Acceptable distance to reception venue?

1399steve

Hi all, fiancee and I are planning our wedding for April 2010 with nothing booked yet but plans are starting to firm up in our minds now. Just wanted to get peoples views on this plan as parents have expressed some concerns.........

Planning to have the ceremony at our local church (within a couple of miles of where the majority of guests live), then on to a reception at a pub/function room approx 8 miles away (but in our opinion worth the drive as it's in a nice scenic location). The venue is admittedly a fair distance for some of the guests though.

There is overnight accomodation on the site for fiancee and I and both sets of parents and grandparents. There are a couple of hotels/ pubs with B&B accomodation within a couple of miles of the venue.

My parents have expressed concerns that the distance to this venue may put some people off attending but I think that the important people will not be bothered. With careful planning I reckon we could organise mini-buses to get people home for approx £5 per head.

What do you think? Would this plan put you off attending a wedding? Do you think I should offer to cover the cost of getting people home?

talkhard

We're having this exact same issue.

We've come to the conclusion though that it isn't our responsibility to get people there or home. If they've made it to the church or the evening reception in some sort of transport then they can use this same transport to get home.

From experience of attending weddings, if someone wants to attend enough then transport is insignificant. Also, my sister had a reception that was 30 minutes away from the church- put a coach on to take people home and only 4 people used it! Waste of money on a tight budget.

If its at all possible, ask your guests beforehand if its a service they'll use if you're planning on providing transport.

We're now looking at venues that are 15/20 minutes away from the church

HTH x

nat82

Hi,

We are planning to get married in Spring 2010 and the location we are looking at for our service is kind of out in the middle of nowhere so we would have to have our reception further away. We are only having a small amount of people through the day so would be hoping that they can drive to the service then on to the reception (which would be a bit more central).

My sister got married 3 years ago and they put on transport to get people from the church to the hotel and then left it up to people to organise their own way home. You could ask around to see how many people would want transport home at night?

I certainly wouldn't be put off having to travel a bit between the service and reception, as long as people have notice then they should be able to make arrangements.

Good luck!

jane130

as a possible weddinguest with no car getting to and from the wedding wouldn;t be an issue but getting from he church to the reception would , hanging around for a taxi , or having to pre order one not knowing what time photos etc would end . it wouldn't stop me attending but would add some discomfort to the day.

at my sisters wedding last year we ended up hiring a car for the day so we could transport ourselves and no arrangements were made and with 10 miles between the church and the reception it would have cost a fortune in extra taxi fares.

SugarSpun

We have about a 15 minute drive between the venue and the reception, and we have a few people without cars. The solution we've come up with is to put a relative in charge of checking to make sure people have transport and pairing them up with people who don't. I'm going to make sure he puts people of similar age etc together as well so there's not as much awkward silence as there might be.

Our venue also charges for parking, so I'm tempted to buy parking passes in advance for those people who are driving, but to make sure that there's a minimum of actual cars involved. A lot of cars filled with people who don't know each other at the start but who do by the end will be my ultimate aim - shared driving encourages mingling.

Mme.Hibou

We're getting married 3 hours from our home. I have my OH's Mum, Nana, 3 children and some friends from work making a rather long trip to the North to see us get married.
My family and friends have an hour to travel.

We are having the wedding and reception in the same place, but it is in the middle of nowhere, so people (including ourselves) will be leaving in the evening for accommodation. My Grandma (92) will be taken home with an elderly aunt by my uncle.

It's our day and no one thus far has expressed a negative opinion.

8 miles is nothing really, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

picklepick

I dont think 8 miles is very far at all! I've been to weddings where the reception has easily been further away than that from the ceremony and everyone managed to arrange their own transport quite easily although I agree with the posters above that you could ask your ushers to make sure that everyone has a lift sorted.

If you're going to have a minibus arranged I'd send out forms for people to request this beforehand so you know if its going to be worth it or not.

Personally I wouldnt worry about the 8 miles. I used to travel further than that on a bus to and from work everyday. Its no distance at all!

1399steve

Thanks all for your comments - they're pretty much what I was thinking myself! Good tips about getting the ushers to match people up who need a lift with those who are driving, think I'll do that!

skintbutsmiling01

ours is about 35 minutes away, there really was nowhere nicer nearer to home that was available! We are putting on a minibus, costing about £200 but will be putting a "Transport Required Y/N" on the RSVPs to make sure we book the right size etc.
A few peopl did express opinions but someone will always moan. Its about £20 in a taxi, there's a train station 2 mins away, and loads of v cheap and more pricey B&Bs within a 5 min walk as well. 8 miles is absolutely fine I wouldnt worry at all, it wouldnt stop me from enjoying the day if it was someones wedding I would make sure I saved for taxis or drive if I wanted to be there!

Neeny82

I agree that 8 miles is not very far at all and you should have your wedding where you want it.

The OH and I are marrying in our local church but the reception is being held around 20 min drive away.

One of the reasons for picking this venue was that it holds more people and as we are having quite a large amount of people (130) to our day do, it was either that or not have as many people which SOME people would also have moaned about!

However I am originally from somewhere over 100 miles away and all my family and some of my friends are having to travel all that way for my wedding and not one of those people have expressed any concern about travelling to and from my wedding.

For the evening reception we are going to put a check box on the RSVP's asking if they would like to make their own way to and from the venue or if they would like to pay £5 return for a bus. I may also get the ushers to organise collection of the bus money in advance so that it is one less thing for people to worry about on the night and also means that we wont be paying for a bus if people decide to then make their own way.

shelovestobuystuff

Thats only a 10 min car journey.You could organise people to share taxis home,should be under £5 a head.