Memorial Day wedding?

Unless you are thinking of 2020, Memorial Day this year is going to be very tough to find availability. That being said, if you choose that weekend and it works out, I think people might actually prefer it. The long weekend is nice for those who have the Monday off. We were originally trying to looking at Columbus Day weekend for that reason, but venues didn’t have it available

Our wedding is during Memorial Day weekend! We get married 5/26/19! I thought it was a great idea. Why? Because Sunday weddings are cheaper and the next day everyone has the day off, so nobody would be concerned about having to go to work!

Our wedding is this Memorial day weekend. Telling my family and his being a "holiday" weekend, they didn't mind. There's just going to be the few that cant come because of graduations and such which is fine with me. I'm sending out our invitations the end of this month.

I've been to weddings on Holiday weekends around here (San Diego) and its a pain for the guests. Hotels, Airlines, Taxis, Ubers, ect. all have sky rocket rates during those times. I went to a July 1 wedding at the beach here and the hotel had a $450 per night, 3 night minimum. Everyone ended up staying at different places around town which really takes away from spending a lot of time together. It sounds like your family doesn't mind, so it probably won't be an issue for you. As long as your guests don't mind, I don't see any issues for the bride and groom (typically holiday weekends can be slow for wedding events and you might actually get more attention from the coordinator). Plus, your anniversary will always be a Holiday too, which is fun!

As a guest, I have always despised holiday weekend weddings. Very inconvenient. As a bride we are doing a sunday wedding. Noon-3 at our favorite restaurant. The next days a regular monday. No holiday.

I do not care if this is “very inconvenient” to my guests. Oh how opinions change when it’s our wedding.

Our wedding is this May 26th a sunday and it works out perfect for us and our guests because the next day Monday most people r off work.

Our wedding is 5/25/19! We actually didn’t know that it was Memorial Day weekend until after we booked it 😬 we chose that date because it’s our dating anniversary so we wanted to keep it the same. Nobody has mentioned anything to us about not being able to go because of the holiday, and we did send out STD superrrr early so everyone knew. I assumed some people wouldn’t be able to go and I’m okay with that since our guest list is double what we wanted anyway.
Like PP said, it will be super hard to find availability if you’re wanting 2019, our venue mentioned that there were a ton of couples coming in for our date that they had to turn away, we booked in April 2018.

I think it really just depends on your guests and their "lifestyle". FH and I are big lake people. Lake season starts Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend. Last year our friends had a Memorial Day weekend wedding and we opted out.

We are getting married May 25th this year. So far, nobody has said anything negative, at least not to us lol. My mom had some cousin reach out letting her know they wouldn't be there because they ALWAYS go camping that year (eyeroll). In my opinion, those who love and care about you wont care. Those that are worth paying for a meal anyways are the ones who will complain. Good way to trim out the fat of the guest list lol!

Arent* worth paying for

Also, it's one weekend, one year. If your friends and family "cant" make it, big red flag!

I think this is a know your guest list kind of thing, but just a warning travel is significantly more expensive on holiday weekends. This may increase your honeymoon budget and may make your wedding unaffordable for out of town guests.

Personally most of my family/friends have Memorial Day traditions that I would never ask them to give up for my wedding. A large portion of my guest list is also out of town so I wouldnt want them to spend more on flights/hotels

From a guest standpoint, I would say a lot of people (including myself) get annoyed with weddings on holiday weekends. Lots of families have annual plans during those long weekends - time at the lake, camping trips, Indy 500 race (anyone else??) etc. and having to stay in town for a wedding can be frustrating because the rest of your days off work get "wasted" since it is too late to go anywhere.

That being said, weddings are more important than vacations in my mind so I would always attend a wedding even if it was a weekend like that. If it was farther away where I needed to get a hotel, I would make a trip out of it and explore the location for the whole weekend - see if you can set up a similar weekend suggestion for your guests. If your family seems on board and it is what YOU really want, go for it!

Obviously, there are pros and cons. We traveled cross-country for a family wedding on the Saturday of Memorial Weekend a few years ago. Flights will likely be more expensive as well as accommodations. There was a HUGE national girls soccer tournament scheduled for that weekend in Central NJ, where the wedding was, and hotel rooms were REALLY hard to find. I would definitely call around to hotels and get a sense of their availability and cost before you commit. The timing worked for us because we could tie in a couple things we wanted to do on the East coast that summer, but there were definitely downsides -- especially for those traveling.

Just a tip if you decide to book a holiday weekend wedding and have out of town guests: book a hotel block (or multiple blocks) early and give people the information early! We went to a wedding over Labor Day weekend in Vegas which can already be expensive and gets even more expensive over the holidays. They didn't provide hotel block information until invites went out rather than with save the dates but we weren't sure if they were having one so we ended up booking our own hotel about 6 months out in case prices got even higher. It would have been nice to know about the lower-priced rooms in advance and booked them early to be sure.

Holiday weddings are fine, if I were local I wouldn’t mind or if I were flying I wouldn’t mind. Uber/lyft is ok, as long as you don’t book your ceremony, and reception far apart that I’m paying an exorbitant fee to get from place to place. If I WERE DRIVING though, I’d be verrrry weary of traffic. TRAFFIC ON HOLIDAYS IS A NIGHTMARE. It’s taken me 8 hours to go 4 hours because of traffic on Memorial Day. Can you imagine if you missed the wedding because you were sitting in traffic? Hotel prices are usually a little higher but if you’re organized enough get a block of rooms (as long as they book like a month before they will get a negotiated rate for that weekend. If it’s $250 for a room, hard pass. If it’s $150 it’s doable. Get an idea on how many rooms you’ll need.

I would send our save the dates a year in advance if you plan a holiday weekend wedding. If we were invited to one on memorial day, we would never go since we always go on vacation that weekend. I would think flights would be more expensive then too?

Thanks everyone for your advice!

We are definitely planning for 2020 and our ship already sailed for my (use to be) dream fall wedding this November, with most venues booked.

I'm definitely thinking it may be a pain thinking of my guests. On our current list of 150 invitees, there are about 75 that would NEED to fly in and another 30 that are technically within driving distance, but still travelling. I know I despise traffic and airplane crowds on a regular day, so I think I'll still think about my guests inconvenience of holiday travel on this one...

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I didn't even think of that part either! I would be mad if I could get better rates and didn't know until late.

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VERY true!