Wedding Customs & Traditions Forum

Friday/Sunday Weddings

Has anyone had a wedding on a Friday or Sunday?  What were the pros/cons of it or any issues you ran into?
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Re: Friday/Sunday Weddings

  • I'm having a Friday wedding. So far it's been cheaper (Already saved $2000) and I'm excited about having the weekend to hang out with my family.

    I have gotten a one text in particular, from my brother, "Dude, I have to take the day off. That's X money I'm missing out on!" but that's it. So I'd say if you have your wedding during working hours, people might not be able to attend the ceremony without taking time off. 

    Personally, I prefer a Friday wedding over a Sunday. Unless you're having a brunch style wedding on a Sunday, then I'm all for that.

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  • My daughter's wedding was on a Sunday afternoon. She scheduled a 2 p.m. ceremony with reception immediately following for the convenience of the guests who were travelling a hour or two the day of the wedding. She had a cocktail hour and four course dinner with dancing and open bar. She saved money by booking a Sunday about five months before the wedding because her venue discounts left over dates.

    The only drawback draw back to a Sunday wedding is that a night time wedding would probably be off limits since most of the guests will probably have school or work the next day.

    I've been to a few Friday night weddings and really enjoyed them. There's still a whole weekend left after the wedding.

    As a guest, I prefer a Sunday afternoon or Friday evening wedding over Sat afternoon or evening.


                       
  • I had a Friday night.  It was a holiday weekend (Monday was the holiday) so many of my guests had a shorter work day that Friday already, so they had no issues attending. I  did have some guests that couldn't make the ceremony because of work.  It was cheaper than a Saturday wedding and I definitely wanted an evening wedding, therefore didn't consider Sunday.    I had very few guests that were from out of town (only 1 that had to fly in, and they were retired so work wasn't an issue for them).  Overall the turnout was exactly what I had estimated/expected.   I got married at a church and I had no problems scheduling the ceremony at whatever time I wanted since there weren't any masses going on.    
  • I'm doing a Friday night. So far no comments other than from grandparents about it being a weird day...but I think that's more because I'm the first wedding in many years. Most people in my circle do Fridays/Sundays. We aren't saving any money really except on our videographer. Our venue gives us a minimum of 80 people for Friday vs. 125 for Sat. or 100 on Sunday. So we are saving on food minimum, because of the number of people but we only wanted 80 or so anyway.

    Other venues I've looked at do cut costs for Fridays/Sundays.

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  • We are having a Friday wedding. So far we have saved on the venue and DJ...yay:) I think we had one family member say something about doing it on a Friday so people won't come, but he was only joking. Everyone has been extremely supportive and excited when we mention our Friday event. Plus we get to spend the rest of the weekend with out of town guest!!
  • I probably wouldn't go to an out of town Friday wedding unless it was a very close friend or family.  I only get so many days of annual leave - I worked the day after Thanksgiving and on New Years Eve because I didn't really have the leave.  So a Friday wedding that requires me to take a full day of work off wouldn't work for me.
  • My wedding was on a Friday. A lot of people couldn't make the ceremony, because of work but they came to the reception. I know the ceremony is the most important part, but we paid for the wedding ourselves and Friday was a cheaper option. In the end, we still had our dream wedding.

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  • A early evening Friday night wouldn't be bad. If the ceremony starts at 4:00 PM or early, you risk a low attendance in my opinion because of peoples work schedules & if they have pets or kids, they need to go home from work & take care of those before they can come to your wedding. And for me, I need to know 11 months in advance almost to get a friday off from work. Now a Sunday wedding would be easier to get to, but I would prefer an earlier start time so that way I can enjoy in some dancing & fun & still get to bed at a decent time since the next day would be a work day. Also I would check on availability of your vendors like hair stylist & florist for a Sunday since that is a day that they normally wouldn't work.
  • We are also having a Friday evening wedding. It's small, only 18 of us, which consists of family and our 2 best friends, so no one is complaining. I'm also happy with still having the whole weekend ahead of us and I agree that it is much cheaper!

    IMO, I think it's so silly for someone to complain about taking off work for a close friend or family member. Plus it's something that is planned well in advance!

  • ajisailoveajisailove member
    First Comment
    edited January 2015

    I'm having a Sunday late-afternoon to night wedding, but it's the day before Memorial Day so it's almost like a Saturday. We originally wanted it on Saturday but the venue was booked then. The pros so far is that having our venue on a Sunday is much cheaper than on a Friday or Saturday, we even got a discount on the catering that came included. A lot of our guests are out of town (and even the country) so arriving on a Saturday works for them. Cons so far are that bakeries and florists tend to be closed or charge extra for delivering on a Sunday, but our cake comes with the venue and I'm buying bouquets and corsages off of Etsy (made of natural sola wood) so this won't be a big deal :)

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  • We are also having a Sunday wedding. Our reception and ceremony will be at the same venue. We've saved money on both our venue and our DJ. Most of our guests will be coming in from out of town. So if they come, I would assume they would stay for a few days anyway. Especially since most of our guests haven't been to MN before. For my family a Sunday wedding won't seem weird, as I'm jewish, and jewish weddings tend to take place on Sunday. 
  • Mine is on Friday. We saved 600 on the banquet site. (1000 to 400) but nothing on food. Djs also usually can book that day so no discounts there and I had issues with Photographers who had steady jobs as well.

    I also have a huge family who I really love but some I haven't spoken to in years ( And who have never met my boyfriend who I have been with since 8th grade) I had been kind of hoping to weed these people out but still invite them so they know I love them. But big families don't quit so if yo want a smaller wedding, don't wimp out like me and still invite everyone, they just might all show up.
  • Ours is on a Sunday evening. It's a destination wedding out of state with just our immediate family. They are all planning vacations around it so are taking time off that week to do more travelling. 
  • Ours will be on a Friday! We saved about $500 dollars on the reception venue! No one has really said anything to me about it, but my parents did tell me of one of their friends and his wife who were not thrilled about it being on Friday (granted, they live 3 or 4 hours away, so there's that). My sister (a senior in year high school) is pumped because she gets to miss school. haha :)  I've even been to a wedding on Thursday! It was different, but not a problem at all.
  • We are also having a Friday evening wedding. It's small, only 18 of us, which consists of family and our 2 best friends, so no one is complaining. I'm also happy with still having the whole weekend ahead of us and I agree that it is much cheaper!

    IMO, I think it's so silly for someone to complain about taking off work for a close friend or family member. Plus it's something that is planned well in advance!


    Not everyone CAN take a day off work, even if it is in advance.  I earn my leave as I work.  That means if someone got married on a Friday soon after I started, I literally would not have had leave to take.  And taking leave without pay is almost never approved.  I likely would not be able to make a Friday wedding because my honeymoon and and taking 2 days off before my wedding will completely exhaust my annual leave, unfortunately.
  • I'm having a Sunday wedding. The Monday happens to be a holiday so *most* people don't have to worry about getting home. So it's basically like a Saturday wedding, just on a Sunday. And no cons to think of! 
  • I've been to Friday weddings and Sunday weddings.  You can save some money on your venue and sometimes, on vendors (DJ, Florist, etc.).  But, it IS inconvenient for a lot of folks, and if you do a Sunday wedding, it normally isn't a huge party atmosphere, like you might get on a Saturday night. 

    Also, if you do it on a holiday weekend, you will sometimes get a higher decline rate, because many people have standing plans for certain holiday weekends and travel is often signficantly more expensive.  
  • dcbride86 said:
    We are also having a Friday evening wedding. It's small, only 18 of us, which consists of family and our 2 best friends, so no one is complaining. I'm also happy with still having the whole weekend ahead of us and I agree that it is much cheaper!

    IMO, I think it's so silly for someone to complain about taking off work for a close friend or family member. Plus it's something that is planned well in advance!


    Not everyone CAN take a day off work, even if it is in advance.  I earn my leave as I work.  That means if someone got married on a Friday soon after I started, I literally would not have had leave to take.  And taking leave without pay is almost never approved.  I likely would not be able to make a Friday wedding because my honeymoon and and taking 2 days off before my wedding will completely exhaust my annual leave, unfortunately.
    Plus, I don't get paid time off, so I'd be missing out on income.
  • We are having a Sunday wedding....ceremony is at 10AM...cocktail hour, brunch, dancing and everything will be done by 3PM. A few friends that are flying in from out of town said it is great timing because they can get an evening flight home.
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  • I think Friday/Sunday weddings are becoming a lot more common than they used to because of cost. The only things I would say are:

    1. Think about how many of your guests have to travel. If you have a lot, make sure you plan a date/time that's easiest for your "key players."

    2. If you're doing Sunday, consider doing things a bit earlier in the afternoon so people can get back for work. Brunch weddings can be super elegant and are usually much cheaper anyway!
  • We have planned a sunday afternoon wedding (noon) and I hate that people think the only reason that could possibly happen is if the bride and groom can't afford a saturday night wedding.  This is not the case at all it is because we wanted a small wedding during the summer an venues have guest minimums during this time of year.  The only way to get around that was to have the wedding on a sunday or a friday.  We chose a sunday so that guests would not have to take off of work for the rehearsal dinner (saturday night) or the wedding itself.  My advice is to have the wedding when YOU want to have the wedding and the people who can feasibly make it will come.  I understand everyone who can't come because it's on a sunday but I can't worry about that becuase I am having my wedding when I want to.
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  • bananasplit472001---I agree 100%! That is why we are having a Sunday wedding....it has nothing to do with "the cost savings" My dad has not said no to me on anything that I want ( ok..I am spoiled only child and a dads girl =) )

    Our friends and family have been told that it will be a morning wedding and they are all excited about. 
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  • I think the only concern with a Friday wedding is hoping everyone can get off work in time.

    For me, a Sunday wedding (espcially a brunch or lunch wedding) would be hard because I go to church every Sunday. Obviously, I could miss church to go to a close friend's wedding but not everyone may feel this way. I also wouldn't miss church if it weren't someone I was super close with.



  • bananasplit472001... 

    We are doing a Saturday afternoon wedding - everyone is so snarky saying "oh you are doing it to save money?" actually I am doing it for my guests...

    We are getting married in New York and many many of our guests are coming from CT (my FI has a huge family and we live in CT, but I am from Long Island). So in order for our OOT guests to get to the island most efficiently you have to take a ferry, the ferry's stop running by 10pm, and I didnt want them to have to feel OBLIGATED to sleep over, or drive all the way around - so I did what I thought was right, by having a day wedding- that gets over by 5:30 - the people that stay - will follow us to the hotel bar and we can keep going - the ones that want to go home, can sober up and still have until 10pm to make the next ferry. 

    Please need to stop worrying about "old school traditions" and just do what they feel is right, for them. 
  • We had a Friday wedding.  We didn't do it to save money (though, that was a nice bonus!).  We ended up with a Friday wedding because we had a shorter engagement, and a lot of the places we were interested in for our reception were booked solid for Saturdays during the summer.  Since I'm a teacher, we wanted a summer wedding so we could honeymoon afterward.  We had a later wedding (reception didn't start till 7pm), but the majority of people came!  We only had 12 declines (invited 162 to start).
  • We actually had a Thursday night wedding. We did it primarily because of the venue minimum on weekends. Also, my dad and stepmom own a bar/pool hall so they are slammed on weekends. My other VIPs are self-employed and able to manipulate their own schedules.

    But, we only invited 35 people. You simply can't invite like a 100 people to a wedding at an inconvenient time. It looks gift-grabby. You also can't get upset when people decline or rsvp yes but don't show. We had like 6 people who RSVP'd yes but didn't show up. Why? Because it was a Thursday night wedding and we completely understood.



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  • bananasplit472001 thank you!! We are having a Friday wedding and while the cost savings are helpful (to be honest I'm not even sure how much we are saving, except for the $1000 off our venue price) but we are doing it because I've always wanted an early evening ceremony and didn't want to take up an entire day of my guests.

    One of my biggest pet peeves is the big gap b/w a 2 pm ceremony and 6 pm reception. So our ceremony is at 6 in July, and it will still be light out but more twilight-y, and then right into the evening reception and party! If some of our guests can't make it to the ceremony b/c of work, that's fine! I won't be offended. Our attitude is, make it to what you can.


  • But, we only invited 35 people. You simply can't invite like a 100 people to a wedding at an inconvenient time. It looks gift-grabby. You also can't get upset when people decline or rsvp yes but don't show. We had like 6 people who RSVP'd yes but didn't show up. Why? Because it was a Thursday night wedding and we completely understood.

    I don't know, I disagree with this. Gifts certainly aren't required, and an invitation isn't a summons. If it is inconvenient for guests they can simply decline. As long as they are properly hosted, invite whomever you like. Yes, be prepared for more declines, but as long as there is no gap, there is food and drinks, there are enough seats, etc. then invite everyone you want there that you can afford to host.
  • It's an issue for Jewish weddings, which are prohibited on the Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath goes from Friday at sundown to Saturday at Sundown, so it pretty much has to be on Saturday evening or on Sunday, especially during summers when the days are longer.
  • We're getting on married on a Friday (the 13th!) and chose this primarily because we're having a Catholic ceremony and wanted an evening reception.  The only way to avoid a large gap was to do it on a Friday.  Obviously people may not be able to get off work early enough to come to the ceremony, but we checked with all our VIPs in advance to make sure they'd be able to.  Even with that, a lot of our friends and family don't work traditional 9-5 jobs, so may have even had trouble getting a Saturday off anyway.  As other people have mentioned, we're also excited to have the rest of the weekend to spend with family coming from out of town!

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