Out of Town Accommodations

When we get hired to plan a wedding, 95% of our clients are planning a New England destination wedding. Because of this statistic, one of the first things we do for our clients is find them overnight accommodations for their guests. The quicker you can take care of this to-do item, the better, since there are many factors affected by these decisions. Here are a few things to think about when reserving your accommodations for your out of town guests:

1. ROOM BLOCKS- some hotels will offer room blocks that you can reserve and offer your guests. Often times there is a reduced room rate with your block, but that's not always the case. In the height of the summer season in New England, many hotels will offer you the courtesy of reserving rooms because they will otherwise sell out. Some hotels will require attrition on the room block which means you are required to fill a certain % of the total block, often times it's around 80%, and if you don't, you are responsible for paying for the rest of the rooms. Make sure you check in with your hotel to see how your block is filling up. Many hotels start their room blocks at 10 rooms and then will continue to add to it as you fill the rooms. If and when you reserve your room blocks, make sure you include the name of the block on your Save The Date or your wedding invitation to make it easier on your guests.

2. PRICING- we always suggest trying to get room blocks at three hotels around your wedding location that reflect three different price points to help your guests. Some people at your wedding might have just graduated college and don't have the means to spend $300/night for a hotel room. Some of your parents guests might want to make a mini-vacation out of it and splurge on their accommodations for the wedding. No matter the reason, try to find three different price points to make it as convenient as possible for your guests. One other thought, especially if you can't get a reduced rate for your room blocks, is to ask about a AAA or AARP rate. This can often be up to $10.00 cheaper than the going rate for hotel rooms.

3. STATIONERY- please try to take care of your guest accommodations as soon as you can in order to include this information in your Save the Date and/or Invitations. We suggest including the hotel name, address, phone, website, room block information and pricing if you have that information. Also consider including whether or not there is a 2-night minimum.

4. WELCOME BASKETS- if you'd like to include welcome baskets or welcome itineraries for your guests you will need to know where everyone is staying. Getting a room block at a hotel is the easiest way to keep track of your guests, since everyone will be in the same area. For the hotels that don't offer blocks, you will have to contact your guests directly to find out where they're staying. Write an email asking people to let you know where they're staying, include some sort of check box on your wedding website, or go old school and make a few phone calls.

5. TRANSPORTATION- similar to your welcome basket situation, you need to know how many guests are staying at each hotel in order to reserve the appropriate vehicles.

Getting this item checked off your list soon than later will help keep you organized and will help get your other vendors involved the information they need. Good luck with your planning and have a happy wedding!

KP

Amy and Sean Get Married

Hi everyone! We are back in action here at the KPW blog. my Kate Parker Wedding has taken up a lot of our time (in a good way) If you want to check out our new online wedding resource, feel free to visit my Kate Parker Wedding! We are hoping to post once a week here on KPW to keep things going.For our first time back in a while, we thought we would post about one of the weddings we are planning in June!

This year we are planning a wedding for a fabulous couple who's style is rustic meets vintage meets something fun and new. We were so in love with their amazing stationery designs that we decided to have some fun! We took a mini photo shoot of the invitations, map, announcement, envelope, and also their flowers (minus the craspedia) to show off their amazing wedding design and awesome style.

This wedding has so many details, but in the best way there could be. There is baking twine wrapped around the invitations with two owls threaded through the twine and perched on the outside of the envelope. We have decided to continue the twine and owl design throughout the wedding and onto the napkins. By wrapping the napkins with baking twine and beading the owls through, we can keep the wedding design flowing, from invites to the reception! The couple also had the coolest stamp designed for them which is two little squirrels holding a heart. How awesome! The squirrel theme is quite venue appropriate since the couple is getting married at Rockywold Deephaven Camp in New Hampshire.

The color scheme for this wedding is something new, different, and very cool. The couple chose an aqua-ish blue, red and a perfect shade of yellow for their invitations. For the centerpieces we designed a terra cotta flower pot and found the perfect shade of blue to paint over it in order to match the wedding invitation colors. We then glazed it to get a nice, finished look. Another aspect of the table scape is the cool fabric that the couple picked out to go under the centerpieces and over the off white table linen. The floral and polka dot designs of these fabrics are in great shades of red, yellow, green, and and blue. A perfect mis-match of patterns that will go great with the wooden aspects of Rockywold.

We are also very excited and proud to say that one of our myKPW photographers, Studio Nouveau, is shooting this wedding!

Here is a photograph of the inside of the invitation. The map of Rockywold and the directions from North or South are a great addition to the invites that help guests out when planning how they are getting to the wedding.

Here is a Save-The-Date for Amy and Sean. Notice the baking twine at the top!

Here is the full set of the invitation. The pocket holds the invitation filled with info about the wedding, maps, what to wear, directions, and of course a place to RSVP. This invitation was printed on some pretty awesome paper that is made to look like tree bark. How cool!?

I love love love these owls (and the squirrels in the background)! The twine wrapped around the invitation was all done by hand by the bride. What dedication. I so appreciate the creative, skilled, hands on DIY kind of bride.

Hello Campers! This is the opening of the invitation, a welcome greeting from Amy and Sean, the bride and groom. You can see the little squirrel stamp at the top of the page, tying the inside of the envelope to the outside.

All of Amy and Sean's wedding stationery was designed and created by Strong Studio.

.written by allie.