Is making guests drive an hour to reception ok?

Guests are staying in the general area for mine (7 miles between the venues)

I'd only drive an hour if it was 1hr back towards my house/hotel to the reception, as in it was on the way back, not 1 hr further out of the way

Very acceptable

From a guest's perspective, if I found out that the reception venue was an hour away from the wedding itself, I'd probably end up skipping the reception, and I'd probably be pretty annoyed. The only way I'd go is, like AlmostMrs.King said, it was basically "on the way" for me to wherever I was headed. It would be particularly irksome if I had also had to drive or travel a significant distance to get to the wedding in the first place.

I think it's fine. Our "local" guests will be driving about 45 minutes to our ceremony and reception. We have multiple hotel blocks for those who don't wish to drive home that night.

All of my FH's family are an hour out of town. About half said they would rent a room nearby (those are the people drinking). The older people and those not planning on drinking excessively will drive home. They might not stay THAT late but I'm ok with that.

I think offering to drive the older people is a great idea!

I would find a church near reception as well. sorry i didnt add that part in up above.

Thank u letitsnow. i figured offering car service to older people or those without cars was most logical and help sway fh to considering northern venues. lol

I would probably drive as a guest, but I think most guests will feel annoyed by it. Remember that is like 100 + people all driving an hour most likely each way so you can save some money. The guests won't understand, even though I understand to get a great venue, but I think most guests would find it a pretty big inconvenience. One of my friends had her reception 45 minutes away from her ceremony -- she got a ton of complaints and most guests did not understand the reasoning behind that for her desire to have the "perfect venue" when there were plenty of venues closer. Maybe do the math on figuring out how much all these extra limos/buses will cost as well to see if it's worth it.

Wait is the reception an hour away from the ceremony?

I wouldn't want to drive an hour between ceremony and reception. However, if it's an hour to both, sure!

My ceremony/reception are both at the same place and an hour from my house. I haven't gotten any complaints (other than from my mother)

Ceremony and reception same place.

I'm a little confused now. If you're talking about it being about an hour from where you live, with the wedding ceremony and reception in a close proximity, that's one thing, and as a guest I would be 100% okay with it. If you're talking the reception being an hour from the ceremony, then no, I'd be an unhappy guest.

Futuremrsl, i was just thinking to do that. to ck cost of extra car service to see if worth it. thx.

Maureen, I would totally drive an hour if the ceremony and reception were in the same place. Id actually drive over an hour if I had to.

Also, car shuttles get super expensive. Even having one from most normal places to right down the street for multiple people is a few hundred dollars.

If you found a church nearby, I don't think it will be a big deal. I don't know how it is where you are, but in Houston, you have to travel about that long to get from south to north or something and it's expected. People shouldn't mind, especially when you factor that everyone might be coming from different directions. Maybe suggest that his parents get a hotel if it is a really big deal??

Yes, if the ceremony and reception are in the same place, and it would just be an hour from where most guests live, that's totally fine.

My guests are traveling from around the country to be at my wedding, an hour isn't much, sometimes getting from one end to another in big cities takes an hour!

Granted my guests are staying at hotels that are only a few minutes from the wedding but I have driven several hours to get to weddings before and never felt put out.

I would block hotels in the area though so guests have an option of staying nearby.

I live in Orange County, my fiancé in Manhattan and we are having our ceremony/reception in New Jersey an hour from me. I'm just going to block rooms at a local hotel and luckily there's 2 hotels that provide a shuttle if 10 rooms are booked.

My ceremony and reception is at the same place, and it's 55-60 miles outside of the city limits. But I live in Houston, urban sprawl capital, where one side of Houston is an hour away from the other!

In case anyone didn't want to drive home that night, however, we found and blocked hotel rooms.

Our ceremony venue is 45 from our "local" guests, and the reception is about an hour from there (fortunately the reception venue is closer to home for everyone).

Personally, that's too far. Take into consideration, if your guests live closer to the ceremony, they are going to drive more than an hour after the reception to get home.