Venues with no overnight accommodation - advice please!

Goodness, don't worry about that! It's sweet of you to consider their transport issues but I'm sure your guests won't mind. It sounds as if there are hotels within the vicinity so it's not as if they're going to have to travel lots of miles to find somewhere to stay.

Go with the venue you like best - provided they have ample notice your guests will cope just fine. One thing to bear in mind for closer to your wedding. Find out if your venue will accept payment for drinks by card. It's rather annoying to find yourself at a reception that only accepts cash and you're a car journey away from the nearest cash point!

We considered one venue that didn't have any overnight accommodation and it was definitely a negative for me at the time. We have chosen a venue that does have accommodation, but it's a lot more than I'd be willing to pay for a room if I were a guest. The guests will have the option to stay there if they want, but there is a Premier Inn about 5 -10 minutes down the road that I think is the more likely option! So in the end, it really wouldn't have mattered if the venue had rooms or not. That said, I would definitely want a room for me and H2B at the venue, or at least very close by.

It depends on what your criteria is. As Cricks says most guests wouldn't expect you to organise their travel and accommodation arrangements and are usually happy with local recommendations so that they can arrange it themselves, however that being said we knew we wanted a hotel venue with exclusive use so that most guests could stay over afterwards (and that everyone staying over we knew) but that's only because everyone's so spread out and we wanted to have breakfast with everyone the day after to almost make a weekend of it. We searched far and wide for our perfect venue (it took us 8 months!) and it wasn't easy but we found it eventually and knew right away it was the place.

You have to decide what yours and H2B's criteria is for your venue and it has to suit you both first and foremost. Bear in mind is there somewhere nearby where you would be happy to spend your first night as man and wife? If there is and it suits you both then you can sort the logistics and guests out afterwards.

Our venue didn't have any accomodation. we mostly stayed at a hotel 2.5 miles away. it was no issue for anyone. it was new years eve so i prebooked a bunch of cabs for kicking out time and all went well

To be fair for me it was a big issue when we decided on our venue. as 3/4 of the guests will be travelling from 30-130 miles to come to the wedding, we have opted for a hotel in the centre of town (next to the castle for our photos) so thats its easily accessible for everyone. also the peopel who dont have to travel can very easily get to it & get home without having to worry about drinking/not drinking.

x

It depends how many of your guests will need accommodation. There are plenty of hotel venues around if that's what you want (I'm in Telford). I found it a bit daunting once we'd decided we didn't need a ' at venue' ceremony, as this opens up so many other options, nice country pubs, restaurants, or a marquee if you know someone with a bit of land- maybe ask local farmers. Where we are having our reception, there's no accommodation, but there are hotels and B&B's with a couple of miles, so I suppose it's a bit of a compromise, making sure there is accommodation available quite nearby. I think in the situation you described with the church, I would expect 'travelling' guests to drop their cars at the hotel immediately after the church bit, rather than to-ing and fro-ing in taxis all evening. Not sure if that's what you meant anyway. Just sounded like they'd be driving to reception then again to their hotel.

I can totally see where your coming from but you could pick the hotel with lots of rooms and people could opt to stay elsewhere!!

when going to a wedding if we are staying over we look for the cheapest option (we would pick a taxi and a £29 premier inn than a room at the venue for over a hundred quid) so i wouldn't base your choice on this! the only thing i would consider is how much extra it will cost you and H2B to stay elsewhere (e.g if you are at the venue you don't need cars, taxi's after and to pay for a room) all this can cost a lot extra especially if you book a honeymoon suite elsewhere!

pick the venue you love x

Hi,

We have booked a venue with no accommodation - though it is slightly easier as we are having the ceremony there too, although we do have day and afternoon guests. The venue is really in the middle of nowhere and we thought we would get rooms at a local ish hotel about 15 mins drive away, and run a bus to there and possibly into town for local people as it would be about £25 in a taxi, but they couldn't offer us enough rooms.

Instead we found a great city centre boutique hotel who have bent over backwards to help out. We are putting on a bus in the morning to take day guests from hotel, or local people who can get into town more easily than the venue, to the venue, and another int he afternoon for the second round of guests and then back again at the end of the night.

Its been a bit of hassle and some expense, although we are asking for £2 per person per journey contribution which covers a chunk of it, but I think it saves alot of angst about whether people can get there without relying on cars and not be able to have a drink etc etc.

We wanted a hotel for as many guests as wanted it together because often the breakfast the next day is such a lovely time to see people again.

Basically, if you love the no room venue best, then go for it - there seem to be plenty of options, you could choose a 'wedding hotel' as we did, or just let people know where there are places they can book. If the travel is a concern for you, you could do a bus fromt he 'main' hotel to ceremony, and again to reception, and back again at the end of the night.

I think the right venue is more imporatnt than the inconvenience of a bit of travel!

Can people leave cars overnight at your reception venues? If so, that makes life a lot easier - drive from ceremony to reception, taxi to hotel, leave car overnight, following morning drivers club together on taxi to come and get cars (or co-ordinate ferrying to collect if there's some non-drinkers). Depositing cars at hotels and then getting taxi to venue could work, if you have an early ceremony and want a big gap for photos, but then people arrive at your reception in dribs and drabs which could cause issues for group shots or if you have a tight timetable.

8 miles is quite a long way for people to go to deposit cars during the day - the potential for things going wrong is much larger with a longer journey, especially on little back lanes if guests aren't local. A couple of potential venues dropped out from consideration when I realised that my non-local friends an family might have found the lanes with 8 foot hedges, grass down the middle and passing spots where you need to put wingmirrors in the hedge a little traumatic. Plus timings would have been a nightmare - I'd've needed to put a huge "lots of people meeting a tractor, reversing into a ditch, getting stuck, getting lost" contingency into my day, which didn't appeal.

If there's one place where hotels are (or one sensibly priced hotel which is large enough) then I'd be tempted to set up a bus from there to ceremony, on to reception and back to start point. Also, is there enough parking near the ceremony? I decided not to get married in my home parish because parking is horrendous, and at a friend's wedding they had a bus so as not to annoy their neighbours too much by causing chaos - there were strict instructions on where people were not allowed to park!

That said, there's quite a long drive between ceremony and reception, so I'd be tempted to put in a big gap and plan on having lots of couple photos before getting the groups together.

Our reception is being held in a Village Hall so unless they fancy camping outside on the green, they'll have to sort their own transport out! ?

Your guests wont mind. They'll sort themselves out. Pick the one you like the best

Hi all,

Thanks very much for all your replies It certainly gives me some food for thought! I think I would like there to be somewhere at least for us to stay so that I can go and freshen up or get away from it all for a few minutes (although I'm not sure I will want to!).

I will check to see if the venue with the 4 rooms allows cars to be left overnight which as a few people have said would be easier than dropping cars off at hotels then getting to the venue ready for the wedding breakfast as this could take quite a while. I'll also look into the minibus/coach idea as although I dont think any one of the hotels would be big enough if everyone decided to stay over, they are all roughly in the same place so could arrange for people to drop their cars off at the hotels then a bus to take them to the venue. Then arrange for the bus to take people from the venue back to the hotel area later. I suppose it depends on how many people actually stay over whether it would be worth doing a bus or letting them sort themselves out.

Thanks!

To keep it a bit more organised you could see if a couple of the hotels would reserve you an allocation for your guests (I found a couple willing to do that) as they would if you were having your wedding there. That shouldn't be a lot of work for you, and helps keep more guests in the same places! (I consider my guests a bit like sheep or children sometimes I think!)

It is a little control freakish if you are not certain about running buses etc, but you could ask people to respond on the RSVP whether they will need that transport - that's what we've done, its a little complicated but at least we will know exactly what size bus we need! You could decide you definitely will do it, and then just need to find out whether a couple of big taxi will be enough, or if you need an actual coach.

Its amazing how many little things suddenly become a concern isn't it!!

Our venue had no accomodation and it worked fine, our church was 11 miles from the venue aswell! We had no problems at all.We listed some hotels of varying prices in our "information" part of our invitations so that our guests could decide for themselves where they wished to book, we also included parking and taxi info in here too. The manager of our venue gave me the key to her office and had kindly set up a full length mirror, all my make up etc so as I could go and freshen up in there if need be. In the end I was fine just using the regular toilets! On the day all these worries dissapear as you are so busy being happy!