How vendors and couples are elevating guest comfort this season.
Novela preferred wedding planners, caterers and rental vendors are flexing their creative muscles, devising approachable ways to keep guests cool and comfortable during Charlottesville’s warmest wedding months.
Here’s what they recommend:
Encourage guests to choose lightweight breathable fabrics, such as cotton or linen, and comfortable shoes for dancing — no one wants a blister halfway through the reception. Better yet, provide a basket of new flip-flops in various sizes for guests to slip on.
Set up hydration stations. Prompt guests to help themselves to welcoming pour-your-own pitchers of cucumber-mint ice water, iced tea and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Offer refreshing snacks and desserts, such as ice cream, popsicles or sorbet, to help cool guests down.
Photographs by Valerie Demo and Sarah Houston
Provide party favors that they’ll use. Personalize refillable water bottles, individual sunscreens and hand fans with the couple’s monogram or wedding date.
Utilize the venue’s natural shade. Consider ceremony and reception timing and the day’s forecasted peak temperatures and design events under massive oak trees or plan for a terraced cocktail hour before moving into an air-conditioned reception area.
Go poolside. Does your venue have a pool? Host a poolside welcome reception. Or, better yet, treat your wedding party to a poolside barbecue rehearsal dinner.
Photographs by Hannah Malloy and Valerie Demo
Create an inviting atmosphere. Use tents, canopies and umbrellas to protect guests from the sun and design comfortable lounge spaces with misting fans providing a gentle cooling effect from a distance (you want a light mist, not overwhelming dampness). Use light fabric, linen and decoration colors to reflect heat.
Consider airflow when selecting seating. Chairs with slatted backs allow air to circulate. Save the thick pillows and velvet upholstery for fall and winter weddings.
For more summer wedding inspiration, visit the advice section of our website and see what Charlottesville vendors are up to, what’s on-trend and how couples are shaping their dream weddings.
