Out of Town Guests

abgpal11

We're getting married where I grew up, so FI's family and our friends from here will be traveling 3 hours.  Some of them will come up a few days early (dad, brothers, etc.) and some will probably come the day before, and some will only be driving up for the day of.

I've never been to an out of town wedding and I don't know anyone else who has.  So I have no idea what I'm supposed to do for out of town guests.  As the time gets closer, we'll obviously be figuring out who will and who won't be needing somewhere to stay.  And I know we'll need to contact hotels and find out about their policies for blocking rooms, and so on.  But that's about all I know.

What things do I need to be thinking about?

[Deleted User]

We just blocked rooms for our OOT guests. We also made sure they were all invited to the rehearsal dinner and had a morning after breakfast for them. Some people make OOT bags for them, which is a really nice touch.

Beachy730

So are you considering this a DW wedding for them?  You might want to check on the DW board for some ideas.  You should consider hosting some type of event the night before the wedding.  If you want to do your RD that night, you can do a very low key dinner where you invite OOT guests.  But its not necessary.  Some brides have opted to go to the lobby bar of the hotel their guests are at and tell them "we will be in the lobby bar from 7-9 if you care to join us."  This way you aren't paying for it. 

Hotel bags are a nice touch too for anyone traveling from OOT.  They can include local attractions in the area and things to do.  Some people choose to put coupons for their favorite places in there.  Our bags had wine and a cigar, bottled water, tylenol, granola bars, candy, etc.

Summer2011Bride

We will have a fair number of OOT guests from my FI's side, but we are only inviting those who are IN the wedding to the rehearsal and dinner. The goodie bags are a nice idea though for them to receive at check-in. I would also give suggestions for local attractions to keep them busy during any down-time. A friend of mine took all their leftovers from the RD which was excellent food and served it up to OOT guests the day after the wedding for a lunch/brunch scenario while opening gifts. I think it just depends on you, how well you know them, how far they are traveling, and what you want to include them in. It might get very pricey to have ALL of them at the RD and in my opinion, is not necessary unless you want to do that. The hotel bar idea posted earlier is a good option. Or if many are checking in the day before early in the afternoon, you could make it a point to stop by the hotel BEFORE the rehearsal to say hi/hang out with everyone and welcome them into town.

zitiqueen

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_out-of-town-guests-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:14Discussion:e3d32af7-b93c-459a-a0bf-50917e08e20ePost:34c89309-12cd-4f98-9010-d6531cf0f2ed">Out of Town Guests</a>:
[QUOTE] I've never been to an out of town wedding and I don't know anyone else who has.  Posted by abgpal11[/QUOTE]

This is where I got stuck. I hate to ask, but how old are you?

ehathewa

3 hours isn't far at all.  Block some hotel rooms.  Nice touches are inviting the Out of Towners to the Rehearsal Dinner or to a breakfast the next morning and making Out of Town bags (bottled water, snacks, list of things to do in city). 

We also made a nice map that highlighted area attractions and posted that on our wedding website. 

john&julie

Our wedding is where FI and I live, but it's like a DW for a lot of our guests (Washington, DC).  First things first - get a hotel room block.  If possible, look for one without attrition (i.e. you aren't responsible for rooms that aren't sold).  Gift bags are great - in addition to maps/ideas/etc, put stuff in it that they may have forgotten to pack (tylenol, kleenex, granola bars, bottled water, etc - the stuff they can't get from the front desk of the hotel).  If it's in your budget, invite them all to the rehearsal dinner (this is not in our budget, though, so we are only having wedding party and immediate family at ours - then we are meeting up for drinks at the hotel bar afterwards.  It will be totally informal but an invitation to join us will be in the gift bags).  Finally, the morning after the wedding, we're inviting everyone over for a super casual open-house style brunch.  We're telling them to drop by anytime they want between 10am - 2pm for bagels and juice and casual stuff like that.  Also, this is a great way to utilize your wedding website.  We have an entire page of ours dedicated to "what to do in DC" with dining guide, sightseeing, etc.