Did you have a wedding "weekend"?

We did a wedding weekend! Since all of our guests had to travel at least 2 hours to our wedding, we planned a couple (optional) events for them to attend in addition to our wedding. Many guests chose to attend those events, others chose to just attend the wedding. Either way, it was a fun weekend! The wedding day goes by so fast, so I was glad to have the extra time with family and friends. I also attended a destination wedding where they held a welcome party in addition to the wedding, and they provided a list of recommendations of places to visit in the area. That was also a lot of fun! It's a nice touch to include those extra events if it's in your budget and you genuinely want to do it, but it's certainly not required.

This sounds it would get expensive very fast, and not everyone wants to spend a weekend away from home. You'd essentially be planning 3 different parties. This sort of thing is often done for a destination wedding. Not necessary at all for a local one. Also, I don't believe Air Bn B allows parties

I would be really careful about clearing the event with the rental owners. Often there's a surcharge or ban for weddings and big parties. You don't want to get evicted from your own wedding!

I'm not sure it would be cheaper then having a one night party type deal.

This is exactly what we are doing! We decided to have a destination wedding weekend. We are hosting a welcome dinner Friday night, followed immediately by a cool activity with all our guests (that we are paying for). The wedding and reception will be Saturday night. Then a farewell brunch on Sunday. We love the idea of our wedding not just being a stuffy traditional event, but rather a super fun weekend experience everyone will remember for years to come!

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Oh we'll be definitely clearing it with the owners before we start planning anything - right now it's just an idea we had and are considering.

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FUN! Yes we have a fair amount of out of town guests attending too so we thought it could be a cool getaway weekend for everyone! All of our friends get along and we'd only invite immediate family to the ceremony portion. I'm one of 5 kids and my fiance is one of 6 so there will be lots of family with just our immediate family there

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That sounds like a lot of fun! And yes we'd definitely choose an area that people don't feel "trapped" into

I love this idea. We had an event the night before our wedding and everyone was invited. 100/119 guests were there Friday. It was so great because I was able to chat with people and there was hardly any time for that Saturday.

One thing I will say, even if you rent out a big home for everyone... you and your future spouse may not want to stay there. I had a BBQ for immediate family two days before my wedding and they stayed 7 hours!!!! I eventually told my mom "you gotta get these people out of my house". Ha ha. If you have somewhere the two of you can go, I think it will save you some stress.

Since about 95% of our guests are flying in for our wedding, we are also doing a wedding weekend. Friday is the Welcome Dinner, Saturday the wedding (YAY) and Sunday those who wish are invited to the clubhouse at our condo for a pool party. Some may choose not to come, as we live 10 minutes from the (former) #1 beach in the USA and they might want some sun and sand instead.

We are having a weekend wedding our wedding is this Sunday coming up. And our venue was really low at first we had both spaces but since had to push our wedding back we are only using the inside for both ceremony and reception. So by doing that our price then is much lower and the venue owner lowered the price. In which I'm very pleased.

Your idea sounds awesome, and f I were your friend, I would be so excited to go to something like that. Especially if it's a small guest list.

I'm planning a wedding weekend in the more traditional sense... 100+ guests coming from all over the country; a welcome dinner, wedding, and after party. It does get expensive quickly. We would not be able to make it happen on or own, but it was my FW's parents who insisted upon the welcome dinner, so they're paying for it.

I’m also doing a destination wedding with a welcome party for all guests who want to attend, wedding day, then farewell brunch and after party the last day. As others have said, this stuff can add up quickly, so the after party is an unofficial, no RSVPs, come hang out with us after the wedding events are over if you want. I would be very surprised if even 50% of our guests make that since that’s when a lot of people will be traveling home. We also expect that some guests might not even make the welcome party since our ceremony the next day doesn’t start until the evening, so they’ll have plenty of travel time in the morning. We’re serving food at the welcome party and farewell brunch, but nowhere near as fancy as the reception. It wasn’t just a cost thing; we don’t want those meals to overshadow the reception! We just want to make sure that our guests who are coming for a longer period of time have the option of spending some time with us outside the chaos of the wedding day.

Wow that sounds great! I have been working on something similar. Prices are ridiculous right now no matter how many guest you are having. Even renting a house is pricey but it is more intimate.
I am open for ideas.

We plan on having unhosted cocktails the night before the wedding and an unhosted brunch the day after. We will of course host the rehearsal dinner and wedding. My brother and sister-in-law did it this way and it worked out well. Getting married is already so expensive, if guests are unwilling to pay for a cocktail the night before and brunch the next day they do not have to come to that portion of the weekend, it’s not required and we understand that people might not make it. We will only list the welcome cocktails and brunch on the wedding website and not on the formal invitation, so no one feels obligated to come.