Venues away from home

We live in Hampshire but are getting married in Wawrickshire. Guests are coming from London, Southampton, Birmingham and Hertfordshire.

We found most venues that can hold that many people are hotels in any case, so people can stay there - and avoid any issues with who is the designated driver. Otherwise venues can usually recommend nearby hotels and you could suggest people stay in one, and maybe even get a minibus to transport people. Although note London might not be the cheapest place for people.

A lot of our guests seem to be using our wedding as an excuse for a weekend away and are staying an extra night at the venue. You might find the same too if you give everyone plenty of warning of the date.

Ultimately people who care about you will travel for your wedding as long as they have sufficient warning of where and when. So you should pick somewhere that suits you without worrying too much.

Hi december1984, welcome to hitched ?

not really the same as the issue you have raised, but h2b and i both live in kent, and are getting married in a hotel in kent, so it was inevitable that half of our guests would need to travel. this has only really raised issues with his elderly relatives in that they might not be fit enough to attend.

i think as long as you are considerate to people's finances and time, then those who will want to travel, will. i wouldn't have minded to have booked a friday wedding until it was pointed out that people probably would have had to have taken at least 1 leave day, possibly 2, to attend our wedding. if it were me, i would do that, but my work is relatively generous with it's leave policy. we are also giving our travelling guests lots of information on local accommodation of varying prices so they can choose where to stay (our hotel is expensive, and also not available the night before our wedding).

i think though you have to consider that those with limited finances may not be able to attend if you are asking them to travel well beyond than is normal.

hope that helped a little.

Hi December1984,

Welcome to hitched?

I'm what we call an old married now, I got married back in September.

I'm from Scotland, H is Northern Irish and we live in Northern Ireland as does most of his family, he also has some family in Canada. All my family live in Scotland.

We got married back in my home town in Scotland. So we had over 50 guests travel form Northern Ireland/Canada for our wedding. We never even got one regret card, everyone we asked accepted.

His family looked at it as a nice wee weekend away to a part of Scotland they'd never been to before, with excellent links to Glasgow and further afield and the wedding thrown in as an added bonus!

So I wouldn't worry about asking people to travel, we gave everyone plenty of notice (we booked the wedding in January 07 for Sept 08 and told everyone right away) we also managed to negotiate discounted rooms at a hotel accross the road from our reception venue (we had our reception in the Town Hall) and advised everyone of their contact number etc. I also kept an eye on flights/ferry providers and let everyone know the minute they were selling tickets for September so they could get them at the cheapest fares. We also (thanks to my bil being a coach driver) laid on a coach to collect the guests from the hotel the day of the wedding to take them to the church then onwards to the reception venue. As I've already said the reception venue was accross the road from the hotel.

People will surprise you when it comes to weddings, book what suits you and your h2b as it is about what the two of you want to do!

HTH

Luv Victoria

xx

We live in west midlands and getting married in northern ireland- all of the people we invited are coming- most are seeing it as a nice chance to see northern ireland and a dirty weekend away!

Don't worry if people want to come they will travel a few hours and stay overnight- just give people loads of options on your info sheet from different ways to get there (train, coach, car) and different places to stay inc expensive to cheap b&bs- we found that some people will only look at staying where your getting married unless you point out the opitons!

We live nr Manchester and are getting married in the Lake District. We are only having 23 (including us) at the wedding so we have decided that we will pay for everyone to stay on the night of the wedding. If anyone wants to come the day before they can pay for that themselves. We wont be getting married until 4pm so there is plenty of time for people to travel up on the actual day.

Hi and welcome to Hitched, how far are you thinking of travelling? I am in Cambridgeshire too...nr Ely

Hi Zippy27. I'm in Peterborough and have seen one or two venues in London that fit my ideals. My other half is from London originally so I didn't think it would be too much of a problem, plus we have direct trains from Peterborough to London all the time.

I think I'm worrying about what other people think too much!

Does anyone have an idea as to how many times you need to visit your venue in the run up to the wedding?

December1984 x

I think that most people are prepared to travel and those who aren't...............well are they really worth an invitation? (Unless of course they have a very good reason for not being able to travel) That's what I said to my h2b who was worried about people travelling from Wisbech to Ely!!!

Hi and welcome to Hitched. I also live in Cambridgeshire (near Ely) and we got married last year in Scotland, so quite far from home! We had quite a small wedding with just over 30 people, but every one who we invited came. We made a bit of a weekend of it and had our venue on an exclusive basis from the Friday until the Sunday, it was lovely to be able to share such a special time in your life so closely with your nearest and dearest.

One of the reasons we chose Scotland is because my family are quite religious where as H's are not, and in Scotland you can have a religious service in your venue, which suited our needs perfectly. We visited our venue three times in the (almost) two years we were planning and as long as you build up a good relationship with the venue's wedding co-ordinator,it should not be a problem that you are far away. You will know when you have found the perfect place and as others have said those who mean the most to you, will not miss your wedding for the world, were ever you hold it!