Find the Festive, Not the faults.
As soon as you begin planning your wedding, you’ll discover that there may be ups and downs to every decision you make. Choosing a particular time of year or venue may make some of your family or guests happy while others, not as much so.
But I find, when a choice appears to have negative aspects, there’s usually a simple solution to diffuse the negativity and turn it all around. If you can do that, it gets easier to focus on all the fun of wedding planning.
One touchy subject could be planning your wedding on a national holiday like the Fourth of July.
Once again, I polled the social media community to get their take on a Fourth of July wedding. The feelings ranged from a great idea (Yay, fireworks at a wedding!) – to an inconvenient hassle. (Holiday traffic and higher price hotel rates, no thank you!)
I say, consider all the angles and choose the positive spin. So whether you’re the couple or a honored guest, here’s a few things to consider to get you on board with the idea of a holiday wedding.
Holiday Weddings Are Cheaper: As a guest, before you groan at the idea of your friend’s 4th of July wedding, consider their budget. Holiday weddings at sought after venues can be less expensive because those dates are harder to sell. Your friend might have her heart set on a particular place and booking the Fourth may be her only opportunity to get it, both in budget and on the calendar. One of my Facebook commenters wrote: “It wasn’t initially our first choice as we were hoping for a September wedding but we got an amazing deal on the venue. We will also be having a 2nd traditional African ceremony on 7/6, so it will be a weekend long event which our families are happy to travel for.” I love so many things about this plan. Not only is this bride saving BUT she’s getting two celebrations and making into a really memorable event for those who are traveling!
Are You Really ‘Missing’ Those Annual Celebrations? One complaint about Fourth weddings is that guests will miss out on their regular annual plans; the beach, picnics, camping trips, etc. But are you really missing out? Consider how much this person means to you. If they’re a life long friend, perhaps you can set aside the burgers and dogs for one year and support them. One commenter writes: “I wouldn’t be thinking about me and my travel, expenses, missing a holiday celebration.. I would be super excited for the couple sharing in their love for each other regardless of when they decided to tie the knot.”
Festive Save the Dates!
Can traveling on a holiday, especially the Fourth be a little more challenging? Sure. But, if you plan accordingly and give your guests the courtesy of extra notice, that will help them plan their finances, travel arrangements and hopefully ease their stress. The more notice the better!! Get out the word with awesome Save the Date cards or magnets.
I found all of these on www.etsy.com.
A Patriotic Color Scheme & Festive Motifs: This is one to get excited about! If you’re a couple considering a 4th of July holiday wedding, it might take only two minutes on Pinterest to realize just how awesome this could look. Check out these great articles with suggestions like:
Pies instead of cake!
Cracker Jack wedding favors
Navy bridesmaid dresses paired with red lipstick
Milkshakes, floats and s’mores at the dessert table!
Sparklers and fireworks!
and
I've collected a bunch of stuff for you on my own Pinterest board:
Your Anniversary is Now Always a Holiday: Okay, admittedly, this is probably the one I focused on the most. I can totally get on board with saving money, fireworks at a wedding, and a fun patriotic color scheme. But looking into the future, I wasn’t sure how I’d personally feel about sharing my wedding anniversary with the Fourth or any other major holiday. I guess it’s one thing to set aside your issues for one day but realizing that booking a special trip for your 5, 10 or 20 year anniversary means dealing with holiday schedules and prices - is that just too annoying!?
Here’s when I remember what it’s REALLY about: Me and my husband celebrating our life together. For example, in a few days Matt and I will be in St. John to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We got married on June 6th and we wanted to invite people to join us on our trip. Someone pointed out to me that it could be very hard for friends with kids to join us because school is still in session in June. So after some thought, we changed the date to July 6th, which actually works out much better because it’s a Friday. So we will renew our vows exactly, 10 years and 1 month after we got married. Does that make it any less special or meaningful because it’s not happening on our exact anniversary? Absolutely not! And the same applies to holiday wedding anniversaries. Celebrate on the Fourth of July or Fourth of January - as long as you’re together, it’s just a date on the calendar!
As a commenter wrote: “Making the best of the two celebrations at the same time might be challenging to some.. but it could be special AND fun to create different ideas to make it even more special or memorable every year!”
Happy Fourth of July and Happy Wedding!
All my best with no stress.