How to Help Your Guests Beat the Heat During Your Summer Wedding

Summer is the most popular time for a wedding. Longer days, less unpredictable weather, warmer temperatures, and lush landscapes make it an ideal time for an outdoor ceremony, reception, or both. But those same perks can also work against you when the temperatures start to rise and your guests start to sweat! Especially if you’re throwing a midsummer wedding, the chances for high temps are high in Michigan and this can mean overheated guests. 

To help keep your guests safe and cool during your beautiful summer wedding, we’ve devised some tips that will help them beat the heat and enjoy celebrating your big day with you. 

Cool Favors 

Using the tradition of giving out wedding favors, you can provide them with the tools they’ll need to stay cool, especially if any part of your big day is outside. 

You can provide items such as:

• Paper fans with a special poem or verse written on them (then they won’t have to fan themselves with their programs!)
• Personalized, travel bottles of sunscreen 
• Fun, monogrammed sunglasses
• Handheld misters with the couple’s initials (these are great because guests can take them home and continue to use them)
• Water bottles guests can take home with them
• Fancy Parasols 

Cooling party favors are great because they serve a functional purpose during the wedding and guests will have a fun keepsake they can use again and again. 

Serve Refreshing Beverages 

Drinks aren’t just for the reception. On a hot day, it’s a great idea to have beverage stations wherever guests will be spending long amounts of time — before they enter the ceremony area, inside your venue of choice, or in the waiting area between the ceremony and reception. 

To be safe, it’s a good idea to avoid alcohol until the reception since it can help lead to dehydration. Before the party, stick to lemonade or flavored water stands. If you want to keep things simple and practical just try ice buckets with bottles of water so no one gets dehydrated. You can never have too much water on a hot day.

Tip: Providing glass bottles you guests can fill with cool water is a great way to provide eco-friendly hydration!

When it’s time to open the bar, provide recipes for refreshing drinks like:

• Spiked Lemonade
• Cucumber Gin and Tonic
• Tequila Sodas
• Spiked Arnold Palmer

You could even get really cool and provide a slushie bar with the option to spike! Or add a fruity, popsicle garnish to any drink for a fun and refreshing twist. 

Skip the Hot Food 

On a hot day, the last thing guests want is to hold a plate of hot food in their hand or stand over hot pans while they get their appetizers. If you’re outside on a hot day, try sticking to cold appetizers like deviled eggs, cucumber sandwiches, or mini popsicles. 

You can even keep the cool food theme going and stick to cold main dishes for dinner. Try hearty salads, fruit salads, pasta salads, chilled gazpacho soup, a sandwich station, a sushi bar and more!

These refreshing foods will keep your guests full and happy without upping the temps of your venue. 

Survival Stations

If it’s going to be hot, you might as well have some fun with it. To help your guest’s beat the heat, try setting up survival stations around your location, complete with all the tools they’ll need to stay cool on a hot day. 

Stock your stations with:

• Sunscreen 
• Cool towels
• Flip flops
• Water 
• Ice packs 
• Mini spray bottles
• Fans
• Parasols 

An Open-Air Venue

During hot summer temps, a venue that provides the best of an outdoor and an indoor wedding could be the key to getting the best of both worlds and staying comfortable.

Crystal Gardens features the only open-air chapel of its kind in Michigan. The chapel features white padded Chiavari chairs for 170 guests. Padded chairs are a good idea on a hot day so guests don’t burn their bottom when they sit on a hot chair! There is standing room for additional guests, a sound system, proper lighting and, for those really warm days, ceiling fans. The chapel is covered to protect guests from the beating sun, but open to let in that summer breeze and the smell of flowers and grass. You can also have the ceremony in the open hair chapel and then move the reception into our air-conditioned reception venue.  

The Right Time

If you’re really worried that a hot day will melt your guests, try bucking tradition and have a sunset wedding with a reception lit by sparkling twinkly lights and even candles for a magical twist. 

Ready to start planning your cool, summer wedding? Give us a call to book our venue and get even more wedding planning help. You can reach our event coordinators by email or phone at 877-545-1002.