Weddingbee Blog

As we mulled over our venues options, I seriously began second guessing the idea of an evening wedding. It smelled like pure disaster to me.

How could this beautiful, innocent idea be so evil?

(Image via Laura G Blogs)

Well… many people, family included, often forget that Zürich is six hours ahead of Columbus. When we arrive in Columbus a couple days before the wedding, our bodies will definitely still be operating on Zürich time. If we got married at 5PM, it would feel like 11 PM for us. I’m not sure we’d be alert enough to handle a knife for cake cutting at 9 PM if it really felt like 3AM, and dancing at 11PM would be downright painful if our bodies told us it was 5AM. Starting to get my drift?

(Image via The Ski Channel)

I first experienced the ill effects of jet lag when Mr. Funnel Cake and I flew from Zürich to Brazil for a cousin’s wedding last year. We arrived the day of the wedding and amidst the last minute bachelor parties and nail salons, and we didn’t even have time for a nap before the evening festivities.

(Personal Photo)

At the time, we were both waking up at 5AM in Switzerland to commute to work, so we were both used to an early rise/early sleep schedule six time zones away. To the embarrassment of Mr. Funnel Cake, by 11PM I was literally falling asleep at the table in front of his Brazilian family. I was so zonked I didn’t remember to pull my camera out ONCE during the entire wedding, which is a tragedy because it was honestly the most impressive wedding I’ve ever been to!

Similarly, I was pretty out of it at my brother’s wedding a few months after that. Having already booked most of my 2010 holiday for our trip to Brazil, I was only able to take one day off to fly home to the US for his wedding in Columbus. That’s right, I flew to the US on a Friday, attended the wedding on Saturday, flew home on Sunday and went straight to work from the airport on Monday morning. It. Was. Painful.

(Photo by Carl McKinney Photography)

Of course, I would never in a million years miss my brother’s wedding, where I had the honour to serve as a bridesmaid for SIL Funnel Cake. But after dinner as the dancing began, I was chugging American coffee and beginning to fade. At least I’d been smart enough to really make time for a nap before their wedding!

Now, do I really want to end up like this at our wedding?

(Photo by Clare Norton Photography)

Mr. Funnel Cake and I discussed these experiences and agreed it would be much kinder to our bodies and that we would enjoy our wedding a lot more if we were rested and alert. This meant a morning wedding was ideal, where a time change would make it feel like an evening wedding to us.

How did you decide what time of day to have your wedding? Will you have any international guests that might sway your decisions?

*Pictures personal unless noted