scheduling rehearsal and hotel room blocks...

cecinoakland

so, two things that are half vent and half request for advice...first, it seems our venue (brazilian room in berkeley) only does 30 minute rehearsals...ON TUESDAYS! no matter when your wedding is! WTF! too bad half our wedding party won't be in town yet. argh. so if nobody has reserved the venue on wednesday, do you think it would be in bad taste to drive up there and use the lawn to rehearse?? or how hard would it be to rehearse at a completely different location?second issue. the hotel where we're staying is saying they will only honor our hotel block rate through this sunday, which is nearly 4 weeks before our wedding. well, our block is filling up and we want to add rooms, but we are responsible for ones that aren't rented out. so are we supposed to add rooms and call all our guests and make them reserve rooms in the next 4 days? ridiculous. they also neglected to let us know when the block was open for guests at the beginning and then "forgot" that they had offered to upgrade my and FI's room, until we forwarded them their own email where they said they would offer it. then they said they would be happy to do it. at this point, i feel like i need to start contacting other hotels because i don't like how we are being treated, but we are renting a bus to take our guests to the venue so we can't afford transportation from a bunch of locations. so frustrating. is it normal for hotels not to honor the block so long before the event?thanks for reading and for any thoughts...

adgenya

i was reading over a contract for a potential hotel and the one thing i didn't like was the fact that the block ended exactly one month before the wedding. perhaps you can contact another hotel that is close to your current one and have the bus pick up and drop off at only those 2 hotels.

DNichole26

It's normal for hotel room blocks to have a 1 month out deadline.  I deal with room blocks on a regular basis through work and ours for our wedding is.  However, most hotels will allow for an extension so fight with them on it!  Especially since you have an attrition clause from the sounds of it - tell them that you need more time to give your guests to make their arrangements and that will allow them to fill their hotel!

kpstowell

Was the rehearsal day and time in your contract? I knew (therefore wp knew) that rehearsal was Friday, so we planned ahead for it. Have you begged your venue to let you do it the day before your wedding? They might make an exception if you bug them enough.Yes, my room blocks expired prior to the wedding. Two hotels were 30 days and the Marriott was 45 days. I put this information on our wedding website so guests would know to book early. We were not responsible for unbooked rooms though...that sounds crazy. I would never have agreed to that. I think you did your part, if they don't book ahead then can find a different hotel. Luckily for two of our guests my MIL reserved 2 extra rooms just in case, but I know other guests were SOL. I think if you are responsible for the payment either way they should extend it. It's not like they have anything to lose.

cecinoakland

thank you ladies for your feedback. its exhausting negotiating with so many vendors. i am so ready to elope. if only we hadnt paid so many deposits! haha.

SpookyKiwi

I've been to a wedding at the Brazilian Room & the venue isn't particularly complicated for a processional, so I would recommend doing one run-through at the location with the people you have to get a feeling for it and then practice at another location when the rest of your wedding party gets in. Bring a long tape measure if you can, and measure the distance from the sliding glass doors to the end of the patio [I am assuming you are using the patio?] Block out the distance with tape or such at the other practice location. They seem to have a lot of events of various types there, so I'm not too surprised its on a Tuesday! But, it should have been made clear in your contract. Good luck!