Help, PEC brides! Questions and concerns...

AETS26

Hi all! We are getting pretty close to booking with the PEC but I have some big concerns about parking and hotels. 

We will have lots of out of town guests, many who do not regularly drive in big cities. Add on top of that light rail construction and a gopher game... I know construction won't be on the street right in front of PEC, but I'm sure it's going to be a mess around the area, and around the hotels. 

For hotels, what did you do / are you doing? Several are close by and have shuttles, but only until 10:30 p.m. I'm picturing guests having to drive from the ceremony to the hotel, pay for hotel parking, then take a shuttle to PEC, then shuttle to the hotel super early while the reception is still going on. Not fun or convenient. Or, park in a lot by the PEC and... then what? Have a DD to go back to the hotel (or home)? Take a cab from the hotel to the PEC and back? What did you do? What hotels are the most convenient? Are there any we should avoid?

I'm wondering if we should rule out PEC because of these concerns. We have other options but like PEC best. Other options include a hotel ballroom, where none of this would be an issue. But, it's not the PEC... not as fun or unique, and more expensive!

Thoughts? Thanks!!

Cackle6

Don't rule out the PEC just because of hotel concerns! Everything can be worked out. There are a TON of hotels within a 5 mile radius of the PEC, so even if guests had to take a cab, it would be a cheap cab ride.

We are doing hotel blocks at the Days Inn, which is right across the street and within walking distance, and then also at The Marriott which PEC partners with. The Marriott has a 14 passanger van available for $90 per hour, and if you have 15 rooms booked at the Marriott, you get 2 free hours. We are hiring a shuttle to run every 15 minutes or so (or whenever guests want to take it) between 11PM and 2 AM to shuttle guests from the PEC to the Marriott. We are also hiring a bus through the same company to take the guests from the Marriott and Days Inn to the ceremony, and then from the ceremony to the reception. Yes, it's an extra expense, but it was important to us to not have out of town guests have to rent a car on top of everything else.

You will not regret booking with the PEC. Heather is amazing to work with, and I am so excited to have my reception there at the end of May!

ETA: If you don't already have a date set, check the Gopher schedule (and Twins schedule, that's one I forgot to check!) before you book so if possible you can get a weekend where there aren't any events going on. But if you book hotel blocks early enough, you shouldn't have any problems even if there is an event that weekend (there's a Twins game the weekend of our wedding, but we had no problem getting the hotel block).

SSaltzman87

I guess it also really depends on your crowd, are a lot of them OOT?

I personally wouldn't ask my OOT guests to navigate the U of M area (rental car or not), especially with all the new light rail construction. Like PP said, it never hurts to look at Gophers & Twins game schedules for your proposed day.

I'd also drive around down there on a random saturday (or whatever day of the week you plan on having your wedding) just to see what the traffic's like.

tpender13

My wedding wasn't at the PEC, but I wanted to add my two cents. We'd originally wanted something more fun and unique than a hotel ballroom, but we ended up going with a hotel ballroom. We had the ceremony and the reception right there, and all our OOT guests all thanked us for that. Many of them had little or no experience getting around in a city, and having everything all at one place was so much simpler than trying to coordinate getting around throughout the day.

leggwilliams

We used PEC in September 2011 and 100% recommend it. We used the University Hotel of Minneapolis (previously the Radisson University) which was a perfectly fine hotel and not ridiculously priced. We were right in the midst of construction (the whole road in front of the hotel was closed down) PLUS it was over move in weekend at the UofM which was kind of a pain in the butt, but we ended up having no problems. I just sent out emails to guests and posted a note on our wedding website warning guests of the construction and giving alternate route directions. We used the hotel shuttle until 10 and then from 10 until 2 we booked a car shuttle service from ITN Car Services to shuttle guest back and forth for the rest of the night. It was only a couple hundred dollars for the 4 hours, well worth it in my opinion.