Wedding on a Holiday Weekend?

[carolj]

OK, so I have been going insane lately trying to figure out what do do for the wedding. A tropical destination is one of the options, but so is a local wedding or maybe a "local destination" (specifically Mackinac Island). I am trying to plan it for 2007, and location is more important to me than the specific date, so I am being pretty flexible on the dates. Even for a local wedding, most of our guests will be flying in from out of town.

 

To me, the Sunday of a holiday weekend (Memorial Day or Labor Day) would be good, since it would give people a 3-day weekend without needing to take any days off from work. Another date that looks like it would work really well for us is Sunday, July 1, and I'm thinking that people could work that into a long 4th of July weekend.

 

How do guests generally view weddings on holiday weekends? As a bonus, or as a PITA because maybe they might already have plans? To me it seems like a bonus, especially for the people traveling from out of state, but I don't want to book based on that and find out that most people think it's a huge PITA.

 

What do you guys think? TIA for your advice!

 

Carol

[TammyWright]

Hi Carol, i got married memorial day weekend and we chose it so guests wouldn't have to take as much time off.

 

even if we had our wedding locally, 80% of our guests would have had to fly in and find lodging so it wasn't that much harder to fly down to mexico.

 

there were no conflicts for us in terms of the long weekend and people already having travel plans...maybe it is just me but i don't really plan MY vacation around 3 day weekends...

[NABUMBAH]

I recently read an artcile about all holiday weekend weddings, and it was spun in the direction of guests NOT liking holiday weekend weddings because guests have their own plans and traditions for long weekends.

 

I think that it largely depends on your group, but you should keep in mind that airfare and hotels are usually more expensive holiday weekends, and road traffic is usually worse.

[gkashmira]

I think it really depends... if it's a fabulous place and all my friends are going to be there then it would be fun - plus it's nice to have one more day of vacation included.

 

BUT at the same time I sort of don't like the idea because for some holidays I have my own plans and if it's not a close friend then I miss out on all the festivities...

 

I have to say I'm more against it than for it...

 

Also the travel on Holiday weekends is way more expensive for flights/hotels/everything.

[A10CalGal]

There are so many variables here. Like Kash said, flights & lodging tends to be more pricey during these 3 day weekends. However, if I had enough advance notice and it was for someone I care about & in an awesome place, then I would be all for it. There really is an upside to having an extra day for travel or whatever built in due to the holiday...it's hard for a lot of people to want to take time off for somebody elses event.

 

I guess I'm not really helping am I? Overall, I would say it's a good idea from my perspective. Sometimes I forget a 3 day weekend is coming & am then pissed at myself because it's too late to make plans, so I would definitely go to your wedding, cuz then I would have built in plans for the long weekend.

[TammyWright]

also, it is true things can book up and be more expensive but this is not always the case...especially for a DW...in mexico they do not raise the rates for the long weekend/holidays, instead it depends on the season.

 

also, our flights were not more expensive BUT they had to be booked earlier and there was a smaller chance they would go on sale....but we stayed for a week so we kind of missed that crunch but we had friends down for 3-4 days and they said it wasnt that bad price wise, they thought it would have been worse.

 

ps. this is for weekends like memorial day, 4th of july...obviously x-mas and thanksgiving are not great choices to have a DW.

[SASSYGIRL]

We are getting married on 07/07/07 and are going to head down to Cabo on 07/03/07 and return on 07/10/07. It seems like all our guests are excited about getting the 4th of July off and heading down for a weeks vacation. I haven't had once complaint about missing the holiday in the states - I guess if guests are upset about missing a BBQ I probably wouldn't care if they came or not! People who are happy about coming in gerenal are happy to be in Cabo as long as possable with out missing too much time from work! Just my thoughts!

[helen9]

personally i wouldn't do it on a holiday weekend because it means flights/accomodation is generally more exxy for everyone