Wedding questions
Our wedding venue is going to be around 2 hours away from most of our guests, and some will need to travel by plane (probably around 10–15 people). We’re expecting around 60–80 guests. No matter where we have the wedding, travelling is going to be inevitable since everyone is pretty scattered.
We’ll be having the ceremony and reception in the same venue, and I’ve decided that there won’t be any room flipping. Guests will basically stay in the same seats for the ceremony and then continue into the reception.
After the ceremony, we’re thinking of just mingling with everyone. We’ll probably do our photos before the ceremony starts so we’re not away from our guests during that time.
We’re planning an open bar, family-style dinner (1 starter, 1 entrée, 1 side, and dessert), plus self-serve coffee, tea, and water. I also want to have a self-serve “candy/snack bar” with candies and goodies from my home country, along with some of our other favourite snacks.
There’ll also be a live band for the dancing.
The venue has accommodations, and we’re planning to pay for the on-site accommodations so our friends can stay there with us. Relatives and others will have find their own (going to block motel rooms for them to pay)
Most inns and motels are about 20 minutes from the main town.
I have a few questions:
A lot of our guests will need to find their own accommodations in the area, and the closest motels/inns are about 20 minutes from the venue. We’ll provide taxi numbers and give the taxi company a heads-up about the wedding, but we won’t be paying for transportation because of our budget. Is that okay/normal?
For those of you who have gone straight from the ceremony into the reception dinner, how did that work out? Is it weird not to have a traditional cocktail hour? We’re planning to have appetizers, but instead of a cocktail hour, we’d probably just put them out on the tables. Would it be weird to have the appetizers already on the tables during the ceremony?
Thoughts on overall wedding plan?
Our budget is around $25k. Part of me honestly just wants to elope, but another part of me really wants to celebrate with everyone! Lol