If you are planning a summer wedding in Seattle, you must be “traffic savvy” to avoid traffic and/or weather issues that can create unexpected problems on your wedding day.

So, here’s a “crash course” to help you navigate Seattle’s heavy summer car and ferry traffic while crafting the timeline for your wedding events and wedding day. This includes four time and traffic strategies from 4 Emerald City to help ensure the success of your wedding day tips.

4 Seattle Traffic and Weather Tips to Ensure a Successful Wedding Day

1) Implement the ’30 minute rule’ for your Seattle wedding: Since traffic during the summer months in Seattle is often unpredictable and crazier than normal, one of the best tactics you can employ for all events around your wedding day is to implement the “30 Minute Rule.” . If your wedding ceremony is scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm, put 5:00 pm on the invitations. If your rehearsal is scheduled for 1:00 p.m., tell your family and friends to arrive at 12:30 p.m.

Seattle traffic is crazy in the busy summer months. Thousands of tourists flock to the area, and thousands more arrive each week to take cruises to Alaska. Nothing creates more stress for a bride or groom than a late start to wedding events and family/friends and members of the wedding party arriving late. So, be proactive and go for the “30 Minute Rule” and plan your wedding around this principle to make it easier and less stressful.

2) Plan your wedding around Seattle’s monster summer events: Each summer, Seattle hosts a series of large annual events that create mini tsunamis of traffic. If your wedding is on one of these summer weekends, you’ll want to make sure your people take alternate routes, avoid certain bridges, and/or allow plenty of “break time” for traffic congestion and road/bridge closures. Examples include:

~ Torchlight Parade Weekend ~ Streets in the downtown Seattle area closed for a large Friday night parade creating traffic congestion for hours.

~ Fair weekend ~ The two bridges that cross Lake Washington are closed at different times for 4 days over a weekend in August (usually the first or second weekend in August), creating traffic nightmares between Seattle and the East Side. Visit the Seafair website for information on the bridge closure and plan accordingly.

~ Road closures ~ Each summer, the Washington State Department of Transportation schedules major highway projects and/or highway closures throughout the Seattle area. Visit the WA State DOT website for current information: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/trafficalerts/PugetSound.aspx.

~Bellevue Arts and Crafts Festival ~ A large festival in downtown Bellevue creates serious local traffic problems on the last weekend of July.

And these are just 4 examples!

3) Do your Seattle wedding plans include a ferry? Beware! If your Seattle wedding plans include a ferry ride, plan for longer ferry lines in the summer months and create some “time in between” while planning your wedding events. Hardest Impacted Ferries: Downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island, Edmonds to Kingston, Downtown Seattle to Bremerton, Port Townsend to Keystone, Mukilteo to Clinton, and all ferries to/from the San Juan Islands.

4) Plan your Seattle ceremony and celebration at the same venue/venue: Finally, one of the best ways to ensure your Seattle wedding runs smoothly with traffic is to plan the ceremony and celebration in the same location.

Weddings that hold the ceremony at one Seattle location and have guests drive to another location are a perfect setup for an Emerald City nightmare of traffic and time. If your plan is already in place for two Seattle locations on your wedding day, consider a bus or shuttle service to get your guests from one location to another more conveniently.