To cancel garden party in august due to rain?

[Timetoflower22]

We are hosting a Hawaiian theme party for our 30th first weekend in august and I'm concerned about the weather. Obviously we won't know until a few days before but I'm trying to keep positive although the weather is looking not so positive... it's been planned for 4 months and we've spent a fortune buying and prepping for it. How long would you wait before cancelling it?

I’d have it and turn it into a Hawaii during hurricane season party.

Good thinking @SherbetDips

Can you find a standby venue nearby? Village hall, room above a pub or similar?

Of course still have it, rain is always a risk. Just stick up some gazebos and tell your guests to wear warm clothes.

We are hosting at ours house and didn't want to fork out to pay for a venue - we did consider buying a large gazebo for it but even that will cost a couple of hundreds pounds

The weather forecasts have been consistently wrong, today was supposed to be thundery showers but here we are sitting in weak sunshine. Can you not move mainly indoors and make use of a gazebo outside if needs be? Sounds like it's going to be amazing

are there any pubs nearby which have a free to use function room of people buy drinks? I've been to kid's parties in some where th st allow you to bring food as long as you don't bring drinks
use the money you would have spent on booze to put behind the bar

Either find a hall somewhere to hire, buy/borrow gazebos with sides and something to heat it with, or cancel.
would be a shame to do the third one if you’ve spent 4 months planning it. Why didn’t you plan a wet weather alternative, it must have occurred to you that the weather would be shit as it’s the school hols!!

Can you ask friends, family, neighbours to lend you gazebos and put as many as possible up in the garden? Even if it's rainy, it's not going to be particularly cold so a bit of shelter and a reminder to your guests that you will be outside so dress appropriately and it can still be fun.

Have you got any local borrowing libraries?

ours have got gazebos that you can hire for a week for about a tenner. You’d need to hook them in advance though

I'm assuming you don't live in Scotland...we'd never do anything if we cancelled for a bit of rain 😂it's our default setting!
I'd make a contingency plan as suggested above, move mostly inside (decorations in house to continue Hawaiian theme?) and have a gazebo outside. See if you could hire/borrow one for the day to keep costs down.

We bbq'd and partied in the garden in the wind and rain on Saturday. Everyone had a great time. We had a supply of hoodies available as well as borrowed gazebos. Kids loved it. Don't stress about the weather or let it ruin your day, celebrate and have a good time

Depends on where you live. Remember also that weather forecasts are pessimistic. Rain all day was forecast, it's been about ten minutes so far.

There's no cricket test match on in August either.

I think for the UK there always needs to be a back up rain plan - I guess that back up plan could be to cancel.

I’d go for a gazebo - and allow people in the kitchen too.

Nosy to hear what you've been buying / prepping that cost a fortune?

Not being snipey but to me the most costly things are always venue (which isn't relevant) and food (I assume not bought yet?) and booze.

Lidl have a large gazebo with sides for £99.

Luckily, my parents have a 6m x 3m gazebo we are going to borrow. The cost is mainly the alcohol. Going to be supply Pimms and beer all night (8 bottles cost us £100) and then the decorations cost us £60 and then food etc. So in total we estimate to have spend around £200. Just so gutted if we can't do it! We will use the gazebo and pray. Thank you all.

id consider postponing if its raining , as it will be so much nicer if weather good but i think its ok to only give people a few days notice

I think it’s not just rain, but also the temperature. We did a bbq one BH weekend at the end of August and it was 15 degrees and raining. No one wants to be outside at that temperature when they are planning for a summer outfit. We converted to an indoor party.

It's always a risk, you can't be surprised. Use the gazebo and just have people inside if necessary.

It rains every august, what was your original plan b - rig up tarpaulins? I'm an august birthday and bbq's in the rain and my signature birthday party!

Why don't you ask friends and family that have been invited if they have gazebos you could borrow for the event? It's likely at least 1 household invited will have a gazebo

I too would ask around for events shelters and gazebos and party tents to borrow.
I bet you'll find more people than you think will have one.
Failing that, you could try your local Scout Groups and offer a donation to the group if they can lend you something.

Seems odd to be providing so much alcohol (which I'd expect to bring myself if going to a party in someone's garden) but not be willing to pay out for rain cover.
If you buy one yourself, you'll get your money's worth over the years.

I had my friend's hen party in my garden at the start of the month and everyone had an amazing time despite the rain showers. We borrowed 3 gazebos and had one of our own we didn't use. One was for seating, food and drinks, one for the DJ and one to keep and play some of the garden games I had bought. Tbh I think if ours had gone up too we would have had more space for the games though.

Tbh though by the end of the party, games were being played in the rain and we were dancing to some of the tunes in the rain too.

It was a really lovely party and my friend said it was perfect, even despite the weather.