Outdoor shower in January?

lbonga1 · December 2012

I'm having a shower the second weekend in January, and we are having it at a regional park. There are plenty of covered areas with grills...the theme is a baby q. I live in Southern California so I'm not worried about it being completely freezing, but I am a little concerned about wind and rain. Does anyone else have experience with being rained out of an event like this?

rhubarb123 · December 2012

I have only hosted or been a part of a couple of showers at parks...using the shelters and at the time was living in MI so the weather was very unpredictable. Obviously these were in the summer...but we would still need to contend with possible rain and wind. Have you checked to see if any of the shelters are super big? We have different sizes at our parks. We were able to basically have the "shower" in the center of the shelter so rain would not have been a problem. Wind was only an issue at one shower. MTB wanted to do the "decorate the onesie" and the other hostess bought puffy paint (that takes forever to dry). Even though they were hung on a line the wind blew them into each other and it was a total mess. Also, napkins would not stay on the table and paper plates were an issue as well. We taped the tablecloths down pretty well and fortunately the other decorations were heavy enough they didn't blow around. We found that if we had napkins and plates in containers (deep bowl or upside down cake transport lid) the paper products did not blow around. We did take very large sheets of clear plastic (bought at a hardware) along with clips (we used clothepins) and attached that to a line we strung on the side the wind was coming from...it helped. We ended up having to put weights (we used rocks) on the bottom of the plastic. LOL We were never rained out fortunately.

cinderin · December 2012

DH and I were in the LA area in January and the weather was great. I think you will be fine.

DH and I are from Seattle. It was 60 degrees and dry (no rain) and we really liked it. All the CA natives had hats, gloves and scarves on :-)

Allycat11 · December 2012

Whenever planning an outdoor event I would have a back up plan. I would find out if the covered areas will actually block the elements enough. If they do not, I would have a plan B just to be safe.

mrslionbear · December 2012

I would hate this, I get cold too easily.

PunkyBooster · December 2012

Ditto, back up plan.

Mid-November is generally very mild and beautiful where I live and DS's party was at a park. 18 straight hours of pouring down rain, thunder and lightening made us move it indoors- so just have that option just in case.

1026pumpkin · December 2012

Are the shelters large? Typically in S. Cal, rain isn't very heavy, so if the shelters are large enough to keep your guests and gifts dry, and the grills are going to be going to keep people warm, I think it's fine. If not, I would plan something indoors to keep people comfortable. Do you have a community center you could use so that you can set up the party indoors but still be able to grill outdoors? That might be the best of both worlds...

If you haven't already booked the park, try looking around for ones with a rec/community center or an HOA community center/pool house. They're typically inexpensive to rent.

BTW, I think a baby-q is a super cute idea!