WE LIVE IN USA
An outdoor lawn venue is the least friendly to older guests: walk the route yourself at the site visit
Lawn weddings photograph beautifully. But if your guests include older relatives, people with mobility difficulties, or families pushing strollers, that lawn is an obstacle course for a whole day.
The problems with grass
- Wheelchairs won't roll(Be careful, the wheels will sink in.)
- Heels sinkThis is true for the bride, the bridesmaids, and every female guest attending.
- Walkers are unstable
- It's muddy after rain
- It's unevenIt poses a tripping risk, which is especially dangerous for older guests.
And none of this shows up in the photos or the venue brochure.
Walk it at the site visit
Not look at it. walk it: from the parking lot to the seats, on the actual route (see item 45 of the checklist).
Note as you go:
- How far is it? Is there anywhere to rest along the way?
- What's the surface? Are there steps?
- Is there an elevator, if there are level changes?
- Where's the accessible restroom, and how far from the seats?
If you can, walk the path once in heels yourself, and you will immediately know where the problems are.
If you choose the lawn anyway
What you can do to compensate:
- Lay a temporary walkwayYou can lay down wooden boards or carpet from the parking lot or entrance to the seating area. Rental costs aren't high, and the effect is immediate.
- Arrange transportYou can arrange a golf cart to shuttle older guests from the parking lot to the venue.
- Seat older guests closest to the entranceThis minimizes the distance they need to walk.
- Provide heel stoppersHeel protectors that keep high heels from sinking into grass are very cheap, so you can just leave them at the entrance for guests to grab.
Questions to ask the venue
"Do you have an accessible entrance and restroom, and where are they?"
"How far is it from the parking lot to the site, and what's the surface?"
"Can we rent a temporary walkway, or do we supply our own?"
"Can a wheelchair get all the way to the seating area?"
The reality at Chinese weddings
Chinese weddings usually have a higher proportion of older guests than American ones, with grandparents and all kinds of relatives attending. Plus, many fly in specially from Taiwan, enduring a ten-plus-hour flight on top of jet lag.
For those guests, "a five-minute walk across grass from the parking lot" is not a small thing.
This item, the seating plan (see item 49 of the checklist) and caring for the elders (see item 110 of the checklist) are three faces of the same question: how kind your wedding is to your least mobile guest.
In one line
Walk the parking-lot-to-seats route in heels at the site visit; if you do choose grass, rent a stretch of temporary walkway.