Seeking wedding advice!! help!

forzaviola

Hi there,

If anyone out there has any advice I would greatly appreciate it!

My fiance and I are getting married this coming June 4th and already signed the contract to have the reception at the Hilton in Gaithersburg. My fiance is Italian and half of the guests will be italian, some only italian speakers, and so we thought to have our ceremony at Holy Rosary (on 3rd street in downtown dc). it's a gorgeous church, traditionally italian, and has a priest who says the mass each week in italian.

The problem is that the church is 45 minutes without traffic from the reception location. In your opinion 1. is it too far? 2. is there any way we can accomodate guests/the photographers etc. with the long trip 3. should we just move to another church asap?

Thank you!

Danielle

LindsMullinix

have you considered having charter buses take the guests from one location to the other?  Its not too far if you're transporting them, otherwise it may be a little far for some. 

IAmLymelady

My venue got changed literally 2 weeks before my wedding to a place that was over an hour away from the church; it wasn't the most convenient set-up, but all of my guests made it and had a good time.  No one remembers how far away it was unless I bring it up and then they're like, "It couldn't have been THAT far away!"  Holy Rosary is pretty beautiful, and the wedding pictures are impressive

I like the suggestion of charter busses, if you can do it.  A quick search got me results with 56 people for 5 hours at around $500.  If you can't afford busses, do you have friends with vans who would be willing to carpool anyone who isn't comfortable with a drive like that?

Most vendors are willing to travel as long as you're paying them for the travel time.  If you have a photographer booked for 4 hours and they start clicking at 4 pm, they will leave at 8 pm, even if there is an hour where they're traveling from the ceremony to the reception.

Mary Susan and Chris

Our reception is 30 to 40 minutes away from the church. Just set the ceremony time ahead of the reception. Our ceremony is at 2 and the reception/cocktail hour starts at 4 which gives us plenty of time to take pictures and allow everyone to travel.

Lisa50

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_dc_seeking-wedding-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:57Discussion:de4b7373-51bb-4dd4-8f3b-b683aed5608ePost:d8cc44a3-7c1c-42a6-b9ef-038efefdd269">Re: Seeking wedding advice!! help!</a>:
[QUOTE]have you considered having charter buses take the guests from one location to the other?  Its not too far if you're transporting them, otherwise it may be a little far for some. 
Posted by LindsMullinix[/QUOTE]

Agreed.  The buses sound like a good idea!  Don't change your Church.  I pass it often (I live less than 10 min away) and have <u>always</u> adored it.

autumnbreeze26

I'm getting married in June also. This will be my second wedding....I was young and married my high school sweetheart. Anyway, I spent so much time for my first wedding worrying about what everyone else wanted and what would be convenient for everyone else.

This is YOUR wedding and if you want to get married in that beautiful church that's 45 minutes away from your reception venue, then you do that. The people who matter most to you won't care. And if someone won't come to your wedding because they don't want to spend 45 minutes driving to celebrate with you? Well, that would say a whole lot about that person to me.

I say do what makes you and your man happy.