There are lots of reasons to extend your wedding beyond one day. Perhaps you and/or your guests are travelling from overseas or maybe you want to make the most of a beautiful exclusive-use wedding venue. Practical considerations aside, commitment, love and marriage deserve plenty of celebration, so why confine yourselves to a party that lasts less than 24 hours?
Wedding weekends and multi-day weddings are becoming more and more popular, but there's lots to consider before you take the plunge and decide to plan a three-day event.
Read on to discover our top tips and find out how to extend your wedding beyond one day...
For the perfect multi-day wedding, consider a bank holiday weekend. Make sure you give guests plenty of notice so they can plan their travel and get the best rates for things like accommodation or car hire.
Large groups of people tend to be happiest when things are easy and multi-day weddings definitely work best if the majority of your guests are all staying in the same place. If this isn't feasible, try to make getting to and from each event as straightforward as possible.
Like all wedding formats, wedding weekends have an infinite number of variations, but the following itinerary should help inspire your celebration:
• Friday dinner
• Saturday breakfast
• Saturday activity {including lunch}
• Saturday afternoon or early evening ceremony
• Saturday wedding dinner and reception
• Sunday brunch
It's a good idea to provide your guests with an itinerary ahead of time. A wedding website is often the simplest way to do this, allowing you to include other useful information such as a packing list. There are few things worse than missing out on a pool party because you didn't think to bring a bathing suit!
Don't feel you have to entertain your guests every minute of the whole weekend. Instead, consider providing a list of ideas and suggestions for their free time, highlighting resort facilities or nearby attractions.
Although an optional extra, welcome bags work really well at multi-day weddings. You can include a timeline of events, brochures for other activities nearby, toiletries they might have forgotten and even a drink and some snacks.
With numerous meals and set-ups, there's a lot to organise when planning a multi-day wedding. Can one caterer handle the food or do you need to enlist another supplier? Will the flowers or decor change from one event to the next? Who will assist your guests if they forget where they're supposed to be next?
Need help? You can find out more about our wedding planning services here.
Arguably the best thing about a multi-day wedding is the opportunity to spend even more time with your friends and family. We like to think it's this that makes all the extra effort and expense worthwhile.
Until next time,
Happy Planning!
Val x
Photo credit: Eleri Tunstall at ICKOOTU Photography
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Eleri Tunstall:
May 05, 2017 at 08:05 AM
Great post Val! I love to string out all celebrations!
As a photographer I have often been asked to attend the more relaxed lunch/party the day after the wedding. It can make for great photos as people relive the events of the big day!
Francesca:
May 08, 2017 at 08:37 PM
This is a brilliant blog post. With families becoming more and more spread out, it has become normal to travel to attend weddings. By extending your wedding beyond one day you make the most of having the people you love around you and, as you say, gives you opportunities to have some down time.
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