Weekday Wedding or Split Ceremony/Reception?

I don't think you can really ask people to give two days to the event because you want a speshul date for your anniversary. Whatever day you get married will be special to you. *Can* you have a small ceremony Monday and a reception the weekend after? You *can* but it's pretty presumptuous, especially if you have guests that would need to travel at all. You could also have a civil ceremony, just you and FI on MOnday, and have a reception the weekend after, but keep in mind it isn't your wedding, it's a party to celebrate, and you should be honest about that and not fake vows and the like. You should not have a reception before the wedding because the reception is to thank your guests for attending your ceremony and supporting the marriage. So the reception before you're married would be very weird.

Can you do a Monday wedding with reception? Sure! It'll probably have more declines than a Saturday event, but the important people will make the time for you. I'd do a brunch/lunch reception so people can get home for work Tuesday, though.

Remember that once you invite guests, it's not all about you anymore and you need to take their comfort and time into consideration.

Do it on the monday. People go out on Mondays all the time.

Have you asked your friends and family if they'd have a problem with two different days? if not, then end of the worry!

I like the idea of two different days. I see nothing wrong with it. I think it depends on what is going to work best for you and your guests.

Our ceremony is on a Wednesday afternoon. Keeping NYE as an anniversary was very important to us. We sent out STD's and invites out together 8 months before. This way people had a lot of time to ask off work and have vacation time left to us at the end of the year. We also are having an after party at night and people that couldn't join us during the day can come celebrate at night with us.

We made sure our immediate families would be able to have that day off before we officially set the date.

Monday is totally OK. Just give people plenty of notice so that they can ask for time off if they need to. I put a note on or wedding website about we understand that not everyone may be able to make a weekday afternoon ceremony but we wanted our guests that would not want to be out on NYE to be able to be home before the NYE celebrations began (aka potential drunk drivers on the road).

If you're absolutely locked into the date, I'd suggest you do the whole thing on Monday. There's a nice flow of happy energy that builds, and it starts pre-ceremony. It's exciting to watch the whole day unfold at once. I'm old enough to remember when Friday weddings were rarely done, but now plenty of people have them. Thursday is also growing in popularity, so why not Monday? I think people would actually like the idea of a three day weekend. Another bonus? You'll be surprised how much more mileage you'll get out of your wedding dollar with a Monday event.

Monday would definitely cut costs, but I would be surprised if more than very close family and a few friends said yes. If you are ok with this, then go for it.

Another option is 8/8 of next year (my date!) it is still 8/8 and even though it doesn't have the added "plus factor" of the year 16, most people don't focus on the year of the anniversary, just the date, right? I don't know, that's just my thought I guess.

If you're inviting the same people to both, I'd just do it all on one day. If I was invited to both, I might not go to both, depending on my schedule.

I would do it all in one day but you really need to be very gracious about any declines you get. I have extremely limited vacation time and would not attend a wedding that would use a couple of days of it. Doesn't mean I don't love you or care about your wedding, just means the logistics make it impossible for me to attend.

My wedding is on a Tuesday and I didn't get any declines from people that would've declined no matter what the day of the week. My friends are younger and typically work on the weekends anyways so it wasn't a big deal to any of them. : )

Personally, My FH and I are doing a split ceremony/reception type thing. We're having a civil ceremony on 5/5/2015 because it is our 10 year anniversary. Then on the 16th we're having a reception to celebrate with all of our friends and family.

Everything that @Stephanie said, especially about the reception being to thank your guests. And honestly, for me at least, unless it was my family I wouldn't be able to take the time off to go to a wedding during the week. I would reconsider if you are wanting to have a large wedding with all of the trappings, dinner dancing etc. Weigh the pros & cons carefully.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Its given me quite a bit for thought.

I'm still not opposed to the reception being before the ceremony since most people who will be invited to the reception won't be at the ceremony (we're looking at keeping that event intimate). I see it as a Thank You for being in our lives and supporting our love & family.

I do think you're right, it would be difficult to ask most non-family & wedding party attendees to make time for two events on different days. So its going to be hard to decide how/when to do all of this. I'm already pushing the wedding out a year because I am going to be incredibly busy with my last year of college classes that I didn't want to add another stressor to the pile.

Our anniversary is on the Friday and we decided to marry on Saturday. We'll probably both ignore the legal records and continue to celebrate on the 19th instead of the 20th, as we have for the last 7 years.

I don't think anyone would come to a 2-day event (unless you're Indian). You could do a reception on Monday, but as others have said, less people will come and probably won't party as much since it's a workday. Personally I'd pick the weekend and then you and your FH can continue to celebrate whichever day you choose.

I was MOH for a split ceremony and people were so over the reception by the time it came around, people just didnʻt show up. Do it all at once, and those who matter wonʻt mind.