Wedding Location Question

by Mary Jo
(Fort Wayne, IN)

Our daughter would like to have her wedding at our lake cottage that is 40m. from town. Some guests would have to drive 40 - 50m to the wedding, 40m. to the reception and then 40m. home, making a big circle.

Is this ok? Is it even ok to ask the guest living in the city to drive to the lake and back to the city?

Would it be acceptable to give them an option on the RSVP card to attend one or the other if they do no want to drive so much? Stating that we know it is asking a lot, or should we try and have everything in one location? Lake or town.



Our Thoughts

Dear Mary Jo,

Though it make everyone's life much easier to have everything in one location, if your daughter wants to get married at your lake side cottage, then she should do so and be excited about it.

I know that this driving dilemma may seem daunting, but experience has taught me that people will travel if they truly want to attend the wedding event. Those who do not want to travel will choose either the ceremony or reception.

Those guests that will end up choosing to attend one or the other will typically choose to attend only the main reception. This is especially true for those guests with children (if invited) since it may be too tough on small children to spend that much time traveling.

A way to help with those traveling from the city and back is to offer a shuttle bus option. Most cities have tour size (46 passenger) buses for events such as this for not a lot of cost round trip.

It is worth looking into and may help get a lot more people on board for the wedding ceremony, as well as, offering them a chance to be able to kick back and have a few drinks since they will not be driving the distance required for that day.

On last thought; I would not place this either/or option in an official wedding invitation. I suggest creating a wedding website with this RSVP option, and if you do go with the shuttle bus you can have the RSVP for this as well on the website.

Regards,
Danielle