How far is too far for guests to travel for a wedding reception?

Thank you all so much for your input! I'll go over the pros and cons for all parameters listed.

We are planning our wedding near where my fiancé’s family lives as most of them don’t drive as my family does. Some will be travelling 3+ hours to get to our wedding. We will be giving them a list of accommodations in the are where our wedding will be. If they do not want to drive, then that is their loss.


If your family is staying longer than your wedding, I would do accommodations where your wedding is and then bring them to the Toronto area afterwards. Keeps the traveling down, and really.. nobody likes toronto traffic!! 😂

I think you can do it, but you’ll have to consider where your guests will stay/how they’ll get to the venue. You don’t want them stuck in traffic on the 401 trying to get there or trying to drive back after drinking.
That being said, there’s lots of places to stay in Kitchener and they can drive a rental or take the GO into Toronto whenever they want. It would have to be a conversation you’d have to have with your relatives.

A reception more than 2 hours away from the wedding is a lot of travel if you live out of town. If you did it all in Kitchener it would be less hassle since guests could get a hotel in Kitchener instead of going back and forth from Totonro to Kitchener. Some guests might get lost (more time to take a wrong turn the farther out of town guests have to travel) and some guests might just skip the reception if it's more than 2 hours away, especially if they already spent 4 or more hours driving to get there.

I’d say 2 hours max. And make sure you include accommodation information in your invitations/website

Travel distance for out of town guests beyond 2 hours seems far and having to go straight to Kitchener/Waterloo to Toronto should be between the traffic hours of the day to avoid being late. Checking the route before heading out from the ceremony would be wise to see if it will take exact time or delayed on an issues on the highway.

There was a good point you made of saying to pay for transportation if needed to get your guests from the airport to Kitchener/Waterloo area.

My fiance and I are getting married in Kelowna BC but live in Alberta. Our entire guest list is traveling to the city we're getting married in and staying in a hotel. If your guests don't want to travel, it's their loss. It's your big day and you shouldn't worry about how far of a drive it is!

Hi there I live in Brampton and looked at venues as far as 2 hours away. I almost booked a venue 1.5 hours away, in Woodstock, however decided to reduce my guest list and choose a smaller venue in Caledon. I would have had a few out of province folks, and a few folks from the states.
I would say anything longer then an hour drive is a bit of stretch but if they want to be there they will make the effort. The only thing is with individuals coming from Europe it's a bit much if they're coming for a short period of time. If they're staying for more then a few days up to a week you may be able to pull off exploring both Toronto and Waterloo. However, if theyre just coming for one or two days then I would suggest they book a hotel where the venue is, however they will be away from family/friends for the duration of the trip. How many guests are expected from Europe? Where would they be staying when they arrive? Can the individuals from Europe stay in Toronto and travel with other individuals to the venue?

If they're travelling from a different continent and expecting to stay in Toronto, going out to Kitchener Waterloo is a stretch (in my opinion) unless you're arranging travel for all of them. Not to mention, a mid afternoon drive to the Waterloo area could take up to 2.5 hours on the 401. Are you also expecting your local guests to drive home afterward? That could be a slog and may end up ending your party earlier than expected because guests likely don't want to make the trek back into the city at 1am or they'll have to pay for a hotel in Waterloo for a night. And as someone who's been in the Waterloo area for Oktoberfest and a few tech conferences, I personally don't think there is much to explore lol.

There are plenty of affordable venues much closer, such as the suburbs of the GTA like Markham, Mississauga, Vaughan, and Brampton. But if you want to venture out beyond the GTA, I suggest Niagara or Stratford. Yes, they're further drives than Waterloo but at least those places offer entertainment value for people who close to stay the night, compared to Waterloo.