How far is too far away for a venue?

My venue is 2 mins from my moms, but 4 hours from where me and OH will be living just before the wedding and where some of his family and most of his friends are.

The remainder of our friends and family are about 2 hours away and so far only had one complaint at the distance... (from one of my bridesmaids would you believe!) I think if they care they will be there, if they don't then I wouldn't worry about having them there.

I suppose only you know whether or not your friends/family would travel. I'd think twice myself if I was invited to an evening reception of say a work colleague or someone I wasn't close too.

Our wedding is only a few miles for most family and friends but some will have to travel a long way. You can't suit everyone I guess.

We are getting wed in Kent (where we live and my family/friends live) - OH's family and friends are coming from Essex and Suffolk and only had a couple of evening rejections, most are willing to travel and are staying over to make a weekend of it. I even have an old school friend coming up from Dorset just for the evening do! I think if it's family/close friends they'll make the effort if they care about you and your H2B xxx

Our venue is an hour away from everyone who is coming including ourselves.

I live in Birmingham and my boyfriend is from here. But I'm from London so we wanted somewhere in the middle. No one has complained so far about the distance and no one isn't coming becuase of it either.

Aimee x

well my family seem ahppy enough travelling to my wedding, which will be a 2 hour drive for them! I travelled to their weddings as well! Close friends and family will travel the distance. Anyone who deosnt want to travel, well they aint worth it!

We're in Somerset and 1/3 of our guests come from France ? H2B's family come from Kent, London and Cardiff for most. Our friends are a bit more local. But most guests will have to travel A LOT if they love us ?

I struggled with this too.

I was worried about it being far for people, and also the time lost in the day, and also with people getting lost if it was further away.

I did toy with the idea of hiring a coach to take everyone between venues, but you need that coach to wait around all night, and of course some people may want to leave early.

Personally I didn't want to go more than half an hour away.

Our venue is roughly an hour away from us, we are going to organise a coach for our guests (both day and evening) for those who live in our home town area - which is most of our close family and friends.

When looking into coach prices - if you don't mention the word "Wedding" you could get a 60seater for roughly £300. Not too bad a price between the lot of em (I am making everyone pay for a seat - but it will be much much cheaper than any taxi!)

Our venue is about an hour away from where we live. My family and a lot of my friends will have to travle for about 4 hours to get there whilst some of OH family will be in for over 6 hours!! Our invites havent gone out yet but everyone has been told when and roughly where it is going to be taking place well in advance as i think the key is preparing people. If you get an invite 8 weeks before a wedding asking you to travel and pay for a hotel and money is a bit tight then it make sit difficult, if however you have known about it for months then you can save up.

We don't want anywhere further than an hour from our home town (Although we don't live there anymore) as we don't want our family and friends to have to travel too far, I think it increases the risk of declined RSVPs else

Think I've found the place I want now though which is only 20 miles away from our hometown so about 25-35 mins tops.

My wedding is about 1hour from the majority of my guests homes. People are asking me how they are getting and stuff. But i have just told them that if they wish to attend they will have to make their own arragnements. At the end of the day if they really want to come they will travell and make the effort to be there.

Joleen is right - it's up to others to attend. I've flown around the world to attend weddings - Hong Kong, Paris, the US - and there will be people travelling from Australia to come to ours!

That said, it's probably easier to organise a wedding that's a bit closer!

We're getting married ~50 minutes from where we live, ~15mins from OH's immediate family, and ~12 hours from my immediate family, with everyone else coming from all over the UK, and a few from Europe and the US. The people who want to be there will be there, regardless of distance! The only consideration I would give would be to elderly/infirm guests - if there are a lot of them, or someone in particular who wouldn't be able to travel far and you really want them there then maybe it wouldn't be ideal.

I agree with what everyone else has said, our venue is 40mins from where we live but both our families have to drive at least 1hour and a half as they live in Essex and Norfolk. People will have plenty of time to work out travel arrangements and book time off work if necessary. If they mean that much, they will make the effort to celebrate your special day with you.

We only have 8 people - ourselves and our 3 children included!! - who live in Milton Keynes where we're getting married. Everyone else is travelling in from London, Stoke, Manchester, Leeds, Peterborough, Cornwall - plus 2 from Washington DC and one from Palestine!

The main thing to worry about with distance is how far from your reception venue to any available accommodation. We got round that by having the reception IN the hotel where everyone will be staying, so it doesn't matter that people are coming from all over. We're also having the ceremony at 3:30pm which gives out-of-towners time to get there on the day if they don't want to come the night before and pay for 2 nights hotel stay.

My venue is 250 miles away from where we live.

My opinion is if people want to come to see us get married they will make an effort, if not that's fine. it's where we want to get married so we're not changing it for other people.

I'm from Yorkshire, H2B from the Midlands and we live in London so it doesnt make a difference where we have it people would still have to travel one way or another.

Thanks for the advice everyone! After a full week of viewing venues we've narrowed it down to 3 places which range between 30mins and 45mins from our house. Just want to get booked up now! x

Ours is about 20 mins from the church and 30 mins from where we live.

Both of our families are going to have to travel though as the majority of my family will be coming from North Lincs so at least 2 and half hours over the pennines. OH family are all from around Ipswich, Stowmarket, and North Essex so they'll have at least 3.5 - 4 hour drives.

Mine is 40mins from church. The church is about 1 min from my house!

Im so glad i came across this post!! My h2b and I really want our wedding reception in York as its a really special place for us but we live in Leeds so its only a half hour - 45 minute drive but the odd person including my mum!! has questioned why we cant just have our reception in Leeds. My h2b has considered having our reception in Leeds but probably selfishly I think its our day and its about us and what we want, why should do things to please other people. I feel alot better now about having our reception in York. I always intended to provide details of local hotels and b&b's for guests who wish to stay over.