When you are planning your wedding, there are two crucial things you need to think about. Firstly you must consider where you actually want to get married. Are you going for a church service? How about a quieter and less religious registry office? And of course today you can also get married in any number of other stately homes, venues and more unusual places that have been granted a licence to marry people.

Secondly there is the question of where you will celebrate afterwards. You might want something fairly low key with only close friends and family present. Alternatively you may want the party to end all parties! It is completely up to you and every happy couple has their own idea of what will work for them.

But there are distinct benefits to holding the wedding ceremony and the reception in separate locations. If you are still at the planning stages of your forthcoming wedding, you may want to consider the following points.

For starters there is the essential fact that it makes things more versatile. There are plenty of venues that can accommodate you for the whole day – ceremony and all. But you may have a very specific idea of where you want to be married. If a church service is what you want, you will definitely have to find another venue for the reception for example.

Basically it opens up all kinds of venues for both the ceremony and the reception that you would not be able to consider if you wanted an all inclusive package which catered for everything.

In addition to this it also gives you and your guests a valuable breather in between the wedding ceremony and the celebrations afterwards. Depending on what you want to do, you could have a couple of hours in between just to relax and get rid of all those nerves that have been mounting for days! You can then look forward to the evening celebrations elsewhere.

Some couples like to have a smaller and more intimate wedding ceremony, and this is also easier to do with separate venues. If you opt for one venue for both parts of the day, you couldn’t pick a small venue for the ceremony if you wanted everyone to attend the evening do. There simply wouldn’t be room.

The question of travel may also be an issue. Some people like to get married in spots that have a particular resonance for them. For example, if you met in a small church a hundred miles away from where you now live, you might want to go back there for the service. In this case you could do that and then hold a celebration for everyone to attend a day or two later.

As you can see there are lots of possibilities available when you focus on two separate locations for the wedding services and the celebrations afterwards. You might find your wedding is much easier to plan if you go down this route.

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