Is a weekday a bad idea to have a wedding on? Any suggestions!

jess3689

I am thinking about having my ceremony and reception on a thrusday afternoon. Has anyone else done this before? Pros and Cons please!

banana468

Thursday evenings are gaining in popularity.

Keep in mind that having your wedding on that day of the week is very inconvenient for your guests if they work 9-5 jobs and not ones where they can control the days of the week that they work.  A Thursday afternoon wedding pretty much guarantees that your guests are required to take time off from work to attend your wedding and they may need to take more than one day if you have a lot of guests from out of town.  If your rehearsal is the day before, that also means your BP may be taking 2-3 days off work to attend.  That can be a HUGE factore in whether or not they even accept being in your wedding.

How do the immediate families feel about it?

Avion22

Is there a reason that you want a Thursday instead of a Friday?  Most venues give the same discount for Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.   

A Thursday wedding will be tricky.  Your out-of-town guests will probably need to take Wed-Thurs-Friday off at least (and your bridal party may need to take Tues through Friday if your rehearsal is on Wednesday and they travel on Tuesday).   Your in-town guests may need to take a half day off on Thursday to get ready, then may want to take Friday off so they don't have to go to work the next day.  Either that or they will have to leave early.

A Friday wedding would mean fewer days off from work, and your in-town guests wouldn't have to leave early or miss work the next day.  Depending on where you live, traffic on the way to a Friday evening wedding could be a NIGHTMARE.

HobokensFury

Personally I think it's a great inconvenience to your guests. Be prepared for a lot of no responses.  And don't try to justify it by saying if they care they'll be there regardless- sometime's it's just not possible to take time off of work.

Tanq&Tonic

If you're going to do a weekday, and most of your guests are local, I would suggest doing an evening wedding followed by dinner, or a later wedding followed by cocktails and snacks.  As PPs mentioned, this gives in town guests a chance to get there by only taking a few hours off work.

If people have to travel in, then definitely agree with PPs, be prepared for a large number of declines even if they WANT to be there. 

It really depends on who you are inviting, where they live, what their situation is, and your tolerance for declines.

NOLAbridealmost

I'd definitely go if I were a local guest and I'd probably just go to work a little late on Friday.  But I'd have to decline if I was OOT no matter how close we were. I only get 5 vacation days a year. I can't justify using 3 on a wedding.

random4180

Good or bad depends on your expectations and your particular circumstances, I think. I'm having a Wednesday wedding and it was a decision we came to after checking with our VIPs, looking at our budget and potential venues, and weighing the pros and cons. We're on a tight budget, living in a very expensive area (NYC,) and are pretty much wedding novices (the first of our friends to get married, haven't attended a lot of weddings or formal events.)

 We considered everything and decided we could work with a weekday wedding. Some of our guests (including my mom) work in fields where Saturday and Sunday are not automatic days off. She's an RN and one of my brothers is an EMT. Others are students or teachers or retired and have plenty of flexibility in the summer.

 

What it came down to for us was being able to accept that we'll likely have a smaller turnout but at least we were able to invite all the people we'd like and give them the option to attend, rather than be limited by our budget on the more expensive weekend days and only be able to invite a small group anyway. It works for us but like just about anything else, it's not for everyone. Our thinking is that it's just an invitation and people can come or not come, whatever their schedule allows. It's unconventional, sure, but it's just a wedding. We won't be any less married if there's fewer people there.

whitney37354

As long as guests are local & you don't have the ceremony before 7 p.m., it's fine.  I've been to a Monday evening & Thursday evening wedding.  Simple church weddings with reception in the church fellowship hall.  No dancing, no alcohol, no late nights. No more inconvenient that eating out after work or being at the ballfield with your children for a weeknight ballgame.

ElisabethJoanne

Everyone's pretty much covered the time away from work and school issues. We'll assume you know about the cost savings. However, I'm getting married on a holiday Monday in November, so, off-day, off-season, and the only discount we've been able to get is 10-20% off catering, from one caterer. [We're still reviewing proposals.]

The advantage for us is that there's no scramble to book vendors. 2 caterers are holding our date with 0 deposit. Photographers likewise offered to hold the date for up to six months with 0 deposit. Same thing from bakers. This is ironic, because we had a very comfortable 16 months to plan, but we're glad of it now that we've had to take a 8-week break from vendor-booking while my mom recovers from an infection and/or has surgery.

mdeidre

Weekday and holiday weekend weddings are usually a huge inconvenience for guests.  As was said before, you will likely only have local guests and even then some may not be able to come depending on what time of day you have it and how late you run (They peobably have to work the next day.)  If they have children, they have school to get ready for and homework to do that night, may even have extra curricular activities they participate on that night, Thursdays are popular.  I wouldn't do it and the person would have to be immediate family for me to attend someone else's if they had it on a school/work night.

sheaem13

I am having my wedding on a Friday, next May. We did that because 1) We save THOUSANDS of dollars with discount 2) Well we have talked with relatives and with plenty of notice, those who want to be there will be there. There is plenty of time to take the day or a few hours off from work!

jess3689

Thank You everyone for the suggestions!  I think we decided on a Friday Wedding :-)