Asking guests to travel for a no party wedding?

Exactly this. The last wedding I went to was lovely, but I completely missed all of the dancing because I was sat outside talking to an old friend going through a rough time. That connection with someone was far more important.

I would clearly state it's drinks and a meal so people can decide whether to book a hotel or not, I would just not drink myself for an hours drive

Dancing is the worst part of a wedding. Fucking hate shouting over shit music whilst everyone gets pissed and 5 people actually bother to dance.

I do not believe this OP! The whole point of a wedding is the ceremony - if I love someone, that is the bit I want to attend. For most of us, the "party" bit is irrelevant and pretty boring.
A ceremony, followed by a meal, is exactly what we all had back in the 80s/90s, and people travelled very long distances to attend. What has happened to the world that someone's actual marriage is now considered so unimportant?

This. For a wedding and lunch with people I liked ( and meeting new people) I'd be perfectly happy to travel that far . I've had enough by the time you get to the dancing part of weddings.

Will there be speeches? Where is the meal? A privately hired space, or a restaurant? How many guests?
It doesn't matter I suppose, but just trying to judge the sense of "occasion" we're talking about here! Rightly or wrongly, a nice meal in a pub or hotel, speeches and socialising with a nice group of people would be more appealing than a cold buffet in a church hall with not many people or atmosphere. The lack of music and late night party itself would be fine.

Sounds fine to me. An hour is nothing. That’s not travel. That’s a bit of a drive.

Where are you @inspector80 ? Fess up, are you the bride or the disgruntled guest?

I know! ☺️

Id travel an hour to meet a friend for dinner. The wedding would be a bonus.
It sounds like an appropriate and traditional wedding.

I agree. I'd be baffled by an invitation like that. It isn't a long way, lots of weddings are hours away so it makes no sense. I'd worry it meant they were inviting me out of politeness but actually trying to put me off coming.

Why odd? Perhaps the couple are on a tight budget! It’s about the couple getting married not the reception! When I got married I church, reception no music or evening do! Everyone said it was the best wedding they’d been to as they could actually socialise!

I really wouldn't call an hour's drive "travel".
I think it's fine. Maybe state that there is not after party, but there's a meal.
This shouldn't be an issue.

My wedding was like this, registry office and then restaurant meal. Some guests travelled for a lot more than an hour to attend. I didn't feel anyone was judging us. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I don't know why you'd say that! It sounds too apologetic!
Just a regular invitation, you're invited to a wedding ceremony and meal. Nothing unusual about that, it's just that recently people have gone big and fancy. Not necessarily better.

My ex sil had a wedding like this. Registry office followed by a booked meal somewhere. No party, disco etc, it was fine. I don’t really like the party after to be honest, I’m usually done by then. We travelled a few hours and stayed a couple of nights.

People came from all over the UK for our wedding and it was pretty much that...right down to the drive to the food...people really liked it.

Finished at 5pm, we gave our mate a lift back to the local town and ate chips on the prom, watching a big wedding at a hotel there, also cemented my thoughts we'd done the right thing. Went back to the place we were saying, had a cup of cocoa with friends, went to bed.

Surely the invite could say something like 'reception will be a low key meal only with finish around 10pm, we would love you to come and have invited you as our closest family and friends, but appreciate its a long way for some of our guests and won't be offended if you can't make it'

I would agree with this, because often there's hours to kill when the bridal party are having photographs, then loads of speeches etc. often the food isn't good because that's not what they have spent money on. A good quality sit down meal with nice company is perfect.
If a group want to go on somewhere else afterwards, that's up to them. That's what we used to do.

A meal sounds great. I wouldn't mind at all, as long as you informed me it's the wedding followed by a meal and no party.

So an hours drive to see then get married then another 30m for the venue for reception where there is food and a chat /socialising

don’t see the issue

no need to stay and then drive 1.5hrs home after

or if want to drink /not drive all in same day grab a b&b/travel lodge etx near by and drive home next day

I can drive 90mins each way for work if traffic bad

There was no dancing at my wedding. We had a registry office do and then off for a meal and we just socialised. No disco, nobody complained except one SIL, but she was a moody mare at the best of times so nobody took any notice. People travelled, to the midlands from east Anglia, Scotland and the North East. We had a great time.

I would have no problem with travelling for a couple of hours, or more, to celebrate a wedding of a friend. Even with no dancing. It’s about the occasion me, definitely not the dancing.

A meal is lovely and I would attend

All the Indian weddings I have been to didn't have dancing.

They were amazing.

I don't think dancing is a requirement.

I think it depends what time the wedding and the meal are. I’ve been to two weddings 120 miles away which both had a lunch and then nothing after, they were a bit flat.