Although Mr. Leavitt is not formally trained in meteorology, his interest in the weather began when he was employed, from 2014 to 2018, at the entertainment company AEG Presents. He worked on the safety alliance team for concerts and became fascinated with the concept of mitigating risk through weather detection. The team used meteorological technology to forecast wind, rain, sunshine and other factors that could affect outdoor performances.
“It’s the root of Ironic,” he said of his business, which he started in 2020. (The idea for the company’s name came from the chorus of the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic,” which mentions rain on a wedding day.) Ironic has two meteorologists on staff and access to more from the subscription weather services the company uses.
Mr. Leavitt never set out to work in the wedding industry. But in 2019, when storm clouds began rolling in at a friend’s wedding in Newport, R.I., he opened his laptop to check the storm’s trajectory and evolution. He discovered that the storm would last more than 30 minutes, the length of the ceremony, so the couple moved the event inside.
Soon, other friends of Mr. Leavitt’s began requesting weather checks for their wedding days, too. Mr. Leavitt, who said he has conducted weather advisory for more than 2,400 events, now works as a consultant to wedding planners and venues, with fees starting at around $2,500.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Can you predict rain on a wedding day?
While we can’t predict if there will be rain that day, what we can do is look at the historical weather data. We look at a specific mile in a location around the country over the past 30 years, and analyze the information. Say it’s rained three out of seven days, five out of seven days or seven out of seven days — that tells you a lot. If you know it’s going to rain five out of seven days, it’s a good idea to find a venue with an indoor option. If it’s raining once out of seven days, you can plan for an outdoor wedding.
