Friday vs Sunday Wedding

I would choose a Sunday over a Friday for sure! I just wouldn’t want to stress friends out with their jobs. A lot would probably rather not take time off.
I think a Sunday could be done nicely. Now that dances aren’t much of a thing, I could see a nice outdoor ceremony followed by a beautiful outdoor dinner and speeches

View quoted message This is exactly how I feel about Friday vs Sunday weddings. 100% would choose Friday over Sunday. The only exception would be if I was having a super low key brunch wedding on a Sunday that wrapped up in the afternoon.

View quoted message

Our wedding is in the suburbs! Our family and friends are pretty scattered - mine is in the GTA, downtown Toronto, southern Ontario (London, KW) and a few out of province in AB, BC, and NL. FH's is further south in Hamilton/Burlington, Caledonia, Peel, and BC. There are not a lot of school-aged children on the guest list (only about 6 out of over 180 invitees).

Our wedding also probably starts later than most, which was a factor. The ceremony and reception are all at the same location so there isn't any moving around once you get there, and the ceremony starts at 5:30 PM.

We actually asked our most important guests what their preferences would be if we had to reschedule to a Friday or Sunday and not a single person chose the Sunday. Those who are from in town had problem getting ready and to the wedding in time on the Friday. People who are further out said they'd rather leave work early on Friday to get to the wedding and have the chance to "recover" on Saturday than miss Monday off work and have to drive back home feeling tired or hungover, or hold off of drinking entirely so they could drive back the night of. Lastly, the people who are from really far away were going to have to take vacation time to come to the wedding anyway and wanted to fly back on Sunday, so the Friday was the best option for them.

View quoted message

Ceremony 6pm . We have a motor coach picking up guests at the sailing club at 515. When we attended our crew mates wedding 2 years ago that was a hour out of town the limo picked us up at 430. Most worked a half day.

View quoted message Interesting. Are you starting late after work hours?

We are sailors and don’t like to screw with peoples weekends. So we are getting married on a Friday, and many of our friends have done the same.

View quoted message

Man, you Friday folks are nuts! lol

I'm really curious as to how many of you are in the city vs out in the suburbs/rural regions. Because this is how a Friday wedding would play out for me as a guest living in the city. If the ceremony is during the day, I either skip it or I would have to take a day off work (with the commute time on transit, might as well take a whole day - plus, a lot of people don't have the option for a half day). If the ceremony is at night and I don't take the day off, my partner and I will both have to either commute home during rush hour to get washed up/changed or we wear our evening attire to work. A suit to work is not a big deal for me but might not be practical for many, and even then there are days where I'm doing grunt work that would make it extremely uncomfortable to be in a suit all day. For my partner though, an evening dress at work would be overkill. And since no one I know gets married in the city because it's so expensive, we would have to either drive into downtown for work so we can drive back out to the venue during rush hour *shudder* or we park the car at a commuter lot at the edge of the transit system and take the subway from work. Either way, I am exhausted by the time I get to the venue before the party even starts.

Whereas on a Sunday, I can zenfully wake up late on the day of. I could casually make myself a brunch at home or even go out, if I wanted to. Even if the wedding started relatively early, like 2pm, I would still have plenty of time to get ready and be completely refreshed before heading out without battling rush hour traffic.

I can't even imagine what it would be like for those who have to factor in kids on a Friday. Someone would have to pick them up from school before all that rush hour commuting chaos and kids being kids mean you can't stay up and party like it's the end of days anyway.

Definitely Friday!! Mainly for the same reasons as everyone else haha.

Honestly, FH and I would not even consider a Sunday unless the choice was between that or Monday-Wednesday.

View quoted message

I ended up picking a Sunday (though a long weekend one so I guess that doesn't really count) but if I had the choice where I had to pick between a non-holiday Friday or Sunday, I would go Sunday all the way. I would much rather a party ending early (which is not even a factor at this moment since majority of Ontario is mandating events to end no later than 11pm) than to have guests take a day off work or feel frazzled trying to get ready and go to the wedding in the middle of a rush hour commute.

This is a great thread! S.O is quite traditional so wasn't a fan when I mentioned in the past, but will discuss again before our next venue meeting.

I would do sunday over friday. i feel like all my family has kids and its hard to take them out of school if they have tests etc. or have to travel from far etc.

I went to a Sunday wedding (have never been to a Friday wedding). It was nice because it was a day off work anyway. A Friday wedding, most people would have to take some time off work. People still drank (maybe not as much as they would've at a Friday or Saturday wedding) but it just meant it was cheaper for the couple who did a toonie bar (they had to supply their own alcohol so they didn't have to buy as much).

I'm surprised at the number of preferences for Friday over Sunday. I've never attended a Friday wedding but if I had to, I'd have to wear my formal wear to work, likely on a sweaty summer day, and then travel in it during rush hour on the TTC lol

We picked a Friday originally to keep costs down a bit. I like that people can still let loose and sleep off their hangover on Saturday morning, whereas a Sunday wedding I would picture as an earlier brunch type event because people would work the next day.

Our wedding took place on Friday being perfect since our family and friends didn't have to go anywhere for the weekend to enjoy being in one place and activities around the venue keeping active. Its also a good day to come out and skip the traffic over the weekend.

Sunday is a good day too considering the cost is the same as they would be there the weekend still to have time with the couple and celebrating the evening.

Friday!! Most people will probably have Saturday off anyways.

Definitely Friday so people dont have to work the next day.

Oo good thread. I have a few thoughts on this one (none of which are particularly novel lol). I think it really depends on your crowd and the vibe of your event. If you’re doing a full on smasher with lots of booze, dancing, etc. then Friday may be preferable for the reasons others have mentioned (guests who work a typical MF 9-5 l, which granted is not everybody, are guaranteed a rest day). But I would add the caveat that you likely need to be okay with a later start time - I’m thinking 6 or 7 pm. Otherwise Friday loses this advantage over Sunday. Let me elaborate. If you start your event mid or even late afternoon on a Friday, your guests are taking all or part of the day off work to get ready, potentially battle traffic, attend etc. If your wedding is on a Sunday, guests who want to go hard could use that same time off on Monday to recover. It all comes out in the wash.
Likewise, if you have a ton of guests travelling from out of town, it really doesn’t make a difference which you choose. They’re either taking Friday or possibly even Thursday off to travel there, or Monday off to travel home.
If your event doesn’t fit the usual dinner/late night dancing and drinking mould, Sunday may be preferable as people tend to have free afternoons.Bottom line, both are great alternatives to a Saturday. In this situation, I would do whatever works best for my fiancé and I. With proper notice, those who want to attend and imbibe will arrange for the necessary time off to make that work. And I would expect my VIPs to make it work regardless. As a guest, I wouldn’t bat an eye at an invite to a Friday or Sunday wedding. Frankly I’d be excited to take a de facto long weekend - but I appreciate that some may not have the flexibility to do so.

I would pick Friday for the reasons already mentioned- people are more likely to have a Saturday off than a Monday but do what is best for you. People who want to celebrate with you will book the the next day off if they can regardless of the day.

I would say Friday is better than Sunday. Most people will have Saturday off. Whereas, if you have it on a Sunday, people will probably leave early to rest for work the next day.

We ended up postponing to next year, but before deciding we talked about this incase the issue came up. We ultimately would have decided on a Friday because then people don’t have to work the next day and can enjoy themselves and drink. Our ceremony was originally planned for 4:30pm, so we would have pushed it back a bit in hopes that it would make it easier for people to attend, but also would have been understanding if not everyone could make it until the reception.