Friday vs Saturday

Why don’t you think about Sunday ? I’m having mine on Sunday. It was even less than a Friday. And if you have it in the evening on Friday they may not miss work.

Why would guests have to take off Thursday for a Saturday wedding? I prefer Friday to Sunday, but obviously Saturday is the first choice. If you choose a date other than Saturday, I would send out save the dates far in advance so people can plan.

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My family is huge, so we have a lot of weddings. It's a tradition for the family to hang out on Friday (the day before the wedding) and drink, talk, etc. They live far away so it would be a day's travel (at least for those who don't fly).

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So would they also have to take off Wednesday for a Friday wedding so everyone could hangout Thursday or could that be moved to Sunday? I'd really have to be close to the bride or groom to take 3 days off for a wedding in addition to the weekend.

I just looked for Sunday dates that had the Monday as a national holiday so almost everyone would have the next day off any way and they could have a three day weekend. And it ended up falling in my FH grand parents anniversary.




Here’s a list so you can find a Friday or a Sunday where people would have either the Friday or the Monday off.

As a guest, I would much rather attend a Friday wedding than a Sunday wedding, though Saturday is always ideal. But as an out of town guest, I would not take off 3 days of a Friday wedding. I would leave Thursday and be at the wedding Friday.

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Like I said, these people are my family. Of course, they are close to me! That is the concern; that Friday would be too interruptive to the work week.

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I would prefer Friday to Sunday as well (and to have 2 days to recover).

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Thank you for this!

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Exactly. Sunday weddings are always hard because you have to go back to work the next day. Also, if you are having family in town, it would be nice for them to have those extra days to spend time with everyone or extra travel days.

I think Friday is fine! Because people would be down to stay long and they’ve got the weekend to recover

I mean whatever works for you both. I would def prefer a Saturday as a guest and me being the bride. However ppl make time for whatever they feel is important so regardless ppl is going to show if they want to support you. Friday's are much more cheaper so w.e. works best go for it

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I have never been to a Friday wedding so I prefer Saturday's too. The budget is the main thing because we have a very tight budget and our parents can't contribute very much.

View Quoted Comment Perfect go with friday and i understand what you mean by budget bc of the fact were tight with budget as well and no much is being contributed to us neither.

It’s a “know your crowd thing” and if you think Friday works for your family then go for it. I’ve been to lots of Friday night weddings for family and friends.

It's up to you but Friday is definitely more difficult than a Saturday for people coming from out of town. It may be that fewer people can attend than you would like. I have been to Friday weddings as a bridesmaid and had to fly in Wednesday night to make it to all the events.

Definitely a know your crowd thing and a discussion to have with your most important guests. It may change the dynamic of the pre-wedding events and it may mean some people can’t attend. It might mean that people can’t travel in as earlier as they may have otherwise done. I’ve enjoyed Friday weddings, but it definitely is a different dynamic.


My brother had an out of town (for me) wedding on a Friday — of course I wouldn’t miss that, but I also couldn’t take any extra time off, and with flight options and costs, I pretty much had to travel day of, so I basically flew in to town, swing through the hotel to drop things off and get cleaned up and changed, and then straight to the wedding. It was a whirlwind! There’s a VERY short list of people that I would do that for — in a lot of cases, even if I would otherwise love to go to the wedding , I might decline in that situation.
That it’s an out of town wedding definitely affects the dynamic. I’ll always go to a local Friday wedding , because it’s easy enough to duck out of work earlier. But it’s not as easy if inneed to take a full day or two off to travel. For us, we wanted to limit the challenges for our guests. I think one major challenge is okay (be it destination, or day of the week, or timing or travel distance etc)— we had a wedding that was out of state for most guests (and ourselves!)— but to limit how challenging that was for our guests, we planned it at the most convenient time we could — a Saturday, later in the afternoon than we would’ve chosen because we wanted to give people time to travel in day of if they didn’t want an extra night in a hotel (it was drivable— about a 4 hour drive for many of our friends and family, so we had the wedding start at 4pm so that IF people were driving in day of, they wouldn’t have to wake up and leave first thing to get there and stress timing the whole way) — for us, a lot of wedding planning was about minimizing challenges, to make it as easy as possible for guests to attend our wedding.
We had a big crowd at our welcome party the day before— lots of people *did* travel in early! BUT plenty of people didn’t come in until the day of the wedding. So I’m glad we made it so they could!
Bottom line is you should do what works best for you, and there’s nothing wrong with a Friday wedding, but do know that it may present a challenge to some guests, and it may affect attendance. Which is fine. Just something you need to be prepared for.

View Quoted Comment I love the input! Thank you so much for your insight on this.

Mine is on a Fridsy. All but 5 or so are coming. Just do it. I only have 6 flying in.

When I was trying to cut costs, I looked into Sundays that backed up to Monday holidays (Labor Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day, etc.) With that route, we planned to do a Sunday wedding. Most people would have the following day off so it wouldn't be an issue.