This post originally appeared May 24, 2013 on the old version of this blog.
“Lost” image courtesy of bk images / freedigitalphotos.net
Happy Memorial Day Weekend to everyone! For those of you in New Jersey, this probably means you’ll be heading down the shore to see if all of your favorite shore hangouts have been able to recover fully from Hurricane Sandy. But for a few people out there, it means grabbing your most comfortable dancing shoes, straightening your tie, and heading to a friend or family member’s Memorial Day Weekend wedding.
If you’re a newly engaged couple just starting to look at potential dates, this may be a discussion you’ll need to have as part of this process: is it a good idea or a bad idea to get married over a holiday weekend?
The very same things that make holiday weekends so appealing to the bride and groom as a potential wedding date can also be a drawback. For starters, having a three day weekend makes these weekends attractive because it gives your out-of-town guests extra time to travel without getting worn out. At the same time, long weekends are incredibly popular weekends to get out of dodge and take a trip down the shore- something that can’t be done if you’re driving to an out of town wedding for the weekend. Furthermore, all those people traveling for the holiday weekend will stick your out of town guests right in the middle of a traffic nightmare- not very fun!
On the other hand, the benefit of a holiday weekend wedding is that it won’t dominate your guests entire weekend in the same way a regular weekend wedding might. If you get married on any random Saturday night, out of town guests may spend friday night or saturday morning traveling, Saturday night in attendance, and Sunday traveling home. Memorial Weekend weddings have an extra day built in so people can still get some holiday for themselves!
From the perspective of the bridal party, a long weekend can be attractive because it gives you some extra time to either prepare for or recover from the wedding. One thing to watch out for is extra limitations your bridal party might face surrounding a holiday weekend: in certain jobs or offices, employees are forbidden from taking the day before or after a holiday off so if you have bridal party members from out of town who need to come in early for the rehearsal, they may have some difficulty getting time off during a holiday weekend that they otherwise wouldn’t.
The nice thing about holiday weekends like Memorial Day or Labor Day is that they are not religious holidays so people are far less likely to have familial obligations or traditions to observe than during a religious holiday weekend. Furthermore, it really is nice to have a longer weekend around which to plan your wedding and its associated activities. Ultimately, you, your fiance, and your families need to decide whether or not a holiday weekend makes sense for your purposes. Do you think holiday weekend weddings are good ideas or bad ideas? Would you mind attending a wedding on Memorial Day weekend or would it bother you? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Memorial Day!
The Berkeley Plaza 