Room blocks? Transportation? Card box? so many questions!

Knottie1424527741

Hi!!! I am fairly new here and am having trouble sorting out some small details.  Since a vegas wedding isn't typical as far as planning goes, when I ask other people for advice not many people know how to help, so I thought I'd turn to you guys  I have so many random questions, I didn't know if it would be obnoxious to make a separate post for each one, so I just listed them here.  Help me out if you can!!

Do I need to make room blocks for my guests?  My fiance says to just let people stay wherever they want.

Do I need to coordinate transportation to and from my wedding? My wedding will be at the stratosphere, so off strip.  Could this be a problem?

Is it tacky if my invitations are "petite"? I didn't even realize this was a thing until the sample I ordered arrived.  It's so pretty, a little less expensive, but a smaller card.  Big deal, or not?

Is it presumptuous to have a card box at my wedding?  I know that's normal for regular weddings, but we aren't doing a registry and are telling people their presence is a gift so should I nix the card box? I do think some people will bring cards, just from knowing my family. 

Thanks in advance!!

Futuremrshauger

Welcome!

1) We did make room blocks at 2 hotels. We are staying at the Flamingo, which is also where the ceremony is. Our other room block isnext door at the Linq, which is a new hotel. As rates are cheaper at times with room blocks. However, we highly recommended people rad reviews and stay where ever they would like.

2) As our ceremony and reception are at different sites, with the reception off Strip a couple miles,we absolutley provided transportation. We are not providing transportation back to the Strip, but there i a shuttle that does go to the Stip every 30 mins.

3) My invites were from a combo from a Groupon and Vistaprint. I did not put any real stress into invites. If you ilke them and it has all the necesary info, I say keep them! And move on to other items.

4) We are also requesting no gifts, but I know some in my family will bring cards. We'll have a small card box.

adverb

1) We did not do room blocks. My wedding is at the MGM and we advised people to stay there (and most did) but people stayed elsewhere too. especially those familiar with the strip. It really depends on how big your wedding is. Our was only 30 people. I think you have to block off a minimum of 10 rooms so it didn't make sense  for us.

2) It is up to you to if you want to do transportation or not. Even though the strat is off strip they could get a taxi if they choose not to rent a car. Ours is at the MGM and we are NOT coordinating transportation for anyone. We have given them clear indication though on how to get to the hotel if they choose not to rent a car. If you are having a ceremony in one place but a reception in another it might make more sense to do transportation. It will be easier on your guests but it is really up to you. I think as long as you clearly indicate what they need to do there isn't an issue.

3) Your invites can be whatever you want. I did Vistaprint as well and they came out awesome! They were photo cards and they were pretty large. But honestly I think just do what makes sense to you. I chose not to get a "frilly" invitation and went with more of a photo keepsake type thing.

4) I requested no gifts as well but I don't know if I will be doing a card box. I may just have people put cards wherever or on a table? Haha I haven't though about that .. honestly.

Knottie1424527741

Thank you both ladies @adverb @Futuremrshauger !! That is a huge help to get advice from others who are planning a vegas wedding - no one else really "gets" it haha 

jdaigle44

1.  We had thought about doing room blocks, but when we inquired the prices really were not that great, so we opted not to.  We let our guests know where we were staying a just left it up to them where they wanted to book.  The majority decided to stay at the same hotel as us.  I would recommend guests to book through what ever rewards program the hotel they want to stay at offers, especially if they are gamblers as they may receive some comps during their stay.  We got fantastic prices through the MLife website for the Mirage.

2.  I am currently struggling with this decision myself.  Most of our guests are staying at the Mirage (or close to) and our wedding is at the Wynn.  I have looked into renting a shuttle for guests from the mirage to the Wynn, but I am just still wondering myself whether or not that it is necessary.

3.  I agree with everyone else that your invites can be whatever you choose.  I ordered mine off Minted and was really happy with them.

4.  I requested no gifts and to be honest had not even considered a card box (mostly because I just totally forgot).  I feel comfortable with just having guests that did decide to bring anything to just give it to us or maybe put it on the table by our guestbook.

kngatb123

1. We are not doing a room block, we are letting people stay wherever they want (our wedding is only about thirty people).
2. We are providing transportation to and from the ceremony/reception (off strip) because most of our guests are not renting cars
3. Use the invites you got if you like them!  Your guests will not care and if they do-you don't want them at your wedding :-)
4. We also requested no gifts and we are not putting a card box out

Good luck!

damnthetorpedoes

1. I would look into a room block because your guests are already traveling for you -- why not give them the option of saving a few bucks? 

We were at the Delano, the boutique tower of Mandalay Bay. Everything was done really quickly and easily by e-mail. MB said they'd block off any number between 5 and 49 rooms without any commitment for a minimum number of bookings (50+ they do require a commitment where you're on the hook to pay for a portion of the block if it doesn't fill). The discount they offered was between $40-80 a night, depending on the night of the week. We'd invited 50 people and knew that a lot of them would be bunking as couples or groups, so we reserved 5 rooms at the Delano and 20 at Mandalay Bay for Thursday through Monday (our wedding was Saturday). MB's team made us a website for guests to book directly, so we could just send out that link, and also gave us a code for people who wanted to book by phone. The Delano rooms ended up filling really quickly, so we added 5 more Delano rooms; adding rooms is "subject to availability," but this was like 5 days after the block opened, so I just e-mailed and asked, and they added them immediately. The only tradeoff was that the room rate expired 30 days before the wedding, so I just sent out a couple of reminders just ahead of the expiration date. They still honored the code for at least one of our guests (my mom, haha) 3 days after the expiration. I'd say 75% of the guests used the block. 

tl;dr Look into it -- it never hurts to look, and it may end up being a totally painless, easy, awesome deal like ours.

2. If your wedding and reception are both going to be at the Stratosphere, nah. If you're having two different locations, though, definitely book transportation from the wedding to the reception. You don't want a mob of people all trying to call cabs at once, and all showing up at different times. There are enough transportation companies in Vegas that the options are plentiful and rather reasonable compared to a lot of cities. 

3. No. Anyone who cares about this is seriously not worth inviting to a wedding, speaking to, or knowing.

4. If you're saying no gifts, I think it's kinda presumptuous to have a card box (or a gift table). If I were a guest, it would come across to me like the couple said "no gifts" but didn't really mean it and secretly hoped people would bring gifts anyway. We also said "no gifts," 1 guest (out of 30) brought a gift anyway and just handed it to us. We said thank you very graciously and then put it away and they were fine with it.

xoeden

We're organizing room blocks at MGM Grand and Excalibur (for different budgets) through a destination wedding planner/travel agent. We can release the rooms at no charge a couple weeks away, and those who want to stay elsewhere, can. Most of our guests will probably stay at MLife properties because we have a large number of MyVegas users.

We're not organizing any transportation for our wedding, as the ceremony and reception are the same place. We'll provide directions/instructions, but that's all. As long as it's in the same location and not in a non-standard location (River Rock, Neon Boneyard, private home, off-strip wedding chapel...), I would say that transpiration would be required, but if you're doing a standard hotel, such as the Stratosphere, I think you're OK.

Invitations don't have a set size. We're going with 4 x 6 because that's just a standard invite size from Wedding Paper Divas. If they're smaller, they may be more likely to be lost, but they're also more likely to stand out to your guests.

I would probably organize a card box, just to have it on hand, but maybe not display it prominently (just have a couple key people know where it is if anyone asks). Just because you have a card box does not mean you expect gifts; people provide cards without anything inside as just a memento of the day.

vegasgroom

It sounds like there is a lot of misunderstanding of room blocks, or at least how they work in Vegas at most hotels.  The short answer is that in most cases, you should do a room block at one or more hotels.

In Vegas, room blocks are nearly always free and commit you to nothing, but you should of course always check on that and read the fine print if any document signing is required.  Assuming the block really is free, which it should be at every strip hotel and most surrounding hotels, then getting the block causes no harm.  The purpose of the block is to protect room availability for guests who are lazy and book late; it is not a way to get a cheap rate or better room.  Most room blocks are good from the date you set it up until 30 days before your wedding date.  If some convention comes to town, a big boxing match is announced, etc., then your guests who have not yet booked but want to stay at the wedding hotel, can still get a room at the agreed upon rate, even if rates suddenly shot up to $400/night for everyone else.

We blocked at Mandalay, Luxor and Excalibur since it cost nothing and protected some rooms.  Most of our guests used coupon codes I had listed on our website to book their own rooms at much better rates.  A few guests didn't get around to it in time, the coupon codes were expired and prices had gone up, so they used the room block codes to still get a room at a better rate than what retail was at that point in time.  Guests were still free to stay wherever they wanted.

damnthetorpedoes

Some of our guests also found better deals than our block at MB/Delano by booking flight+hotel packages on travel websites, but only out of certain airports (Atlanta is the only one I remember off the top of my head). For anyone traveling on a budget, it's certainly worth a look.

violet555

1.  Yes, I would advise you to get the room blocks just in case. Offering a slightly discounted room through a block does not obligate your guests to stay there nor are you obligated to book any certain number of rooms blocked. It's simply an option.

While it may not be a deep discount at first, it guarantees that rate until about a month before the wedding. In our case, rates skyrocketed between the date we booked our wedding and the time of our wedding. What our guests could have gotten at $170 per night was now over $400 per night at regular rates. And many guests waited til the last minute--some even missed the room block deadline and had to pay the big bucks or stay somewhere not as desirable to them. It's a nice insurance policy.

2.  I would not book transportation if both your ceremony and reception are at the same location. If your guests are anything like ours, they will be staying all over The Strip, and that would be a logistical nightmare to pick them up/drop them off at several different hotels. Guests will know from your save-the-date/invite where the wedding is located, and they have the option to stay there. If not, I'm sure they would expect to spring for a cab ride.

3.  Use the invites you like! The cool thing about having a Vegas wedding is that people expect some things to be creative/non-traditional. Have fun with that freedom! I doubt they'll think twice about your invite. If they do, they're too stuffy! We made our save-the-dates to look like playing cards, and everyone thought they were so neat.

4.  I had the same dilemma you did, but in the end, we put a random decorative bowl of sorts next to our party favors because we had someone ask about it. We did not solicit any gifts, but that bowl was full of cards by the end of the night. It's just custom, people want to give you cards, whether you ask for them or not. Many of those cards have valuable items inside, and your guests want a safe place to put them. But you can be somewhat discreet like we were if you are not comfortable with it. That said, I hope you get showered!

adverb

@violet555 - I like the bowl idea. I might steal that for my wedding on Monday. Eeeeeeek!!

silverblade005

1. Do I need to make room blocks for my guests?

We did not, and we made it very clear on our wedding web site that people were free to stay where they'd like. I gave suggestions to what was close to us and the chapel. Most of our friends wound up staying in the same hotel once they started talking about it to each other, and it made it pretty easy. I showed lots of friends how to sign up on Mlife which saved them a ton of money and often it makes the rooms the same cost as the block discount. In my specific circumstance, we stayed at the Aria (and used their chapel) and all of our friends stayed at the Monte Carlo, which is connected to Aria and wayyyyy cheaper to stay at.

2. Do I need to coordinate transportation to and from my wedding? I coordinated transportation from the chapel to the reception (1 mile away) and everyone enjoyed that. It was very easy to keep people together that way. Once the reception was done, they all shared taxis to whatever hotel they were staying at.

3. Is it tacky if my invitations are "petite"?

No, I love unique invites! Make them how you want!

4. Is it presumptuous to have a card box at my wedding?

Not at all. Many of my friends gave us the wedding presents before we all went out of town but brought a card with well wishes and sweet notes to the reception. I had a small card basket and set it next to the guest book.