The Bride and Gloom : Rains Threaten to Put Damper on Romantic Outdoor Nuptials

The bride wore a rubber slicker. The groom wore boots. The minister carried an umbrella.

Couples across Los Angeles who have planned romantic outdoor marriages for this weekend are hoping those will not be snapshots in their wedding albums.

On Friday, they were exchanging worried looks over whether the clouds will part before they exchange vows.

“We’ve dreamed about an outdoor wedding. We’re hoping for friendly weather,” said Lisa Pallas of West Los Angeles, who plans to marry Phil Kneebone at 5 p.m. Sunday on a mountaintop above Malibu.

“We’re afraid that even if it does stop raining, it will be too wet to be outside.”

In Encino, bride-to-be Jill Sherman was trying to visualize how a tent canopy would look in the back yard of her mother’s home, where she is to marry Andrew Fienberg on Sunday afternoon.

“We started planning this six months ago when it was sunny and everybody was talking about the drought. We didn’t even think about rain--we didn’t give it any consideration,” Sherman said. “Hopefully, guests wearing high heels won’t sink in the ground.”

Reseda caterer Doug Noland, who plans to serve barbecue to Sherman’s 80 guests, said his seven waiters will bring ponchos with them. He said his Out Back Catering Co. once handled a Sylmar wedding where the bottom dropped out of the skies right after the newlyweds cut the cake.

“It didn’t put a damper on the party,” Noland said. “The deejay started playing ‘Singing in the Rain.’ It couldn’t have been done better in a movie.”

A better song this weekend might be “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” said Marcie Miller, rental coordinator for the Los Angeles firm Canvas Specialty. More than 100 people have snatched up canopies and coverings from her company for protection from the series of storms.

“Everybody’s freaking over the weather,” said Miller, whose 60-person wedding canopies rent for $425. On Friday, her workers had installed a canopy on a Pico Boulevard restaurant’s roof to cover mechanical equipment--and were preparing to put one over its front door to protect guests invited to a party Sunday.

Teresa Arciniega of Pacoima and Garret Anderson of Santa Clarita, who plan to be wed in an elegant lawn ceremony today at 5 p.m. at Descanso Gardens, have until noon to decide weather to risk it.

The ceremony can be moved inside if the rain still reigns, said Catherine Decker, wedding coordinator for the La Canada Flintridge grounds. “We only have to move inside a couple of times a year. We’ve never canceled a wedding because of rain,” she said.

Outdoor ceremonies sometimes go on despite a surprise wedding shower. It happened last Sunday at the Inn of the Seventh Ray, a creek-side cafe in Topanga Canyon.

“We heard thunder when we were setting up,” said manager Patrice Lynch. “Finally, there was a downpour on everybody.

“We put plastic over the gazebo and everybody squeezed inside. They handed me a camera, and I snapped pictures of the wedding party. Water was dripping all over me.”

No weddings are booked this weekend, Lynch said.

A few miles west at Malibu’s Calamigos Ranch, workers are prepared to move three weekend weddings indoors if necessary. One of them is the Pallas-Kneebone ceremony.

“I keep going outside and looking up to see if the sun is breaking through,” said Pallas, 28, a management analyst. “We knew we were taking a risk getting married in February,” said Pallas, 28, a management analyst. “But we wanted an outdoor wedding, and the next available date at Calamigos was after August.”

She and Kneebone, a 35-year-old recording engineer, may pick up some last-minute accessories to her white silk gown and his black tuxedo: “Maybe I’ll be carrying a white umbrella, and he’ll have a black one.”

The couple plan a two-week Caribbean honeymoon.

“It’s someplace sunny,” she said.