Jen and I chose October 20th for little reason other than venue availability. We knew we wanted the event at the Wadsworth in Middletown, and with our late booking there were only two options:
Sunday, October 20
Sunday, October 27
Jen chose the 20th because she likes even numbers and she didn’t want our holiday too close to Halloween. Because we were looking at a Sunday, we wanted to make sure that our guests could make it home and still have a pleasant sleep before work on Monday. With the 9 hours of open venue time, we opted for a 12:30pm – 9:30pm window, with a start time of 3pm.
Let’s talk weather! The following charts show the historical averages for temperature in Connecticut for the date of October 20th. We’ll start with a look at Hartford.
3pm start time was right in the prime of the day! Perfect!
And now for Middletown specifically:
In retrospect, we made a great statistical choice! But the last few years in Connecticut certainly gave us reason for concern.
October 2011: The Great October Snowstorm
18.6 inches of snowfall, 10 deaths, 830,000 power outages, $160M in damages
October 2012: Hurricane Sandy
Winds at 85mph, 4 deaths, 625,000 power outages, $360M in damages
Granted both these events were pushing the tail end of October, but the significance of their devastation made us more than mildly worried. As the day approached we kept a close eye on the forecast. Ten days out? Uninspiring, but not horrific. Rain with temperature in the mid-fifties. Thankfully, the news continuously improved. Come our wedding eve the predictions were were a mostly sunny day with highs around 63°F – looking good!
As the day dawned, we realized we couldn’t have asked for anything better. Further, the foliage was near peak!
It was warm enough in the sun that the ladies didn’t need shawls and the men didn’t burn up in their suit jackets. Truly an epic day for a party.