Choosing a Date (aka, Holiday or not?)

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As I mentioned before, the F and I will be getting married on the property surrounding our house, with a fabulous (is there any other way?) outdoor party to follow. We live in Knoxville, TN, as does his family, but my family lives 1500 miles away in and around Las Cruces, NM. Both of my siblings are in college and my mom works at a high school.

We therefore need to choose a date that is convenient for my family in terms of travel, so school holidays are good. In choosing between Spring Break and Memorial Day, the latter makes the most sense and also ensures that our property is at it's prettiest.

I can't help but wonder, though, will our friends think we're jerks for having a wedding over a holiday? (See blog post here, but be warned, there's profanity.)

On the one hand, our closest friends won't hesitate to give up a long holiday weekend to spend with us. In fact, I'd expect them to be very annoyed at even the thought that they'd rather go to the lake than party with us here.

On the other, our acquaintances might feel put out. Perhaps they really would prefer the lake to sticking around our house with us?

In the end, the needs of my family will win out. They're making the longest (and only) distance trip to be here, and we need to grant them the ability to travel AND have a good time. Our close friends will be involved, helping us out (if only by putting drinks in our hands to calm the stress) throughout the weekend.

As for our acquaintances? We're not inviting most of them. Our goal is to keep our gathering as small as possible and only invite the people we couldn't imagine being without. Since it IS a holiday weekend, we think we'll host a wedding weekend with a variety of activities... and perhaps even a trip to the lake!

Are any of you getting married on a holiday? Have you gotten any complaints about the scheduling? Are you making it a longer shindig to make up for it?