Weddings are one of the most traditional ceremonies still to exist in the UK. Although trends and tastes come and go relatively little has changed in terms of the basic legalities over the centuries… that is until fairly recently.
The biggest change to hit the headlines lately is the news that same-sex marriage is to finally be legalised. Now we seriously considered doing a Friday Fight-Out on this very topic, but although we both often play devils advocate in these debates and present arguments that we don’t necessarily agree with ourselves, despite our best attempts to come up with logical reasoning against same sex marriage we couldn’t really get past the opening point on that one:
“Dom: Everyone deserves equal rights, including in the right to marry the person they love.
Matt: Yes that’s 100% true. However… erm… well it could be argued that er… nope, still true.”
You can see our problem. So we figured we’d go for a rather less controversial debate and decided to focus on one of the other changes that has occurred in the UK wedding legalities over the last year: the times of day within which you may now legally be wed.
Whilst it used to be that weddings could only take place between the hours of 08:00 – 18:00, as of October last year the rules have now been relaxed to allow weddings to take place at any time of day or night. But is an evening wedding really a good idea? I guess it’s time to find out…
Morning/Afternoon Vs Evening/Night
In the Red Corner, she’d be asleep in bed right now if I wasn’t making her write! Looking a little tired and rather miffed and fighting for the Morning/Afternoon wedding it’s Dom “The Tog Bride”
In the Blue Corner, having spent much of his life working late nights in theatres and with little sense of the time of day at the best of times, he’s fighting for the late night wedding spectacular, it’s Matt “The Gormless Groom”.
FIGHT!
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Photography by York Place Studios
Dom: Although each wedding is of course very different, they do tend to be built on a basic template that works well – Ceremony late morning/afternoon, big wedding breakfast, speeches going into the evening then dancing as it gets later and people get in the mood. It works, and I’m not sure it would if starting late at night.
Matt: Getting married in the evening or at night is ideal for couples who just want a small, intimate wedding. Imagine getting married under a beautiful star-lit sky or as the sun is setting. The evening is just a more romantic time of day and surely perfect for a wedding.
Dom: If you’re getting married in the evening there’s just less time to enjoy the whole event. Your guests probably don’t want to be up all night and so you’re losing huge parts of your wedding. Having a morning ceremony allows you (and your guests) to get the most out of your special day.
Matt: Elsewhere in the world 24hour weddings have been available for many years and have been very successful. Different couples want different things from their weddings and for some getting married in the evening and celebrating through the night is ideal for them and a truer reflection of their lifestyles and personalities.
Dom: If you get married at night you’re missing out on all that glorious daylight and (hopefully) sunshine. You’re much less likely to get truly beautiful photographs if there’s no natural light available for any part of the wedding, especially with little time left to capture them.
Matt: There are a lot of venues that would be really cool for a wedding but that are already too busy during the day to allow for it. Some of those venues can now open up for evening ceremonies and allow more couples to have the venue they really wanted.
Dom: Unless all your guests are local then with the wedding taking place in the evening everyone will be forced to book a hotel which makes it a very expensive activity for your guests.
Matt: Everyone wants their wedding to be different and getting married at night is something completely different! Imagine getting married at midnight on New Year’s Eve! There are lots of unique opportunities with an evening or nighttime wedding.
Dom: Getting married in the evening potentially just prevents a lot of people from being able to be there. Children will have to go to bed (and their parents will have to take them) and grandparents and elderly guests are likely to be leaving the party particularly early too.
Matt: There might be a time of day it’s particularly special to you to get married. For example you might want to get married at the same time of day that you got engaged. The 24hr ceremony allows you to do that.
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Photography by York Place Studios
So, we’ve presented the arguments but what do you think? Would you consider having your wedding in the evening or even late at night? Is it better to enjoy a full wedding day? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this one so leave your comments below, send us a tweet or catch us on Facebook!
How do you guys read our minds every week?! We have been discussing the exact same issue. We discovered through some destination wedding enquires that in other parts of Europe evening weddings are the norm. All the ceremony times have been around 5pm with cutting of the cake around midnight! During the summer we actually think that it would be too hot to have a midday wedding in Italy for instance so it makes sense. Also the evening sunlight would be perfect for some great shots.
Initially we found it a bit odd and had to re-work how we operate but we also discovered that the reception (renamed to ‘Party’ in many other countries 😉 will go on until daylight appears which is actually pretty cool!