We were reviewing our list of articles and stumbled across this millenium gem. I am reposting it just for the nostalgia. Enjoy! David @ WedNet.
We’re thinking about a millennium wedding. Are a lot of other people considering this day as the perfect wedding day?
Unfortunately for you, yes, a great number of couples are considering kicking off the year 2000 with a grand nuptial soiree—and, conveniently, the changing of the millennium falls on a Friday (Dec. 31, 1999) and a Saturday (Jan. 1, 2000). Yes, I know that technically the new millennium begins in 2001 and not 2000, but the thrill of that first digit turning over has blinded most people, save mathematicians and the anal-retentive, to that fact, so I am assuming you’re talking about partying like it’s 1999 while it’s actually 1999. New Year’s eve is already a favored date among couples—The Destination Series’ Romantic Travel News reports that “Historically, the most popular wedding day in Las Vegas is Valentines Day. The second most popular wedding date is New Years Eve.” The change of the millennium is like a holiday on top of a holiday on a triple-word-score square.
Let’s begin by talking about the law of supply and demand. On the supply side, in any community there are a limited number of photographers, reception halls, florists, and so forth. On the demand side, a bazillion brides, like you, think it would be “perfect” to begin their life together on the cusp of the millennium—or, at the very least, to give their husband no excuse whatsoever for forgetting future anniversaries. Also on the demand side are corporate parties, family reunions, and just plain blowouts that will also be competing with you for every square inch of floor space and every morsel of hors d’oeuvres. In Seattle, the Space Needle has been booked for New Year’s 2000 since 1995. At least one videographer I know of is already spoken for on both Dec. 31st and Jan. 1st.
Excessive demand means not only reduced availibility to wedding professionals but also higher prices. One wedding photographer reports:
[W]e have already designed a Milennium package for photography that goes for around $10k—it will be available on Dec 31st and again on Jan 1st, 2000. I suspect we’ll have it booked by the end of this year no problem.
As for travelling, both your guests’ accomodations and your honeymoon: be afraid. Be very afraid. All airlines tend to be overbooked during the months of December and January to begin with. Another bride who was married on New Year’s Eve 1997 in Maui reports that all planes were running 1-6 hours late out of LAX. Consider, as well, that your guests may already have committments for this monumental date, and will probably begin making plans well in advance of the time they receive your invitations six to eight weeks before the wedding. Travel to and from the wedding/reception will be problematic, esp. in an urban area. And what sort of occasion will your friends be looking forward to that evening? New Years’ parties are customarily scenes of drunken debauchery. This is quite probably not the tone you’d like set on your wedding day, unless it pleases you to think about guests dancing on tables and kicking over your carefully-chosen centerpieces.
I tell you these things not to discourage you entirely, but to let you know what you might be getting into. If you are planning a small, largely do-it-yourself wedding, this date may require little more planning than the average wedding. If you want a big to-do with all the trimmings, you’d better get cracking now. Your biggest problems to tackle will be the reception venue, photgrapher, videographer (if desired) and florist. (Oh dear, I just thought of the tux rental. That will probably be no fun either.) With any vendor, it’s important to get a committment in writing before you put money down, but for such a hot date make sure your contract is ironclad. Vendors will be getting more and probably higher offers as the date draws closer, and you wouldn’t want one backing out on you over a tiny, silly thing like someone else offering him twice as much money as you.
My advice would be to set the 12/31/99 date tenatively until you find out whether or not it is truly feasible (e.g. don’t go making plane reservations or ordering invitations right off the bat.) If you get everything lined up, wonderful, you’ve got your dream date, now issue some save-the-date postcards to your unsuspecting guests. If not, you can select another with plenty of time to spare.
Original article by Kim Rollins.