Long(ish) distanced wedding

Just about everyone, including myself and my fiancé, will have to travel for my wedding. Our families are all over the US. No one has complained about the location. I actually think people are excited for the excuse to travel.

Two hours isn’t far to drive for a wedding at all. I think it’s super sweet you are trying to be so accommodating to your guests, but I don’t think this is something you need to worry about. Secure that venue that you and Fiancé love! 😊

View Quoted Comment Thank you! I hope safe travels for you and your family and a wonderful wedding experience for y’all.

View Quoted Comment I appreciate it! We are moving forward, just hoping it goes well

Don’t worry at all. He’s absolutely right, if they want to come, they will. You all are doing them a favor by trying to accommodate them for you all’s wedding. We have some guest traveling 4 hours. I think 2 hours is fine, I don’t think you’ll get any complaints. And even if you do, you can’t please everyone.

I wouldn't worry about it. We only had a few guests who lived in the same area as our wedding - 99.5% of our guests had to travel (I did the math), and most of them travelled a fair distance (we got married in AL and had guests from OH, FL, NC, IL, MO, MS, and CA).

It's really nice that you're trying to find something that's in between families, but odds are there's probably going to end up being a lopsided amount of traveling for one side vs the other. I'd focus on finding a venue that's what the both of you want over a venue that's at an exact midpoint. 2 hours really isn't too bad of a drive, and people can find hotels if they don't want to be in the car after the reception. Most of our guests are going to be coming from out of state, but they're actually pretty excited to have an excuse to travel. We did make a point to find a reception venue that was either in a hotel or within walking distance so nobody would have to worry about driving in a strange place or finding a ride afterwards.

Hi Cierra. I think you're being thoughtful, but I agree with Paige and that it's best to find a venue that makes you both happy. I don't think 2 hours is too much. My husband's cousins in NJ braved traffic and bridges to get into NY. You never know how long this will take. Most made the reception at 5pm which was geographically closer, but many skipped the 2pm ceremony 30 minutes further east. Perhaps if you have 2 locations, they will make it to the reception due to logistics. We also had it at a hotel, so there were even Long Island and city guests that stayed overnight to drive the next day.

I agree, 2 hours to a wedding and reception is not that bad. Are there hotels nearby if they don't want to make the drive back?

90% of our guests have to travel. We sent save the dates to let them know the date and location so they have ample time to make travel arrangements and schedule time off work. Our families and friends have always been scattered across the country and overseas so travel is expected and no one has ever had any issues with it because it’s also viewed as an informal family reunion. For that reason, it’s always made the most sense to keep it where the couple lives. We are not worried at all about guests not showing up.


Only once have any of us ever attended an actual destination wedding where it did not take place where the couple lived and costs were so much extra in addition that the turn out was very small. If the couple had stayed where they live, other guests who declined mentioned that they would have no issues traveling in that case.

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Yep, so I created a little folder with nice hotels that aren't too far away (each about 15-30min away). Wedding and reception are at the same location so thankfully they wont have to do any additional traveling.

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Thanks, Paige! We definitely really love this venue. We will get to do both ceremony and reception there so I'm glad they won't have to do any additional travel.

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Thanks, Michelle! I found hotels that are close by so hopefully that makes it better for them. Ceremony and reception are at the same place, but maybe that will be a bonus that once they're there, that's it.

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I'm trying to be like him and just not worry about it (too much) lol. But y'all's comments on here have definitely helped as well.

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Oh wow! That is so nice. I'm really going to try not to worry about it.

View Quoted Comment Lol you sound like me. But seriously everything will work out. Try not to worry too much about it.

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We just went to his brother's destination wedding, so I definitely know what you're talking about with the cost and turn out amount.

He is definitely not worried at all about it (so he says), so I just need to follow suit at this point!

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Thanks, girl!

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You're golden then!