Holiday Weekend Weddings

[Hudson_Hawk]

For those of you who are or did get married on a holiday weekend, how far in advance did you block hotel rooms and send save the dates? We''re getting married Memorial Day weekend of 2009, at a beach-side venue so I have a feeling accomodations are not going to be easy to come by. I''d like to set up the room blocks far enough in advance to ensure that my guests can get rooms near the site. How far in advance should I do this?

 

[misysu2]

I'm getting married Memorial Day weekend 2008, and we've already sent out save the dates because we have people flying in from Hawaii. About 90% of our guests are family members, so I'm not worried about it being so far in advance-- they'll get lots of reminders!

As for blocking rooms, I haven't decided if I'm going to. I have so many other things to worry about wedding-wise, I feel like the guests can put their big kid pants on (love that saying around here) and arrange their own hotel room reservations. It may sound mean-- I think most brides around here do block rooms. But we're not getting married in any type of Memorial Day tourist destination.

 

[saltymuffin]

If you already know your dates, I would block the rooms as soon as the hotel will allow it. (Sometimes they won't do this more than a year in advance, but sometimes they will).

Blocking rooms is a really easy thing to do and a HUGE help for people who are travelling from out of the area. It only takes a minute of your time but has many benefits:

- A lot of people who don't travel frequently might not realise that hotels do sell out, and not book early enough.
- it saves people from having to research hotels. It can be a bit of work to figure out what hotel is most convienient for the venue, which one isn't a dump, which one has a decent rate, etc.
- when you block rooms, the hotel ususally gives you a discount code, so that your guest can save some $
- it saves you from being asked a thousand times, "where should I stay?"

As for the save the dates, it doesn't really matter, if you already have the rooms booked. Sometimes hotels will only hold the block of rooms for a certain amount of time before the event. If this is the case, be sure to get those save the dates out early enough so that people can get booked before the deadline. And be sure to let people know what the deadline is!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I didn''t get married on a holiday weekend, but a couple of family members have and I know that blocking rooms on a holiday weekend was a big priority to them.

My cousin got married over Memorial Day last year in CA. The hotel would not reserve rooms more than a year in advance, so the previous year there were multiple couples calling at midnight and battling for room blocks. My cousin only needed about 10 - 15 rooms so it worked out for him.

A coworker of mine is getting married Memorial Day 2008 and was able to block his rooms just shy of two years in advance (long engagement).

I would definitely get a room block and negotiate the rate for your guests. We were lucky because we were able to accommodate all but one aunt and uncle on the venue premises, so we rented a hotel room for them nearby and I was able to negotiate quite a bit off of the nightly rate. I''m assuming that if you rent an entire block of rooms, you have even more room to negotiate. Also, the earlier you book them, the more negotiation room you have. I think I could have gotten more off the rate, but they were almost booked to capacity and it was a quaint seaside hotel.

So I say book the block as soon as you have a good idea of who''s coming and how many rooms you''ll need--the earlier the better--and negotiate the rate!

 

[sap483]

I''m getting married in Newport over the 4th of July 2008 and unfortunately can''t find a hotel in the area with blocks available. Turns out most are a) Fully booked in terms of blocks, b) Don''t accept blocks over a holiday weekend, or c) Require you hold your rehearsal dinner or brunch there and spend a minimum of 3k. So needless to say I''m quite frustrated. Do it in advance while you can!!!