Why Hotels Make Good Wedding Locations

 

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As soon as you select your wedding date, it’s time to start looking for a location. Couples understandably want to find the most romantic location for their weddings, but pricing is a huge aspect to first consider. Hotels often provide the entire appealing package: rehearsal and reception areas, ceremony location and plenty of amenities for all guests. When you choose the right hotel for a wedding, you eliminate much of the stress and annoyance that can take over the process of planning.

One of my friends recently got married at a hotel for her wedding, and it was a great experience for all involved. Everything was located in one place, making it one of the easiest travel experiences I’ve ever had; I didn’t need to keep driving around town to find a nearby location to spend the night, or to switch locations between the rehearsals and reception and the actual wedding. It’s clear that having all aspects of a wedding in a single place makes things so much easier for those getting married along with their guests, who may have to drive far enough to get to the hotel.

There are a lot of specific reasons to choose a hotel for your dream wedding, aside from the fact that many famous and wealthy celebrities have chosen hotels for their special occasion.

Reserve Many Rooms

Larger hotels are more likely to allow you to reserve ten or more rooms, which can truly come in handy when you have your wedding date set and want to make sure your guests have a place to stay in advance. Reserving room blocks also means you can give guests choices of room rates and location, which is really good if you want your rowdier college friends to stay separate from your parents. If you find that guests can’t come or if more are visiting unexpectedly, be sure to coordinate these changes with the hotel event manager so they can make alterations to the reservations quickly.

Convenience

There are many advantages of having your wedding ceremony, rehearsal and reception take place at a hotel. The biggest reason is because guests won’t have to travel all over the place to get to the ceremony and reception when they’re unfamiliar with the area. You’ll also be able to eliminate the need to reserve more parking lots, and you’ll keep those who’ve had a little too much to drink during the reception from driving to another hotel to sleep for the night.

All the amenities are located in one place as well, with pools, banquet halls and spas all available for guests for a fun celebration. Catering is also available in many hotels, giving you and your guests quality meals for a reasonable price as well.

Welcoming Bags

One great way to welcome all of your guests on arrival is to provide them with welcoming bags. Hotel staff will usually be able to work with you to distribute customized bags to all guests. Welcoming bags can be exciting for guests, giving them samples of local food that’s unique to the location, along with other products not provided by the hotel.

Kids’ Suite

Weddings aren’t the most exciting place for kids most of the time. If you want all guests, including the children, to be happy with their stay, you can oftentimes have a suite reserved for them, with a hired professional sitter to watch over them. This keeps the kids safe and occupied while their parents can enjoy the wedding and reception. You should make sure you know how many guests have kids before the wedding so you can plan ahead when hiring a sitter, and make sure the suite contains enough activities and snacks to keep the kids entertained.

Package Deals

When planning special events, such as weddings with rehearsal dinners, receptions and ceremonies, hotels will offer special deals in many cases. After all, they should give you a deal because you’re coming to them for one of the most important occasions in a person’s life. For instance, a budget Albuquerque hotel can provide you with special deals that encompass nearly every aspect of your wedding, giving all guests traveling to Albuquerque the opportunity to stay at a lower overall cost to both you and them.

When you choose to have your wedding at a hotel, it’s a decision that’s likely to carry no regrets. You’ll be able to save a lot of money while pleasing your guests with convenience and quality of location. You can take that exotic trip on your honeymoon away from everyone after the wedding, but to make your wedding as enjoyable for friends and family as possible, consider a quality hotel for your ceremony and all that surrounds it.

Tips for Planning a Low-Budget Wedding

Every spring and summer, it seems like we have to go to at least four or five weddings. Love really is in the air, I suppose! It’s so interesting seeing what all of our friends and family members do when they plan their wedding, from the super thrifty couples to the ones who spare no expense. Nowadays, it seems people are trying to purchase homes sooner, so they’re putting money towards a down payment or their mortgages instead of fancy weddings. I can totally relate to living on a budget, which is how my husband and I planned our wedding.

With that in mind, I thought I’d give all you amateur wedding planners out there—that is, all you brides—a couple of ways you can scrimp and save on your wedding so that you don’t have sticker shock at the end of the night. After all, it’s supposed to be a fun day full of love, not one where you stress about all the money you just spent.

Your Dress

When I got married, I have to admit, I was addicted to that show “Say Yes to the Dress” where women go to this boutique in New York City and pick out their dream dress. I felt a little bit jealous of the insane gowns they tried on and ultimately purchased, but here in real life there was no way I was going to spend anywhere near $10,000 on a dress I’d wear once. There are websites out there that sell dresses that have already been worn once but are still in great condition that you can browse if you’re dead set on a designer dress. Those sites can save you at least a little bit of money, but if you’re okay with something a little simpler, you can scout out sample or trunk sales which are usually held in the fall before new designs are introduced. Consignment shops are also great, as are places like Etsy where you can purchase a custom-made dress.

The Cake

I was lucky to have worked in a bakery when I was younger, so I decided to take on the task of the cake myself. While it was a stressful and hectic time, knowing that I made my own cake and saved several hundred dollars made it worth it. Not everyone has the time or know-how to do that, though. One easy way to save money on your wedding cake is to ask a bakery to only include one tier of real cake—the one you cut. Slices of cake for the guests can be from undecorated sheet-cakes that the waiters can bring out from the back. No one will ever know the difference unless you tell them. This way, you still get the picture perfect “feed each other cake” photos, and your guests still get delicious wedding cake. What’s not to like about that?

Decorations

One of the most expensive things about wedding decor is the way tables are decorated. Tablecloths for wedding receptions are crazy expensive to buy outright, and some venues only offer plain white ones—kind of boring if you’re going for a more colorful wedding.  Wedding tablecloth rentals are one way to save some cash, that way you don’t have to pay a high price to own them forever. Another thing you can do is head to a fabric store and pick out some fabric that matches your theme and use it as a table runner. That way, you get all of the color without spending an arm and a leg on decorations you most likely won’t use again.

Music

Hiring a DJ can be a pricey endeavor, too. If you have an iPod and are comfortable making up a playlist on your own, you can put that on the venue’s speakers and let things go on their own. The only problem with this is that you’ll have to schedule breaks or pause the tunes for special announcements on your own, but that might be worth it when you consider the pile of cash you’ll save by not having to pay someone to press pause and play.  If you’re getting a band, perhaps you can make their set a feature of the reception rather than paying them to play the entire time the reception goes on. That’s one way to have the best of both worlds.

The Honeymoon

Some of my friends who have gotten married a little older already have the things listed on typical wedding registries. These days, it’s more common for a couple to live together before they get married, so they don’t need a new toaster or blender or towels. Instead, those couples signed up for a registry to help fund their honeymoons. Instead of gifting a set of pots and pans or a food processor, guests can contribute money that will go towards things like hotel stays, dinners at restaurants where the couple is honeymooning, and other honeymoon-related expenses. It’s a great way to enjoy a honeymoon without breaking the bank, and it’s becoming more and more popular.

Setting the Tone with Linen for Wedding Receptions

When the one you love finally pops the question, it’s understandable that there are a million things going through your mind. First and foremost is probably how excited you are to spend the rest of your life with your partner, but after that, you’re probably going to start thinking about just how you want your wedding to look. If you’re the sort of woman who’s been planning her special day since you were just a girl, you’ve probably got a pretty good sense of what you want the event to look like, down to the colors of the napkins and the sugar flowers on the cake. If not, though, there’s probably a handful of things that haven’t really crossed your mind yet.

Sure, you’ll need a dress and to figure out who you want in your wedding party and what they will wear, but past that there are probably a hundred other things to make decisions about. For example, what kind of plates do you want to serve the food on? What kind of food will be served on those plates? Those are questions you can probably make decisions about relatively quickly. But what about the color scheme of your wedding? When it comes to linen for wedding receptions, the sort of colors and fabrics you pick set the tone. Do you want your reception to be whimsical and romantic? Lace, sheer fabrics, or lush satins are a good choice. In other words, you wouldn’t pick a brash plaid flannel to cover the tables, right?

But tablecloths aren’t the only thing to consider when choosing linen for wedding-related events. What’s more, tablecloths don’t have to be the only thing on the table in terms of decor. You can lay out a plain tablecloth and accent it with a sheer overlay for added dimension, or you can use a table runner to showcase the centerpieces (which, by the way, you’ll have to also choose). Past that, there’s things like napkins and chair covers that you’ll likely have to choose.

Napkins might seem like a no-brainer—just choose one that matches the colors you’ve already chosen, right? But what if the event you’re planning is a little more over the top and you want something that’s a bit more visually interesting? In that case, you can decide to fold the napkins in a certain way—say, in the shape of a diamond or an animal of some sort—that will further set the tone of your event.

As far as chair covers are concerned, there are several different things you can pick from. When it comes to linen for wedding chairs, some people opt to cover the entire chair, while other people want something a bit simpler, like a color-coordinated ribbon tied around the back or a cover just for the back of the chair, which can cover only the top, only the bottom, or both. Other options include chair pad covers which accent the colors on the table subtly. While these may seem like an afterthought or like something that would take a backseat to the tablecloths, sometimes chair covers can complement a plain tablescape like nothing else can. For example, imagine plain black tablecloths accented with perhaps a bright fuchsia or yellow satin chair cover, or a taupe tablecloth accented by orange chair ties. The look would be simple yet stunning.

Color choice can influence the way your wedding looks significantly. If you’re going for a modern gothic look, you’re probably not going to want turquoise, orange, or other bright colors. Burgundies and grays are probably more up your alley, similar to how if someone wants the traditional “white wedding” feel, they’re not going to choose a palette of orange. In that case, ivories, whites, and pale pinks are more appropriate. Whatever your end goal is, color plays a huge role in determining what the event’s theme looks like.

Whatever your style preference for the linen for wedding receptions is, there’s something available for every budget, so long as you choose a linen rental company that has more than just a handful of choices. It’s important to have a lot of options when choosing what to feature at your wedding, because otherwise you might end up settling for something you don’t truly love—counterintuitive to what a wedding is all about, no?

Planning the decor for your wedding, especially the linens, shouldn’t be something you dread or stress out about. You already know you love the person you’re marrying, and together you can choose the look you want that will both make you happy as well as delight your guests. With just a little bit of planning, you can achieve the look you want for your wedding, whether you want something bright, sassy, and modern, or subdued, classic, and romantic.