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We're getting married and having our reception at the same place, so I can't really comment on the aspect, b ut as a wedding guest, an hour between ceremony and reception location would be too much for me.
Kind of....you could have a lot of family taht travels to the church, then back to the reception, etc. You'll probably get a lot of people that go to one or the other though.
My SIL's wedding was about 30 minutes from her reception. But there was also a 3 hour gap. An hour is a long way tho. Too long.
Yeah, I'd say try to keep it within a half hour, especially in that area there's a lot of traffic, problems parking, etc. I'd also say that the more out of town guests you have, the better it is to keep it simple.
What's your transportation situation? Do you have a lot of OOT guests? Where would people be staying? I would think people would want to stay closer to the reception, in which case they would be driving an hour (let's factor in traffic - there's always traffic) to your ceremony and then another hour back to get to the reception...
I hate to say it but I do think that is too much. I wouldn't go over a half hour away, even that I think is a lot.
thanks for the replies!! very helpful..!!! yeahh i was figuring an hour would be a little much..our reception will most likely be in philadelphia which is about 20-30 min away..hopefully we find a place!!!
I personally think that is too far and I'd do everything I could to avoid that much travel for your guests. I'm concerned about my wedding and the reception site is only about 10 minutes away from the ceremony site.
Another thing to consider is the likelihood of your guests getting lost. I recently went to a wedding where it was a good 30-45 min drive in between and there were a lot of people who took wrong turns-even when they were "following" their GPS directions. If you have a lot of people who aren't familiar with the area, it's best to keep them relatively close together.
I was in the house party of a wedding that the ceremony took place in Austin and the reception was an 1 away. So that meant that guests had to drive an 1 to somewhere else plus wait 30 minutes for the Bride/Groom to take pictures. We were starving by the time they got there and we were all bored. There wasn't any music, slideshow or anything to help pass the time.
So if you can avoid having guests drive more the 20 minutes I would do so. And if you do make them drive keep in mind you will be 20-30 minutes behind them because of pictures!
Yes, I think it's a little too far. I'm trying to keep mine within a 10 minute drive radius. FI wants to do the ceremony and reception at the same place - that's how much he detests driving between locations.
Personally, I think between 15-20 minutes is reasonable though.
Mine was at the same site - I think you should try to keep it to 30-40 minutes you should be ok. Any longer than that is a little irritating, especially for people driving home late at night.
Anything over a half hour is definitely too long. If you really love a reception site that is farther away I would definitely reccommend buses or some type of transportation for guests to get to and from the reception
An hour is a little far. where do most of your guests stay? how long would it be for them to get home at the end of the night? (is it 1/2 an hour to the church, then another 1 hr to the reception, so they're driving back 1.5 hours at the end?)
will you be coordinating transport between the two locations?
Hey if they love you and are close to you they will go the distance. I live in Chicago and getting married there and our reception is about 45mins away. I understand it's far but it such a beautiful location and the majority of my family live about half to the reception site. We have two and a half hours until we eat so we are doing tray passed apps to keep our family and friends for starving. Also I've heard people rent trollys to take their guests to the hall. The only down fall might be people won't go to the ceremony, which for me is the most important part. We are also blocking some rooms off at a hotel close by. Don't worry about the distance, people will get there and once they do they will enjoy it!!!
My cousin got marred in a church in Brentwood, CA and her reception was in Valencia. It was about a 40 minute drive with traffic. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there were two hours between her ceremony and reception. It gave everyone enough time for travel, to refresh or check into their hotel and get to the reception site.
I think it's completely doable! Just let people know ahead of time, and make sure directions are readily available. Maybe you can include a little map in your programs (if you're doing them) for the people who may forget the inclosures of their invites.
I wouldn't be psyched about it, but I'd go however far it was between sites. The furthest I've gone as a guest between ceremony/reception is about 35 minutes. Our ceremony and reception were at the same venue (which I loved) so people only had to go upstairs and down a hallway. :)
I'd say 30 min max. Goign from Jersey to Philly also equals tolls, delays on 95 and city traffic. I'd stick to finding someplace in Jerz... where in NJ are you having the ceremony? FI's cousin had a gorgeous recepetion near Mt.Laurel.
I think what matters more is how far your reception is from the hotel guests will be staying in. I once went to a nightmare wedding where the church was an hour from the hotel which was an hour from the reception venue (all incompletely different directions). We spent the entire day driving from one place to the other. The bride and groom were nice enough to provide a shuttle to the reception from the hotel and back, but it didn't help because there was only 1 trip there and 1 trip back, some people missed it and I was falling asleep by the time we finally were taken back to the hotel.
I'm personally having my church and reception (which is also the hotel) litereally connected to each other (Rittenhouse square) on purpose since my FH and I get so annoyed when we are that inconvenienced by peoples weddings. Also, all of our guests are from out of town so that seems to work better.
Gabgal: we are having our wedding in pitman, nj, which is about 30 min from mt. laurel..where did they have their wedding??
moderndaisy: yeahh, we will most likely be having our reception in a hotel so that at least that is all in the same place..which hotel will you be having yours at??
I say it's too far. If you are doing pictures after the wedding, guests will have the 40 min to hour drive and then a wait for you before the party really gets going. That makes for a long day!
I am personally blessed by having a reception venue that's only 1/2 mile from the church. It's definitely making life a lot easier!
I think the limit should be roughly a 30-minute drive. You don't want to put your guests--who are, after all, there to honor you--through a long and possibly stressful trip to find your reception location. Keep in mind that a number of them will be from out of town. In my case, almost without exception, I somehow have taken a wrong turn while trying to find the reception hall. So keeping it reasonable is a matter of courtesy, I think.
melv -- I believe it was at Ramblewood Country Club. I could be wrong but after a google search, I am pretty confident that that is where it was.
I think anything over 20 minutes is too far-- but I'm from TX and things are laid out very differently down here.
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our wedding ceremony will be at my church in south jersey....and my fiance and i are trying to find a reception hall in either south jersey or philly since philly is pretty close..we were browsing reception halls that were closer to the beach, but that would be about 40min to 1 hour away from the reception hall..
how far is your reception hall from the ceremony site?? and do you think 40 min to 1 hour is too far??