Distance to venue 14 August 2014 at 9:00AM in Weddings & anniversaries 15 replies 1.6K views

staple28

Hi all,

Myself and my partner have found 2 venues we love and are trying to decide which we like.

One is on our door step and the other is around half an hour away, which is puttin gmy partner off a little regarding peope having to travel but i dont think thats far at all and if people want to come then they will. Its not the other side of the world!

How far away are your venues from home?

X

Fuzzy_Duck

Half an hour is nothing in my opinion. I've driven for three hours before to get to a wedding, and I've been to one abroad too. I would be thrilled at a mere half hour!

I'm looking at venues that are around an hour away and I'm getting grumbles about that- problem is my partner and I come from different counties and our friends are all over, so we'd never find anywhere that's convenient for everyone anyway.

I'm concentrating more on finding venues that are easy to get to for my guests that don't drive, and I'm hoping that the people close to me will make an effort to come.

Andypandyboy

Half an hour is nothing if all the ceremony is at the one place.

If it is split and is church or Register office and then Reception half a hour from there, I would put transport on for the guests.

Hermia

Half an hour seems okay, but I suppose it depends on how many people don't drive and how much taxis are in the area. My friend married in a venue in the countryside and paid for a bus as lots of guests did not have cars and the price of a taxi was pretty steep.

minerva_windsong

215 miles - roughly a three and a half hour drive or two hour train journey from where we live! But our guests are coming from all over the country and most won't have to go that far. To be honest we partly picked the place where we're getting married because, as well as it being special to us (we met in the city where we're getting married), although it means everyone has to travel it's only for a maximum of three or four hours. If we'd had it where we live, it would have added a lot more travel time for all my side of the family and most of OH's.


I think it also depends how easy it is to get to the place if it's some distance away or there is limited parking there. My OH's sister and my sister both had their wedding receptions in quite remote places about 30-40 minutes from the church so laid on buses for guests, but if it's in the middle of a large town/city and there is decent parking/public transport or taxis are fairly reasonable then you might not need to put on transport.

Fuzzy_Duck

Andypandyboy wrote: »

Half an hour is nothing if all the ceremony is at the one place.

If it is split and is church or Register office and then Reception half a hour from there, I would put transport on for the guests.

Very good point. I've been to a wedding where the reception venue was a half hour drive away from the ceremony location. Neither me or my partner could drive at the time and were lucky that another guest offered us a lift. It gets so much more expensive when you have to factor in long taxi journeys.

ruby_eskimo

Our venue is about 30 minutes away from where we and our closest friends live. Both of our families live about an hour away in a different county. So everyone is going to have to stay overnight at one of the many hotels near by. We picked it because it's right for us and we liked it. There were some initial grumblings about why couldn't we have it our home town but we didn't like any of the venues near there and the one we did like was ridiculously out of our budget. You can't please everyone so just do what's right for you as a couple.

redfragglebiker

our venue is about 20 mins from where we live but the majority of family live about a 2-3 hour drive way so will be staying the night before as well as the night of the wedding. We have enclosed a list of hotels to suit all budget that are all pretty close (5-6 quid in a taxi) so hopefully people should understand that this is where we live so this is where we want to get married. Most people we've spoken to are actually looking forward to it and treating it as a mini weekend break away!

staple28

Thats everyone for the input! Will show OH. Yes we are getting married at the same place so no need for travelling between places.

TBagpuss

half an hour from home is fine, I think it is much more importnat to look at things such as how far the church/registry office are from each other, how far the reception venue is from where people are likely to be staying, how easy/ expensive it will be to get taxis from the venue etc.

If all/most of your guests live fairly locally then they are less likely to be booking accommodation for the wedding so the possibility of driving or getting a taxci to/from the venue is less on an issue.

If guests are likely to be coming long distance and staying overnight then how close to local hotels and B&Bs is more relevant.

I do think that if your reception is half an hours drive from where the wedding ceremony takes place that is a bit far (unless you are laying on transport for people) Plus if there is a long distance between the two you need to bear in mind that people will arrive in much more of a 'straggle' and you need to build in that additional delay in your timing.

Torry_Quine

That's no distance at all. Even a couple of hours from home is acceptable for a wedding and I wouldn't be staying overnight as that's easily travelled home afterwards.

It's your wedding and if people don't want to travel then they don't have to go, it's an invitation not a command.