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Well, we are having a Sunday day wedding, but honestly, in terms of travel, it's kind of a wash--an OOT guest would probably end up having to take off work for Friday or for Monday either way--if they REALLY didn't want to do that, I imagine that more would prefer a Sunday wedding because they could leave early to catch a plane or whatever (as opposed to arriving late on Friday), but I can't say for sure.
But in your case, if people are going to be inclined to take off Friday anyway, then heck, have it on a Friday night. That way you can also do a Saturday morning brunch or afternoon BBQ if you wanted to (if you can handle the expense) or at least just chill with OOT guests in some other low-key way.
I'm having a Friday wedding, so might be a bit biased...but I would WAY rather have a Friday wedding, and then have the whole weekend to recover/do other things. I just feel like Sunday weddings are much more laid back and less "party-ish" which is fine if that's what you're going for; I just knew we wanted to have lots of dancing and a really fun party atmosphere, and I didn't think that a Sunday afternoon wedding would achieve that.
@SamanthaSadlier I'm gald you posted this, my venue is the same way. I'm having a hard time deciding on a Sunday or Friday. I think I'm leaning towards a Suday afternoon ceremony and then the reception later that night. I agree with JennyW1 though, most guest would either be taking off a monday or friday to come.
i'd rather go to a friday night wedding than a sunday afternoon wedding personally. because for a sunday wedding i'd probably still work monday and so i'd most likely have work on the mind and might leave early, while for a friday wedding i'd just take a half (or whole day) off, be done with work for the week, and be ready for a good party. i've never actually been invited to a sunday wedding though, except on labor day weekend so the next day everyone was off anyways.
when you say out of town, i'm assuming that means a flight. if that is the case, then i would prefer a sunday wedding. i can easily fly in either friday night after work or on saturday and then really only need to take off monday to head back. for a friday wedding, i would need to take off thursday and friday - or i could fly out thursday after work.
how far are people driving in from? i also don't know where your wedding will be but will rush hour traffic be a factor? i'm in the sf bay area and that's almost always a concern for anything that takes place during the week. and what about the people that are in the area? will it be easy for them to leave work and make it to your wedding on time without feeling too harried?
i will say that i haven't been to a friday night wedding but i've been to a sunday afternoon wedding and the reception was a blast! lots of fun and dancing and surprisingly, drinking.
I would prefer to go to a Friday night wedding. Becuase I have the whole weekend to nurse my hangover. Just my 2 cents.
I think Sunday afternoon would be better than a Friday night, but I still think Saturday is the best!
I can see it being a wash for out of town guests for Friday v. Sunday. However, from the perspective of someone who is local to the venue, I think I would prefer a Sunday wedding. If it's on a Friday, I'd have to stress out about getting off of work, changing and getting to the venue on time while beating rush hour traffic. With a Sunday wedding, it'll be a little more leisurely and guests won't be all frazzled by the time they get to the wedding.
I think I'd prefer a Sunday wedding, but I've only ever been to a Friday wedding (and missed the ceremony). The other thing to consider is when you would have rehearsal dinner which has to be easier if you choose a Sunday wedding.
It all depends on if you're planning on having a rehearsal dinner with the OOT guests, and how far out of town they're coming from.
If you get married on a Friday, you'll have to have the rehearsal dinner on a Thursday and those who are really close to you will have to take off Thursday and Friday and then have nothing going on the rest of the weekend.
If you get married on Sunday, you can have your rehearsal dinner on Saturday night and they'd only have to take Monday off.
I'd prefer a Friday night wedding. I like using my Sundays to recover from the weekend. :)
Our wedding was last sunday evening and it went great!
Maybe you could add a poll to this post? It would be easier for you to see the results and people may weigh in who don't fill like writing out a comment.
As a guest, I would strongly prefer a Sunday wedding. For your local guests, they won't have to worry about leaving work early on Friday - a huge benefit.
I'll preface this with saying that unless it was an extremely close relative or friend (i.e. my brother or my very best friend) I would not attend a Friday or Sunday wedding if I had to drive a long distance from OOT.
That being said I would much rather attend a Friday wedding because then I would have the rest of the weekend to travel back home and recuperate. Also, for me, I prefer taking Friday's off of work rather than Monday.
From another Friday night bride-to-be, I caught a TON of crap over our choosing a Friday (which we also did for financial reasons.) I assumed that we would get a lower turnout, but so far I'm getting 99% YES to my RSVPs. People complained for sure, but they got a Save the Date 5 months ago and most of them made the arrangements.
I think either way (Friday or Sunday) you will hear complaints or people will choose not to come. It's all about the atmosphere you want. I agree that Friday tends to be more of a party and Sunday is more laid back.
Let us know when you choose!
We're having a Sunday afternoon wedding. We aren't huge party people so having a never ending nighttime party wasn't a priority for us. We're still having dinner at 5 and dancing after that like normal, but if someone is from out of town (the furthest from us is a 2 hr drive) then they can leave after some dancing and still be home by 10 to go to work the next day.
I've attended Friday weddings and they are just really stressful for me because you either have to take time off work or be in a huge rush to get home from work (in rush hour), get ready and then rush to the ceremony. I also think it's more fair to the bridesmaids that they don't have to take Friday off work to spend the day getting ready with you, if you have a Sunday wedding.
I'd prefer Friday night because then I'd have all weekend to recover and relax. If guests are coming from out of town, they'd have the weekend to explore the area.
Sundays are for recovering and/or gearing up for the work week.
You're also looking at the difference between a night and day event. They each have a different feel to them so it's really up to what you want to have your wedding be like.
K, guys! I've posted a poll so we'll see how that goes. Thanks all for your input. It seems like everyone has vaild pro and con points for both. The majority of our guests are in town folk (most of the OOT people probably won't come anyway.) I am really only worried about one or two OOT guests in particular, but both families are super close to me, so I figure they would be willing to make the sacrifice because they are awesomely amazing people like that.
Just some more details to help with the situation: We are not planning on having a party-style wedding. (Lots of family members are religious even though we aren't so we are respecting their beliefs with no alcohol.) It's going to be a small wedding. Only about 60 people coming. We are planning on doing it later in the evening on Friday if we choose that route: ceremony at 7 pm followed by reception immediately after until about 9:30 or 10. (which is when we have to be out of the venue anyway.) We live in a pretty small city so traffic isn't really an issue for people who want to go home from work, eat dinner and get ready. (They won't have to worry about driving around town really being a time issue.)
My biggest concern is having our wedding on a Friday however, and having members of our bridal party from OOT not be able to make the rehearsal. That could be bad....
But then again, I feel bad asking people to take a Monday off of work. Monday's are tough work days to miss...
We had a Sunday wedding and people ended up taking Monday off (instead of Friday) so it worked out. We had a lot of OOT guests. Some flights even got delayed/cancelled so it was good they had more time rather than rushing for a Friday night wedding.
For a local wedding, I would attend either, no problem. For an out of town wedding though? Unless we're super close, don't expect me to be there for either. Sorry!
Have you considered a morning wedding with brunch reception? Saturday morning would be lovely!
Our wedding is going to be on a Sunday. We probably preferred Saturday but we got engaged 5 months ago and wanted a Fall wedding but didn't want to wait until Fall 2011. Soooo Sunday and Fridays were our only options 5 months ago.
ANYWAY, I'm loving Sunday so far because we are planning the weekend to spend time with our OOT friends and family then the wedding will be the "grand finale" then we'll jet off to our honeymoon Monday morning!
The ceremony will be at 2:30 with the reception at 4:00. We're having beer and wine and ipod for music, so it will be fun but nothing CRAZY! I plan on dancing the whole time. :)
I CANT WAIT!!
Our wedding was on a Friday evening. Out of 160 invitations, 110 people attended. A few folks left early because our reception featured only light refreshments and cake (no alcohol) and apparently they could not concieve of a Friday night w/o alcohol. Didn't bother us a bit!
mine is on sunday.. and i know it will be tricky but am sticking to the sunday and i think it will work better than a friday because we have the saturday before to prep the place
Ours was on Sunday. Guests came either Friday or Saturday. We had big group dinners Friday and Saturday and hung out with guests on Saturday morning. If we'd had a Friday wedding we would have seen out of towners at the wedding and on Saturday morning for breakfast. Rehearsal on Thursday would have been really awkward too.
I mostly voted Friday because I prefer evening events to afternoon events. And if was Sunday, I might try to get a flight/drive Sunday night and that would make everything much less fun.
I think that a Friday night would lend itself to a nice evening wedding, and if I were local it probably wouldn't be a big deal to get to... As an out of town guest, I would probably rather have it be Friday with a plan of more casual celebrating Saturday, and possibly even Sunday morning. Whereas, I think Sunday afternoon, I would be planning to depart the event and go home.
Personally I'd rather attend a Friday wedding than a Sunday one. This way you have one day to recover and another to travel back home (if necessary). Sundays don't leave you much time.
I suppose Friday, because of the whole weekend to recover thing.
I'll be honest though, we went to an out-of-town wedding last Friday evening and I told The Guy I'm never going to another one. We both had to take a half day off work, and traffic was horrible, so the drive that's normally two hours took 3+ and it was all very stressful and we were absolutely exhausted after having gotten up early/worked like crazy to be able to leave early.
Having said that, if you don't have any out-of-town guests then go for it. I know the people who didn't have to come from out of town thought it was great, because they just jumped onthe subway after work, went to the wedding and then still got to enjoy a full weekend.
We're doing a Sunday wedding, so I may be a bit biased ;)
It will be so nice to have time on Friday & Saturday to tie up loose ends. Ceremony will be starting @ noon, w/ reception to start immediately after & going til 7pm. It's not extremely late, and those that need to drive home (the longest is 2 hours) still have plenty of time to do so. We haven't heard any complaints about it & it seems to work fine for everyone. Those that are flying in will have to take time off regardless, even if it was a Saturday event.
And although it is a Sunday, it will NOT stop us from partying. We are having an after-party that will go from 7:30/8-whenever.
Now that I'm planning a Sunday wedding and gotten into the details, it doesn't seem like it will be much different from a Saturday wedding (most of our guests are local, so it's not a big deal for them to stay out until nine or ten). As a bride, I actually like the idea of getting the wedding/reception done with earlier in the day--more time for other activities, and the possibility of getting to bed at a human hour! :D
The thing that throws me off a Friday wedding is the local people having to get off work early, or go to work and then rush to get ready for a wedding. Stressful, and a long day. For people who are traveling, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference if it's Fri/Sun; if they want to go, they'll take the time off one way or another.
Also, you should keep in mind that work schedules aren't all Monday-Friday, 9-5. I work Thursday through Sunday, so no typical wedding day would work for me, haha!
I had a Friday wedding so I'm biased. We were in "special circumstances", where my husband's family decided to piggy back a family reunion onto whatever weekend was before the wedding, so they were all in town, and my whole family is local. We're emergency services workers, so our friends all work crazy schedules.
I thought the Friday worked out pretty well.
You mentioned your plan for Friday would be evening/night event but what about Sunday? And where is the venue? Outside, or in a hotel? Would the ambiance of the venue sway you either direction? What would make for better photos?
Like others said, I think the feel of a Friday evening event is usually "PARTY" so without drinking, that could let some of the guests down (if even just supconsciously), where a sunday event the mentality may be more relaxing and quiet. However i know that when I attend Sunday events, I always feel like "I need to work tomorrow, so I need to make lunches, laundry, and get to bed early" and therefore not really relax and enjoy it as well.
For what it's worth, I am in a Friday wedding next weekend which is OOT for the entire wedding party 9except B&G) and FH and I are taking Thursday off to drive up and do the rehearsal and dinner. It is working fine for 3 out of 4 of the wedding party, but just last week the best man said that he could not make it because his boss would not give him the day off work.
All that said, I think you need to consider all the other aspects of the wedding as well as the schedules of your guests. But do what YOU want! Don't let anyone make your mind for you.
Here's what I think:
If you're going for a party type atmosphere (drinking, dancing, going late into the night type celebration), I think Friday is much better.
If you're looking for a low-key afternoon type celebration (some drinking, mingling, probably little to no dancing, etc), I think Sunday works better than a Friday. This is what FH & I are doing, btw. It suits us much better than having a huge party.
I typically prefer Friday weddings, especially if they're in the evening. That way I can take a half day & have Saturday to recover. For Sunday weddings I typically take Monday off to recover, which kind of sucks because it forces me to use a vacation day, and those are extremely valuable to me! Clearly, if it's a friend or family member, I'll happily go to both, but if I can not use a vacation day, then I am much happier!
Oh, and if you have a Friday wedding, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to have the rehearsal on Thursday. My wedding is on Saturday, and I had my rehearsal this past weekend due to restrictions with my venue . . . It's perfectly fine to do the rehearsal other days than the one before the wedding!
As someone who is usually exhausted after work on a Friday, I'd much prefer a Sunday wedding. Especially considering the size and feel of your wedding, I'd say Sunday is the way to go.
And this is partly in response to your question and partly in general, but I'd MUCH rather take a Monday off work than a Friday.
MONDAYS SUCK! Friday's don't. :)
I'm biased because I'm having a Sunday evening wedding. We picked it because it's a destination wedding (anywhere from 1.5 hours away and up) for everyone so everyone would take one day off anyway and having friday afternoon and Monday to get everything in place seemed like a good idea.
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There are a ton of threads on here about this topic, but not one devoted specifially to Friday versus Sunday wedding dates. I have seen some varying opinions on the topics and wanted to get some fresh thoughts. If you had the choice to attend a wedding on either a Friday (evening) or a Sunday (early afternoon) which day would you be happier to attend, (especially if you have to drive from out of town.)
I am in the money-saving boat and my venue is literally less than half the cost on these days than compared to a Saturday.
Here is my logic, even if we do a Saturday wedding, I know a lot of our OOT guests will most likely be taking a day off of work to come down and see family anyway. I know most of my family, when they come to visit, come on Friday afternoon and end up taking work off anyway.
Regardless I would love some feedback!