My fiancé and I searched and searched for the perfect wedding venue. I thought I had looked everywhere but then we booked a romantic weekend at a resort about an hour away from where we live, and we fell in love with it. We decided to switch the date of our wedding and have it at this beautiful resort. Most of our guests (95%) are from out of town anyway, so why not give them the opportunity to enjoy such a beautiful spot?
Now here's the problem: the resort requires that we fill AT LEAST 15 hotel rooms for TWO nights. I think that most guests would have wanted to only stay one night, but the resort has a two night minimum during the Summer months. The discounted rate is $120 per night, so its not terribly expensive, but most people are coming from less than a couple hours away, so they probably would have only stayed the one night.
My plan is to send along some literature about the area with my save-the-dates, and hope that that will entice people to plan ahead and make a weekend out of it. On my invitations, I will include lodging info about another hotel a short drive away that wouldn't require the two night minimum. But like I said, we HAVE to fill at least the 15 rooms at our resort, otherwise I will have to pay for the empty rooms. My mom thinks their policy is crazy and it should be a deal-breaker, but I love the place, understand but don't love the policy, and I'm really thinking/hoping that at least 15 sets of guests will stay the whole weekend.
Do you think they will? Do you think its a deal-breaker?