Hotel Venue for Reception

I think it's important to price both options out and do the option that you can picture. I wanted to stay away from the hotel based wedding even though my side of the family is from Nova Scotia and has to fly into Ontario. I found that I wanted a different atmosphere being more relaxed and unique so we went to a museum that's nearby to the hotel and they have been amazing to work with. Check around, ideas change but remember your gut feeling will let you know if it's what you want. Do it for yourself and not your guest, shuttles are fairly cheap!

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Congratulations! Sounds like you're happy with the choice you've made. We decided to go with the reception in a hotel as well, mostly for the convenience and having the coordinator help us with a variety of things which made it easier, as we were out of town as well. Happy planning!

View quoted message That’s great! Exciting that you were able to keep your wedding date! And the ceremony space sounds gorgeous (i’m a sucker for water!) It is super convenient that it is all in one location! Plus, hotels usually have all the linens and dishes and set up and clean it all up so less work for you and anyone helping you!

Well we got the hotel we wanted, for the date we wanted. I wasn't so keen on the idea of holding the reception at the hotel, but one we booked is a very nice venue and we even decided to have the ceremony there too, on the patio overlooking the lake. Now that the venue is booked I've realized that it's rather nice to be able to cross ceremony and reception venues, catering, hotel block for guests, and a place for wedding parties to get ready all crossed off my list.

We are getting married at a hotel but only because that was our top venue choice. Its a fairly expensive hotel/spa so not a lot of guests are staying there anyway.

We're getting married in Niagara on the Lake and half our guests are from Chicago. Its not really preventing anyone from coming!

I think it just depends how many hotels are in the area... You could prob just get a shuttle bus from other hotels and not need to change your date?

Our guests got a discount room rate with us having our reception at the hotel. but we are also having our ceremony there. so no travel for our guests.

Our reception was the same venue as the wedding. Luckily, our guests didn't have to travel anywhere.

The hotel where my cousins had their weddings was arranged to be close to the wedding ceremony. One at least and the other arranged tranaportation to the venues and back to the hotel

Hotels are nice because of the convenience of everything. When considering your venue, think of the theme you want. If you want a big ballroom in bland colours that you can bring a decorator in and transform it into a stunning venue hotel is a great way to go. You can customize your look for you. If you want to do as little decorating as possible look for a venue that has a little more personality some places if you just bring in some centerpieces and a few personal items and it looks stunning. The venue itself might cost more but without the cost of a decorator, it works out to be about the same cost. Transportation can be challenging if you are not at or close to a hotel but there are many options you can look into. A shuttle is a great way to go but is an extra expense. Look at the budget and theme and see what works best for you and your partner.

We got married at my uncle's place which is 3 hours from where we live. All of our guest were "from out of town". Our venue and the hotel were 20 minutes apart so we hired transportation to take people back at two different times in the evening. I don't think it would have been important to me to have the reception at a hotel to accommodate the guests. The day is supposed to be about you and your FS.

We are getting married in a mansion complex that has the grand hall and hotel in the same place so it’s a one stop shop for all out of town guests and anyone who wants to stay right at the venue. It’s a convenience for the guests but wasn’t super important. As long as the two places are close then it shouldn’t be an issue

One of the reasons we're having our reception at a hotel is to give people their own space for at least one night. Most of our guests are travelling and taking up the spare beds and guest rooms of our local family, so we figured after being together in such confined space basically 24/7 in the days before, everyone might need a break from each other!

Plus, we like to party and it's easier to stumble upstair to a room than to remember what address to give the taxi driver!

The majority of our guess are from Europe, but we're definitely not gonna have the reception at a hotel. Our wedding is a day wedding tho, so they still got plenty of time to get back to their hotel but we're only providing them with directions for the way back. We are providing them with transport towards the venue, but since there's plenty of fun things to do there after the wedding and people might wanna leave at different times we're not providing transportation back to the hotel.
If you really wanna go somewhere else as a hotel / anywhere your guests will be staying you could provide them with transportation at a certain time? Since I'm assuming you'll have an evening wedding and it will just be till the venue closes?

Our wedding will be about 5-15 minutes from the hotel. It depends on what is important to each individual couple. A shuttle is an alternative to doing this like others have suggested. We are also having a camp out option as we are having an outdoor wedding

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Thankfully we haven't sent out save the dates yet. But we have some family members who are trying to schedule their vacation time so they don't miss our wedding, so we want to get a venue booked soon.

Have you already sent out save the dates? If you have, I think it's a lot harder to change the wedding date. Some people might have already made arrangements to come, especially those that are out of town.

I had a friend who changed her wedding date and most people were still able to come but she did lose a few out-of-towners.

I think there are other options. You could have a shuttle or designated drivers to take people to their accommodation.

I think it depends on your guests, lots of drinkers? then they will need a taxi or shuttle of some sort from the venue to the hotel, so the question would be is the Taxi on them? Would be covering a portion of the taxi or will you be providing a shuttle? How much would that be, also is that cost within your budget?

I've been to 2 different weddings, where one had the shuttle and one had it at the hotel. No complaints about either.

We have everything happening at the hotel so the guests don't need to travel far.

Our reception is about 20-30 minutes from the hotels that our guests will be staying at! I don't think it is overly important that the reception is at the same place - many people are used to making sure they have transportation back.

Another option is to arrange a shuttle from your reception back to the hotels! We have arranged for a shuttle bus for our guests - we have noted it on the invite to carpool to the reception if they are wanting to use the shuttle bus after drinking! It will have three trips back to the hotels - 10pm, 11pm and midnight! (our venue shuts down at midnight!). It was only $375.00 for the shuttle, so I think it is a worthwhile expense to provide our guests a free ride back to the hotel!