Be Accommodating
Sandra Mardenfeld
Although they may be close to your heart, some friends and family travel quite a distance to attend your special day. So make the trip a memorable—and easy—one for them.
Five-Star Recommendations
You know your area better than your guests do. So, offer guidelines to your guests on where the best places to stay are. You want to look for locations near your ceremony and reception site. You can either put together a list of likely hotels, including phone numbers, addresses, and price ranges; or for the best prices, reserve a block of rooms in one or several hotels. When doing this, keep your guests’ budgets in mind—this might mean booking one expensive place and one that is more moderate.
Also, ask the hotels if you need to guarantee a certain number of guests. If no one chooses to book rooms in the place you’ve reserved, you don’t want to pick up the tab.
For those weddings held during holidays or vacation months, reservations should be made far in advance—even before you send out the actual invitations. In this case, send out save-the-date cards with accommodation details several months ahead of time.
Some of your travelers may not have cars, so you’ll have to provide transportation for your guests. You can recruit friends and relatives as chauffeurs, hire a van or bus, or arrange for a hotel shuttle (talk to the hotel manager to organize this). This should be figured out beforehand—you don’t want to arrange transportation for your guests the day of your wedding.
Traveling With Ease
For those guests that come from faraway places, good directions are a godsend. So, provide them with directions to their accommodations and all the wedding venues prior to the event. Most locations make it easy for brides and grooms by supplying preprinted directions and maps you can simply include in the invitations.
For guests who arrive early, offer some tourism books and local maps (available from your local Chamber of Commerce or Tourism Bureau) or a homemade wedding newsletter (easily created on your computer), with local must-sees, town history, and important phone numbers—including the local pizzeria that delivers and the nearest hospital.
You can either mail these items a few weeks prior to the wedding or put them in gift baskets that you’ll place in their hotel room before they arrive. Sometimes hotels are willing to distribute the baskets for you, giving one to each guest as they check in at reception. Besides the informational items, put in fun items such as t-shirts with the town’s name or logo, local food, or seasonal items.
The Day Before-or-After Activity
You never get to really visit with guests at your wedding, so one way to get quality time with long-distance friends and family is to hold an event before or after the wedding. For instance, hosting a Sunday Brunch after the big day provides an |informal gathering, so you can really alk and mingle with your guests. Keep it simple—either cater the brunch at home or have everyone meet in a restaurant. If an early departure for your honeymoon prevents you from hosting a Sunday Brunch, you may want to consider inviting special out-of-town guests to your rehearsal dinner. This type of rehearsal get-together can help calm those pre-wedding jitters as you entertain and visit with those who have traveled so far just to wish you well.
Create a Website
The Internet is a great way to share information with your out-of-towners. You can include information on accommodations, dining, local attractions, and driving directions to all venues. Make your wedding website a fun place to visit by including fun facts about your wedding party and your honeymoon destination; and by posting pictures of the two of you—especially those funny ones from the early days.
For additional information on Long Island Bride and Groom accommodations, log on to ttp://www.longislandbrideandgroom.com/.