Wichita Wedding Blog

How to Have a Successful Park Wedding

6/24/2016

Wedding Wisdom Tips for the
Wichita Kansas Bride

Botanica Gardens, Wichita

Park Weddings offer lots of appeal.
If you love the outdoors, a natural setting can't be beat for your I Do's.
Also, the cost of a park wedding is usually nominal.

However, before you jump out of the boat and into the wedding waters of the great outdoors, there are a few things you should be aware of before taking that leap.

Here's a bit of insightful real life park wedding advise you'll find helpful on your park wedding journey.

Being aware and prepared will make all the difference, least wise your dream park wedding could morph into an unintentional outback wilderness adventure.

List of Wichita Parks

As with any wedding, there are always various factors to consider in order to make sure this is the wedding path you really want to take. As a wedding minister for over 36 years in South Central Kansas, I happily offer you some real life wedding wisdom tips that will help you decide if a park wedding is the really a good fit for your wedding style.

Taking a little time for careful consideration will go a long way toward creating the wedding you envision

Riverside Park Gazebo, Wichita KS

Firstly, the season is mega important, also think about the time of day you intend to have the ceremony. Factor in everything...for instance, all outdoor weddings "will" involve levels of unpredictability, that's just a given. There are possible weather issues, i.e. too hot, too cold, stifling humidity, high winds and of course all those lovely little insects.
To help with that, see my article on
Best Wedding Weather Months in South Central Kansas for an Outdoor Garden Wedding.

There are also accessibility considerations
to take into account.

Riverside Park, Stonehenge of Wichita KS

The distance you and your guests will walk to the ceremony site is a very important factor. If anyone in your RSVP list is handicapped, elderly, pregnant or have young children in tow, this is another factor to consider.
Is there amble parking and easy access to the restroom facilities? Will there be a changing area for the bride?

What sort of pathway will you and your guests need to navigate?
After all, about half of your guests will be in heels, right?
Is the walkway pavement, gravel, grass / lawn or dirt / mulch?
If it's grass, lawn or a field area, walk it yourself, especially around the ceremony area.

Always scout the area out on foot. The drawbacks can be most unpleasant with this particular oversight, Biting ants, biting flies, various small flying insect swarms, and don't forget about those burrs ... they don't work well with wedding dresses at all.
More times than I care to recount, couples didn't scout the area out carefully before making their outdoor / park venue selection. It wasn't pretty.

Is there a sturdy comfortable shelter nearby in case of a sever weather outbreak?

How much public pedestrian traffic is there around the area you are interested in? Are there any events taking place near by on the date you are considering, such as a little league game or some other event?

This is a biggy! The position of the sun will present as a very important factor as well. After all, you don't want your guests wilting under the high noon sun, nor do you want them squinting into the late noon sun either. Late start ceremonies should be avoided at all cost.

You must consider, your guests will generally arrive approximately 30 minutes, vendors even longer, prior to the ceremony and will have been seated. If the wedding party is having issues and cannot appear on ceremony que for another 30 minutes, this can quickly become a serious problem for your guests and vendors.

So now your guests / vendors have been out in the weather for 60 minutes, but wait, the ceremony will take additional 25 to 30 minutes to perform. As you can see, this comes to about an hour and a half.

That is a very long time for anyone to be sitting out in hot or bad weather conditions of any sort. I can promise you will get a big dose of the old stick eye looks and a somewhat miffed atmosphere during the reception. Best practice...just don't even go there. Be on que for your ceremony ever if it's barefoot!

The time of day and the season should play a major role in your decision making. To gain clear insights and find great suggestions simply ask your Ask Our Wedding Officiants to go over the best practice tips with you.

If you are planning on having 30 or more guests, we recommend securing a public park venue that also offers a nearby indoor facility or at the very least a covered area in case of weather issues.

This takes a lot of the worry and pressure off of your wedding "What If's".

There are several public park venues that offer an outdoor and indoor facility option.

Here are a few of our favorite Win-Win Public Park Wedding Venues.