December Weddings- How do you feel about them?

lunarsongbird

Hello Ladies,

I come to you for some feedback about December weddings. It appears they are quite controversial.

We are only inviting close family and friends to our wedding, but I worry about inconveniencing them (probably a bit too much). 

Have you been to December weddings? Did you enjoy them? Or was part of you a bit resentful that you had to add to your holiday traveling ?  

achiduck

I have no objection to December weddings in general. if you're important to me, I'll make the effort no matter when the wedding is.

For the most part, I think winter weddings are gorgeous.

J&K10910

You do realize that not ALL of December is a holiday right?  I mean...there are the first couple weeks that are far enough from Thanksgiving and Christmas.

ahhhitsshannyn

Well I guess it depends on how close to the holidays they are an if people have to travel. I probably would not to go to a wedding back East on Dec.23rd, you know what I mean. Sometimes people travel to their families for Christmas, and they may not have enough funds to make two trips in one month. But all this doesn't really matter, it only matters if you care if everyone can attend or not. I assume you would have lower attendance rates with a December wedding, but I could be wrong.

lunarsongbird

MilkDuds- so you don't regret your December wedding? It really is my favorite time of year.

J&K- Yes, I also realize that some people don't celebrate any holidays during the month of December!

ahhhh- a lower attendance might mean more delicious food!

sparent2010

Wait how are they controversial. Get married when you want to-

DeadUtopia

I just attended a December wedding (12/17) and we still enjoyed ourselves. Our daughter's birthday is the day after Christmas and our nephew's b-day is the 20th, plus all the kids' presents, equal out to a lot of expenses in December for us. I just budgeted ahead of time for a wedding gift and it wasn't a total PITA. I will say though, that if it had been a destination wedding we would not have been able to attend due to finances.

CAB1217

My wedding was a week before Christmas, and no one had a problem with it. We got a lot of very positive feedback from it.

Kate61487

I picked the cheese answer b/c none of them really fit.

A wedding before, say, Dec 15th I probably wouldn't give a second thought to; I would attend or not attend just like any other wedding.  Once you get closer to the holidays themselves taking the time off and traveling away from family would get more difficult.  A distant cousin?  probably wouldn't attend.  But if one of my MOHs was getting married ON Christmas Day, I'd still be there, kwim?

If your VIPs are okay with it, I'd go for it.

trixie549

December is s great time of year to have a wedding! Of course, I'm a winter bride, so I may be a bit biased, but still...

cindyn9178

I don't mind a December wedding, as long as it isn't the week of Christmas. I don't normally travel on Christmas and normally wouldn't travel far to a wedding, so that wouldn't be a factor for me. I just don't like when weddings are on Holiday weekends in general. Like 4th of July, Labor day, Halloween, Christmas, etc. It just annoys me, because there are 364 other days in the year that someone can pick, I don't understand the need for picking an actual Holiday.

I was a BM in a December wedding (early December), and it was fine. It didn't conflict with the holidays at all. The only issue I personally had was that we had to wear strapless gowns and take pictures outside, and it was FREEZING. So PLEASE keep that in mind when choosing your BM dresses and deciding on photo locations.

tenofcups4me

Whether or not I had to travel would make a huge difference. If it's local, no problem; if it requres traveling, it would have to be for someone really close or someplace I really wanted to go to.

Dh and I got married early in Dec. It was just immediate family so no issues with people being able to make it (13 total, including us).

Cortney1982

I would be concerned about travel conditions.  I myself no longer travel over passes with compact snow/ice on them.

The day you select could collide with holiday parties.

People spend a lot of money around the holidays, spending more on a wedding could be a burden.

mari0225

I don't have a problem with them, I think they can be gorgeous. Now I did attend a wedding on the 27th, the bride had very low attendance but she was still happy and it was her dream wedding.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Personally? We travel across the country to visit our families for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So getting more time off and/or spending money to travel to a wedding in that time period would be burdensome. (I'm assuming I'd have to travel, since my local friends are all single - I've had to travel to every wedding I've gone to in the past few years!)

If travel doesn't factor into this, and most people dont' have small children (most of whom have school events, finals, etc in December), then sure. But honestly, even without kids, December gets really busy for me with holiday parties (work, friends) and special seasonal events I want to attend. There were a few events that took place in December last year that could have easily been held in January, and I was kind of annoyed that they didn't move them to a less hectic time of year.

That said, if everyone is in town for the holidays and you really want a winter wedding and you really like the aspect of saving money on church decorations and you don't mind a lot of people declining, then go for it.

DramaGeek

Since my anniversary is Dec 14, I obviously have no issues with December weddings ;-)

DramaGeek

Since I can't edit, I will add that we settled on the 14th because it was either that or the 21st and we felt the 21st was too close to Christmas.

LittleMissCutiePie

Now, I only say I would prefer not to because where I live, December is terrible for driving in. It can be beautiful, and certainly people are already on holidays so it's not too inconveniencing, however I would worry about people getting into driving accidents.

lunarsongbird

December in California is quite lovely! In fact- I was thinking that some people might want a break from the cooler weather!

I actually thought more people would dislike December weddings, but it looks like they aren't too problematic as long as you have them earlier in the month.

ElleB87

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_december-weddings-feel?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:9d45a590-8458-4452-9979-070e89a80552Post:7acb4661-3550-4704-9004-8ceceae703c7">Re: December Weddings- How do you feel about them?</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't have any regrets about getting married in December.
Posted by ILoveMilkDuds[/QUOTE]

Neither do I. 

mollyehren

As long as it is before about the 20th of December I think their lovely. I know aot of people say things about Christmas parties but given the choice I would choose a wedding over a corporate holiday party any day of the week. Honestly you might even have higher attendence because most people have less "stuff" they have to do during the winter. My wedding is in June and I'm sure we will miss alot of people due to things like vacations and such

blush64

I am fine with early to mid December weddings. I wouldn't want to attend a wedding too close to Christmas or New Year's Eve.

chattychiqa

My sister's SIL had a December wedding because all the family migrated to WV for the holidays anyway, and it was most practical/a way to not put everyone out. I think that's actually really considerate of her. If your guest list is almost entirely family anyway, I can't see that being a problem.

Simply Fated

It would honestly depend. With my current job I can't take off from work much during the holiday season. If the wedding was local I might be able to take off the one day with tons of notice, depending on the day. Saturdays are out completely. I went back to school this past semester, so with finals I might have pulled all my hair out. Traveling is a no-go, for sure. And, not to be the Jew who pisses on the Christmas tree, but there IS a holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas... and it last 8 days. Just saying. So although the holiday season isn't ideal for weddings, it would depend on different factors as to whether or not it's an actual problem for me to attend.

cwill6212

I don't like cold weather or snow or winter, in general... So I personally would not have had my wedding in Dec.  BUT--if you enjoy that time of year, I think it could make for a beautiful wedding and it could save you beaucoup on decoration costs!! Christmas trees, lights, poinsettias... Shoot, half the work is done for ya! I say go for it!

DramaGeek

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_december-weddings-feel?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:9d45a590-8458-4452-9979-070e89a80552Post:bd073ec1-34ba-4f27-a6a9-beb86cd12623">Re: December Weddings- How do you feel about them?</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't like cold weather or snow or winter, in general... So I personally would not have had my wedding in Dec.  BUT--if you enjoy that time of year, I think it could make for a beautiful wedding and it <strong>could save you beaucoup on decoration costs!!</strong> Christmas trees, lights, poinsettias... Shoot, half the work is done for ya! I say go for it!
Posted by cwill6212[/QUOTE]

<div>This was definitely true for us.  There were 5 Christmas trees at the altar, lots of poinsettias, huge wreaths on the walls in the reception room, more trees there...all kinds of decor.  Our florist told us he would have charged $25,000 for that kind of decor and we got it for free because the church decorates like that anyway.</div>