Heatwaves are changing summer weddings - here's how to plan for one - BBC News

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# Heatwaves are changing summer weddings - here's how to plan for one

![A woman in a white wedding dress stands with a man in a suit. She holds a bouquet of red and pink flowers with a red ribbon. They stand at the pathway to a round church, metal ornate gates are open next to them and the path lined with traditional street lights. To the right and left is a lawn with large trees.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/2048/cpsprodpb/e18d/live/f9161720-8f31-11f1-ac89-5b80aa0a0820.jpg)Image source, Aimie Seale

Image caption, 

Aimie and Ryan had to make some last minute preparations to deal with this summer's heat on their wedding day

ByEsme Stallard, Senior climate and science reporter and Alva White, Climate and science team

- Published

  4 August 2026, 00:20 BST

**"As soon as I put my dress on, my makeup was just falling off my face."**

Aimie Seale is one of hundreds of brides whose weddings landed in the middle of a heatwave this summer.

She had chosen a July weekend in the hope of avoiding any wet weather. Instead, she faced 30C heat with her ceremony in a sweltering West Yorkshire church, predominantly made of glass.

"It was just unbearably hot," says Aimie. "I remember looking at my husband at one point, and he was just dripping with sweat, so everybody kept passing him tissues halfway through the service."

Aimie and her now-husband Ryan had to book an emergency marquee to offer extra shade and an ice-cream van to keep their guests cool.

An additional cost on an already expensive day, with the average wedding in [the UK costing more than £20,000., external](https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/organising-and-planning/the-average-wedding-cost-in-the-uk-revealed/)

But this last-minute battle to cope with the heat is only going to get worse. [Half of the years between 2015 and 2024](/news/articles/c2k1103vljqo) saw temperatures above 35C - up from one in ten - as climate change increases the risk of heatwaves.

![A man sits in a blue shirt and blue tie, to his left (right of picture) a woman sits with a brown and blue dress on and fascinator. She is eating an ice cream in a cone. The background is blurred, but other wedding guests can be seen mingling around. ](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/1056/cpsprodpb/80ce/live/ba8f4f20-8f91-11f1-af5f-f9f503d0e60c.jpg)Image source, Aimie Seale

Image caption, 

Ice cream vans and fans have been last-minute cost additions to this year's weddings

Zoe Burke, head of brand at wedding planning app, Bridebook, says the behavioural data - what people are talking about online - shows this is an issue couples are increasingly concerned about.

"On platforms, like Reddit, people are discussing what they are going to do to navigate the heatwave," she says.

Searches by brides for fans were up five times last summer compared with what they had been in 2019, she says.

## Heatwave costs run into the thousands

Sourcing some additional fans might feel like a relatively minor cost overall, but for those hosting, catering and supplying weddings, the financial impact of coping with this summer's heatwaves has spiralled.

"It has affected the industry massively. You are talking into the thousands [of pounds] for businesses," says Michelle Miles, board adviser to the UK Wedding Association and founder of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance.

One of the biggest costs wedding venues are facing is the equipment and energy costs of trying to keep a space and food cool, she says.

"[Some] venues are having to bring in air conditioning units; they are at a premium when everyone else is wanting those units to keep their houses cool and businesses."

Guests are also drinking more water - which brings another issue for venues.

"There has been a massive hit on alcohol sales. Venues would quite often rely on these to boost their profits, and people are...not drinking alcoholic drinks as much as they would on a temperate day," says Miles.

It is not just the wedding party wilting in the heat but also the flowers. Peonies and roses - some of the most popular choices for a British wedding – saw their flowering window narrow from two months to two weeks.

"It has been an extremely tough growing season with water shortages, drought, no rainfall, slow germination in the heat, flowers going over too quickly," explains Rebecca, from Lilac and Lace Floral Design.

For a recent wedding, she had to go to three times as many growers to get enough stems.

"For now, it's more a time cost than a direct financial one. But using more growers often [has] larger delivery costs - I would estimate it costs £200 more in delivery."

![Pink and orange roses appear wilted and brown. Background of purple flowers is blurred](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/2048/cpsprodpb/639d/live/3b5ba850-8f34-11f1-bd9f-4361c301d82b.jpg)Image source, Stéphane Rouillard/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images

Image caption, 

Roses and other traditional wedding flowers have suffered under European heatwaves

## Later weddings, cooler countries

Sarah Haywood has been a wedding planner for more than two decades and says she's seen a shift in the calendar.

"Over the last decade we have been advising people to avoid the heat of July and August [particularly] for destination weddings. And we're busier on what we call the 'shoulder season' which starts earlier and finishes later in the year."

Typically, the shoulder season would be June and September, but she said this is now reaching into October.

The 2026 UK Wedding Report from Bridebook showed that there are significant increases in October weddings in the year following a hotter than average summer.

Couples boo