to choose a wedding venue that closes at 9.30 pm?

[BuntyPenfold]

It is a lovely venue (the Eden domes)but shuts at 9.30 - what to do with guests after that?
Most of them will have driven 6-7 hours, some further, and I feel it isn't much of a 'do' and almost hardly justifies their long journeys.
Most have children, age 3-14, so finishing the evening in a bar isn't possible.
It is deepest Cornwall, so not a lot else there (it will be winter by then or I would just take them to a beach to watch the sunset.)

What time is your ceremony? I think if you have it early in the day, most people will be fine with it finishing at 9.30, especially if they have children.

But if you are having a late afternoon ceremony, then I can understand your concern that it won't be much of a do. Do you think many people will opt to stay in a hotel? If you think a few will, then you could arrange for the bar to stay open late if enough people were planning on staying then you could carry on celebrating there. You could even lay on transport so that people could leave their cars there in the morning, be taken to the wedding and then be taken back afterwards.

Where is everyone going to be staying? can you organise for lots of people to be staying in one place so that the party can 'move back there afterwards? even if you won't actually be staying their for your first night?

If it is winter you might find some hotels or caravan parks or holiday parks or youth hostels will give you a good deal for a group booking like this. Then you get to see everyone at breakfast and for those that want to they can spend a few hours together in the morning too.

Might also be worth speaking to the venue to find out what other people do - they might already have somewhere that they know about that they can point you towards...

Alternatively, have the wedding reasonably early in the day so that everybody is ready to go home by 9.30!

congratualtions and hope you have a good day!

I would have thought by 9:30 you'd be dragging your new husband off for a night of wild passion :o

Yes I will be I just feel guilty about the families.

We got married at midday, reception started about 2. Had do, everyone went home by 8pm. It wasn't always the norm to have an evening party as well. Perhaps get a list of local restaurants/pubs where they can choose to continue the party afterwards.

When does your wedding start?

To give you an idea, my best friend is getting married. The ceremony starts at 1pm. The venue closes 4pm.
The End.

I am not flying my husband and two children over on a 4 hour flight from overseas for a wedding that lasts 4 hours. I attend on my own, although we are all invited.

My wedding started at 1pm reception started at 2pm and was all over by 6pm. Perfect for us. It was written on the invites that it would be finished at 6.

You should make it clear on the invitations it finishes at 9:30 so your guests can make their own arrangements.

We didn´t have an evening do.

We married at 11.30, ate at 2pm, finished at 6.

We got married at 12 and left the reception about 5.30-6pm. We didn't have an evening do so we went and most of the family went back to PILs.

I'd be alright with that, particularly if I had my kids with me. We recently left a wedding at 9.30pm because of our sprogs. We just started drinking earlier

I actually prefer shorter weddings, so afternoon/early evening or morning til after lunch. I find going at 10 for a ceremony, then being expected to party til midnight a bit much, but then I am a lightweight. So will most of the parents, I guess. The Eden Project is stunning and I would love to go to a wedding there.

I meant 10am, even I can manage 10pm to midnight!

We didn't have an evening do either. It was lovely to go off to our hotel, have dinner together quitely and talk about the day. And when we got back from our honeymoon it was fun to hear about what various groups of guests had gone on to do. To be honest, trying to organize evening entertainment for a wide range of ages and interests strikes me as a bit of a nightmare!

I´m quite pleased that we aren´t the only ones!

We invited everyone we wanted to the ceremony & reception so thought an evening reception unnecessary.

I´m quite sure some thought we were boring for not having a "party" but we thought the reception was enough.

We had a "sit down" meal, but after that everyone mingled drinking & chatting.

Absolutely fine, imo. Second the idea of finding a hotel where everyone can stay together - or maybe this ?

Also think you ought to state "carriages at 9.30" - assuming people won't take this literally and actually expect carriages

9.30 sounds reasonable, our venue kicks us out at 4pm. Everyone is then invited back to ours for drinks. But if the venue closed at 9.30 I probably wouldn't bother.