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Friday Wedding Dilemma

JoeAnne2013JoeAnne2013 member
First Anniversary First Comment
in Wedding Invitations & Paper
FI and I chose an significant date to us that happens to fall on a Friday.

We will be married at his church that is currently requesting us to be married BEFORE 3:00 p.m. I was thinking that we could get married around 2:00 but we didn't plan on having our reception start until 6:00 (ending at 11:00).

Since there will be such a large time gap between our ceremony and reception do we just have an ceremony with our immediate families present and invite everyone else to the reception at six? Or just give everyone the option of attending both the ceremony and reception? If we invite everyone how do we accommodate our guests in that time gap? I'm also concerned about rush hour traffic....

We also have a large number of OOT guests, about two thirds of our 75 guests will be traveling at the very LEAST an hour.



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Re: Friday Wedding Dilemma

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    kmmssgkmmssg mod
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_invites-paper_friday-wedding-dilemma?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:cd062f89-8272-496a-b0ab-225e1f87acecDiscussion:51c73e48-a868-4710-8ce9-7c08677817bfPost:ec756c70-a94e-4441-8f4c-efbf54ff2c0b">Friday Wedding Dilemma</a>:
    [QUOTE]FI and I chose an significant date to us that happens to fall on a Friday. We will be married at his church that is currently requesting us to be married BEFORE 3:00 p.m. I was thinking that we could get married around 2:00 but we didn't plan on having our reception start until 6:00 (ending at 11:00). Since there will be such a large time gap between our ceremony and reception do we just have an ceremony with our immediate families present and invite everyone else to the reception at six? Or just give everyone the option of attending both the ceremony and reception? If we invite everyone how do we accommodate our guests in that time gap? I'm also concerned about rush hour traffic.... We also have a large number of OOT guests, about two thirds of our 75 guests will be traveling at the very LEAST an hour.
    Posted by JoeAnne2013[/QUOTE]


    Why is your church trying to stick you with such an awful gap?
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    Summer2011BrideSummer2011Bride member
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    Does the church have another event going on? Why do you have to marry before 3 on a Friday? I can see that on a Sat. if they have evening church services, but it surprises me on a Friday.

    Honestly, if the date is more important to you than marrying in his church, my first advice would be to find a different venue that allows you to marry at 6:00 or later so it's more convenient to your guests and you can avoid the gap.

    If you've already put down money with this church, then I would probably make the ceremony private or immediate-family only and then invite a larger group to the reception. Talk to the people who would be invited to this ceremony if it was private and make sure they're OK with it and that the time works for them.


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    JoeAnne2013JoeAnne2013 member
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    edited June 2012
    Apparently 3:00 p.m. is the latest time allowed Monday through Saturday and they will not perform an cermony on Sunday, I have no idea why and the woman couldn't even seem to give me a logical explanation. Super stupid IMO.

    The church is super important to his family, we have considered changing our date but it still leaves us with the time gap regardless unless we do a lunch reception which he doesn't want.
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    cgmwcgmw
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    Your situation sounds almost exactly like what my sister went through, she was married at 2pm at a church that forced that time on her and the reception started at 5:30. As her MOH I didn't even noticed the time in between, we were busy with pictures. None of her guests complained about the time difference. If it was me I would invite everyone to both and if they decide not to come to the wedding I would be ok with that.
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    QueerFemmeQueerFemme member
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    that is a huge gap, especially for a Friday when most people are going to have to take the day off to attend.  And honestly, for a Friday, people are going to have to take time off to attend the wedding or even to get to the reception on time.  In order to get somewhere at 6pm, people will probably need to leave work by 3:30 or 4, pick up a kid from daycare, let the dog out,  get dressed, and then commute to your wedding. 

    I would seriously consider changing your date to Saturday.  Do the wedding at 2pm, have your ceremony from 2:00-2:30ish, start your cocktail hour at 3:30-4ish and serve dinner at 4:30-5. 

    Friday weddings are already somewhat of a pain in the butt for guests...  and adding that restrictive timeline is going to make it even worse.

    image

    Websites/blogs where our wedding has been featured:

    http://www.dapperq.com/2013/11/a-very-dapper-wedding/

    http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/10/wedding-christina-g.html

    http://4realequalityweddings.com/2014/05/16/g-christina/

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    GiaspoGiaspo member
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    I've been a guest a few times at weddings like this.  Here's what they did as in all cases everyone was invited to both the ceremony and reception:

    1.  some guests only went to the reception
    2.  some guests went to the ceremony in less dressy clothes, then home to change, then to the reception (some checked into the hotel during this time)
    3.  some guests went to the ceremony all decked out and went somewhere for a drink prior to the reception (in one case we went to the mall.  it was fun)

    In your invitation you could include a card with suggestions of what to do during the time gap (nearby restaurants, etc).  You could also ask the hotel if they would honor the block rate for the Thursday before in case OOT guests want to come early, or if they can do early check-in. 
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