Reception and Ceremony Space

I would not do more than 30 minutes but some brides do their ceremony in one place like a park or a church and the venue for the reception is within driving distance. I am doing a post small ceremony reception at a later date which is different but I am looking into rec centers that do not charge a lot and allow you to bring alcohol and outside food. Some will waive the bartender fee.

Cost would really just depend on the specific options you're considering. I would say that 20-30 minutes is the max amount of time I would ask for guests to travel between ceremony and reception, but preferably as short as possible.

The cost really depends on your area and church. For us, our venue didn’t have a rental fee as long as we met their food and beverage minimum and our church would have been $500 plus the cost of the organist. That isn’t why we chose to get married at our venue though. As far as distance between the two, I’d say anything more than 30-45 minutes is too much.

The timing between the church and the venue space that we have been looking at is only about 15 minutes. Since it is my church, there is a discounted rate associated. There would be an additional ceremony cost if I chose to have the ceremony at the same venue our reception is going to be held.

Thank you everyone for the input. I was afraid if 15 mins was too far/long distance for guest to travel

I did that. The church was like two miles down the road from the reception so my drive was short but I've been to plenty of weddings where my drive was an hour in between or more

We had our entire wedding at one venue and in my opinion, it flows so much better and is a lot easier for guests.

We did all in one venue. Guests immediately were able to enjoy cocktail hour. So much more convenient for guests in my opinion.

We also had ours at one venue. Easy for us, easy for guests, in hindsight, I wouldn’t change it.