Las Vegas Wedding Planner Andrea Eppolito. Images by M Place Pro.

As a Las Vegas based wedding planner, I deal with my fair share of weather issues, from temperatures that climb well beyond 115 degrees to wind storms and monsoon rains. Blizzards and snow storms, however, are rarely a concern. Yet when I was retained to create a magical winter wonderland wedding in Lake Tahoe, I knew that I needed an expert to help me navigate weather conditions that I am not as familiar with.

Enter Ironic Reports, a concierge meteorology service that focused on wedding and event professionals. From the moment I met the founder, Andrew, I knew that I was in good hands. He was excessively knowledgable about weather patterns and all things science, he had a tremendous grasp on the technology we would need to deploy to properly plan our load in, and he had an amazing ability to translate the information into layman’s terms that were easy for me to understand.

What started out as a, “Gosh, I hope we can get her some snow that week” turned into a “How are we going to produce in what is now turning into a 5 day blizzard?!?” Andrew and his team began sending me weekly updates about 75 days out. At the 45 day mark, they turned into twice weekly notifications. At 30 days out, when he and the team noticed that we were going to have much more snowfall than anticipated I got a phone call. We were able to coordinate with our production teams plus the California Highway Patrol to ensure that we had adequate snow removal and labor on hand. Guests were given information on car chains if they were driving, and our team set up plans A, B,C, and Z…

10 days prior to the wedding Andrew and his team provided me with daily detailed reports, and when the snow began to fall fast and furious he and his team were able to advice production on the best ways up and down the mountain the avoid the eye of the storm.

They say that man plans and God laughs….And never was that more true! Highway patrol stopped our semi-trucks, requiring us to go to the backup on box trucks. That meant we had to unload all semi trucks and load the box trucks on the side of the road in the storm. A few more miles and we were told that the box trucks could no longer climb the mountain, which meant we needed to shift to having individual items (think walls, flooring, carpet, and drape) loaded onto fork lifts. And when the fork lifts failed us, the teams at Blueprint and Hensley quite literally hand carried the pieces the rest of the way.

Was this the ideal way to start production of a multi-million dollar wedding? Nope, sure wasn’t! But I was well prepared and, thanks to the information that Ironic provided, we were able to complete our installation and give my couple the wedding of their dreams.

Snowfall and all!

If you are a wedding planner or event producer, you owe it to yourself to get very familiar with Ironic Reports as soon as you can. And to read the full case study on this wedding, click HERE.

xo - Andrea