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Wedding Saturday or Friday wedding?

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AllieLuv83

AllieLuv83

Brilliant_Rock
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Jan 22, 2007
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I am really torn on the issue. We are having a smallish wedding ~100 people approximately. Most of the guests are locals and the ones that are not will be coming to the area on the Wednesday before the wedding. We are looking at ways to cut costs and have only been thinking about a Friday option its $1300 cheaper for the venue rental on a Friday than on a Saturday. I feel like the people that are coming are close to us and will find a way to make it there for a late evening wedding. Ceremony at 6:30pm reception at 7. Do you think it''s bad to have a wedding on a Friday night?
 
I don''t. I originally wanted to do my wedding on July 11 which is a Friday but the venue wasn''t available. I think that your family and friends will be there. It''s not an early afternoon wedding or anything. And if it saves you some money I''m all for it.
 
If you''re not worried about out-of-towners, there''s really not much reason to push for Saturday vs. Friday. You''ll find that prices for a lot of things will be better on the Friday date, which is a big plus.

We were pretty much locked in to a Saturday wedding with a 90% out-of-town (by plane, not by car) guest list. Blah.
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i say go for it! it will probably also be a welcomed change of pace for in-town guests, and everyone will appreciate having an extra weekend day
 
Our wedding was on a Friday--my family was coming in from OOT and Friday seemed the the better option so they would all have a day to relax before leaving. I had this fear that if I had it on Saturday night, everybody would want to get back to their rooms and pack for their depatures the next day. Anyway, it had its pros and cons. Here are some things to think about...

Cons:
1. Rush hour traffic. Are you getting married near a major metropolitan city? Will some of your guests be coming from around the area? If the answer to both of these is "yes" then you might need to remind them to give some extra time to get there since they'll be commuting in rush hour traffic. Since your ceremony is at 6:30, it could be an issue.
2. The rehearsal dinner will happen on a Thursday night. This isn't necessarily bad, just another "rush hour" issue and also, I was afraid my non-OOT guests might be a little frustrated if they had to take off of work a little early on Thursday AND Friday for my wedding-related activities. Also, it meant that OOT guests had to fly in Wed. or Thurs. morning (you said your guests were flying in on Wed., anyway). My wedding was teeny, only 35 people and my immediate family was staying the whole week anyway, but a couple of cousins couldn't take off that much time from work.
3. Our non-OOT guests were a tad bit tired. They had worked a full work week and then came to our wedding right after work on Friday and I can't blame them for wanting to just relax. I think they were glad that our wedding was less formal--took place in a private residence, non-dancing recpetion, basically just a nice, relaxed dinner party with great food, wine and cake that just so happened to be kicked off with the overdressed hosts pledging their commitment to one another for life. The guests were able to just sit and chat without dancing until the wee hours of the morning--none of us had the energy for that!

Pros:
1. More vendor availability. We booked our vendors just a few months before the wedding and never had any problems with them being booked. Many were booked for the following Saturday, but for a Friday we had no issues!
2. Cheaper!! Since we just rented a private estate for the week, the price was the same, but we saved money with other vendors! We were able to negotiate with the caterer, table/chair rental place, photographer and florist simply because it was a Friday wedding. We didn't get a discount on the cake or JOP, but that's okay!
3. Day to relax for OOT guests. As I mentioned earlier, this was the main reason we chose Friday. On Saturday we were able to wake up, have a leisurely breakfast and enjoy the day without people rushing to get to the airport.

Oh, and the weather was better on Friday than it was on Saturday, but tthat was pure luck!!

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw those out there since we chose to go the Friday route. In the end, I'm really glad we did, but I don't think it would work for some weddings.
 
We are having a Friday evening wedding. Everyone was coming in on a Thursday, and the getting vendors was much easier on a Friday....Not cheaper though (as I had hoped!)....
 
I'm doing a Sunday wedding as it saved us 1500 dollars on the venue, and some money with other vendors. So I'm all for saving the money. Friday gets my vote.
 
If I were an out-of-towner and would be arriving on Wednesday anyway, a Friday wedding would be fine with me. I might even prefer it, as it would leave Saturday open for sight-seeing, visiting relatives, or whatever before heading home on Sunday.

To be honest, though, if I were local I would not be thrilled about working all day Friday and then getting dressed up and going to a wedding (if I were the kind of person who went out clubbing or the like on Friday, I might feel differently).
 
Where are you located? Make sure your vendors have done Friday weddings before. They''re not common here in the midwest, and my photographer mentioned that she had multiple issues with her Friday evening wedding because the vendors assumed they''d made a mistake when writing down the date - several had to be called and rushed to the reception (eek!).

A friend at work''s sister had a Friday wedding, and she said she''d never been so exhausted after coming home from work and then straight to a wedding. Apparently, guests also left early, which was a disappointment. The bride and groom were in their late 30s though, so I would imagine most of the guests weren''t really the "stay out late" type anyway.

But - here''s my reasoning - if you can throw a better party for your guests (say, have excellent food, more drinks at the bar because of what you''ve saved) and more time with your family, go for the Friday wedding!
 
I''m having a Friday wedding which is saving us a lot. It''s at 7:30 which gives people plenty of time to get home from work and change. Out of towners can just take the day off of work...which I''m sure most will be happy to do!
 
We''re doing a Friday night as well. The ceremony starts at 7:30 so it gives people time to get there if they are working. It''s saving us about $80/head at the venue...with 200 guests it really adds up!
 
Friday and Sunday weddings carry the same negative to me--local guests will either be coming after a long day at work (Friday night) or preparing for a long day of work (Sunday night) so their energy will be curbed. We''re just coming out of a long bout of weddings and we noticed that all of the Friday and Sunday weddings were definitely more subdued, and people left them earlier.

This isn''t necessarily a deal breaker, but I''d just be aware of it. My good friend was married on a Sunday afternoon and she was so upset when people didn''t want to stay until the end of the reception or go to the after party, but people have to work so it''s going to happen.

As long as you go in knowing this I think it will be fine.

Incidentally, we''re marrying on the Fourth of July which is a Friday, but it''s a holiday so we''re spending MORE than if we had chosen a non-holiday Saturday night, even. But I''m excited because it is going to be one big, long celebration!
 
I''d do the friday wedding. We''re having ours on a Thursday as our venue wasn''t free for a Fri/Sat in the summer months for four years and everyone that''s going to ours is looking forward to having a long weekend.
 
Here are my concerns. The wedding will be outside of Boston which is a very busy area. Do you think that pushing the ceremony back to 7pm will give the guests more time to get there? I am wordering how this would work since our venue says that everyone needs to be out by midnight, are those doing the wedding later at night running into that? It would only give us 4.5 hours for the reception is that enough time? I feel like the people that are most important to us will make it a point to be there. All my maids are out of the state so the will be traveling in at any rate. I guess I am just trying to weigh out all of the options and see if its worth it to pay the extra $1300.
 
7PM is a very late ceremony, but that doesn''t mean it isn''t doable. I don''t know about Boston traffic (although I''ve heard stories) but I do know that traffic is a poor excuse for being late to anything, especially if the traffic isn''t a surprise. SO, what I think I''m saying is that I wouldn''t have the ceremony begin so late. If people care about you and want to attend your wedding, they''ll leave work an hour early to make it on time. If they can''t do that, then they really aren''t that concerned about your wedding, are they?
 
Our Friday wedding was south of Boston at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon and traffic was an issue for those coming from the expressway. The majority of the guests were staying on the premises (23 people stayed at the estate we rented), but for the 10 guests NOT staying on the premises--his family--the traffic did cause problems. One of his aunts and uncles made it to the ceremony RIGHT before we walked out and one aunt and uncle missed the ceremony completely because they were stuck in traffic.

My bigger concern was the vendors--even though they obviously knew Boston traffic, it was still a bit stressful. It might sound silly, but I specifically tried to choose vendors that were close so that I knew traffic wouldn''t be an issue. Still, our caterers, musician, officiant and the cake were a bit more spread out--the caterer and musician showed up right on time, but the cake was stuck in traffic and so was our officiant. I was able to throw some flowers on the cake and the VERY LAST thing I did before walking down the aisle was write our officiant a check.

I don''t know if pushing the ceremony time back would help, though. I know that we had to consider the lighting for pictures--if you push it back to 7, will you be able to take pictures?
 
If I''m going out I prefer to do so on Friday night. I dislike losing my Saturday to running around and getting ready for an event and my Sunday to recovering from the event and getting ready for work the next day so I tend to stay out later on Friday nights than Saturday nights.
 
Can you do a Sunday with a discount?
 
My friend''s sister had a Friday evening wedding and it was lovely. As long as it doesn''t inconvenience your guests (or if they are willing to be inconvenienced a bit), I say go for it!
 
I''m with the Friday night crowd, especially if money is a consideration as it was for us.

The monetary difference was significant. F&B min at our venue was less than half on a Friday night vs. Saturday. HUGE difference.

I am definately noting the cons posted in this thread so we can be prepared ahead of time.

7p.m. is an issue for photograpy lighting and some guests.

Do you want to see your FI before the ceremony for pictures or not? If not, pushing it back might limit your photos and if you are speaning a lot for a photographer, you may want to consider that.

6:00 is about as late as we felt comfortable doing.
 
I forgot to ask, is the ceremony going to be outside or inside?
 
The ceremony will be outside but I figured since the sun does not set until like 8pm I would be okay. I guess we will keep the 6:30 time line and the people that want to be there will be there. Luckily there are only three lawyers out of the whole bunch!
 
If it is a short ceremony, you should be fine. And if you don''t oppose, I would suggest meeting with FI beofre the ceremoney to get some pictures, if you are comfortable with that. Most of my friends have done that with evening weddings, although some brides would rather not let the Fi see them before the walk down the aisle. As long as the late ones aren''t in the wedding party, they can be there in time for the celebration.
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Thats what I figured...I really dont want him to see me before hand but I will if it needs to happened i will let him see me! I am sure it will be fine but i just needed some reassurance.
 
We''re having a Friday wedding, too! At first I was also a little worried, but I think for our situation it won''t really make a difference (except saving us at least $3,000 on our site fee!).

We''re doing a destination wedding in Napa. We''re planning for around 70 guests and all but 3-5 people would be coming from outside the Bay Area (those that are there are family, so will likely show up anyway). Thus, we figured most would be making a mini vacation out of this anyway. I also like the idea that we''ll be able to hang out w/ people on Saturday instead of people worrying about rushing to the airport.

We are having an evening wedding (starting probably around 5 pm), so that would also give people time if they''re flying in Friday morning (luckily people would also be gaining hours flying to CA).

Personally, I would probably not consider a Sunday. I think that''s just a bit more difficult for people to plan and instead of going into the weekend, people would be thinking about having to return to work Monday morning. But, depending on your situation, I don''t think Friday is too bad. I think it''s particularly a good option for destination weddings or events with a lot of OOT guests who mostly likely would have to take time off anyway as opposed to most being local.
 
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