Thursday Wedding before Memorial Day

Thursday can be tricky because they’d have to take off Thursday and Friday, for the ones that are traveling from out of town. My best friend had her wedding on a Monday (Labor Day) and I took off that Friday before and Tuesday after because it was out of state. Do you have a lot of family from out of state? If not, I think a Thursday wedding and taking off Friday should be fine. Even if they went in late Friday if they did drink too much. Hope this helps.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your input!! We only have 1 family coming from out of state that would need to fly in. I think you make a great point here! 😊

View Quoted Comment Oh one person, you’ll be fine with Thursday. Cut cost as much as possible.

Hi Alexa. I think your guests would have to take off Thursday and Friday, unless your ceremony started after rush hour traffic. I personally have blackout days which require me to work the day before and after or I won't get a paid holiday. Your guests may encounter the same and decline entirely.

View Quoted Comment Hi!


Thank you for this input! Valid point with having to take off!

Or if they leave early Thursday, and return to work Friday (and some must do before a long weekend), you may have less of a party atmosphere on a weekday. Just something to consider- late start, early evening? Wish you well in planning.

I think you'll have to be prepared to get a lot of Nos. Even with only 1 guest traveling, going to a wedding usually involves a bit of prep and its a long evening - many people don't have the time or energy for this on a weeknight. Your bridal party will also have to take all day Thursday off in addition to Friday, and potentially even Wednesday depending on the timing of the rehearsal, which is a lot to ask given that many people attend / are in multiple weddings a year.

Attending a Thursday wedding means that anyone traveling will have to take off Wednesday. You are better going with a Friday to kick off the weekend.

With any wedding on a weekday, prepare to receive many declines due to the majority of people having to take time off of work in order to attend the wedding. There was a woman on here not too long ago that expressed how sad she was at the decline rate coming in for her Monday wedding. While non-Saturday evening weddings can help cut costs, the drawback is less people will attend - sometimes even the ones you had hoped really would attend, like a close friend or family member.

I would prepare yourself for a lower guest turn out, and an earlier end to the evening (less of a “party vibe” than a weekend wedding). A Thursday evening wedding could mean taking off work early, and also would make it more difficult for those with children to find childcare. Not to mention some schools are still in service on May 25 (ours are), so kids would have school early the next morning. I know I wouldn’t be willing to waste a vacation day at work just so I could imbibe at a Thursday wedding, so we’d likely decline if it wasn’t someone we were really close to, or leave shortly after dinner if it was close family/friends.
I think you just need to weigh out what things are most important to you for your wedding. Are you ok with potentially having a lower turn out? Are you envisioning a more calm wedding with an earlier start date? If so, the savings could definitely be worth it! If not, you may want to reconsider having it on a weekend.

If I were to get such an invite from someone not close, I'd assume they were trying to cut costs by discouraging guest attendance. A midweek wedding is annoying as it is. Midweek right before a holiday weekend is worse. Some people won't be able to get the Friday off because everyone wants it off and there's not enough coverage. A lot of people want to travel on a holiday weekend.


A lot of vendors will give you a discount for a Friday. If most of your guests are local, I think Friday would be ok. However, if you're in a touristy area, I'd avoid a holiday weekend due to vacation traffic

I just had my wedding the Saturday before Memorial Day last weekend and I honestly think because I notified people ahead of time they were able to book their vacation time around the wedding. In fact many people use our wedding as an excuse to come to California and have a mini-vacay As far as cutting cost I spent just as much money as I would on any other day quite frankly but that might be due to the fact that I live in Los Angeles. All the way around I think it’s a great weekend to have a wedding the weather is always nice and because it was on a holiday weekend I make sure that I really paid attention to the guest experience. Meaning that if they were giving up their Memorial Day weekend plans In exchange for our wedding, we wanted to make sure it was worth it for them. I only had ten guests cancel because they were notified early. Geez I gave you more info than you requested.

Flowers might be more expensive that week. Have you checked with a florist?

I don’t know about other peoples jobs but if I don’t work the full week before a holiday I don’t get paid for it. They don’t allow sick or personal days to be used during that time. That would be a deterrent for me.

I was going to say it might be harder to take a Friday (and Thursday too realistically) off before a long weekend. Also you are asking your guests to take time off work for this no matter how you look at it, unless you have it from 7-9 pm on Thursday. People will need to leave early on Thursday then take Friday off. as a result, you not have the turnout you're expecting. For me, unless you were immediate family or a very close friend, that would be a no.

I am another person who is not allowed to take time off before a holiday. If I do, I will not get paid for the Monday holiday. If you were my relative or my best friend, I could not afford to lose 8 hours of pay. I would feel terrible, but if it was local to me I would go for the ceremony (if not during work hours) and possibly the dinner...then I would leave. If it was not local, I would not be able to attend. I could not jeopardize my families income for anyone's wedding.

I wouldn't do this unless you actively want people to decline. Thursday right before a holiday weekend is really difficult

View Quoted Comment Thank you everyone for your input! We decided not to go with the Thursday. 😊

Have thought of a date that both of you find special too the both of you. Because doing it a day before memorial day some family leave out of state or planned something prior to them know that you want to get married a day before. I did have a special date which was 6/12/22 but we had to change our orginal date because of some issues. So now we are almost at the finish line still putting x's on somethings