Scheduling Your Wedding on a Friday? Smart!
Nowhere is it written in stone that you have to hold your wedding on a Saturday. Here are some great advantages of, and strategies for, having your wedding on Friday instead.
1. It’s easier to find a venue. It’s common for the best venues to fill up their Saturday schedules more than a year in advance; but Fridays tend to be harder for venues to book. There’s a good chance they’ll be more cooperative, and more willing to make special accommodations, rather than let their rooms sit idle.
2. Consider venues that book a lot of corporate events. Hotels and conference centers focus most of their effort on booking a lot of Monday-thru-Thursday business conferences, leaving their weekends open. A conference center catering director will tell you that Friday is typically the quietest day of the week, so you may be able to get a really good price on your room.
3. Vendors aren’t as busy on Friday. While the top DJs, photographers, bakers and florists are just as busy on Friday as Saturday, most of the others are lucky to book 10 Friday events all year; so they’ll be more likely to offer you special pricing or free add-ons.
4. Friday wedding, Saturday brunch. Invite those people closest to you for an informal Saturday brunch or picnic. Churchgoers may not be able to attend a Sunday brunch, but they can make it on Saturday. Your out-of-town guests get another full day to relax and do some sightseeing before they head home. And you have an extra day to wind down before jetting off on your honeymoon.
5. An extra day to return your tuxes and other rented items.
6. You can be together sooner. Many of our couples have told us they would have preferred to get married in six months instead of a year, but they had to wait for a venue or church or temple. Booking your wedding on a Friday lets you book sooner, rather than later, because more venues are available.
7. Look into having your Friday ceremony and reception at the same place. Some, if not most, of your local guests will take off work an hour or two early to attend your wedding. Doing everything at a single venue makes it easier for them; and you can start your ceremony a little later than a typical church wedding.
8. A tip for your DJ. Those Friday guests who spent the day at work may get tired early. So, unlike a Saturday wedding, it’s smart to start playing the best dance music right after dinner, instead of gradually easing into it with a lot of older music. That way, guests who love to dance can have a great time, and still get home at a decent hour.
9. It’s easier to book your rehearsal dinner. Restaurants have a lot more openings on Thursday than Friday. Ask for discounted pricing. You may get it.
10. A Friday wedding boosts your RSVP rate. There’s a much greater risk that your friends will have other commitments on a Saturday, and be forced to skip your wedding. Holding it on a Friday means fewer scheduling conflicts, and a better turnout.
11. Hotels have more rooms on Fridays. The business guests have gone home, and the vacation guests don’t arrive until Saturday. Plus, Friday arrivals who book for two nights may get a better room rate.
12. Consider shooting video of your ceremony and showing a video or slide show at your reception. That way, guests who can’t make the ceremony can still share in the memories.
13. A couple of important considerations. Booking a Friday wedding on a 3-day weekend may be more difficult. Also, if you have a church wedding and a reception at a separate venue, give your guests more time to fight through Friday afternoon rush hour traffic.
Weigh the plusses and minuses of a Friday wedding, and decide for yourselves whether it’s right for you, your guests, your timeline and your budget.
© Fourth Estate Audio, 2015 – Jay Congdon is president of Fourth Estate Audio, a professional Chicago DJ and Chicago Wedding DJ company.
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