How Far Away is Your Venue?

My one daughter is looking at venues in the NW Chicago suburbs which is about 2 1/2 hours from where she currently lives in WI. We originally came from that area and most the families on both sides still live there. She wants to make it easier on her guests and be able to get married in the church we raised her in. We are looking at 3-4 venues this weekend. It is possible the reception venue could be a 30 minute drive from the church.

Our venue is about five minutes from where we live and it's been so helpful during the planning process. I definitely recommend going closer rather than farther. Our ceremony and reception are in the same plae

Mmbrake do you happen to be in chambana?

If so- I can tell you what I looked at (I live here) but I ultimately went with a place 2 hours away. It's closer to my parents, and not many people are local anyway, so it didn't matter to us. But we have the ceremony and reception in the same building, so once guests are there they don't have to go anywhere.

@Samtoine2017 - no, but close I'm a little more north of there but FH has some family that lives there. We are from Central IL, though!

Can you compromise and have priest/pastor officiate at your reception venue? Then no travel between church and reception.

My venue is 1 hour from my house. About 3-4 hours on average for most guests. We are having the ceremony and reception in the same location. We do not live near either of our families.

Our venue is a cross country flight away for us and either a 4 hour drive for my family or up to a 45 minute drive for my in-laws family. We blocked off hotel rooms for them to stay if they'd like.

I live in Texas - Wedding is 14 hours away in Colorado. I won't physically see anything until one week before!

Our venue for both is 15 minutes away from our house.

Our church is about 20 minutes or less south of us and our reception is about 15 minutes north west of us.

My venue is about 35 mins from my house. In terms of miles its about 8 miles. The ceremony and reception will both take place there. Our pastor will be officiating at the venue rather than the church.

If you decide to do your wedding in Chicago (3hrs out) know that it will technically be a Destination Wedding and not all your intended guests will be able to attend due to finances, children, work, pets, etc. Its something to consider once you do a DW you pass the cost to your guests as they would have to book hotels and spend on travel expenses. Try the vendor tab here maybe there is a venue near you that you LOVE. Also its not always about what you love but what works. Try to envision the space with decor. Branch out to non conventional venues too museums, parks, aquariums, restaurants, etc.

I liked a lot of the venues that were farther away... but I found one that met all my checklist needs and was closer. It was my second pick but I love the owner and I feel much more comfortable with the venue being 10 mins away. This way everyone doesn't have to do a 2 hour drive afterwards in backwoods Texas. Now I can't imagine having my wedding any where else and I go check on it all the time. Yes I'm that stalker that shows up to the venue randomly.

My venue is about 20min from my house and we are doing ceremony there.

We considered picking a venue about an hour and a half from home. It would have been closer for my OOT guests (all of my guests are OOT), but further for FH's guest.

We opted for closer to home because of logistics. I didn't want to drive out there all the time to meet/find vendors. We would also have to board our dogs. It just made more sense to not travel for us.

About 90 min drive (110 miles more or less). We are staying at a BB the day of the wedding, but staying home the day before

The church is 5 minutes from our childhood homes and the reception space is about 20-25 minutes

I'm lucky, they're both within walking distance of my house!

My venue is about 2 hours away (140-ish miles) from home and the majority of our guests live within 15-20 miles of me. Maybe 10 guests live out of town and they're further away. I really didn't like anything around here so we looked at the larger cities in our state.

ETA: Our ceremony and reception will be at the same place

My ceremony will be 6,500 miles from my house, give or take probably a few hundred. But our reception venue is only three miles from there.

More importantly, I had the same issue choosing a venue. Originally wanted an outdoor ceremony, then decided I didn't want to worry about rain. Chose a venue, but I wasn't happy with it and it was at the top of our budget and we knew there were things we'd have to add on (like more pictures, and we wouldn't have rights to them). Ended up dropping that venue altogether, going back to the outside idea, found a venue that included everything we wanted within our budget. Bonus: I don't hate their indoor chapel venue in case it rains. (Someone please tell Vegas to drag some of their chapels out of the 80's)

My advice is keep looking. What helped me was to sit down with my fiancee and talk pros and cons for each venue, even ones we'd already looked at. We ended up going with one we had shot down before.

My venue is almost 25 minutes from our houses but I picked our venue based on the location to hotels and we have shuttle for guest to go back and forth to the reception site