Summer here means highs near 92, humidity that makes it feel like 105, and a thunderstorm most afternoons.
It also means the cheapest venue pricing of the year, the best availability, and sunsets past 8:20 that give you enormous timeline flexibility. Plenty of my favorite weddings have been in summer. They were just planned differently.
Move Everything Later
The single biggest fix.
A 2pm outdoor ceremony in July is genuinely rough. A 6:30 ceremony is pleasant, and it puts you in far better light.
Rough guide for June through August: ceremony no earlier than 6pm if you are outdoors and unshaded.
Shade Is Not Optional
Full sun at 3pm in a Florida summer is hard on your guests, hard on your florals, and hard on photos, because overhead sun makes harsh shadows on faces.
Options that work: an oak canopy, a covered pavilion, a west facing spot where the building throws shade by late afternoon, or simply moving later.
Take Care of Your Guests
Small things that make an outsized difference:
- Water at the ceremony. Cold, visible, easy to grab.
- Fans or parasols on the chairs. Cheap and people genuinely use them.
- Bug spray near the entrance if you are anywhere near water or trees.
- Keep the ceremony short. Twenty minutes in July feels longer than thirty in November.
- Shade for the cocktail hour, or move it indoors.
Plan for Rain Properly
Florida summer rain is usually a hard thirty minute storm, often mid afternoon, and then it clears completely.
That is workable. What is not workable is having no plan.
Ask your venue the specific question: if it rains at 4pm, where exactly does the ceremony happen, and what time do we have to make the call? Get a real answer with a real location and a real deadline.
Build a buffer. Fifteen minutes of slack in the timeline lets you wait out a cell.
Have umbrellas. Clear ones if you care about photos, and enough for the wedding party.
The good news is that storms usually pass, and the light right after one is often the best of the entire day. Broken clouds at sunset after a summer storm is about as good as Florida gets.
Dress and Fabric
Lighter fabrics photograph the same and feel completely different. Linen and lightweight wool blends for suits. Chiffon over satin for bridesmaids.
Tell your wedding party they can skip jackets until photos. Nobody needs to stand in a suit jacket in a parking lot at 4pm in August.
Hair and Makeup in Humidity
Talk to your artist specifically about humidity, because it is a different job in summer.
Practical notes: updos hold better than anything left down, powder based makeup outlasts cream, and setting spray is not optional. Build in a touch up before portraits.
The Photography Side
Golden hour is late and long. Sunset past 8:20 in June means the ceremony can be at 6:30 and you still get beautiful portrait light.
Everyone is shiny. This is normal, it is Florida, and it is fixable. Blotting papers in the getting ready bag, and I handle the rest in editing.
We will find shade. If it is bright and harsh, I will move us into open shade rather than fight it.
The Upside
Cheaper. Venues and vendors discount off season, often meaningfully.
Available. You can book a summer Saturday months later than a March one.
Long evenings. More daylight to work with than any other time of year.
Warm water. If you are doing anything beach adjacent, the Gulf in summer is like bathwater.
Worth It?
If your heart is set on an outdoor March wedding, wait for March. But if you are flexible and want to put the savings toward something else, a well planned summer wedding here is genuinely good.
Plan it later in the day, find shade, feed people water, and have an actual rain plan. That is most of it.
Thinking about a summer date? Tell me what you are planning. More on the portfolio.