How far is too far b/w Church and Reception?

My brother had his reception about 30 minutes from their beach wedding. From what I remember it wasn't bad at all.

Since the places you want are in hometowns of you both, and probably a good majority of your guests... I don't think the drive will really matter. Some will have to drive 45 minutes to the ceremony, then the reception will bring them close to home. And the other guests will be right near the ceremony and will drive for the reception. I think it is fine.

Mine is about 30 mins from church to the reception hall I think it will be fine, especially since your guest will already know one is your home town and the other is his I think that is great you are doing that!

I don't think it is an issue. In all honesty, in my 51 years, I have only been to a wedding where the ceremony and reception were in the same location about 5 times. It's just not common in our circle.

For my daughter's wedding, there was a 45 minute ride from the church to the reception venue. When having a Catholic Mass', the latest you can have a Mass is 2:00 because most parishes have Saturday evening Mass at 4:30. Since the reception start time was 5:30, our guests had some time to kill anyway. It is commonplace and accepted in our circle. Besides, most guests were spending the night at the venue. Those on my guest list who were not Catholic and lived closer to the venue, I told them to skip the Mass and just go to the reception venue. Also, for early arrivers, we made sure the venue would open the bar.

Good luck!

I would say at most you don't want the trip to be more than 20-30 minutes by car. People do understand that lights can add to time, but if you google search areas and put them into the directions field, it'll give you a time span for how long it takes to get from A to B. On the other hand...45 minutes isn't too bad either if the reception is going to be longer than 3.5-4 hours. Guests are less worried about how long it takes to get from the ceremony to the reception than are about how long it takes to get from the end of the reception back to the hotels at the end of the night (when they are more tired). So if you have far off locations, my suggestion would be have the hotels closer to the reception area than the ceremony.

I don't think the drive is a problem but, perhaps take a poll of your guests? If a lot of them are local I don't think it will be an issue. If you have a lot of OOT guests they might get confused driving in an unfamiliar area.

Not within walking distance is too far for me.

I think anything pass 25 min is pushing it. But you know where your guest are comin from so if it doesn't put them any further away I think it would be ok.

Ours is 45 minutes, no big deal at all. Then again, we live in NYC and thats sort of average for a wedding, maybe people living in different places feel differently, but on average, the weddings I have been to have been about the same.

I think it's fine.. it's definitely not my favorite thing to figure out about a wedding I'm attending, but it certainly wouldn't keep me from coming! It's the same dilemma of having several hours between the ceremony and reception.. it's not the MOST convenient thing EVER.. but it's fine!

Ours is an hour drive between ceremony and reception. But our guests are mainly family and really close friends. So for me 45 mins. doesn't seem bad!

I think it's too far.

I think it all depends on the city you live in. In my city, on a weekday, a 45 minute drive will not get you very far (mileage-wise). On a weekend, different story.

Personally, I like events all in the same place or really close.

I think 45 mins is an ok drive! I have been looking at venues an hour away! Now im not too sure about that....