Wedding during the week? Arguments for and against!
The need to reschedule weddings and weddings that many brides faced due to the coronavirus outbreak has made weekday weddings quite popular. Previously they were rare, although there is no shortage of couples who praised this solution. What are the pros and cons of such a solution?
Weddings outside of the weekend — let’s start with the downsides
Among them is certainly the reduced comfort for guests due to the need to take days off and rearrange the work week and school, if you’re talking about parents. Weddings during the week also involve further and longer travel — even if it’s a cross-country trip, it can still be time-consuming and problematic.
Also, the couple themselves face the stress of getting through a jammed city from the church or registry office to the wedding hall, but also to the wedding itself, of course. If we’re talking about smaller towns, the matter may seem simpler, but in areas where we’re dealing with roads popular among delivery people and truck drivers (and those drive mostly on weekdays), sudden traffic obstructions can also prove to be quite an obstacle.
For the newlyweds-to-be, a wedding during the week rather than on Saturday or Sunday involves the risk of some guests not arriving — mainly due to the above restrictions, a kind of organizational problem for them.
Just attending the wedding ceremony in the church, which takes place during the week in the late afternoon or in the registry office (definitely earlier), usually requires reorganizing the whole day. If, for someone, having to do logistical gymnastics because of this disrupts the rest of the days in a given week, being a guest at the wedding becomes more of a problem than a pleasure.
Some people in this situation often refuse to come or… come only to the reception, if only for a few hours, so as not to deny the couple completely, which is often a let down for the newlyweds.
A wedding during the week is treated by the guests living relatively close to the reception hall (a “cab” distance) more like… an evening meeting with friends or a work party than a wedding in the traditional sense of the word. The fact that weddings organized from Monday to Thursday are often shorter (until midnight or 2:00 a.m.) makes the guests declare to come, but around 11:00 p.m. they are already shuffling their feet, heading for the exit, explaining: “Tomorrow you have to get up normally for work”.
Point of view depends on… the situation
In the early days of the loosening of restrictions on weddings by the coronavirus pandemic, couples were happy, if at all, to finally have their ceremony. Receptions were held on pre-arranged prices and hardly anyone expected discounts. Especially since the restrictions on the number of guests already represented a “savings” for the couples themselves — we say this in a sarcastic tone, of course.
It was a very difficult time for service providers. Many were left destitute for months on end, as evidenced by the many industrial action and negotiating meetings with the government. Entrepreneurs suffered huge losses, and when the restrictions were loosened, many couples were glad that they would not have to postpone their weddings until the next, yet uncertain, year in the face of the pandemic.
Guests have also been, and continue to be, more understanding and willing to adjust to the new conditions of hosting weddings, understanding that couples are stressed by the constant uncertainty of pandemic restrictions.
Weddings during the week — definite pluses
Before the pandemic, weddings during the week were much cheaper to organize. Room rental prices alone offered opportunities for considerable savings. However at that time weddings “during the week” were those organized on Fridays, and — at the earliest — on Thursdays. Monday weddings were rare.
Also, renting accommodation or transportation for guests on weekdays was then associated with lower costs, although the latter often depended on whether the bus driver would have to make his way through the city or to the exits during rush hour.
Moving a bit away from the topic of pandemic, which dominates all areas of our lives, let’s consider what advantages for the guests and the young couple themselves (besides possible savings) may be associated with a wedding from Monday to Friday. An unquestionable advantage is an opportunity to extend the weekend, if we are talking about a wedding organized between Thursday and Monday. All you need is 1–2 days of vacation — before or after attending a wedding, which can be quite exhausting. The guests can also buy accommodation in the place where the ceremony takes place — in another city or in charming places outside of it.
For the couple, the savings already mentioned, but also the opportunity to spend more time focusing on the organization and final preparations (for Monday and Tuesday weddings), or resting after such energy-intensive tasks that are associated with the organization of this one of the most beautiful days of life.
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