3 days ago
Wedding Planner Hired a Witch from Etsy to Ward Off Bad Weather. Then It Rained the Whole Day (Exclusive)
Wedding planner Sarah Wintersteen hired an Etsy witch to cast the "perfect wedding spell" for her clients' outdoor wedding after there was a "tropical cyclone warning" in their area
"[We] were not relying on an Etsy witch to fix our problems but if there was even a 0.0001% chance it was going to work, I was willing to spend $9 to try!" Wintersteen tells PEOPLE
Even though "it was pouring" all day, the spell still "worked" because "everyone just decided to embrace the rain"A wedding planner playfully blamed an Etsy witch for bad weather on her clients' big day.
A few days before Robyn Kincade and Blake Panarisi's May 31 wedding at Flora Farms in San José del Cabo, Mexico, it became clear that a tropical storm was headed their way.
The couple's wedding planner Sarah Wintersteen, owner of Sistered States, began taking precautionary measures for the completely outdoor venue, suggesting that the pair get a tent. However, the manager of Flora Farms noted that "rain in Cabo is so rare" and that after 18 years of working at the venue, she's only seen it rain on a wedding day four times. So, the day before their wedding, the bride and groom decided to not get a tent.
"I quoted the tent to the couple, and they decided to take their chances and hope that the storm would weaken or move courses," Wintersteen tells PEOPLE.
With a "tropical cyclone warning" in the area, Wintersteen didn't want to risk the couple and their 160 guests getting drenched by heavy rain all day, so she decided to take measures into her own hands.
"As a planner, I was working with all the vendors on the best course of action," Wintersteen explains. "I had seen some other people online mention hiring an Etsy witch to make rain go away on their wedding day so I figured, why not?"
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Wintersteen had never hired an Etsy which before, but found one on the online marketplace who charged just $9 after searching "wedding weather witch."
"It was completely for fun and for the plot — we already have multiple rain plans in place and were not relying on an Etsy witch to fix our problems but if there was even a 0.0001% chance it was going to work, I was willing to spend $9 to try!" Wintersteen says.
Because the witch needed the bride's birthdate, Wintersteen made sure to get the couple's permission before hiring them.
"I purchased the 'perfect wedding spell' so technically not a weather spell, but the spell promised that the couple would have a 'perfect wedding day,' " Wintersteen says. "The page said they cast spells within 24 hours of receiving the order and I received confirmation from the Etsy page that our 'spell had been cast.' "
Kincade and Panarisi were admittedly "a little stressed about the rain" in the days leading up to their wedding, but after they decided against the tent "a lot of the stress went away."
"We all decided that we were going to embrace whatever was going to happen!" Wintersteen shares.
Around 10 a.m. on the wedding day, it started to rain and "did not let up all day."
"The ceremony started at 5:30 p.m. and the reception ended at 11p.m. — it rained the entire time!" Wintersteen recalls.
She continues, "Guests arrived with umbrellas for the ceremony, but there was almost no use — it was pouring. I think after the ceremony, the bride and groom and their guests pretty much gave up on staying dry or looking a certain way."
A few days after the wedding, Wintersteen posted clips of the poor weather at the venue on TikTok, writing in an onscreen text overlay, "When I paid an Etsy witch for no rain on the wedding day and it down-poured all day." She posted her viral video, in which she had to wring out water from her dress, to the trending audio that goes, "That was rude. That was pretty f------ rude." "There goes my $9," she added in the caption.
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Even though Wintersteen was jokingly blaming the witch for the rain, the weather didn't ruin the wedding at all.
"Everyone just decided to embrace the rain!" Wintersteen says. "We even moved some of the tables out of the bar/barn for guests to dance in after dinner, but they all still decided to dance in the rain for HOURS! I would guess for a lot of guests, it has been years since they had the opportunity to just dance in the rain, so that is what they did!"
If anything, the witch's spell worked exactly as promised.
Wintersteen says, "Even though it still rained on the wedding day, the witch did promise a 'perfect wedding' and after the wedding was over, the couple did say that they wouldn't change a thing — so it looks like it worked!"
Read the original article on People
