March or September wedding?

We have gone for early March 2024 for our wedding, partly because of cost but also because of the colours for the flowers (pinks, purples/lilacs and greens) and the timing of the sunset for the photographs, I hope that helps slightly xx

I’m getting married on 1st April so as close to March as you can get without being in March! Originally I preferred the idea of an Autumn wedding, but my sister got married in October just gone and I didn’t want our weddings to “compete”, and my FH preferred the idea of Spring, so April it is.

Now, I am so excited that I’ll be having a Spring wedding. I’ll be the first wedding of the year for all my friends and family, and I’ve got a beautiful lilac and lavender colour scheme.

Have a look at some wedding photos (Pinterest, Hitched etc) of Spring and Autumn weddings, and see which ones you love the most.

Personally if I was torn, and there was a £3k difference, I’d go for the cheaper option. That £3k could cover so many things. Also maybe consider suppliers and what they count as peak season - some of them might charge more for April-October, for example, while others might be different, but that could impact costs overall quite significantly.

I don't know if this is an option for you, but most of my family are also teachers. I am getting married on a Thursday in June, which falls on half term. Every single one of the teachers have RSVP yes and so have all my other guests. Our dream venue was too expensive for a Saturday but the Thursday in Half Term is £6000 cheaper and its a summer wedding. All our other guests, even those I work with, have booked annual leave to attend. I was worried in the beginning about a weekday wedding, but if people want to attend they will make it happen.

Obviously I know this isn't possible for everyone, but if you can make it work perhaps worth considering?

Also, my friend got married at the end of October 2022 and it was actually a really beautiful sunny day, even though it was later in the year. I think with the unpredictability of the UK weather your just as likely to get nice weather in September as you are in the peak summer.

If March is better for you budget wise, perhaps go with that. At the end of the day whatever day you chose the weather is not predictable, so perhaps go with what you can control which is your budget. Think of the added extras you can book with that £3,000 saving.

Thank you all so much for your feedback and advice! You are right, £3k is a lot of money to save, and getting married in March would mean we would be likely to be one of the first weddings of the year for friends and family, the idea of which I like and hadn't thought about - thanks Sarah.

I guess I just don't want to regret it should the weather be cold and outside is just wet and dreary. But the venue itself is large enough to house everyone indoors so I guess that doesn't really matter.

Sophie - we also love lavender and hadn't even considered it before so will definitely look into incorporating that into our wedding theme so thank you should we go with March.

Sadly Kirsty our venue has zero availability, either weekend or weekday in the summer holidays, May/June half term and Easter half term. But you are right March or September there is no control over the weather so perhaps we just go with what works best in terms of budget.... and of course means its not so long to wait!

Thanks for all your comments! x

I wouldn't choose September over March just for the weather - you could have a gloriously sunny day in mid March or torrential rain in September! I'd say it's only worth paying the extra £3,000 if there is another good reason to choose September.

Because the weather in this country is totally unpredictable. The only thing you can reasonably safely say is that it might snow anywhere between October and April but unlikely in the extreme at any other time. Snow equals ice, which might make things tricky so I would go with September. It might have with rain or it might be hot and sunny but that's Britain for you

As a photographer I would not be too concerned about what contingency plans I need to be thinking about for the September when compared to the March date.

September has almost no chance of snow compared to March and has more chance of being warmer than March, The sun will set about 50 mins later in September.

Snow could have an impact on guests or suppliers turning up on time especially as some photographers are willing to travel for 2-3 hours to shoot a wedding, I do not and prefer stay reasonably local to the Leicestershire area.

Amazing! Congrats on booking your date! Now you can enjoy cracking on with planning

If it helps, we quite often go to Centre Parcs in March for my parents wedding anniversary, almost every year its been sunny.