Need opions on distance between venues.

janczak85

Hi everyone. I know this has been brought up before but I was wondering what a good distance between ceremony and recption is.

Here's the deal, we both have huge families, his lives up north and mine live south. I moved up by his family when we got engaged. We own an entertainment company and run shows down near my family, which is an hour south of us. The venue we run shows in has a huge hall that would be perfect for our reception but we were planning to get married in his family's church which is 3 blocks from our house.

Now, since we have a 500 person guest list, only 100 people, mainly family, are invited to the ceremony. Would it be too much to ask for them to drive the hour south to the reception? For my family it would basically be on their way home and most of his family would only be coming to the reception.

Is this too much?

bsn1752

I think that an hour is too far to drive between venues, IMHO.

If you opt to do it, be ready for people to skip out on one or the other.

For me, I wouldn't do more than a 30 minute drive.  Good luck!

FutureJilliannD

I think the general consensus is that anything over 30 mins is too long. I would personally find it annoying to have to drive an hour. Plus if you are taking pics after the ceremony, that will take an hour itself, plus your hour drive to the hall, so your guests wouldn't even eat for two hours.

twilight.rose

Ditto PPs. The distance between my ceremony and reception sites was about 15 miles (25-30 minutes), and that was my distance limit.

cschuma2

Is there a reason why you are excluding people from the ceremony?  I think the ceremony is the most important part, and the part I would want to attend most.  If you were having a very private and intimate ceremony (you, your groom, and your parents for example), that's one thing.  However, if I show up to your reception and find out that 100 people were important enough to see the ceremony while I was excluded, I'm going to be annoyed.  It may feel like you invited several people just to receive a gift.  Just my honest opinion and I didn't know if you realized how many of your guests will be disappointed and/or offended to be at only the reception.

And to answer your original question... Yes, 1 hour is too far.  The travel time should definitely be under 30 minutes.

amh8817

The distance between our ceremony and reception is 45 mins. The only reason we are having that much distance is because our reception is being held at the Fire Department in my hometown, where my dad is the chief, and the church is where FH's family pastor is. They have been good friends for years and FH really wanted him to perform the ceremony. I think it all depends on what you want. If people want to  join in celebrating your wedding, they will drive for it. If they don't, oh well.

*I know that last part sounds kinda rude, but that is my general feeling on that.