Intro to Selecting your wedding date

You’re engaged! Now the fun part: Planning your wedding day. First things first, you need to select a date. If you get started early enough, you’ll have pick of the litter. Freshly engaged AND planning to get married in the same calendar year? This will be a little more challenging but definitely possible. Regardless of the prep time there’s important factors to consider. Some might be obvious but some are easily be overlooked.

Points to consider, things to avoid and insight into a smooth planning journey. Here’s my advice after 12 years of photographing weddings and 300+ weddings later.

*This blog is mainly targeted towards larger 75+ guest weddings in the North Idaho/Spokane area where the “wedding season” is mainly June-September. Although useful information to be used for all.

Popular Dates

A Holiday weekend, a peak season Saturday, a date that looks nice or rhymes. Although these seem like the most exciting when looking at a blank calendar full of possibilities, it’s wise to give them a second glance. Choosing a date that’s not exactly exciting by itself but a date that you can truly own, definitely has its upsides. Let’s look at the challenges of popular dates..

Availability of Venues and Vendors

Holiday weekends are always booked. They’re often the first dates to get claimed and there is only one of them a year. Which means, unless you’re wildly early in your planning, your ideal venue could be booked before you even get to inquiring for your top choice vendors. Every year I’ll have a couple that’s eager to see that I’m available for their popular wedding date. However, prior to finally securing a wedding venue they had been told “Nope, sorry” by their top three location choices. Often I am booked early on these dates which means I am also another one to say “Unfortunately, that date is already booked.” Expect to find the same competition when looking around for your ideal caterer, DJ, hair/MU and everyone in between.

The feeling of being engaged, excited for the future and eager to plan your celebration can very quickly become tainted. Unnecessary stress early on in the wedding process is all too common if choosing a popular date. These challenges are often over looked and can be easily avoided. That is if choosing a different date doesn’t mess with your dream wedding too much. Planning a wedding on a popular weekend is possible but not necessarily recommended if a smooth experience of green lights is desired.

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Popular dates equals high competition

Choosing an extra popular date directly puts you in a race with other brides, like mentioned above. There are also other summer events, vacations and traditions that you’re also directly competing with.

I totally understand the temptation of choosing a popular date, but let’s take a deeper look.

Let’s imagine a 4th of July Wedding as a prime example. (One of the best holidays of the year I might add!) It’s close to summer solstice so you have longer days, long weekends and most often that perfect summer weather. Hey, you might even get a free firework show out of it too! Although in one hand this sounds like an ideal wedding date, your valued guests have their own traditions or a vacation planned around this holiday that… maybe too late to compromise on. Or another wedding that secured the same date so now your guests have to choose which wedding to go to.

Like mentioned before, I understand the attraction to piggy back that weekend but sometimes it’s best to enjoy holidays respectively on their own. That way your future your anniversaries don’t have to compete either!

Summer Weddings

Here in North Idaho and Eastern Washington summer is the absolute best, simply hard to beat. That is why we have a very distinct “wedding season” here that typically runs from Mid June through mid September. That’s roughly 12 Saturdays that are available for events. Most full time wedding photographers take on around +/- 18 weddings a year. That’s a full summer with a double-header weekend or two with a handful of “off-season” weddings here and there. Here are the pro’s and cons to typically expect for each month.

June pros:

  • Longest days of the year, more flexibility in scheduling

  • Wild fire/smoke risk is low

  • Less busy than July and August

  • Can have fires, sparklers, fireworks if the venue allows it

  • Starting summer on a high note so you can spend the rest of the year enjoying marriage

June cons:

  • Longest days of the year, can be exhausting with duration and heat

  • Typically later ceremony, dinner, reception time to avoid heat of the day

  • Most likely dancing in the daylight as most venues have 10pm noice ordinance.

  • Chance of late spring thunderstorms

  • Tent Rental for chance of rain = extra expense and tent photos

  • Tropical Honeymoon locations are going to be hot as heck

July pros:

  • Summer services in full swing, peak wedding season

  • Can have comfort fires, sparklers, fireworks if the venue allows it

  • More manageable sunset time in mid/late July

  • Ideal for adventurous/full weekend weddings

  • Mid-late July offers balanced daylight for scheduling

  • Low chance of Thunderstorms, high chance of perfect weather

July cons:

  • High competition with other wedding dates and summer events

  • Peak vacation time = tourists and traffic

  • Can be wildly hot

  • Medium/high risk for wild fires/smoke

  • Tropical Honeymoon locations are going to be hot as heck

August pros:

  • Summer services in full swing, peak wedding season

  • More manageable scheduling/sunset time all month long

  • Ideal for adventurous/full weekend weddings

  • Chances are you attended a few wedding and can make adjustments to perfect yours

August cons:

  • Medium/High competition with other wedding dates and summer events

  • High risk for wild fires/smoke

  • Low chance of comfort fires, sparklers, fireworks even if the venue allows it

  • Tropical Honeymoon locations are in prime hurricane season

September pros:

  • Still feels like summer but with cool mornings and evenings

  • Awesome sunsets at an appropriate time

  • Dancing in the moonlight with enjoyable cooler temps

  • Late September has a chance of fall colors.

  • Chances are you attended a few wedding and can make adjustments to perfect yours

  • Less tourists and traffic

  • Less busy than July and August

  • Can have fires, sparklers, fireworks if the venue/fire season allows it

September cons:

  • Medium risk of fires/smoke

  • Late September summer services can be winding down

  • Moderate chance be of weather being cold and rainy

  • Everyone’s been dancing to the same music every weekend. Feel free to get extra creative with the DJ ;)

  • Tropical Honeymoon locations are in prime hurricane season