Advice Needed- trying on this board:)

nnikolasa1

Hi all~ really need some insight on an issue that Im wrestling with .  We are having a Friday wedding with a 6pm ceremony start time...crazy I know right? But half of the guests work on the kind of schedule where they have Fridays off (at least that was my thought in the beginning) What I didnt take into consideration was trying to get ANYWHERE on the freeways on a Friday afternoon in SoCal.  But we are stuck at this point...what I have had was few people inquire about getting into the area earlier than guest arrival time (say 4ish) at the venue and wondering if I knew of a place they could go grab a cocktail? A light bulb kind of went off in regards to those that will be fighting traffic to get to our venue and offering up an alternative if they'd also like to arrive early...the problem, I'm not sure how to (if at all) introduce this to the other guests and we in no way have any additional expendable budget left to host a pre-ceremony mingler...sorry this is so long but would love any thoughts you may have!  Thank you! 

Loopyseven

I'd maybe just put a page on your wedding website with some local bar/bisto recommendations and call it a day.  At the end of the day your guests are adults and can figure out how to get to your venue in a timely manner and deal with traffic and/or entertaining themselves if they choose to go there early.
I also go married on a Friday night.  It was possibly the best decision I ever made.  We had Saturday to relax and recouperate and spend more time with friends and family and Sunday we left for our honeymoon ready to go.

sarahfowler38

We are having a Saturday wedding but most guests are arriving Friday since it's out of town for most people. We're getting married at a ski mountain in the summer, which means there is nothing to do. So we made sure that a local bar would be open on Friday (you might want to see if that bar would reserve a room or something).

But my point () is that we put it on our wedding website and then used word of mouth to spread the word about having that availability. We did not have in our budget either to provide an extra get-together, so we're just providing the space for everyone to keep busy.

And speaking as someone who used to live in SoCal and commuted every day to LA, I'm SURE most guests will want to come early to avoid traffic!!!

nnikolasa1

Thank you guys!!!!! That is a great idea and I def think Ill find a couple local places list them and be done with it! I appreciate your help in plucking yet one more thing out of this over filled mind of mine!
Thanks again!