@kelsmom I also had DDs write and learn to write thank you notes - from when they could barely write their name, to writing the whole note. DD2 is able to zip notes out pronto, while DD1 takes her time. Glad your DD took care of her notes like my DD2 would.
Yes Fridays have become more popular wedding dates, especially as many have offices where Friday is a looser work day and easier to have off for a long weekend.
I don’t think the church where we had DD’s wedding would schedule more than a year in advance, due to other things potentially scheduled with the Catholic Diocese - her wedding was at the Cathedral (a ‘mini’ Cathedral as our Diocese was formed in the 1960’s from a bigger Diocese, and this was the secondary location; but a grand church for the wedding). There were 3 wedding parties at our hotel, and one of them also wanted the Cathedral but settled for one of the other Catholic churches in the city because DD/SIL got the Cathedral already. For a Catholic wedding, with full Mass, more time is spent for that part of the wedding celebration. The church had a wedding coordinator that made sure everything at the church went great, and all the fees for the church were spelled out.
For many, a very good wedding coordinator - who knows area venues, caterers, etc can be very cost effective and also help sidestep issues. Fortunately, DD lived in her city for going on 6 years and had a network of information that helped her wedding be terrific and also stay in budget - family catering operation that served wonderful food, floral lady that worked out of her home (master gardener friend was complimentary on the flowers), we knew one of the lead people in the jazz band that played. The rehearsal dinner was at the church/center where DD volunteered a lot and they didn’t charge for use of the facility, and the groom’s parents had a local BBQ place cater the food - very well received and worked out great for all out of town guests and the bridal party/family. Our people constraint was the church hall/reception space - and we stretched it with high boy tables on a outside balcony area and along one side of the space, and had enough chairs along that side so all could sit down. Since the wedding was in a different city than where we live, I didn’t feel any pressure for a small friends’ list of invitees - some could make it and some could not. DD was actually relieved on the ones from my list who couldn’t make it as they had a lot of local friends invited and did feel the need to invite all that they did.
The large round tables at the venue are same size as our church hall’s tables (we didn’t have to rent most of the tables and chairs - just needed to set up and tear down, only needed to rent the high boy tables, the wedding cake/groom cake table, and a few others) so I bought from a vendor in our city these 16 navy table clothes (buying was only maybe $12 more for table cloth) and donated them to our church after the wedding. DD received some long white table clothes from a friend who purchased for her wedding and had not further use - so DD has provided them for other weddings too. I told DD she needed to rent any of the other table clothes she needed, which they did (and I had to remind her of this a few weeks before the wedding, as that was coming out of their depleted funds - and their cash flowing of the tail end costs).
DD/SIL learned from other weddings they attended, and had a pretty well planned out event. I was handed a copy of the details from rehearsal dinner through reception take down. At the reception take down, whatever friends were lined up to help disappeared, so I got a few others to help (loading gifts and other things into vehicles, etc).