A wedding that lasts one day? Not if I can help it.
Think about it. You’ve spent a year (or two, or three) planning. Your people are flying in from Sydney, Perth, London, Bucharest. Your nonna is finally meeting his side of the family. And you want to squeeze all of that into one eight hour window where everyone wants a piece of you?
No. In Europe, a wedding has never been just one day. It’s a long weekend of eating, drinking, talking too loudly at the table and staying far too late. That’s the version I love planning, and it’s the version I want for you.
So pour yourself a Prosecco. Here’s how a three day wedding actually works, and how to plan one without it running your life.
First things first: what does a Three Day Wedding celebration involve?
Day One: The Welcome
Call it a rehearsal dinner, welcome drinks or an aperitivo. The name matters less than the job: this is the night you actually get to talk to your people.
The first decision is who it’s for, and you need to make it early.
- Intimate: immediate family and the bridal party around one long table. Perfect if you want a proper dinner and real conversation.
- Open house: everyone who’s travelled in, plus anyone you’d like more time with. Think spritz, antipasti and a relaxed room, not a second reception.
Who pays? Tradition says the groom’s parents. These days, tradition is a suggestion. Sometimes it’s the couple, sometimes both families split it. Have the conversation early and honestly. Awkward money talks in month three beat resentful ones in month eleven.
Two things I’ll tell you as your coordinator:
- This is the perfect moment for thank you gifts for your parents and bridal party. Quieter, more personal, and nobody’s distracted by the dance floor.
- One more spritz is never the answer the night before. Pace yourself. I would like you to remember your vows.
Day Two: The Wedding
You’re getting married. This is the part you have already planned in detail, so I won’t repeat it.
I’ll just say this: across three days, Day Two is the one with zero room for error. It’s also the one where you should be doing nothing but being present. That’s what I’m there for. I run the timeline, the suppliers and the problems you’ll never hear about, the same way I ran events in five star hotels: quietly, precisely, and with a plan B for the plan B.
Day Three: The Recovery Lunch
My favourite day. Honestly.
The pressure is off, the speeches are done and everyone’s swapping stories about the night before. Some guests will be… delicate. Feed them. A long lunch, a late brunch, a Bloody Mary or a Negroni Sbagliato (I won’t judge). Think pranzo della domenica, not another formal event.
Keep it casual: no seating chart, no timeline beyond “lunch is at 12, stay as long as you like.”
Where to host it:
- Someone’s home. Lovely, and the most personal of the three.
- The hotel where most of your guests are staying. After years in five star hotels, this is the most underrated option on the list. Nobody needs a taxi, the kitchen is already set up for groups, and your guests can roll downstairs in their sunglasses.
- Your favourite local restaurant or wine bar. Book a private area well in advance. Sunday lunch is their busiest service.
How to plan a Three Day Wedding (without losing your mind)
1. Give our guests one place for everything
Three events mean three times the questions: Where is it? What do I wear? How do I get there? Is it okay to bring the kids?
A wedding website, or a beautifully designed guest guide, saves you from answering the same message forty times. Include:
- the full weekend schedule with addresses
- a dress code for each event (cocktail on Friday is not black tie on Saturday)
- accommodation recommendations
- how to get around
- your favourite coffee spots and restaurants for out of towners
Keep it updated. If a time changes, it changes there first.
2. Budget for three events, not one and a bit
You want more, you’ll spend more. That’s not a scare tactic, it’s maths.
The mistake I see most often is couples budgeting properly for the wedding and treating the other two days as an afterthought. They’re not. Each one needs food, drinks, a venue and someone making sure it happens.
And a word on hosting at home: it can save you a venue’s minimum spend, but it’s not automatically cheaper. Furniture hire, extra glassware, staff, toilets on a big guest list, cleaning and waste all add up fast. Price both options properly before you decide.
3. Not everyone needs to be at everything
This one makes people nervous, but it shouldn’t. Your wedding guest list doesn’t have to be your welcome night guest list or your recovery lunch guest list.
Tier it. Decide who’s invited to what, communicate it clearly in your invitations and on your website, and stick to it. People understand, especially when the information comes early and clearly.
4. Sort accommodation first
If guests are travelling in, accommodation is the backbone of the whole weekend. It decides where your welcome night and recovery lunch make sense, and how easily everyone moves between them.
This is where my hotel background really earns its keep. Ask the hotel for a room block early, read the release dates and attrition clauses carefully (this is where couples get caught out), and put the booking details on your website the day your save the dates go out. (More on this topic soon).
5. Get help (hello, have we met?)
Planning one wedding day is a lot. Planning an entire weekend, with three venues, three sets of suppliers, three guest lists and three timelines, is a lot more.
Whether you’ve planned every detail yourself and need someone to run it flawlessly, or you’d rather hand over the whole weekend, that’s exactly what I do. Timelines, suppliers, guest logistics, the reminders you’ll forget and the problems you’ll never know happened.
A three day wedding can be as big or as intimate as you want it to be. There’s no perfect formula. You already know the feeling you want your weekend to have. My job is to make it happen.
So let’s meet over a glass of Prosecco and talk about yours.
Enquire at hello@eventmanagementbyalex.com.au or say ciao on Instagram at @eventmanagement_by_alex.
Con affetto, Alex