the day your flights are due to depart, you might be stranded. (Unfortunately, many venues will not provide a backup plan for this scenario.) 

Jones recalls a couple who intended to fly in from New Hampshire for their wedding but canceled when a hurricane threatened the venue. “They really couldn’t fly down safely. We had no other option than to say, ‘It’s a hurricane, we understand,’ and we refunded their money,” he says. However, the Oaks was booked for the next few months, so rescheduling wasn’t possible in the timeframe the couple needed.

3. What Happens if the Venue Is Damaged During a Hurricane?

If the weather forecast for your wedding is sunny, but a hurricane moved through town a few weeks ago, the venue may be damaged and unfit to host your wedding day. In this case, you need to know if the venue will simply cancel your event, or if the venue offers a backup plan. 

Even if the venue is undamaged, a power outage caused by a hurricane could make a wedding impossible. Jones says electrical issues from a Wednesday or Thursday hurricane could scuttle as many as six weekend events at The Oaks’ two venues, because “the power takes about a week to a week-and-a-half, or as long as two to three weeks, to get reconnected.” 

In this case, events would need to be rebooked. But the venue does have generators ready in case power goes out midway through an event.

4. If You’re Having an Outdoor Ceremony, Is an Indoor Option Available?

Even if there’s not an official hurricane with a severe storm surge and tropical waves, hurricane season can still bring torrential rain and winds that will make an outdoor ceremony and reception miserable. 

In the worst case scenario, you’d need to be prepared in advance to move your event to a new location. When discussing this with your venue, be sure to get a look at the backup location that they provide. 

At The Oaks, when a garden wedding is rained out, the ceremony can be moved to a large indoor ballroom, says Jones. “We always discuss ‘Plan B’ for inclement weather forcing a move inside during the client tours.” He adds that both possibilities are rehearsed in advance. “The nice thing about our scheme is the client isn’t burdened with the cost of a tent,” he says. “If we think the weather is going to be inclement, our staff sets up both areas and the bride and groom will select which they prefer.”

Inclement Weather Clauses to Look for in Your Wedding Vendor Contracts

Another big tip is to request that all of your contracts with your wedding vendors provide inclement weather or natural disaster clauses that state what happens in the event of poor weather. Also ask for rescheduling clauses that describe how you can go about moving your event after a cancellation.

Beyond just asking the appropriate wedding venue questions, these clauses can ensure you know exactly what to expect from the venue and vendors, if you get bad weather for your wedding. 

Ideally, the inclement weather or natural disaster clause will confirm that you will receive a full or partial refund for any money paid before the wedding date, in the event of a hurricane. As well, the rescheduling clause should ideally confirm that you will not lose any pre-paid deposits and that you will not receive any extra service charges or additional fees for moving your event dates. 

At The Oaks, one of the line items in every wedding rental agreement is the purchase of BriteCo insurance that refunds a couple’s payments if the event is canceled by a hurricane or other severe weather event. 

Suggested Read: What to Do When a Wedding Vendor Goes Out of Business

How to Make an Informed Decision if a Hurricane Impacts Your Wedding

If a hurricane does impact your wedding, you’ll want to make an informed decision about canceling or postponing the date based first and foremost on your guests’ safety. Then, look at potential backup options.

If it’s going to simply be too dangerous for your guests to travel to and attend the wedding, a cancellation or postponement is necessary. If that’s not the case, you may just need to be flexible and move any outdoor portions, like a cocktail hour, indoors. 

You’ll also need to understand that some vendors may not be able to make the event due to the weather. This may require you to get creative, such as by relying on a playlist for your first dance rather than live music, or doing your own hair and makeup. 

Wedding & Hurricane Season FAQs

What Questions Should You Ask a Wedding Venue in General?

There are many questions you should ask a potential wedding venue, including if there are any vendors you’re required to use like an in-house caterer, what extra fees or service charges may be added on to your bill later, what the contract looks like, and whether you can speak to brides and grooms from past events to get their opinions. 

Is It Safe to Book a Wedding Venue on the Caribbean Sea During Hurricane Season?

It’s certainly a risky move to book a Caribbean wedding during hurricane season, as no one can make a totally accurate wedding weather prediction. If you move forward, it’s all the more important that your vendors have a reasonable inclement weather clause in their contracts, and always purchase wedding cancellation insurance. 

Will a Venue Allow You to Move Your Wedding if There’s a Hurricane?

Many venues will allow you to move your wedding date or wedding location if a hurricane impacts your chosen dates. However, check your venue contract ahead of time to confirm the full details. The Oaks, for example, allows rescheduling at no charge when a storm looms. “We’ve had people postpone it for five or six months at a time,” Jones says. 

When Should You Cancel Your Wedding Due to a Hurricane?

You should always cancel your wedding due to a hurricane if holding the event will put you, your guests, or any of your vendors in danger. 

When Is it Most Likely That a Hurricane Will Impact a Wedding?

Hurricane season in the Caribbean runs from June to November, with August, September, and October being the busiest months for a hurricane. Because of this, January to May dates are the most coveted at The Oaks, which reduces prices for weddings held in June to August because of heat and the threat of hurricanes. Many couples in the region are used to that way of life and unfazed when choosing a date. “If they can save $5,000 on a wedding and roll the dice on hurricanes and tropical storms, they’ll do it,” Jones says.

Wedding Cancellation Insurance Can Help Recoup Your Losses

If you do need to cancel your wedding due to a hurricane, and your wedding venue and other vendors will not refund your deposits, wedding cancellation insurance can cover the costs of moving your wedding to a new date.

Learn more about wedding insurance and get your quick wedding insurance quote from BriteCo now. 

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