I know I know, weekend weddings are the norm. Rehearsal dinners on Friday, wedding festivities on Saturday, hangover recovery/brunch/honeymoon departure on Sunday. But if you’re familiar with me/my work, you probably already know I don’t give a shit about the norm. This is why I wanted to let you in on an underrated secret: you can have a weekday wedding.
Yup. You can have a Monday wedding. A Friday wedding. Have a Wednesday wedding if that fulfills your fuckin’ dreams.
Everybody thinks weekend weddings are the way to go, without realizing how many benefits there are to having your wedding on a weekday. From saving money to avoiding big ass crowds in national parks, I’m giving you 7 reasons you should have a weekday wedding or elopement. Keep on readin’ for all the secret benefits you’ve never even thought of.
1. More vendor availability
Wedding vendors, especially photographers, videographers, & planners/coordinators, book pretty damn far in advance. While you might be getting engaged and planning your wedding in 6 months, many vendors will be fully booked 1-1.5 years in advance.
Photographers, videographers, & planners book up quicker than others simply because their dates are their inventory. They can only show up to ONE wedding per day – not like makeup artists or florists who may be able to work a couple of weddings on a popular date.
This means it can be hard to get your dream vendors if you pick a popular date during wedding season (for the PNW, that’s typically May through October), if you’re planning on a tight timeline, or if your vendor is super high in demand.
The best way to get around this? Picking a weekday date.
By picking a weekday date, your photog/videog/planner is more likely to be available for the date you’re looking at, even if you’re planning a little more last-minute or have a short engagement.
I recommend hiring your photographer, videographer, & planner FIRST, then picking your date if you can and are flexible. This way, you’re hiring your dream team and are picking your date around their availability, not solidifying your date only to find out that your dream photographer is already booked.
2. You might save some dolla bills
Have a weekday wedding might also save you some money (keyword: might. It all depends).
Some venues will offer lower-cost packages for weekday rentals, as weekdays aren’t as high in demand for wedding dates. Weekend dates will usually be much more expensive, as more couples will be vying for those weekend weddings.
Some other vendors might offer lower rates for weekdays, too, but don’t expect it from them. Whether they offer discounts/lower packages completely depends on their schedule, availability, demand, and willingness to take on extra weekday weddings surrounding already busy weekends.
There’s also a good chance that wherever you stay for your wedding (hotel, lodge, Airbnb, resort) will offer discounted lodging rates for weekdays. This is just because weekends get busier with more guests, so you’ll have to pay higher to reserve a place for a weekend.
3. You can extend your trip
If you have a weekend wedding, you might just celebrate on the weekend – maybe Friday through Sunday, then you go back to normal life, or your honeymoon.
But if you get married on, say, a Wednesday, it’s easy to extend your wedding celebration at leastttt a few days.
Here’s an example of what that could look like:
- Tuesday night: dinner with your closest loved ones at your Airbnb
- Wednesday: full day of exploring, spending time with your guests, & getting married
- Thursday: spend the day adventuring around with each other – hit up local restaurants & breweries
- Friday: meet up with friends and take a road trip to another nearby town/city – find fun activities to do (e.g. wine tasting, kayaking)
- Saturday: spend a lazy day in your Airbnb, cooking, reading, being present with each other
- Sunday: head home & take your time driving – stop to see sights, eat good food
- Monday: leave for your honeymoon
Bam. You’ve turned a one-day wedding celebration into a 5-day trip to make tons of memories and soak it all in.
4. It’s a great excuse to take time off
And on that note – weekday weddings are also a great excuse to take some more time off of work 😉 Your boss can’t say no to time off for you getting MARRIED right??
5. Less competition with other events for your guests
If you’re getting married on a weekend in the middle of spring or summer, it’s likely some of your guests might have other potential plans – other events, school activities, work, vacations, etc. So if you get married on a weekday, you’ll have less competition with other events since your guests will just be working on weekdays! Then they’ll have an excuse to take a day or two off of work, too 😉
Just keep in mind that with weekday weddings, it may mean not all of your guests are able to attend. Invite them as FAR in advance as possible so they can figure out if they can take the time off of work, and can request it early enough. Because if you invite them more last-minute, they may not be able to get the time off and then won’t be able to attend.
6. You can avoid big crowds in pretty locations
This is a BIG one, especially if you’re getting married in a particularly tourist-y place like a National Park. Having a weekday wedding will help you avoid large crowds and that is a huge benefit on wedding days.
The last thing you want is to be saying your vows in a location you wanted to be quiet and private for you & your guests, only to have 50 tourists nearby talking, walking in the background, and taking photos with the sound up on their phones.
If you *have* to get married on a weekend, the best way to avoid crowds is to get married at sunrise, when tourists probably won’t be out as much. But weekdays will help you a TON in avoiding groups of tourists everywhere, wanting to see the same beautiful location as you.
7. Less traffic ( = more sanity)
Finally, weekdays will hopefully help you avoid traffic! This is especially helpful again if you’re getting married inside a National Park. You’ll likely be able to find parking more easily and there won’t be as much traffic entering & exiting the park.
This is also a big benefit if you’ll be traveling to multiple separate locations on the day of your wedding. For example, going from your Airbnb to your ceremony location, then to another park, then down for dinner + drinks.
Weekends tend to have a lot more traffic in certain locations, and we all know that traffic is just a big fucking headache & mood killer.
Definitely also try to avoid driing around rush hour if you can, because that’s when the roads will be busiest on weekdays – everybody will just be getting off from work.
**Pro tip: get married in a national park out in nature – that way you avoid as MUCH traffic as possible because the roads aren’t really ever busy 😉 **
More free elopement planning tips + resources
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