October 2013 Weddings

Room block rant

We're getting married Columbus Day weekend and are having a difficult time finding rooms to block off for only 1 night because of many places' holiday weekend policy of a 2 or 3 night minimum.  Our venue is in a small town and there's not a whole lot of options for hotels nearby, so we started calling around early to check policies.  In November we found a great place, had a verbal agreement, and per their policy of no contracts for room blocks prior to X number of months before the event, were told we'd receive and sign a contract in January.  Kind of weird since most places want to lock down your $$ but whatever, we could wait a few months.  Come January it was impossible to get a hold of management and after weeks of trying to get our contract, the manager very rudely told us she was "choosing" not to honor our verbal agreement.  She explained this decision is completely up to her, and she's choosing not to follow through with the 1 night blocks per our verbal agreement, but would maybe reconsider if we pay for 2 nights, which we're not going to do.  GAH.

We have time to find a new hotel, but I'm super annoyed with the unprofessional behavior and unnecessary rudeness.  FI's family had been staying there every fall for over 10 years and mine summers in the area and occasionally referred friends to stay there...not anymore.

Re: Room block rant

  • Oh god....This is making me paranoid now! We are also getting married Columbus Day weekend and I haven't even started asking around yet! And that is really unprofessional of them
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  • I am also getting married columbus day weekend.  There are around 5-6 wedding venues in our area and only two hotels.  I called to reserve our suite and block off rooms.  They told us we could not do blocks because of so many weddings that weekend.  However if someone called to reserve rooms  thye just had  to mention our wedding and get the discounted rate.  Annoying yes since we didn't make a website so now I have to hope that they are not booked by the time my invites go out.  ugghh I feel you.
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  • Oh man that sucks! I didnt know Columbus day was such a big deal.

    I decided not to get a room block because at the hotel I wanted they charge me if the rooms dont get booked. And it is rather expensive and most people told me they did not want to pay that much. 

    I did, however, go ahead and book our honeymoon suite for two nights. That way we can get ready in it the morning of the wedding. They only had one large suite in the entire hotel. I kinda feel bad for the other brides that weekend that aren't going to get the suite. 
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  • I've decided to not set aside a block of rooms. I don't know what my family is able to afford and with 10+ families, I'm not about to call them all. Plus when I called last year (wedding was postponed to this year) the prices I was quoted were the same as Expedia.com. 
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