{blp} Night Time Weddings - do suppliers not work enough?

In Feburary it was announced that night-time weddings will be able to take place in the UK, in plans by the government. Whilst there was no date of when this would take place it was just detailed as “in the future”.

The changes allowing marriages to take place 24 hours a day in England and Wales are part of the Protection Of Freedoms Bill.

Couples can currently only get married between 8am and 6pm under rules that date back to the 1800’s - so its about time that something was changed. Scotland have no rules about timings, but Northern Ireland is the same as Britain.

“The Church of England says a relaxation in the times of church weddings would require a change to Canon Law from the General Synod, which meets twice a year. And the Catholic Church has reportedly said it would not conduct late night ceremonies.
But the changes are expected to boost the demand for evening civil wedding ceremonies, especially in the summer months.” - BBC

It was only in 2002 that rules were amended to allow ceremonies to take place at sites other than Churches, registry offices or specially licensed venues - to allow places such as Blackpool Tower, Tower Bridge and race courses to host weddings.

15-days notice will still be required - so no Las-Vegas style weddings will be happening here!
I found, especially around the time that it was announced, that there were a lot of negative comments from some Wedding professionals - mainly detailing that the work/life balance of people with children was going to be affected.

I have found that people in the industry with children, will either choose to work a specific date, or not. If it was a photographers child’s birthday on a weekend OR shoot a wedding, a lot would probably turn the date down - to spend time with their child on their special day. Especially for milestone birthdays particularly!

I’m shot a Wedding Easter Sunday - but this doesn’t bother me - as being self employed is all about choosing our own working hours.

I do however think, it may bring in some different styles of Weddings. I love the idea personally of a later summer evening wedding, just before the sun is setting as its getting cooler (because I burn really bad!) and having this at about 7pm, then into the night do and party away. Or have a late evening meal, and a few drinks. Lists are endless.

So if that’s the possibility, of getting married out of the normal hours (especially the latter) means that smaller ceremonies and weddings could come in to play. A lot of people are currently getting married at 3:30pm or 4:pm to “cut down” on the amount of time they are actually having their wedding and to reduce costs, so isn’t this just a way to help and assist that?

I personally think it just means that suppliers, like myself, will just have to treat every wedding like it is a different one, as I do with all my weddings, and just take it from there. If we get an influx of 7pm or 10pm brides, then lets go for something different. Yes it may be dark, but its no different to a Wedding at 4pm in November.

So….what do you think?