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PracticalApril 2026 · 5 min read

Power cuts, candlelight and plan B

The generator question every coordinator should answer before you sign — and the couples who danced through stage 4.

SN
Sipho Ndlovu
Contributing writer
P05 · first dance b/w

Ask any Cape coordinator for a war story and it involves a schedule change at 16:00 on a Saturday. The grid is nobody's wedding guest, but it doesn't have to be a crisis — it has to be a line in the contract.

Three questions before you sign

One: is there backup power, and does it carry the kitchen and the sound desk or just the lights? Two: who pays for the diesel? Three: has the venue actually run a wedding on it — not tested it, run one. A venue that answers all three without blinking has done this before.

“The power went at nine. The band went acoustic, the venue lit two hundred candles, and it's the part everyone still talks about.”

Married in Paarl, March 2025

Bands and DJs on the Cape circuit run inverter-backed rigs as standard now. Confirm it in writing, then stop worrying about it.