I need distance advise please.
I guess etiquette says that the reception should be no farther than 30 mins from the ceremony site. I have my heart set on getting married at my church where I made my first communion and confirmation. The only problem is that I can't seem to find a local reception location that meets all our criteria. We are on a tight budget and have a large guest list. So I'm looking for a place that can accommodate 200-250 people, will let us bring our own food and alcohol and costs less than $2500 (preferably even under 2K). Also, I prefer an outdoor reception but it's not an absolute must.
So the only place I've found that meets all these requirements (and it actually very pretty) is a 45 min drive from our ceremony site. Most of the people I've talked to that would be attending don't seem to mind the drive. FI thinks it's too far. Most of his family will be coming from the reception area and most of my family will be coming from the church area. So it will be driving for everyone. I've thought about finding a church near the reception site but I really had my heart set on getting married at my church. I don't know of any other locations for the reception closer to the church that meet our needs so the only other option I can think of would be getting a hall, which I would prefer not to do especially when for not much more we could have this beautiful reception location.
What do you guys think?
btw, it would be a Saturday wedding. A Friday with that kind of travel would be out of the question due to traffic.
Thanks if you got through all of that.