Venue distance help!!!!

[SomethingBlue26]

Okay so long story short, My FIL's dropped a huge bomb on us regarding our guest list last Sunday basically increasing the original numbers dramatically. I had finally found the perfect venue that wasn't too far away and could accommodate all of my guests. So the venue manager called me back yesterday to tell me that they had made a mistake with the booking and that someone had already reserved our site for the same day!


So now the only venues that I can find that are available on my wedding day that can accommodate the larger wedding are about 30 minutes away.

Is this too far to ask my guests to drive. We are having the ceremony at a local church and this is VERY important to FH, so i cant move the ceremony closer to the venue.

Do you think this might be okay if we provide like some sort of shuttle transportation for guests who dont want to drive?? Is anyone else having this sort of problem?

How far is too far for our venue???

Thanks so much!! I always appreciate everyones advice and input here!!:laugh:

[bride2be007]

I have been to a few weddings where the venue has been 30+ minutes away from the ceremony location. Neither of those provided transportation for the guests. However, one other wedding that I went to provided transportation for the guests, but a lot of the guests were from out-of-town and the wedding took place in a large, busy city. So it just made more sense to provide the transportation to those who wanted/ needed it to avoid any confusion.

[Danielle9608]

I do not think so at all!! I am making all of my guests drive 100+ miles.

[Nikita706]

30 miles is DEFINITELY not too far. I was debating having my guests drive an hour to our venue, but we ended up finding a different one that was closer. And we've gone to weddings that were way more than 30 miles away. Just think about it in perspective, if you lived in a big city, chances are even people who lived in that city (or the surrounding suburbs) would still probably have to drive at least 30 miles to get there.

Granted, if you're doing the ceremony at one place, then having the reception 30 miles away, I have a feeling that you may lose more guests than you otherwise would have after the ceremony. But it sounds like you've got plenty of people coming, so that probably won't be a problem.

Anyway, best of luck!!!

[Nikita706]

And on a side note, if you do provide transportation, make sure that it's well organized. We went to a wedding recently where guests HAD to use the transportation provided (there was no parking at the venue site), but there were only 3 little cars going back and forth. It was a really cold day, so everyone ended up standing in this parking lot in the freezing cold (we were there for at least 30 minutes) dressed to the nines, and in our case, with our 6 month old son. There were young people who would show up and crowd their way into the cars before others who had been waiting patiently (including people with babies, pregnant women, elderly couples). To be honest, we actually almost just left we were so frustrated and miserable.