Choosing your wedding season, from Constantia to the Zambezi

Knysna and Hermanus share a coastline and very little else, least of all their weather, and Constantia and the Zambezi keep calendars of their own. Settle the month, and the choice of venue narrows quickly.

Forest and lagoon on the Garden Route

Walkers Beach, The Villa at Kurland, Ashford Oval, Hunter's Country House, and The Plettenberg share the weather of the forest and the lagoon.

• Rain can fall in any month, most often in autumn and spring.
• Winter, against expectation, tends to be driest.
• The rain keeps the forest green in January, and every outdoor ceremony needs somewhere to go.

Vineyards and open country in the Overberg

At Wildekrans, Arabella, Moya's Vineyard, and The Marine, the year divides more cleanly.

• Summers are warm and dry, and the south-easterly arrives with real conviction.
• Winter brings most of the rain, on the cold fronts of June to August.

Constantia and the Cape winter

The Cellars-Hohenort keeps to the Cape Town calendar.

• The wet months are May to August, when cold fronts come in from the Atlantic.
• Summers are dry, with the south-easterly for company.

A wedding in whale season

• Southern right whales calve in the sheltered bays of both coasts, roughly from June to December.
• At Hermanus they can be watched from the cliff path, and Walker Bay is most reliable from September to November.
• Plettenberg Bay has whales and dolphins all year, with humpbacks passing in early summer.

If the whales are part of the picture, choose the season before the setting.

Dry country at Gorah

Gorah lies in the semi-arid Eastern Cape. Rain is scarce.

• What rain there is falls through the year, peaking in February and March and again in October and November.
• Winter nights can bring frost, so a July evening wedding needs wraps or blankets for the guests.

The Zambezi, wet season and dry

Royal Chundu sits in another climate altogether.

• The rains come in summer, from mid-November to March, mostly as downpours and thunderstorms.
• October, just before them, is usually the hottest month.
• From April to mid-November the days are dry.
• Victoria Falls runs fullest from March to May, after the rain, and lowest around November.

The same place in February and July

In the Western Cape the weather can change several times in an afternoon, so no outdoor ceremony there should be planned without a covered terrace or a marquee in reserve.

Ask Carón which season suits your venue; the same place can feel entirely different in February and in July.