Accommodating Out of Town Guests
The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to
center stage--at least it seems that way. If you've been
thinking you need to know more about weddings, here's your
opportunity.
Recently the number of out of town guests attending weddings has
been on the rise. Years ago, young people grew up and got
married in the town they had lived in all their lives but
nowadays couples are attending out of state colleges and
accepting jobs far away from their hometown. This travel leads
to more and more out of town guests attending weddings as the
couple may have friends from their hometown, friends from
college and friends from the new area where they live and work.
Wherever the couple opts to get married there are bound to be a
number of guests who are traveling from out of state for the
occasion. As the attendance of out of town guests is a
relatively new phenomenon, there are not many established
traditions regarding out of town guests and the couple has some
leeway to deal with the situation as they see fit.
It has become commonplace for the couple to reserve a block of
rooms at a hotel that is near the wedding location for their out
of town guests. Many hotels will offer a discounted rate if you
block out a certain number of rooms. Knowing that you can assure
the hotel of a number of guests, gives the hotel the ability to
offer a lower rate because they are assured a certain number of
booked rooms. Out of town guests will appreciate this gesture
because they are receiving a lower rate than they would have
found on their own plus they are spared the hassle and
inconvenience of trying to find a hotel in an unfamiliar city.
One increasingly popular trend for accommodating out of town
guests is to prepare a package featuring brochures and
information regarding some of the points of interest in your
city and mailing this package out to all of your out of town
guests a few weeks before the wedding. Since many out of town
guests may try to schedule a vacation around the wedding, this
packages offers them a good starting point in their research by
highlighting some of the tourist attractions in the area. You
could also include a listing of local restaurants and personal
recommendations for your guests.
Now that we've covered those aspects of weddings, let's turn to
some of the other factors that need to be considered.
Guests who travel from out of town to attend your wedding are
making a sacrifice to do so and it is important to let them know
that you appreciate the effort they are making to attend your
wedding. There are a couple of ways to do this. One way to do
this is to find out where your out of town guests will be
staying and when they will be arriving. Once you have this
information you can prepare a welcome bag for the out of town
guests and drop them off at the hotel and instruct the staff to
give them to your guests upon their arrival. As your guest are
likely to be tired from their trip, some suggestions for items
to include in these welcome bags may include a light snack
featuring local specialties and relaxation items such as bath
salts and candles. This small gesture really lets your guests
know that their presence is appreciated.
Another option to consider for accommodating out of town guests
is to include them in the rehearsal dinner. This is a lovely
gesture because it sends the message that you are glad that they
have traveled to attend your wedding and that you are interested
in spending additional time with them. If it is not economically
feasible to include all of your out of town guests at the
rehearsal dinner you should consider making another effort to
spend some additional time with them such as inviting them over
for drinks and hors devours or even making a concerted effort to
spend quality time with them at the reception. Although the
reception can be hectic and virtually fly by, it is important to
spend a little extra time with your out of town guests who have
made a sacrifice to attend your wedding.
The secret to accommodating your out of town guests is to make
every effort to ensure that they know their attendance is
greatly appreciated. Small gestures such as reserving a block of
hotel rooms or putting together a list of tourist attractions as
well as more significant gestures such as preparing welcome
baskets and making an extra effort to spend time with your out
of town guests all contribute to making your out of town guests
feel appreciated and welcomed. It is important to let your out
of town guests know that you realize that they have made
sacrifices to travel to your wedding and that you appreciate
them just for being there.
Of course, it's impossible to put everything about weddings into
just one article. But you can't deny that you've just added to
your understanding about weddings, and that's time well spent.