Garden Wedding Ceremonies Chattanooga Tennessee

Let's be honest. One of the very first fears of everyone including the bride who decides on an outdoor garden wedding - is rain. What do we do if it rains? Another concern which immediately comes to mind for an outdoor garden wedding during summer months is the heat. This can be especially of concern when there will be a significant number of elderly guests and small children.

In Chattanooga there are several outdoor ceremony gardens brides have to choose from. One such ceremony garden is the Ginny Power Garden on the banks of the Tennessee River. It is not only thoughtfully located away from city streets to avoid the noise and other distractions of vehicle traffic, but it is virtually surrounded by garden views and trees. This natural beauty helps protect the ceremony garden area from direct sunlight. This not only helps keep the guests more comfortable and safe, but also this helps photographers and videographers produce better quality images. When direct sunlight shines on the bride's gown, the beautiful details are usually "blown out" and makes the dress look like a bright white blob. Also people aren't squinting with their eyes. Many video cameras are even more sensitive to bright light and exposure control becomes more critical in order to hopefully capture superior quality video footage.

At the Rose Garden located at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, there are covered walkways available. These provide protection from rain and harsh sunlight for weddings at the Garden Gazebo. Some venues with ceremony gardens will charge $500 to over $1,500 to rent a tent to help protect your guests from rain or harsh sunlight. This is not necessary at the Rose Garden.

The Rose Garden is also located away from city streets so vehicle noise, especially emergency vehicle sirens, will not become an issue in the middle of the Ceremony. This can be especially important when the wedding ceremony is being recorded by a professional videographer. Murphy's Law sometimes already seems to be in high gear on wedding days. Then to have police sirens blaring in the middle of the vows exchange not only deters from the quality of the video, but can destroy the dignity and elegance of the ceremony itself for all those attending.

For all these reasons, I very highly recommend to avoid any wedding ceremony gardens which are located out in direct sunlight. Of course, the idea of a "garden wedding" anyway should conjure up images of beautiful flowers and other foliage for the natural beauty that is desired to completely surround all the guests and participants in a garden wedding. A "garden wedding" which is so bare that everyone is exposed to harsh sunlight and views of buildings instead of trees and foliage isn't exactly what most brides envision when they dream of an actual Garden Wedding.

Don't try to do unity candles during your outdoor garden wedding. Almost everytime I have seen this attempted, the wind would blow out the candles. Sometimes no candles at all could even be lit. So I highly recommend sand pouring ceremony or other alternatives which will not be affected by the slightest of breezes.

Also paper runners outdoors is often blown out of position and blown over by wind. I've seen wedding parties trying to walk down paper runners and get tripped. Once even saw a bride herself trip and fall. Also when outdoors, the paper runner sometimes gets dirty or even muddy from people walking on it before the bride enters. It becomes a terrible eye-sore and can contribute to the bride's gown getting very dirty. The best solution is probably using a lot of flower petals. These are more natural and for this reason contribute to the overall natural garden atmosphere. Very fitting. No tripping. Also look very beautiful in photographs.

John C Wilson for Wedding Photographics www.weddingphotographics.net