The Wedding Weekend
The wedding weekend, in our modernized culture, begins with the wedding party (immediate family, bridesmaids, and groomsmen) arriving to the occasion before the rest of the invitees to go over the wedding setup and rehearsal elements. While planning an entire weekend away for the wedding party members is not necessarily a new concept to the extravagancies of the ordeal, the concept has progressed further into the grandiosities to now include the majority of the wedding attendees, many activities, and bonding experiences over the course of a weekend.
During this time, some members of the wedding party are meeting for the first time – for example, the bride has known her childhood neighbor since they were three! But does she know the bride’s sophomore year college roommate, who is also standing in the wedding? The wedding weekend provides ample time for the bride’s and groom’s friends to meet and get to know each other before being paired off and walking down the aisle together in what could have been an awkward silence.
Pictures, in turn, look much better when the two walking next to each other, don’t look scared or nervous to be walking next to each other. The day is all about bringing together the bride and groom, they don’t want to see their own friends uncomfortable!
The organization and customization of a wedding weekend
Similar to the multistep process of a wedding, a wedding weekend runs like a machine with many moving parts: the fluctuation in guest attendance up to the last minute, setting up the food stations and monitoring for allergies, certifying activities and supplies are fully stocked, ensuring all wedding party members have arrived and have transportation to get to the venue during the weekend, etc. – these are not typically issues couples are handling directly but are taken care of by the hired wedding planner(s), venue associates, or appropriate vendors.
Standard and easily customizable background activities like the midwest, tailgating classic, cornhole, horseshoes, ring toss, or jenga have been appearing more and more frequently as fun filler features in between the primary events of the wedding weekend because of their common, budget-friendly setup and takedown process, and their easy inclusion of themes of love, light, family, and unification, as well as plenty of fun puns!
Some couples have also found enjoyment in requesting or custom-making their own themed DIY booths, such as setting up a tie-dye station, a custom paint-by-numbers project, or assembling lego centerpieces (to be later placed on the dinner tables!) that guests can then take home as wedding favors! Adding these interactive elements that stem from inside jokes or moments in your relationship, for the guests to be a part of, gives them more insight into the relationship they are celebrating.
Touring of all kinds has increased in popularity with wedding weekends of bigger budgets – customarily a tour that features a relative aspect to the couples’ relationship or the combining of their families such as a stadium of a beloved sports team, a studio or museum, brewery/distillery/winery, etc. If a tour is too much for your wedding crowd, booking a professional to lead a class in a skill you and your partner share a history or adoration of is also a memorable direction!
For the couples who feel this new change to their lives isn’t big or permanent enough to commemorate their love, the remarkably fun features of hiring a trusted tattooist or permanent jeweler has become a recurring request from many adrenaline-seeking couples and their party-goers. Some couples have even requested a custom-made flash sheet from their hired tattoo artist or a suitable variety of charms from the jeweler so their guests have a range of significant art to choose from. These artists are typically only active at the wedding for a brief window of time as their work and time are so valuable.
To close out the wedding weekend, it has grown customary to say goodbye to your guests and family with a brunch or some sort of final casual celebration after guests have checked out of their accommodations and before they depart. This final farewell can be as planned and polished as the rehearsal dinner with set menus and seating arrangements, or as casual as a quick breakfast bagel and coffee, depending on the overall feeling the couple is looking to convey and what might fit with the pace of the rest of the weekend.
Wedding celebrations have always been a lengthy process throughout the couples engagement, starting at their proposal and concluding after their honeymoon and leaving many celebrations in between such as the engagement party, wedding shower, bachelor or bachelorette parties, the welcome party of the wedding weekend, the concluding wedding brunch the day after the reception, and the aforementioned honeymoon.
Though these events leading up to the big day or weekend allow for guests and wedding party members to get to know one another further, in the last decade, this thoroughly developed wedding weekend has provided a much more extensive, elaborate, and overall enjoyable time for everyone.
A wishful wedding weekend
For our own enjoyment, I’ve crafted a brief and hypothetical wedding weekend itinerary so that we may visualize an idea of the planning process:
Friday -
Months, if not years, of preparation have been leading up to this weekend, and for the ultimate hypothetical wedding weekend, Gather has pulled out the stops: hosting the rehearsal dinner, bridal suite, ceremony, and reception, with more than enough activities throughout to keep everyone in high spirits!
Having a jam-packed schedule to stick with, the bride and groom and their families are the first to arrive in the early afternoon, meeting with the vendors and organizers who will assist with their weekend and ensuring all guest requirements have been fulfilled. The rest of the wedding party arrives next, ready to meet with those they’ll be standing next to and participating in events with throughout the weekend. Once the entire wedding party has arrived, sometimes the lineup will practice the walk down the aisle and their entrances for the reception to perfect their timing and spacing.
As the rest of the guests begin to arrive in the late afternoon and early evening, checking into their accommadations and greeting those they bump into, the venue organizers and wedding party ensure the active stations are ready to be approached and utilized, and prepare for the rehearsal dinner that is to begin in a few hours. Guests mingle and wander around their weekend home, where yard games (previously mentioned) and DIY booths relevant to the couple are typically already set up, and wait for cocktail hour to commence before the rehearsal dinner.
Saturday -
It’s the big day!
Having, hopefully, taken an easy night after the rehearsal dinner for the busy day ahead, brides, their families, and their bridesmaids are typically awake rather early, preparing their space to be taken over by hair and makeup supplies, with a few mimosas in hand, of course! Perfect for photo and video opportunities, many bridesmaids opt for matching morning pajamas or robes as they get ready with loud music, easy food, and all of the Pinterest inspiration you can imagine.
The groom and groomsmen generally have a shorter preparation period before the ceremony begins, so they get a few more winks of sleep than their counterparts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a full day, too! After dressing and preparation photos, many groomsmen are divided amongst tasks through the venue, including photo staging, ushering and assisting guests or vendors with any questions, and general last-minute ceremony preparation. For a wedding weekend, the groomsmen will also help ensure guests are having a fun time and that vendors are fully stocked for their booths.
After the bride and bridesmaids are ready and the groomsmen are positive they have absolutely everything needed for a smooth ceremony, the wedding party comes together privately for their next phase of recording the special day. This has gradually become one of the frequently chosen times when couples conduct their first looks in wedding attire in the privacy of a single photographer or videographer, if they aren’t saving that for the walk down the aisle. The hour-and-a-half photography session that follows provides a great opportunity for the party to have fun together with silly posing prompts before rejoining the rest of the guests where the ceremony will take place.
While this might be a packed day of preparation and photos for the wedding party leading up to the ceremony, the rest of the guests usually have a broad portion of the day open. Waiting for the titular event to start, guests don’t have a rush on when they have to be up and dressed in their ceremony attire, which can sometimes drag the day and the excitement out of the guests – this is when the weekend activities truly shine!
Guests congregate after breakfast and relish in the loving atmosphere that shapes the weekend, discussing how one another know the happy couple and any well wishes they hope to pass along. As they ready themselves for the day ahead, venue crew and planners reset yard games, vendors set up their booths, and music and snacks fuel the filler time with a good attitude.
For the extravagant wedding weekend, some couples opt for more than one photographer to ensure there are pictures of the wedding party and couple getting ready, as well as of their guests and family having fun in the day that was so thoughtfully planned. As the wedding party and couple return from their photography session, the wedding party regroups with the rest of the guests, and the bride hides away for her big entrance down the aisle, as everyone is ushered into their place for the ceremony.
They do! The couple has now exchanged their vows, the ceremony has concluded, and it’s time to eat and party! This is when the evening reaches its peak excitement, with high energy and love radiating off of every guest celebrating the couple’s joy.
Many of the games we used to see during the meal have faded out of style to allow for the couple to enjoy their planned and paid for plate uninterrupted, with many replacing the glass clinking or bell ringing with a prompted donation to their honeymoon or chosen charity in exchange for their coveted kiss; or having their photographer coordinate “the table dash,” where the couple runs from table to table in varying themed poses with their guests in a specified time limit, to decrease the frequency in requests until after plates have been scraped clean, tables moved, and shoes kicked off for the dance floor.
Before the disco ball drops, a few tears must first fall at the heartfelt toasts conducted by assigned friends and family, then to be cured by a celebratory sweet treat. As guests enjoy their dessert and another drink, the music shifts, and the dance floor invites more shenanigans to ensue. Some couples have even begun to bring out surprise features like a permanent jeweler or tattoo artist to highlight the permanence of their jovial love in the last hour or two of the party!*
Sunday -
The departure date: following the evening of the wedding, everyone is rather slow moving from all of the celebration that ensued the night before and from the weight of the weekend’s activities in general, so a unified and casual brunch to tie up the goodbyes is perfect for recovery. Guests slowly check out of their accommodations and make their way to the conclusion of the weekend, and with a responsible designated driver assigned, some guests even keep the celebration going with Bloody Marys, mimosas, and mocktails!
Depending on the course of the day, some couples plan a low-key group excursion such as a hike, yoga class, or tour of some kind to get everyone out and moving one last time after brunch and before everyone leaves. The photographer or videographer isn’t always a part of this, letting the guests capture the activity and memories from their own perspectives, and allowing for flexible departures from everyone.
The wedding, its festivities, and its weekend have come and gone – all there is to wait for now are the photographs and/or video of the wonderful occassion, and write and send out thank you cards, of course. If you and your spouse want to be the first to post personal or professional pictures from the event, be sure to let your guests know prior to the ceremony and have the DJ remind the room once the reception has begun.
If this loose itinerary of a schedule for a hypothetical wedding weekend sounds like it might capture your idea of a perfect wedding, reach out to Gather (or your already chosen venue) today to book your first consultation!
Sources
https://www.brides.com/wedding-events-to-know-5186945
https://www.brides.com/wedding-weekend-trend-new-normal-8619473
https://www.theknot.com/content/weekend-weddings
https://www.herecomestheguide.com/wedding-ideas/how-to-plan-a-wedding-weekend
https://www.johnjosephinn.com/weekend-long-wedding-celebrations-trend
https://revelandryeeventco.com/embracing-the-wedding-weekend-trend/
Other posts
.jpeg)
Boogie down to Gather!
Can you hear the wedding bells?
Craft Cocktails for a Memorable Event!
The Evolution of Wedding Videography
A Concert Series for the Community
