Executive Decision: July is Off-Season Now

At the end of 2025, we turned the corner of 10 years in the wedding business – and having filmed weddings for 10 years, I have seen a lot of change in this industry in that time. The rise and fall of burlap and lace everything (rest in peace) to the death of the mason jar centerpiece (and may her memory be a blessing), not to mention the brief popularity of grooms wearing faded bluejeans (good riddance, honestly) – all of it has been documented in the well over 200 wedding videos my team and I have produced in that time.

But one shift that was the most unexpected, the most subtle, the sneakiest, is the decline in weddings in July. And this change has been so staggeringly mind-bendingly stupifyingly insane that I am making an executive decision: from this day hence, the official Unnamed Films off-season shall be December, January, February... and July. That's right, the months we give the biggest discounts are now the most Michigan months of the year: the three that are purely cold and miserable, plus the one that is purely hot and miserable.

"But that's crazy!" you say, "July is the summer! It can't be the off-season!"

Crazy like a fox! The industry is changing, sensibilities are changing, and damn it, the weather is forcing us to change – and I have the data to prove it.

July's declining popularity for weddings

When we started, July was one of the most popular months to get married. There's nothing more beautiful than a wedding in the lush Michigan July! The corn fields are knee-high by 4th of July and tall enough to get lost in by July 31st, gardens are in full bloom, and you can save a lot on your decorating budget compared to late April or early May! But as time has (relentlessly) progressed, the interest in videography for July weddings has fallen. Have a chart!

And it's not just us – according to data from The Knot, summer weddings accounted for 39% of weddings in 2014, but the season as a whole has shed about a quarter of its share in a decade, down to just 28% in 2024.

So... what the hell is going on? Do the kids hate summer now? Is it getting hotter? Was Al Gore right??

Why is July a less popular wedding month?

Speculation on that last point is beyond the scope of this article. That aside, my first assumption was that this was because it's getting hotter – but the data doesn't show that as true. It has, however, gotten muggier. Far, far muggier.

According to weather records from Grand Rapids' Gerald R. Ford International Airport (station KGRR), July went from 13 sticky days (which I am defining as days in which the dew point is greater than 65ºF) in 2015 to 27 in 2025. If you were living here in 2025, you definitely remember the oppressive stickiness as the feeling of walking into a steam sauna just by stepping out your front door.

There's nothing more swampy than a groom in a 3-piece suit at his outdoor Michigan wedding in July! Especially in Michigan mid-July. These sticky (and some even oppressively sticky) days may be a cause for shifting weddings away from July and into August, September, October, and even November!

Why you should consider July anyway

Long days make the best golden hours

One wedding trend that we hope will stick around forever and ever ('till death do us part) is golden hour photography. Both your friendly neighborhood videographer and your chosen photographer are bound to LOVE a good golden hour shoot! Seriously, is anything more romantic? To catch golden hour mid-September, you've got to be done with dinner and back outside for photos as early as 6:30pm! In July, you can take a leisurely dinner, visit with guests, and even join in with dancing before you're due for golden hour photos at 8:30pm. If the reception is your jam and you don't want to miss out—but you DO want iconic, romantic, once-in-a-lifetime, literally-our-favorite-thing golden hour photo and video, July is the best month of all of them.

Guest Turnout

July weddings tend to see a slightly higher guest turnout, in my (admittedly anecdotal) experience. In July, you tend to have less competition for guests to attend!

• Summer = schools out. Families with kids can travel, and even make a weekend of a wedding celebration
• July = off-season for most sports! Fewer track invitationals and soccer tourneys to compete with
• Fewer holidays to work around, and some folks would even get excited for a wedding on the 4th 🎆
• Higher RSVP rates than a packed Saturday in the fall

If having all of your people around (and not unavailable due to a football away game, holiday weekend camping, or other weddings they've already RSVP'd to) is important to you, July is an unbeatable month. AND no potential for snow interrupting travel plans!

Beat the chaotic months

We always give every couple our full attention, and many vendors (like us!) limit the number of events they take on to make sure of it! That said, we experience our highest volume of work when we have 1) a ton of weddings being actively filmed, 2) a ton of weddings in the editing queue from the past 2 months, and 3) a ton of inquiries coming in! Our busiest months in terms of workload are September, October, and January. If you're tying the knot in July, you can beat some of those higher-volume months, and—though we can only speak for ourselves—may even see a quicker turnaround time!

Vendor availability

Our data shows that for Unnamed Films, we're likely to be highly available in July, pretty close to your date. The data from The Knot (plus my anecdotal conversations with other vendors) show we're far from unique here. Let's be honest, a huge proportion of couples are chasing September and October dates here in Michigan, so you get your first pick when it comes to photographers, DJs, and videographers instead of fighting over who's still left a few months out (I see you, September couples 👀). There may even be discounts in the mix! Here's an ad we ran 3 years ago, when we really started to feel that July slowdown... We might just run it again!

The heat can be avoided!

I know I spent much of the top of this article whining about how sticky July is now, but with a little planning, you can still have a beautiful (and enjoyable) ceremony. Your ceremony doesn't have to be at 1PM – we've been seeing an increase in the number of couples opting for ceremonies as late as 5 or 6PM, well after the hottest part of the day is over.

Alternatively, there are lots of beautiful indoor venues with blessed AC. If you have an indoor wedding, do the corn sweats matter? (Okay, okay, so OSU and other high-authority sources say that "corn sweat" is real but doesn't contribute to the overall experience of "mugginess," but when our writer pitched the "corn sweats" line I laughed for a solid 2 minutes and I'm not taking it out, damn it)

With a little bit of planning, you can eliminate the too-hot problem entirely.

Unnamed Films has off-season rates in July now!

And finally...

My Content Director insists that I close every article (no matter how whiny) with a strong call to action, so here it is: If you are planning a beautiful July wedding and haven't yet found the right videographer to capture your wedding day moments, message us for a custom-crafted quote with our exclusive July discount! Even if you've got a 2pm ceremony surrounded by shoulder-high corn-sweaty corn fields. Because yes, we love you that much 🫶💖

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