Burb Wedding & City Reception

ekalmes

Hi--I am planning on getting married at the church I grew up in, however it is in the Northwest Suburbs, about an hour from the city. I would love to have my reception downtown. What do you recommend for guest transportation? How much time should you give people to travel downtown?

sgylling

My friend did this, but the opposite way, so married in city and reception in burbs. I would give at least 2 hours. Traffic was ridiculous that day and it took us forever. I think she had 3 hours in between so we could take pictures.

JJofthefuture

We did the opposite- Church in the city, reception in the western burbs (it was about an hour as well) and we provided a bus for our guests from the guest hotel to the ceremony and back. It was a huge help. We hired Aries Charter, and they were clean, professional, on time and took the route we wanted (to give our out of towners a great view of the city). Guests brought drinks and beverages with them for the ride home, so while we were celebrating in the limo, our guests were celebrating on the bus. It worked out perfectly. We got so many compliments and thank yous.

Our ceremony was at 1:30 and we started the reception at 4:30. It was the perfect amount of time because traffic was bad!

Annie_Warbucks

Which northwest suburb? 

That sounds really inconvenient for your guests. Etiquette wise, they say to try and schedule the reception and ceremony no more than 30 mins away from each other, so that your guests are not stuck travelling all over the place.  

Will out of town guests be staying in the city and then have to travel the hour+ to the burbs, and then travel  the hour+ back to the city for the reception? Or will people have to travel the hour+ back to the burbs after the reception? 

mandybear7

I think there are some exceptions with travel time when it comes to large cities, especially due to traffic. Going 10 miles in Chicago could take an hour, whereas in other areas of the state or at a different time of day, it would take 15 minutes.

Since you are expecting it to take about an hour, it would be excellent if you provided guest transportation. I would also recommend that you book a hotel block near the reception location, rather than the ceremony location.

Golfer09

Traffic can be pretty bad during the summer and on weekends.  I think you should be very conservative and add as much buffer if you intend on having your reception in the city. 

If there is an accident or sports event you may have to stress about your guests not getting there on time.   Navigating the downtown streets also can be difficult with one ways and streets getting blocked off for festivals, etc. 

If you have out of town guests - might be a bit inconvenient for them to stay downtown, figure out a way to get to the church and then figure out how to get back into the city. 

I would say give your guests at least 90 minutes to get downtown and find parking, etc. 

My recommendation is to try to make things somewhat reasonable for your guests from a commute standpoint.  You don't want someone's memory of your wedding to be how horrible traffic was getting from point A to point B.

finally9

I'm doing this but getting married in the city and having reception in the western subrbus. I agree with JJ - we are providing guest buses for all of our guests so they don't need to worry about transportation. the buses go there and back and drop them back off at the hotel at the end of the night. i think as long as you make it convenient for guests, you should be okay.

lorn

It could work but the logistics are going to be one more thing you've got to worry about on the wedding day.  If you do provide buses I'd say have like two buses leaving at different times at the reception.  Not everyone is going to want to stay til the end and it would be a bit rude to keep everyone captive all night.