Backyard Wedded Bliss
Planning an Intimate Wedding at Home Call it Plan B for “backyard.” Angela Hodel from Imagine Events, a Saskatchewanbased event planner, had a full calendar of weddings booked in early 2020. By spring, 95 per cent of those weddings were postponed or cancelled due to COVID. The nuptials that went ahead became more intimate, al fresco affairs from the comfort of her clients’ backyards. “We did a handful of backyard weddings because a lot of people were still holding out to see if they were going to be
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able to have the larger wedding they had originally envisioned,” says Angela. “I think we’ll see a lot more backyard weddings in 2021 because we are still going to be managing COVID for the foreseeable future.” Hosting your wedding at home is a budget-friendly option, says Angela. “The other thing is, it’s really nice to have that intimate feel. You don’t necessarily have to go anywhere—you can literally just get ready in your house and then walk outside and you’re at the party.”
Shelter, Power and Sanitation It might seem simpler than a wedding at a traditional venue with a 300+ guest list, but “there are a lot of logistical things behind the scenes that people don’t consider when they are hosting it in their own yard,” says Angela. It’s not always a nice day for a white wedding in Saskatchewan, so having a tent or another form of shelter for inclement weather is one of the first items Angela discusses with her couples.
by: Julie barnes
“Does the tent need to be staked to the ground and are there power lines below? If you are hiring a DJ to play music for your ceremony, do you have adequate power to run the DJ’s equipment? If you have a caterer bringing in food, does it need to be kept hot? Will they need power?” The backyard weddings Angela oversaw last summer ranged in size from 10 to 30 people, a figure that changed as SHA guidelines evolved. She says couples need to consider if they
