Choosing the Right Day for Your Big Day

Picking the wedding date is one of the most important and exciting decisions you’ll make as a couple. Before you pull out a calendar and randomly choose a day, make sure you’ve covered the basics.

For starters, you need to decide how long of an engagement the two of you need. Should there be complicating factors—job, family, finances—an engagement of a year or more is smart. If the wedding is less complicated, you can aim for less than a year. Keep in mind that planning a wedding inevitably takes more time than expected.  Review this wedding planning checklist for a brief overview of everything you’ll need to consider for your wedding.  It will help you determine how much time you’ll need.

If you’re having a large, formal affair, you need to make sure all the important people are available—immediate family, your best friends, etc. While loved ones will make your wedding a top priority, if Mom and Dad have already planned a trip to Europe next year, you need to work around their schedule.

Once you know the time frame, figure out a date, and then pick a few alternates. If you’ve already chosen your ceremony and reception sites, it’s possible the exact date you’ve selected won’t be available. Also, you might find out that the Friday night you prefer is much more expensive than another night, or an afternoon wedding. Decide before you book how flexible you are with days of the week.

If you are set on a specific date, or even a few specific dates, you also need to have alternate sites in mind. For instance, that Valentine’s Day wedding you’ve dreamed about for years might be a wonderful idea, but it also might be impossible to book your first-choice venue.

The length of your engagement is also going to affect vendors’ accessibility. You don’t need to have your site picked when you choose a wedding band or a reception caterer, but understand that top vendors get booked way in advance. The further off you put the date, the more access you’ll have to the best of the bunch.  Days and time of year are important too: Vendors are more popular around holidays, weekends, and during prom time, from March through June.  Check out how to get started with wedding vendors here.

Before you check off Memorial Day Weekend as your wedding date, keep in mind that many of your friends might already have plans. Should you decide on any holiday weekend, picking a far off date is wise; guests aren’t as likely to have scheduled trips. Even so, you will receive more RSVP “no” responses during those times of the year. Once you do pick the date, stick with it, and know that there is never an absolute best day to get married, only an absolute perfect reason to do it.

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