When is the best time of the year to get married? Well being a travel agent, on top of everything else, I can tell you that anytime the kids are in school, your honeymoon prices will be less! So, is that a good reason to get married in the fall or winter? Of course it is! Brian and I spent over $3500 on a cruise that if taken a different time of year, it would have cost us less than half of what we paid. So, USE A TRAVEL AGENT!! They have lots of good information to help you. I also recommend using one that does more than just one product. We booked through a cruise only agency where the agent was new. That can be good when there are others around that can help give advice but we had some bad advise, which I’ll share at a later date. If you're looking for a good agency, I recommend the one where I work, www.allseastravel.com. We have agents in the office that have been and done just about everything.
Another question to ask when choosing a date is "when does the time change?" When Brian and I got married, no one reminded us of this!! The date that we picked, April 4, 1998, was the night that time changed! So, not only did we get married at 3pm but ended up having to do many errands on our wedding night. You see, Brian hadn't packed yet and I had family in town that we hadn't seen in quite awhile. After our send off from the reception, we went and checked into our room, checked it out and then proceeded to go back to my parent's house to EAT (one thing no one ever seems to do during their reception!!) and open our gifts. Then it was off to Brian's parent’s house to pack his clothes. Since Brian was still half living at his parent's house and half living at the apartment that we would be living at, we made several stops to both places. By the time we got back to the hotel it was well after midnight. We had a 6am flight to take out the next morning to Miami to catch our ship. So by the time we made it to our cabin on the ship, we both took a nice long nap!
Also think of off peak times during the week. A lot of vendors book their Saturday dates well in advance - Some even several years in advance. So, ask all of your vendors when calling around if they give price breaks on weeknights, Friday nights or Sundays. For example, I once knew someone that got married on a weeknight. This was the first I had heard of this and thought she was crazy. But after talking to her I realized that she was able to get the wedding of her dreams - her first choice that was on the beach - and still invite everyone that she wanted. If she had booked it for a Saturday it would have cost several thousand more, which meant less guest (and less presents of course!!).
So the moral is, don't just pick a date because it's when everyone else says you need to get married or because that's what's tradition. Pick it because it's what you want and when the prices are lower.
Happy Date Picking!!
Jana
