Weddings on Off Dates?

[ts44]

Has anybody ever done this on purpose? I have heard of folks scheduling a wedding on an "off date" (such as Friday the 13th or the like) getting discounts from vendors and venues because of it.

I was speaking with a woman in a store last week and she mentioned her daughter was getting married on 9/11 on purpose just to get discounts.

I'm a pragmatic person and if that day was the one that worked for me then so be it, and we'd party on, but I guess I was initially a little taken aback by the mercenary nature of the reason to choose it. I suppose it makes sense, especially nowadays when money is tighter than it used to be for a lot of folks. Is this something you would do?

 

[vc10um]

We're getting married on a Sunday, but the discounts are kind of a fringe benefit, as we wanted the date because it's our anniversary, not really because Sundays tend to be cheaper. I don't know if I would specifically target a date JUST because I knew it would be cheaper...but if things happened to work out that an "off date" worked for me, FI, and then venue, then why not?

 

[mol42]

Same here. We're getting married on 10/10/10, which happens to be on a Sunday. We did get a discount on the venue but not from any other vendors. We chose the date based on the date, not to get any discounts, but it sure was nice!!

 

[Anonymous]

Well, we chose an off day, but not for the discounts. We're getting married on a Thursday (6/30/11). Everyone that has to travel, with the exception of one couple, are either retired or were already planning to go to the area for the holiday. We had thought about Sat or Sun, however we're getting married in a small town near Niagara Falls and *everything* is booked Fri/Sat/Sun. Between Canada Day on 7/1/10 and US Independence day on 7/4/10, it just wouldn't have worked. As a side note, I'm really looking forward to the 4-5 straight days of amazing fireworks!

 

[legallyspoiled]

We are getting married on a Sunday and we received quite a few discounts. Our venue was substantially less... the rental fee was a fraction of what it normally is for a saturday and there weren't any food/beverage minimums! Also, our DJ gave us about a 30% discount when we pointed out that our wedding was on a Sunday. Even our photographer had a different pricing structure for a Sunday wedding.

Everyone wasn't so generous with the discounts though. One florist that I met with said that she no longer offered discounts on Fridays and Sundays because they were becoming much more popular days for weddings. Also a snobby videographer, pretty much scuffed at me when I asked about a discount and said that their quote was the rate for Wednesdays through Sundays.

 

[ts44]

Thanks for the replies! I didn't really consider a non-Saturday to be an off date but I guess it would be too. I meant more along the lines of days that have a specifically negative connotation to people, like Friday the 13th or 9/11. I would definitely choose a non-Saturday in a heartbeat if it would have impacted my costs and was convenient for people (unfortunately it didn't and wasn't). Choosing a negative day would be a tougher decision for me, I guess.

 

[lucyandroger]

I might have chosen 9/11 if that was an option and gave us a discount. My FFIL's b-day is 9/11 so we celebrate it every year. The attacks on NY were a tragedy but they do not taint the date to me.

I also like the number 13 so I would be fine with a Friday the 13th...I guess I'm not supersticious about dates.