One of the most difficult parts of planning out a wedding is deciding on the date. You want a date that is meaningful to you and your fiancé, but you also want to be sure that everyone you care about will be able to make it to your ceremony and reception.

One way to ensure that you meet both of those needs is to schedule your wedding around a big holiday. One of the best holidays for nuptials comes around every year on the fourth Thursday of November — today we’re looking at Thanksgiving weddings.

A Thanksgiving weekend wedding comes with a built-in travel window for all of your out-of-town guests. It also allows for a nice variety of activities and scheduled events. You can throw a welcome party on Wednesday, have a ceremony on Friday, and maybe have a nice brunch on Saturday before giving everyone a full day to head back home.

That’s just one way to structure your four-day wedding weekend. Maybe you lean even harder into the holiday weekend and have a Thanksgiving Day wedding with a massive reception spread of traditional turkey day fare.

If you are considering Thanksgiving weekend as a potential wedding day, there are a lot of benefits. However, there are also a few drawbacks. So let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of using one of the biggest holiday weekends of the year for your wedding.

Read More: Weekday Weddings in Minneapolis: Why Thursday Is the New Saturday

Why a Thanksgiving Wedding Makes Planning Easier

Planning out a ceremony and reception is really difficult. You need to balance the likelihood that your friends and family will be able to make it to your wedding with a desire for a perfect season, theme, and venue — and that’s just the start.

Instead of trying to hammer out a winter wedding timeline that balances perfectly between all the different holidays, work functions, and end-of-year stressors that will, hopefully, not get derailed by winter weather, why not take advantage of the built-in window afforded by Thanksgiving?

Many people already travel every year for Thanksgiving, so traveling to a different location with the opportunity to do some traditional Thanksgiving celebrations as well as a celebration of a happy couple’s commitment to one another can be a fun change for all of your guests.

Once you have your Thanksgiving wedding weekend scheduled, you can hammer out an itinerary that can be tailored to your specific desires. Having a four day weekend to play with opens up a lot of possibilities.

You could have a Friday ceremony with a Saturday brunch or a Saturday ceremony with a Sunday breakfast buffet to send everyone off in style. No matter how you decide to fill the weekend, your guests will love having the additional time to celebrate with you instead of the quick travel turnaround that often comes with weddings on non-holiday dates.

A Full Weekend Under One Roof

One drawback of Thanksgiving nuptials is the tendency for ride share prices to be a bit higher because of the volume of travel around the holiday. One way to ease that cost for your guests is to schedule multiple phases of your wedding under one roof.

Look at The Lumber Exchange Event Center as an example. With several venues built to accommodate everything from intimate gatherings to huge soirees, the LXMPLS can provide spaces for your ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, brunch, and any other event you want to bring into your weekend.

All it takes is a little planning and communication to figure out what you want and how those desires can be met within a reasonable budget. That may look like a single venue room that gets converted from a ceremony layout to a reception look or different rooms for different aspects of your wedding.

See Also: Veterans Day Weekday Receptions (Idea Starters for Planners)

Setting a Timeline and Planning Ahead for a Late November Event

Having a Downtown Minneapolis wedding is always a good idea, but you need to plan ahead beyond your work with your venue, especially as winter approaches. Weather can fluctuate greatly and you need to take the sun’s position in the sky into account for your photos.

As for the weather, autumn in the upper midwest can look like crisp air and colorful leaves, blazing, summer-like heat, or a snow-covered midwinter. After you’ve secured your venue, make sure to send forecast updates to your out-of-town guests regularly so that they pack appropriately without having to bring multiple suitcases full of different clothing options depending on the barometer.

When it comes to the rehearsal and wedding day, photos are a big part of creating lasting memories of the event. Late in the year, sunset comes a lot earlier than it would for a summer wedding. So if you want that perfect, golden hour lighting for photos, you need to get outside with your photographer in the late afternoon or very early evening.

On the plus side, indoor photos will not be affected by early sundown. If you choose a venue with notable portrait-friendly features like The Fountain Room, it’s a great idea to schedule your couple, wedding party, and family photos indoors.

Guest Comfort Details that Matter

It’s always important to make things easy on your guests, but when scheduling around a Thanksgiving wedding, it is especially important. You are asking your friends and family to forgo their normal activities for a year in order to celebrate together with you.

Having one location for your events is great because it makes it easier for people driving themselves to only need one set of directions and to coordinate hotel shuttle and parking services with potential discounts from local parking ramp companies.

When they arrive, having a coat check setup with boot trays that allow your guests to switch from heavy, outdoor shoes to elegant, formal footwear makes a big difference. It encourages your guests to take care of themselves and dress for the weather without forcing them to sacrifice a single ounce of fabulousness.

As the weather turns colder, warm beverages become much more popular. As part of the menu you put together with your caterers, include some hot alcoholic and signature hot cocktails. Some hot cocoa or a great hot toddy is amazing in late-November.

And give your guests some late-night snacks! Set up a table of little treats that people can enjoy between visits to the dancefloor or that they can take back to their hotels for later since many businesses have limited hours around major holidays.

Read More: Late-Night Wedding Snacks to Keep the Party Going

Logistics for a Thanksgiving Wedding

Here is the hard part. Thanksgiving provides a built-in travel window for your guests, but the problem is that everyone else in America also has the same window to travel where they want to go as well.

To make things simple for your travelling guests, the best thing you can do is set things up well in advance. That doesn’t mean a few months in advance. That means thinking ahead by a year or more.

When you decide on Thanksgiving and know the venue you’d like to work with, contact that venue right away. Secure the earliest Thanksgiving weekend that you can within the window of availability they allow. You may need to set up availability alerts to get notified when a date is able to be claimed.

Once you have your weekend reserved, you can get hotel room blocks set aside. Downtown Minneapolis has some great hotels, and you can set aside blocks at numerous hotels to fit different budgets — so your friends from college don’t have to shell out for the same price room that your wealthy aunt and uncle insist on.

Be Aware of Budget Realities

Even with reservations made well in advance, travel and lodging around Thanksgiving can be more expensive for your guests, but you should also factor increased costs for venue and catering staff into your wedding budget.

The holiday weekend gives your guests an easy window to attend your festivities, but that does come at a cost. So do everything you can to get discounts, but be prepared to say to the people working to make your wedding weekend perfect that their time is valuable. Take care of them, and they will take extra good care of you.

Give Thanks for Love!

Once all of the logistics and budgeting are resolved, you will get to settle into the greatest Thanksgiving weekend of your life. You will never have so many friends and so much family making a unique weekend full of Turkey Day memories together ever again, so make the most of it!

Have an inclement weather plan and various guest comfort contingencies in place to handle the most common difficulties that may arise so that you can just focus on your schedule and your enjoyment of the day.

Fall weddings have a unique charm and Thanksgiving is the most autumnal holiday in America, so you can embrace the season in a huge and delightful way through your decorations and menu and the ambience you establish in your venue.

A Thanksgiving wedding is a special, unique way to combine family tradition with the establishment of your new family. Reach out to The Lumber Exchange to check availability and talk to an experienced planning assistant to make your Thanksgiving truly unforgettable.