How Your Guests Might Feel About a Summer Holiday Weekend Wedding

We choose the date of our wedding that works best for us — and for our guests. Or is it? A recent New York Times article suggests how guests might respond to a wedding on a summer holiday weekend.

Family and close friends will wish them every happiness, but they may also wish that the couples had chosen a different weekend.

“People got punched by blizzards this winter,” said Linnyette Richardson-Hall, a wedding planner in Baltimore. “They can’t wait for summer. If you decide to get married on one of those long weekends, a lot of people are going to be like, ‘Are you serious?’ ”

Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day are popular weekends to get married. I always have a lot of weddings those weekends.

It can be a complicated calculus. The three-day weekend offers extra time for friends and family traveling far. It also means those guests won’t have to take a day off from work for the wedding. But holiday-weekend wedding invitations create conflicts — emotional and otherwise — for those with longstanding plans: opening a summer cottage, or hosting a Fourth of July barbecue or an end-of-summer picnic.

So, think about your wedding date from your guests’ perspective. Then, ultimately, you decide. Send those save-the-date cards early. And those who want to come will and those who don’t can RSVP no. But you may get a higher percentage of no’s on those weekends.

What was your experience? Did you avoid these weekends? For those who had a wedding then, did you have more grumbling or fewer guests? Please comment below.