Should You Consider an Extended Wedding Weekend?
After extended time apart from family and friends in the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of couples wanting to extend their wedding into a full weekend (sometimes week) of special events in order to spend quality time with their guests, as well as allow the opportunity for guests to view the celebration as a vacation (or quasi reunion), if they are traveling from afar.
Regardless of whether your location is your hometown or a true destination for all of your guests, creative hospitality and experienced planning can make a wedding weekend an unforgettable experience. If you’re newly engaged or in the early planning stages of wedding planning, here are our top reasons to explore a lengthened celebration:
Allows for More Quality Time
A multi-day celebration allows the couple extra time to catch up and visit with guests. No one likes the rushed formalities of the table-to-table greeting during the reception, and after a year plus apart, it seems many of our couples haven’t seen many guests because of the pandemic and want the possibility to truly connect during multiple touch points. Planning for a few extra days, which can include a handful of activities such as welcome receptions, game nights,or sunset cruises, allows the bride and groom to spend more than five minutes visiting with guests that have spent time and resources to see them tie the knot.
Photography by Perry Vaile
Makes the Travel Worth It
Since nowadays the majority of guests must travel and take time off work to attend weddings, an extended celebration ensures that the time and money spent is well worth it. It also gives the out of town guests something to do and look forward to each day! While we recommend that there is time blocked out for guests to explore the destination on their own, it is nice to have a well-balanced calendar of activities planned for everyone including the more typical formal events such as cocktail hours, and informal activities such as optional hikes or scuba diving.
Builds up Anticipation
When a handful of events happen before the wedding, an anticipation is built for the actual wedding ceremony. Guests are able to get to know one another so that when the wedding day rolls around, they feel like they are attending a wedding with 200 of their friends, too. Our distinct hope is that through several days of curated experiences, we can successfully create a ‘crescendo effect’ for the bride, groom and their guests, which peaks at the wedding ceremony and celebratory reception.
If you’re planning a multi-day wedding, you can choose what events to offer and who is invited to what. You can scale up or down to spend time with different groupings such as your immediate family or college buddies. We believe multi-day celebrations are about optimizing the time you have with your guests, and strategically building it into everyone's wedding experience. When you work with Rebecca Rose Events, we can help bring an inclusive, wedding weekend to life.