How to Choose Your Perfect Wedding Date
Picking a wedding date is no easy feat. Maybe you’ve got your heart set on a day, but the venue you want to book disagrees. Or you need to allow ample travel time for relatives to fly in from across the country, but you want to get perfect changing leaves in your photos. Keeping everybody happy when it comes to the wedding date is possible, though - keep reading to find out what you need to consider when you pick your perfect wedding date.
Timing Is Everything
The most important thing to consider when choosing your wedding date is, obviously, availability. Think about important events that will be happening around the same time as your wedding. If somebody is going to undergo a medical procedure, babies will be born, or a major holiday will happen around the time of the wedding, it may be worth reconsidering. You want to be sure that everybody important to the wedding can actually be there!
Get Married to A Person, Not A Date
If you’re dead-set on getting married on October 23rd, your options for pretty much everything suddenly become much more limited. Your dream venue may not be available for that date, or an important guest could have an interfering plan. So it’s best to pick a range of dates that work best for you - say, the two weeks at the end of October, and plan from there. Unfortunately, there are some factors we just can’t change. When it comes to wedding planning, flexibility is a valuable trait to have!
Think About the Seasons
Whatever season you plan to get married in and whether you plan to do it indoors or outdoors will definitely affect the wedding date you pick. If you’re having a summer wedding, perhaps you want to do it right at the beginning so guests aren’t overwhelmed by heat. Or a winter wedding far away enough from any holiday that people have ample time to get to you. It’s also important to remember how the seasons and weather will affect the dress of everyone at the wedding - from guest to bride to ringbearer. If you’ve always wanted to wear a strapless, mermaid-style gown, then plan accordingly to the seasons.
Give Yourself Time to Plan
There’s no reason to treat something like a shotgun wedding. Planning a wedding takes time. You have to make a million little decisions, and put down deposits and send out invites as well. When picking your wedding date, make sure you’re giving yourself adequate time to truly prepare. Although getting married is very exciting, there’s nothing more stressful than trying to cram too much to do into too little time.
Get RSVPs
You don’t have to send out all your invitations right away, but as soon as you enter planning mode, make sure the people you value most will be able to attend. After all, you don’t want to pick a date and then find out your parents can’t make it! Go around and get an idea of what everyone’s schedule will be like. If they don’t know, but you’ve already selected a range of dates, then give the most important people in your life a heads-up that they should keep some time open to come celebrate with you.
Allow For Travel Time
The last thing to consider is if anybody will be traveling to attend your wedding. That may change the exact date your wedding falls on. You may have to wait for some people to get into the area and get situated in accommodation before you can say I do. Make sure you pick a wedding day that takes this into consideration. In the long run it will be worth it to be surrounded by your nearest and dearest on your special day.