total travel time (ceremony + reception)

lyntopher

Longtime lurker, first time question
In looking up past posts, it seems as if around a half hour is an acceptable travel time between the ceremony and reception. Do people still agree?

Even given this, here is my question though: our ceremony site is roughly half an hour from where most of our family live, and the reception site we're considering is half an hour further away. There are hotels near the ceremony site if people don't want to drive more than half an hour after the reception (so the full hour home), but there really isn't anywhere closer to the reception site to stay.

We live in an area where driving 25-30 minutes to get to a mall isn't considered out of the ordinary, but I'm still concerned that the hour home may be inconsiderate to guests since we know many will just drive all the way home. What's half an hour more if you're already driving, right? It doesn't seem worth it to get a hotel room.

Thanks in advance for thoughts and insight.

ootmother2

I think you're okay with this.  The roads around you are generally decent even if you're going halfway down the Cape

staceycaine

My ceremony/reception are only about 10 minutes apart (on a busy traffic day). However, both are about an hour away from most of my family.

Guess what? The people who want to come will come. The people who don't want to won't. I live here. Not there.

Can you tell it's a touchy subject for me? My mom is giving me a crapton of grief about it just because we live in the same town as most of my FI's family and want to get married here.

I think the important part is the distance between the two, not from where people are. I mean, there are destination weddings, right? And in any case, it sounds like you've booked the sites already, so what's done is done.

Simply Fated

An hour drive home isn't thrilling, but the whole thing isn't too bad. I mean, it's about a two hour drive total for those guests, which sucks, but, not terrible. I went out of state for my cousin's wedding, which was a total of about four hours. It sucked, but I survived the car ride and my mom and dad didn't kill each other on the way home, so it actually might have been considered a total success....

HockeyFan4

i think you should probably know how your "must haves" feel about driving.  I know in my family who complains when we all meet up at X's house, because it is farther away. 

I think an hour isn't much of a big deal...i drive that each way to and from work...but that is me. 

as long as they are all easy travel routes (easily accesible to highways) it should be fine...i would be more annoyed if i had to do a lot of backroad driving for an hour.

Kate61487

IMO it's your job to make sure the ceremony and reception are convenient to each other, not that either is convenient to your whole guest list, kwim? (unless you're talking about the bride who wanted to strand all of her guests on an island with no ferry home after the reception).

I'd be more concerned about the fact that there are no hotels nearby for your truly OOT guests.  Normally you want your guests to be able to stay close to the reception.  Is your heart really set on this reception venue? I might look for something a little more convenient...

MyUserName1

I don't think that's too bad. And i don't think the hotels are too terribly far away from the reception site.  Since you're from an area that's fairly spread out, I think people will expect to drive a little more than they would in a small town where everything's close in.

MyNameIsNot

The driving wouldn't bother me, but not having any hotels near the reception would.  While most people would drive the hour home, it's nice to have the option to get a room and avoid driving home late.  

We've been to several weddings in the mountains about an hour from town.  Usually the younger guests get hotel rooms and have an after party, then hang out in the area the next day.