Hello,
We're recently engaged but wanting to get married in May or June 2020 so know we need to get on with confirming a date and venue etc.
I've explored a lot online and ruled many out due to availability/ lack of exclusivity/ price etc. We've only actually been to visit two venues but one of those we really liked.
The problem is it doesn't have any accommodation onsite and not really very much in surrounding villages either - the nearest major town/ city is around a 20 minute drive away. I have a big family most of whom aren't sure they can afford two nights of accommodation but live 2-3 hours away.
The venue allows us to get married in their civil ceremony room (which we really like as a space), so we were intending to hold ceremony, reception, evening do all in the one place. However, the registrar only has an 11.30am slot for the date we currently have held, which is definitely earlier than we would have liked.
I'm not sure whether that means this choice of venue and date should be ruled out? There is a car park at the venue where cars could be left overnight, but if people are staying the one night then they would surely only be able to check in right at the end of the night (11.30pm last orders out by midnight) which would probably be uncomfortable for them and also mean they risk their rooms having been given away?
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Should we be exploring churches/ alternative ceremony venues in the nearest city so that early check in between ceremony and reception might be possible, and then put on a coach to the venue? Should we be scheduling in some kind of (optional) slot for people to leave the venue post ceremony and photos in order for people to be able to check in (but we'd probably need to allow at least say 1h15 for this)?
Or is it just ridiculous to have a wedding day **** all in one venue anyway and we should look at other venues/ dates?
