Personally, wouldn’t want to drive 8 hours in a day and also go to a wedding. So I’d stay overnight for a wedding 4 hours away no matter when it was. Or I’d decline. Particularly if you’re not local I’m sure the B&G won’t think twice about you not attending.
Now, when I was younger and poorer I might have chosen to drive both ways. In which case a 5:30 wedding is better than a later one.
5:30 start means that the service and photos will be done in time to start a dinner reception at a reasonable hour. I would not want to eat much later than 7:30 being the unsophisticated person that I am.
It’s their day. Is the wedding in a fun spot? Spend an extra night and have a mini vacation since Saturday will be free
We went to a Friday wedding that started at 5:30 also. It was lovely. The ceremony was a full mass. If they had started at 7:30, the reception probably wouldn’t have started until 9.
You know…we just took a day off of work. Very often, if we have to travel to a wedding, we end up taking a day off. If its local…you could just leave work early and still get there.
Or, of course, you could just say you can’t go.
In the case of the wedding we went to, the cost was 1/3 less on Friday than onnSatirday, which for 150 people isn’t chump change!
We are invited to an out of town wedding that is on a Sunday night. We will need to take Monday off of work. Our choice is to do this…or not attend. We will take the day off.
Our wedding (26 years ago) was 5:30 on a Friday night. We are catholic and really wanted a candlelight wedding so that was our only option. Like someone up thread said, 5:30 seemed reasonable given the length of the Mass, pictures, etc. I never even considered we were being “rude”.
I wouldn’t care what day of the week or time of the day a couple chose for their wedding. I would just be honored to have been invited and would certainly attend!!