Sunday afternoon vs. Sunday night weddings?

[peonygirl]

My DF and I found a venue we love (beautiful garden ceremony followed by a reception in a formal ballroom), but we're very conflicted about whether to have the wedding on a Sunday afternoon (11-4) or Sunday evening (4-10). Those are our only two options since we're having a traditional Jewish wedding. We already looked into having the wedding on a 3-day weekend, but the Memorial Day 2007 is already booked and no other 3-day weekends fit into our school schedule. There seem to be so many plusses and minuses for both, the main ones being inconvenience for guests and slightly higher costs for a Sunday evening wedding vs. less formality and elegance and fewer people dancing in an afternoon wedding. We could also do pictures beforehand if it was an evening wedding and then spend the cocktail hr with our guests. However, I anticipate being less tired for a Sunday afternoon wedding because I won't be up and running around the whole day. Does anyone have any feedback? I'm so confused, but we need to book our site ASAP. I always pictured having an afternoon wedding because I figured Sunday night was too hard for guests, but my mom pointed out that they would probably be taking off Monday in either case, so it might not be as inconvient as we had previously feared.

 

[appletini]

Have you thought about Friday evening and taking Thursday and Friday off from school/work? If your guests really want to be there they will whether its Friday or Sunday.

 

[monarch64]

I had a Sunday afternoon wedding--everyone still danced and drank and made merry, lol! Seriously, though, we had so many compliments on having a slightly different wedding day/time. I think you would have less partying/dancing going on a Sunday evening, since guests may have to work the next day and don't want to drink too much or stay too late...

ETA: Our ceremony was at 12:30 (upswing of the hour b/c my MIL was superstitious about that), and we had our pictures done before the ceremony, which was held at the same site as the reception. We did a receiving line right after the ceremony, which led the guests straight into cocktail hour, then about an hour or so for vodka pasta pignoli and dessert, then a few more hours of dancing, etc. It worked really well.

 

[peonygirl]

appletini, Friday night wouldn''t work for a Jewish wedding (it''s the Sabbath).

 

[E B]

I agree with Monarch....Sunday afternoon would be better. People will have to work on Monday and might leave earlier or not have as much fun. Regarding the formality, it'll be as formal as you want it to be, despite the time.

ETA: Oh, and chicken and fish would work better in the afternoon, anyway! No more fight about keeping kosher. Are you and your mom still disagreeing about it?

 

[Caribou]

I'm getting married this September 3, it's a Sunday during Labor Day weekend. We have the Chapel from 12-3, we will be getting pictures taken before the ceremony. The ceremony is at 1, will hopefully only last 15 minutes and the reception is immediately after. We have the reception hall (pavilion) from 1-6.

I guess, my best advice is to go with what's best for you. This is only a once in a lifetime thing between you and your FI, I don't think many people will care what time of day it is on a Sunday, they will be just happy being there for you. Granted, there will be those who complain but you won't be able to do anything right for everyone.

 

[momothree]

Are you having a lot of out-of-town guests? I have been to Sunday evening weddings where people had to high-tail it out of there to catch flights and it made the whole experience seem a little rushed. Even if your guests are planning on taking the next day off, or you are expecting mostly local folks, I think there is something special (if not overly formal) about an afternoon wedding. You can always spend the evening hanging out with special friends and/or family post-reception since you may not get a lot of "quality time" with them at the reception. A side benefit of a Sunday afternoon is you will spend less on booze!

 

[monarch64]

Date: 3/22/2006 4:27:36 PM
Author: momothree
Are you having a lot of out-of-town guests? I have been to Sunday evening weddings where people had to high-tail it out of there to catch flights and it made the whole experience seem a little rushed. Even if your guests are planning on taking the next day off, or you are expecting mostly local folks, I think there is something special (if not overly formal) about an afternoon wedding. You can always spend the evening hanging out with special friends and/or family post-reception since you may not get a lot of ''quality time'' with them at the reception. A side benefit of a Sunday afternoon is you will spend less on booze!

We did exactly what you mentioned, mof3--the 20 or so friends who wanted to keep partying came to our hotel with us and had more cocktails and visited...our parents and family from out-of-town went out to dinner together in the evening to spend more time together.

 

[selflove]

The only Sunday wedding I attended was in the late afternoon/early evening, with the ceremony at 3:30. A lot of people left right after the cake, unfortunately, which was about 7:30/8:00. But that''s in flaky LA.

My vote is for afternoon on a Sunday.

 

[FireGoddess]

I didn''t vote. I had a Sunday evening wedding and it worked out for us because most of my side was from out of town and they flew out on Monday. Most of his side was local and since many of them are restauranteurs, Monday isn''t a high traffic day like Friday or Saturday is.

I have been to a Sunday afternoon wedding and it was quite nice. It definitely seemed to be less formal, but I was surprised how many people seemed to leave early - even though they had half a day ahead of them! It was a little surprising. But I really enjoyed the daytime wedding thing.

So either way I don''t think you can go wrong - there are tradeoffs for both!!

 

[pebbles]

I too vote for Sunday afternoon. We attended a Sunday evening wedding and we left right after dinner b/c we had to get home since our babysitter had school the next day. I felt like we had to rush out, and after talking to a few people that did stay almost the entire time, they said that the place had pretty much cleared out by 8:30-9:00pm.

No matter what time you choose, someone will complain -- guaranteed. You have to do what works best for you and your FI, but my experience of "if people want to be there they will find a way" doesn''t always hold true. Many times people can''t take the next day off (I am in a profession where we have to schedule our days off months in advance and since Mondays are always the busiest for us, taking a Monday off is hard) and if travel is involved, you can bet that people will either leave sooner or may choose not to come at all.