D2 had a Friday at 4 PM wedding. Couldn’t get a Saturday. It worked perfectly. Everyone of the 100 people had to fly in on Thursday night. The wedding was Friday, then the reception and dancing were under the stars. Her reasoning of Friday over Sunday was that the guests took off Friday from work and played with all the group the whole rest of the weekend.
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My D also had a wedding on Friday at 4 (reception at 6, walking distance from church & a lobby where those who didn’t go across the street to the bar could relax & wait). She did it on Friday because the venue had a lower minimum spend, which she was able to meet with 165 people - break even was much higher on Saturday. I worried that people would not come on Friday, but she had been to several Friday weddings & was sure it wasn’t an issue. She was right. We have since been to a couple of Friday weddings. We’ve never been invited to a Sunday wedding, but they are relatively popular, as well.
Depending on how the dates fall, some may take a week of vacation, or some vacation days, and a Sunday wedding is not a deterrent.
However the young professionals seem to like the Friday off with 3 day weekend; also some people have Fridays off or every other Friday off with their work schedules - or some have a ‘home office day’ where they have very flexible hours.
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When looking at venues for DD’s wedding pre-Covid, we found a range of how Fri/Sun pricing compared to Saturday pricing. One place was double for Sat night and one had a far less, but still substantial, fixed up charge. These were venues that provided the meals, linens, etc. Well worth asking. I’ve read that some people are going with Mon-Thurs week nights in recent times, in part for the savings. Sunday pricing may make a preferred venue affordable if it works for your guests.
The day of the week is an interesting conversation. And there are pros/cons for each.
I do have to say, if you’re considering M-Th for a wedding of more than immediate family/friends…I don’t know, I feel like if the perk is saving $$$ - maybe chose a less expensive option/venue with less frills to have more of your invited guests come and/or not be largely inconvenienced? Sure some people work on weekends too and would have to take off…but gotta believe for the majority of the working guests or guests with children, weekdays just might evoke a “no” on the invite.
In 1972 when my parents were planning my older brother’s bar mitzvah, they received alarming news that the new catering hall they had rented for the reception would not be finished in time. My mother booked the Huntington Town House for the Saturday night after Thanksgiving and they got a great deal. My younger brother’s bar mitzvah was arranged for the same night six years later, as was my aunt’s wedding!
Edited to add: as was my father’s second wedding after my mother passed away.
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We once flew to a Friday night wedding in TX. There was a lovely outdoor patio dessert/champagne reception with dancing. Also an open bar. It was more affordable this way, but the Friday decision was made purely by availability (Saturdays fill up quickly). We arrived early enough to do the Thurs night rehearsal dinner, which included many out of town family members. Before the wedding folks did a light supper (or late lunch) on their own in various small groups. It was actually a really nice weekend, fun to congregate with folks in the hotel on Saturday - a bunch of us went to a bbq cafeteria style place, ate at picnic tables. The happy couple stopped by too.
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DD’s venue would have been $1000 cheaper to do Friday or Sunday, but they decided on a Saturday.
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For the price of weddings these days, $1000 is insignificant in the scheme of things.
I think that after covid, finding a Saturday is difficult. Things fill up so fast
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The problem with a M-TH wedding is that if people need to travel they probably have to take additional days off. D1 and her fiance returned last night from their second wedding in two weeks. Both weddings were on the east coast which meant they had to fly red eye on Thursday night from the west coast. Then fly home Sunday since D1 is a teacher and could only take the Friday off each week from work.
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Our wedding nearly 40 years ago was on a Thursday night, because our friends were still in college and this enabled them to come to the wedding, then get home for winter break.
S2’s and DIL’s wedding was last Thurs., mainly because the winery doesn’t do weddings during harvest time weekends. It was a factor for several of their friends. I heard one of S’s friends say, “Can you imagine what this would cost in Napa?” Yup! Their budget was $5000 for everything, inc dress, suit, hotel, reception, alcohol, photographer & videographer, DJ/Officiant/musician, and 30-passenger bus to drive 5 hrs each way. They went a little bit over, but were still under $6k.
They ran into minimum spends on the reception and rehearsal dinner – $X amount no matter how few people were there. As a result, we had a picnic with leftovers on the trip back to Lviv, S2 had food to feed everyone at the “I was recently a bachelor” party last weekend, and their fridge is stuffed. Food = love in many cultures, and Ukraine is no exception.
No wonder S doesn’t want to come back to the US!
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If D2 didn’t get married next year then she would need to wait for 3 years due to her upcoming clerkship her fiancé’s work schedule. They decided to compromise on the day rather than wait.
My nephew getting married at Hudson Valley next September had to book the venue 2 years out.
I am going to remind D2 to make sure they try to negotiate for better pricing with various vendors because of Sunday.
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My good friend’s S got married in Poland. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go, but I sure wish I had been able to. The food!!! It was an hours-long feast, and friend said everything was fabulous. The wedding cost was extremely reasonable, but of course, there was additional expense for all but friend’s new DIL’s few relatives who live in Poland. But that is DIL’s hometown, and the relatives and friends who went were happy to do so. Friend absolutely understood that not everyone could come.
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Our DDs wedding had to be the weekend it happened because of work and school schedules. As it happens, the wedding was on a Sunday. The difference in price was not so much a per plate difference…it was the minimum number of guests required (and paid for). When we booked the wedding, we didn’t think we were inviting 100 people, and a Saturday required 120 paid guests. We didn’t think we would come close. Sunday, the guest minimum was 90, and we figured we would meet that number.
A number of out of town family members made a whole weekend of it…arriving Thursday or early Friday. They were also invited to the rehearsal dinner which was an informal event on Friday night. A welcome reception was Saturday. The wedding was Sunday at 4.
It all worked out beautifully. No one mentioned an inconvenience due to a Sunday event. We invited 130 people, and 124 accepted the invitation!
I will say, we gave folks a lot of notice. The venue was reserved almost two years in advance. We let people know the date as soon as we paid the deposit. And the save the date cards were sent out 8 months before the wedding…again, so folks could plan.
I think weddings are such a joyous time. Honestly, the day of the week does not matter to me at all. I go when I’m invited!
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I know the Boston wedding was a whole lot of price difference on the Sunday evening affair. A whole lot. The price range between the photographer was huge as well; the quality of the work was similar, but the bride chose the photographer that she believed her family would approve of.
Many people today do not have church weddings, but often the church weddings are Fri/Sat/Sun.
I do think some young couples are realistic, and some are not about attendance to a wedding location that is a strain on the budget of their young friends, or a strain on time (with some friends still in professional school, or w/o time off).
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@kelsmom Yes, the food goes on forever, and it’s all so good! S2 and DIL plan to come back here for a visit next year and want to have a party, but so many of his friends and cousins have small kids now that I think it’ll be hard to get people there due to logistics. Last time they were here, they did a touring visit and stopped in several cities. I think a traveling pizza party, given the demographics, would work better.
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We got a dress last night! This was the third shopping trip. Decided this time there was no need to “sleep on it” since she’s now had lots of dresses on and a very good idea of what she wanted. And there was a discount for buying at first appt.
This was the first dress that had everything she wanted. Also the first store to pull a specific dress she’d seen online.
Of course it was slightly over budget 
but I wasn’t going to make her put it back… I could have had her pay the difference but she did buy my $15 supper so there’s that 
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Congrats! Interesting that they offered a discount for buying at first appt.
What is the style of the dress?
A-line with lace applique top layer and champagne underlay, no beading or sparkles. Wider straps instead of spaghetti.
I can see their point in offering the discount, so you don’t take another 1.5 hours of their time trying more. If it hadn’t been our third appointment, I’m not sure if we would have jumped on it. But we felt ready this time.
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One of mine had a Sunday wedding almost two years ago. They didn’t want a long engagement and due to Covid and venues just opening back up they couldn’t find a Saturday venue. Even finding a Sunday venue was a challenge and what they ended up wasn’t what she thought she wanted. It also was a challenge finding a planner, photographer and DJ as people were booked solid. The wedding was at an outdoor public venue and reception at a restaurant that does a lot of events. The nice thing about that was no need to search for caterers and rentals. The venue had no fee but did have food and beverage minimum which was less on a Sunday.
Cons of a Sunday-most guests were local or lived 2 hours away. Very few of the out of town guests stayed over as they had work on Monday. The party ended on the early side and that was disappointing to the couple. Another issue we found was that even with it being a Sunday hotel prices were $$$ so those who could skip a hotel did. Family did come up Saturday and we had a beautiful rehearsal dinner in a friends back yard.
Many moons ago I had a Sunday wedding. We also didn’t want a long engagement. We did a daytime wedding which I think is nicer for a Sunday. None of mine wanted a daytime wedding.
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