Build the replacement wedding—not a rain promise.

Assign one role to monitor official information and translate it into the written event triggers. Do not let ten phone apps, vendor opinions, and guest messages compete with the controlling source.

Write the operating ladder

• Primary sources: National Weather Service Key West for local forecasts and hazards, National Hurricane Center for tropical systems, and Monroe County for emergency orders and alerts.
• Monitoring times during planning, the event week, setup day, guest arrival, outdoor operation, and breakdown.
• Who receives the information, who can recommend action, who makes the decision, and who can override it for immediate safety.
• Separate safety triggers, property closure rules, vendor limits, operational deadlines, and contract deadlines.
• Record the decision, time, source, person authorizing it, replacement selected, and communications sent.

Start with National Weather Service Key West and Alert!Monroe.

Hard stop: If no named person owns monitoring and authority, the team will argue while the decision window closes.

For lightning, the National Weather Service says no place outside is safe when thunderstorms are in the area. A decorative or open-sided cover may protect clothing from rain while providing no safe lightning shelter.

Prove before guests arrive

• The safe shelter type, address, entrance, capacity, accessibility, opening authority, route, movement time, and accountability procedure.
• The outdoor stop trigger must account for how long it takes the slowest guest, staff member, and vendor to reach shelter.
• Vehicles used as shelter must be appropriate enclosed vehicles and cannot be counted twice for simultaneous transport duties.
• The NWS safety rule calls for remaining in safe shelter at least 30 minutes after the last thunder.
• Decide whether the event resumes, converts fully indoors, postpones, or ends after the shelter period.

Use the NWS organized outdoor activity plan and lightning safety rules.

Hard stop: Do not start an outdoor gathering that cannot move every person to verified safe shelter before the threat reaches the site.

The backup must be controlled as carefully as the preferred site. “We can probably use the ballroom” is not inventory, permission, capacity, or a contract remedy.

Match both plans in writing

• Exact room or property, date, hold time, access, guest and vendor capacity, layout, accessibility, restrooms, parking, loading, power, sound, food, alcohol, cleanup, and safe return.
• Who controls the backup and what payment, deadline, release, permit, insurance, staffing, or minimum is required.
• Setup and conversion time, stored equipment, duplicate rentals, décor changes, ceremony orientation, photography, and guest route.
• Whether the backup solves heat, lightning, wind, flooding, loss of power, property closure, and transport—not just rain.
• What happens if both the preferred and backup properties become unavailable.

Hard stop: A space is not a backup until the exact use and operating window are guaranteed in writing.

Moving a ceremony changes arrival times, loading points, room access, power, sound, food, florals, photography, transportation, parking, staffing, overtime, and the order of work.

Build one conversion sheet

• For each vendor: preferred plan, replacement duties, revised location and time, required notice, added price, overtime, cancellation, refund, substitution, and failure remedy.
• For transportation: revised pickup, capacity, vehicle route, parking, accessible entrance, dispatch, early returns, final return, and driver-hour limits.
• For equipment: who removes or secures arches, tents, signs, florals, sound, lighting, cords, generators, food, and loose objects before conditions become unsafe.
• For guests: one approved message naming the decision, new address, ready time, route, accessibility, clothing, and contact.
• For the couple: one complete cost showing duplicate space, labor, transport, rentals, food, lodging, rebooking, and money at risk.

Hard stop: If vendor deadlines disagree, the latest decision can make the replacement impossible or create multiple cancellation charges.

A tropical-weather plan must cover more than the wedding date. Guests, workers, aircraft, lodging, fuel, roads, utilities, property access, and emergency orders can change before the worst local conditions arrive.

Set the cancellation and evacuation ladder

• Monitor the National Hurricane Center, NWS Key West, Alert!Monroe, emergency orders, property notices, airlines, roads, utilities, and each essential vendor.
• Use earlier internal and contract deadlines for guest travel, setup, deliveries, rentals, lodging, insurance notice, and vendor release. A public watch or warning is not a booking deadline.
• Name who can cancel, who notifies guests and vendors, how travel and lodging are changed, and where records and original documents go.
• Official closures and evacuation orders override the event plan. Do not send guests, staff, or vendors into a closed or unsafe area.
• Document postponement, rebooking, credits, refunds, insurance notice, charge deadlines, and the point when the wedding can no longer operate.

Use the National Hurricane Center and Monroe County’s current evacuation information.

Hard stop: Do not keep guests in the Keys to preserve deposits when official instructions or safe departure require action.