Thoughts on separate ceremony and reception site?

I would say whatever works, we are having a church wedding and reception at different places about 20-30mins drive

2 locations are done for a ceremony and reception while some prefer 1 to make it easy and simple to have cocktail hour in between them.

I know my brother and cousins have had 2 locations for their celebrations in the nearby locations of the hotel stayed when attending. It was nice yet different as one had 1 location on a yacht club with a outdoor wedding and indoor reception. We too had 1 location for all guests to enjoy activities on land and on water. All this said, there was a cocktail hour in the hotel itself on a different floor and then heading to reception and for venue wise, it was buffet style given half hour.

The commute can vary from ceremony to reception of its location. Its better to know how to plan and timing of traffic occurring to ensure guests arrive and get seated before the festivities begin.

I've attended 3 weddings where the banquet hall was 30-40 minutes away from the church ceremony. There was about a 4 hour gap between the ceremony and the reception. I personally didn't like the 3-4 hour gap in-between. Felt too long. Nowhere to go and nothing to do.

View quoted message

That's how we are doing ours too!

I know for us, we’re having it at the same place in order to keep the party going, but I’ve been to lots of weddings where they’re at separate locations. As long as there’s time to get there with some wiggle room, it should be fine.

We're doing this, however our venues are right next door to each other so guests will be able to just cut across the lawn rather than driving any sort of distance.

We chose to do it because we liked the look of the outdoor ceremony space better for one venue, but the other allowed us to bring in our own catering and alcohol which was a big cost saver

Ours is about a 30-40 minute drive with a 4.5 hour gap - so our guests will get to go home or to their hotel for a bit.

A lot of people do that for church weddings. It depends on what day of the week it is. It's obviously a lot easier during the weekend as opposed to a Friday or something.


The only thing I find about two location weddings, especially ones in the Catholic church where they have to adhere to the Catholic wedding hour, is that there is always a huge gap between the ceremony and the reception. If it's in your hometown where the majority of your guests live, it's not a big deal. I would just go home and come back out afterward. But if people have to travel over an hour to get to either venue, it can be fairly cumbersome. I'd be picking between a really long commute or trying to kill 4-5 hours somewhere random dressed up in formal wear.