If there’s one thing that you presumably won’t need us to tell you here at Sweet Gibraltar Weddings, it’s that getting married in Gibraltar can be a seriously… balmy experience. After all, you will be an almost literal ‘stone’s throw’ here from Spain, Gibraltar being known for its Mediterranean climate characterised by very warm summers and mild winters.
But as you might have had reason to appreciate lately if you have experienced the heatwave conditions that have hit the mainland UK this summer, warm and sunny weather isn’t just something to delight in – it’s also something that needs to be prepared for.
Heatwave conditions may make for fabulous ‘summer-holiday’ wedding photos (even outside the very height of summer), but the risk of one or several of your wedding guests being hit by a heat-related health issue can be very real.
Sunburn, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke can occur more easily than you expect, so you will need to be prepared. Below, then, we’ve set out some practical tips that you will hopefully find useful.
Plan so that attendees can enjoy some shade
It can be a lovely experience to spend time out in the sun, but it’s not a good idea for everyone to spend an entire wedding day in direct sunlight.
So, it is important to think about when and where you, your beloved and everyone else present at your nuptials will be able to get the chance of some shade. It could be a good idea to contact your chosen venue about this, and it might turn out that there are areas of the venue where guests will be able to enjoy shade at certain points during the day, as the sun changes position.
One good thing about getting married in Gibraltar is that the venues here tend to be more than prepared for such potential concerns! So, if you have any lingering worries in this regard, please don’t feel embarrassed in asking, as the venue will have fielded many similar questions in the past.
Make sure everyone keeps well-hydrated
This advice might seem almost too obvious to give. However, it is important to appreciate that when you are busy having fun at a celebratory event such as a wedding, it can be very easy to quickly become dehydrated and fail to drink as much as you need to do. And of course, the same will apply to your guests.
You could, of course, factor the cost of giving everyone a bottle of mineral water into the wedding budget, but even that water would probably run out quickly over the course of a wedding day. You might therefore instead arrange for a ‘hydration station’ to be positioned in a convenient place at your wedding reception, so that everyone can easily replenish their fluids.
Be particularly alert to the needs of more vulnerable guests
Of course, everyone will need to be looked after when you’re getting married in Gibraltar. In any case, it won’t necessarily be only the most seemingly vulnerable people who actually are vulnerable to suffering from the effects of the heat in the British Overseas Territory.
That being said, certain people set to be present at your wedding – such as any children or elderly people – will be particularly susceptible. In fact, we would urge you to assign a member of your wedding party to these more vulnerable people, to help make sure they keep themselves well-hydrated and don’t spend too much time directly exposed to sunlight.
Conditions like heat exhaustion and heatstroke can be so dangerous in part because other people present at the wedding may not fully realise they are occurring until the sufferer is very seriously unwell. So, it is crucial to be alert and proactive against the risk.
When we set out the above risks, we don’t mean to suggest you shouldn’t look forward to a wedding in Gibraltar that takes place in the sun! A sunny day in this part of the Iberian Peninsula can be wonderful, but we also advise you to take sensible steps to help keep everyone in attendance safe and well.
Get in touch with our experts in getting married in Gibraltar today, and we can help organise your nuptials in the territory so that your memories of this very special day will be only the best ones.
