Wednesday's Wedding 101- Your Guests

I find myself saying to couples all the time, "even though your Big Day is supposed to be ALL ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU, you'll find yourself going out of your way to accommodate your guests!"
This is so true!  Even though what you want for your big day is  important, you also have to worry about all of the guests who have traveled far and wide to make your day even more special!

Here are some things that I think enhance your guests experience while also making your day that much more memorable!




1- Info Hub:
Sites such as weddingwire offer the option of creating your own wedding website and ...its free!  This is a great place to list all of the info you want to communicate to your guests without overloading print information  that you may distribute.  Posting your site on your Save-the-Date as well as on an info card included with your invitation is certainly helpful!  On this site you can list everything from directions, airport information, hotel & room block information, places to visit (including the couples favorites), registry info, agenda, transportation, dress code, etc.

2- Hotel Accommodations-
As mentioned in last Wednesdays post it is very important to set up a block of rooms at a discounted rate for your out of town guests.  Working at a hotel I understand the in's and out's of the process well.  You want to request a block of rooms without any financial guarantee if you can.  Hotels have various forms of verbiage for this.. You may hear "courtesy block or soft block".  What this means is that you are getting a certain amount of rooms based on availability at a DISCOUNTED rate and that rate, as well as the rooms blocked off will remain available to your guests until your contracted cutoff date.  Guests would make their own reservation and pay for their room.   The main thing you want to shoot for is: NO financial obligation on you.
EX: If you have a block of 15 rooms a night  and you only fill 10, you are not responsible for the other 5. 
I have brides tell me all the time (even if it is a 100% destination wedding) that they KNOW that they are going to need at least 30 rooms a night.  The truth is, guests are going to do what they want.  Some may be Hilton Honors members or loyal to Marriott, some may want to rent a house, or others stay somewhere that they found a cheaper rate online...regardless... the last thing you want is to be responsible for paying for a ton of sleeping rooms.  If a hotel is offering a block of 10-15 rooms without a financial guarantee DO IT! 

3- Welcome Bags-
Please see my post from 8/22/12 for in depth details on "Welcome Bags", but I did want to reiterate this:  You can contact Group Sales to get an up-to-date  list  of the guests that have made a reservation under your block.   You may find that there's guests missing from your list!  Why?  Some  guests make a reservation at the same hotel but do it through sites like Travelosity, or  through honors clubs, AAA, or AARP.  If they make a reservation under anything other than your block code, they will not be listed.
For destination weddings where you have large amounts of travelers, I recommend having a line item on the rsvp card for your guest to list where they're staying.  That way, you can generate your own mater list to provide to the hotel so that no guests are left behind.  Once you have your list,  bring it to the front desk to distribute to the appropriate guests. 
It is important to list the quantity of bags given, or label the bags if certain bags go to certain guests.  It is important to ask if the hotel charges for distribution of Welcome Bags.  There should not be charges if guests are given the bags at check-in, however delivery of bags usually comes with a fee.

4- Directions-
Even though we have constant access to GPS it is customary to provide directions to the ceremony & reception site.  Save your guests the stress of having to go the wedding website to print off directions although it is great to list them on your wedding website.

5- Food & Beverage-
There are two main things that guests are expecting when they come to a wedding...Food & Alcohol.  Unfortunately not all of us are made of money...and with a wedding usually comes a budget!  Just because you can't afford a filet or ultra premium cocktails that doesn't mean you have to skimp out when it comes to wining and dinning your guests. 

The number one thing to remember when it comes to food is that it does not always have to expensive, it just has to taste good, and you need to order ample amounts. Similar situation for beverages: if you can't afford to stock a bar with all of the top shelf items, pick one or two decent liquors and offer a signature drink.  Then you can have  beer and wine to accommodate the others!

Misconception-
If you are having your wedding at a venue where you can provide your own food & beverage, beer and wine is going to be a lot more cost effective and easier to put together.

If you are having your wedding at an all inclusive venue, usually having House Brand Liquors, Beer, Wine, & Soda (especially if you are doing an open bar package where its a per head per hour) is going to be more cost effective than just Beer, Wine, & Soda.  This is especially true if your doing it for multiple hours.  Reason being.... you get a lot more drinks out of a 5th of vodka then you do out of a case of beer.  Most all inclusive venues do not allow kegs too which brings even more truth to what I have listed above.

Well... I just realized how much I've already written in today's entry!  I think I could have made this into 3-4 entry's so that's it for tonight. 

Please let me know what topics you'd be interested in reading about on Wedding Wednesday's  for next time!