The Top 5 Benefits of Friday and Sunday Weddings
As I was going through all of my weddings from this year, preparing a blog post on my best wedding photos of 2018, I realized something. So many of my favorite weddings of the year were on Fridays and Sundays. I’m so thankful that these brides and grooms decided to have non-Saturday weddings, because if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been available to shoot their wedding date. During the busy season, my Saturdays book up around a year in advance, but I can keep taking on Friday and Sunday weddings. I even photographed a handful of week day weddings this year! I would love for more couples to start having non-Saturday weddings, so I’m laying out the top five benefits of Friday and Sunday Weddings.
Venue Discounts
Most venues offer discounts for Friday and Sunday weddings. With all that money you’re saving, you can afford to spend a little extra on other things that may be really important to you and your fiance, like beautiful statement floral pieces or those amazing designer shoes you’ve had your eyes on.
2. Vendors are more likely to be available
Wedding planners, photographers, and other vendors tend to get booked for Saturdays about 10-12 months or even farther in advance during the busiest months of the year. For Friday’s and Sunday’s, however, we are much more likely to be available on your wedding date.
3. You can plan a shorter engagement
If you have your heart set on a certain venue or certain vendor, you can have a shorter engagement without compromising anything that’s important to you since your preferred vendors are much more likely to be available on shorter notice. It would be so difficult to plan a wedding only a few months in advance if you were getting married on a Saturday in October for example (the busiest month for weddings here in Indiana), but if you move that to a Friday or Sunday in October, you can keep your preferred time of the year AND get your first choice of vendors! That means you get to marry the love of your life sooner!
4. Cheaper Flights
I know that the number one concern of most people when it comes to non-Saturday weddings is inconveniencing their guests. Both a Monday and a Wednesday wedding that I photographed this year had over 150 guests in attendance. If you’re having guests travel in from out of town, you can actually save them a lot of money by having a non-Saturday wedding, since they can book flights for cheaper days of the week. As an avid traveler myself, I try to always fly on Tuesdays or Thursdays whenever I can!
5. Portrait Locations won’t be as crowded
If you’re planning on using any public locations for portraits, they can be very crowded on Saturdays, especially if it’s a nice day outside. Friday and Sunday weddings can really help with being able to use locations you want, without the crowds. Earlier this year I shot a Friday wedding where we took most of our portraits on the Canal. We had almost the entire canal to ourselves! I shot a wedding downtown the next day on Saturday, and we had a difficult time keeping people out of the backgrounds of our shots.
Friday and Sunday weddings are becoming so much more popular, and there are so many benefits of having your wedding on a day other than Saturday. I hope these 5 benefits have caused you to consider a Friday or Sunday wedding if you weren’t before or at least helped with your decision!