So the ring has been given, now, what next? Is there anything important you need to think of when choosing your actual wedding date? How to choose a wedding date, is difficult and should not be taken lightly.
How to optimize the selection of the actual calendar date for your wedding is easy when you eliminate your competion.
When you are picking a date to throw a big event like a wedding, one should approach things with a good business mind. That means, KNOW YOUR COMPETITION. Like any other important date, be smart about selection. You should act like a real good planner and think of all the reasons your guests may not be able to come on that particular day. Believe it or not, people may not make your most special date their top priority.
You probably can understand that planning a wedding on Superbowl Sunday is probably not the best idea, if you have a lot of sports fans on either side of the family. So when do you plan it?
Choosing the actual day of the week is tough, but it is not the biggest battle. Most people will agree that a Sunday or a Friday is a good idea, but Saturday seems to be even better due to commute issues for your guests either before or after the ceremony and reception. If this is true, then what you really need to focus on is which Saturday on the calendar is best to choose? To figure this out, think about which Saturday will pose the least amount of distrations to the majority of your guests.
STAY AWAY FROM HOLIDAYS – Face it. Aside from your one uncle that farts a lot, and the one cousin who gets extremely drunk even at communion, for the most part, you really want your all of your friends and family to be able to make it. However, there is one mistake that a lot of party planners seem to make… PUTTING THE DATE ON A HOLIDAY, figuring that your guests have the date off anyway.
AVOID CAUSING A BREAK IN YOUR GUEST’S POSSIBLE TRADITIONS – Yes, at first, selecting a holiday as your wedding date seems like a novel idea; getting married on Christmas Eve, or The Fourth of July, perhaps. You probably figure that most people already have that date off, and it is fun to be able to say, “we are getting married and starting our NEW lives together on NEW Years Eve!” …or something to that effect. However, placing your special date on a day where other people may already have plans, or traditions is quite often a really bad thing to do.
For one, it sometimes can make some very important people in your lives have to pick between attending either their yearly plan/tradition, or attending your function. This can upset your guests or even you when you see what their decision is. It is a bad position to put people in on both sides.
I was the DJ for one wedding that actually fell on Halloween. It was also a “no kids allowed” wedding. This meant that some of their guests had to get babysitters and also, could not go trick-or-treating with their children. So what ended up happening? Many guest with younger children left way too early for the success of the wedding reception. When it came time to dance, a large portion of the guest list had left.
AVOID PLACING YOUR DATE ON A FUN DAY – Another reason chosing a fun calendar day for your special day is not a good idea is you may loose some of the fun people who might have attended that are not all that close to you. If they are not your very best friends, but you do want them to attend, it is possible that they may succumb to the temptation of your calendar date’s competition. That can mean less people you haven’t seen in a long time, or even worse, less of a good time overall.
A good example of this might be placing your wedding date on Saint Patrick’s day. While it is not traditionally a day that people may get off of work, it is a day that many other parties and events plan on.
An Irish Wedding theme can be great! However, choosing the actual Saint Patrick’s day date for your wedding will make some of your lesser important guests to have to choose between you, and that nice pint of green beer that is waiting for them down the street at their favorite pub. Again, as a rule of thumb, keep in mind that your most special day is not always going to be THEIR most special day. And you do not want to lose guests that you value simply because you picked one day, when you could have picked another. (For some ideas on Irish theme weddings check out my blog here.)
So think twice before choosing that holiday for your special day. If you create competion for your event by choosing a bad day from the start, you are only setting yourself up for potential heartache.
