We reserved a block of rooms…and they were less costly than anything booked directly with the hotel. A few people booked themselves, but so far as I know…(from relatives) their per night rate was the same or more. In one case, a friend booked directly with the hotel, and her rate was $20 a night more. I called and had her added to our room block so she could pay the lesser cost.
Our wedding was a holiday weekend when there were also a lot of private high school graduations in the area. We wanted to make sure our guests would have a convenient location in which to stay.
One word to the wise…which we didn’t do. Ask for a quiet room! We didn’t do this…and our bride and bridesmaids…and MOB (me) were above a ballroom where a very loud band played until the wee hours. At the end, the hotel comped us the rooms…but the lack of sleep was annoying. Those rooms should have been given to the folks from the wedding below. And the hotel general manager agreed.
MOB dresses…I have to confess something. I bought 14 dresses online, in order to find the perfect dress. I’m feeling a little guilty, but I did visit almost all the stores in advance and found that they really don’t stock a lot of formal dresses.
^ @toledo… rookie!
I too, visited all stores in my area and still ended up ordering online. 68 dresses! (some were just two sizes of same dress). DH thought I had a thing going with the UPS driver. DH was also a little steamed at the mountain of recycling…
Just a rant- does no one read the wedding website. I am amazed at how many educated people text,call or email for details about the wedding. Details that are clearly highlighted on the website. Website address was on both save the date and invitation.
Just booked out room and the 5 others we are paying for and started calling the rest of our side of guest list give them the heads up. No issue booking multiple rooms on line with my AAA number either:-) We decided to book our room for four nights an everyone else for 3 nights. So far we are actually under budget for hotel rooms;-)
DD got engaged on Easter Sunday. They thought about eloping. Have decided to do a Saturday brunch wedding in March. They don’t want attendants. They have a ton of friends and are thinking about restricting guest list to 21 and over. So far it is much more stressful to be MOB than MOG.
@tx5athome I have found it less stressful being MOB. I think that is mainly because I feel more in the loop about what is happening.
Our car is packed to the max. We leave tomorrow morning to drive to my D. We head to the venue on Friday afternoon. I put a big note on both the door and dash of car to not forget my dress. @toledo I did the same thing both times. Our Nordstrom is small and has little inventory and our Macy’s doesn’t have anything of quality. I would have preferred to be able to go into a store and try a lot of dresses but it just isn’t the retail experience anymore. The key is returning the rejects as quickly as possible to avoid having them appear on the credit card bill.
I did forget my dress. I was driving to a friend’s kid wedding before D1’s wedding. Luckily I was able to call my girls to bring the dress. So it does happen.
And I’m the opposite with the MOB dress shopping. I went to the stores, and browsed online for over a year. I’m not an online shopper because I’m a funny petite size, and I need to try everything on…plus I like to feel the fabric. I also don’t live conveniently for shipping things back.
After an exhaustive number of mall trips and shop trips here, trying nothing on…because I found nothing I liked in my size, a friend said “come to NYC and we will go to Lord and Taylor and Macy’s here”. Bought my dress at LT and was done! I think their “dress floor” at the now defunct flagship store was amazing. But no petites there. However, My friend and I found the perfect dress for me on the petite floor.
I haven’t seen anything in the department stores, but we have several boutiques that cater to dressy clothes. The 4 dresses I ordered online, all got returned.
Our room blocks do not charge us. If the rooms are not used they get released.
I am going to look for a dress soon now that the shower is done. I don’t want a corsage, perhaps someone on my clutch or nothing.
I have not tipped the caterer yet. She did have a service charge. but she did a great job. So how much do you think I should give her?
If she had a service charge and this is her own business, I wouldn’t tip her. Honestly, I think that a good job by a caterer should be the expected level of performance. You can leave her a glowing review on Yelp.
I may be in the minority, but I don’t see the need to tip people for jobs for which they set a price for the service they are performing (unless they are so amazingly wonderful that you feel compelled to do it). Florists, bakers, wedding coordinators, photographer, DJs … not seeing the “need” for a tip. I’m not saying you can’t do it … outstanding performance may merit a tip. I just don’t think it should be expected for these services.
We tipped the venue … it was a charge within the contract (and I am aware that some of our guests chose to tip the bartenders). We tipped the hair and makeup people. We tipped the staff at the church who worked that day. D may have tipped some of the vendors, but probably not. The photographers, DJ and day-of coordinator all got the same meal we ate for dinner.
My former SIL is a hairstylist in a town with a lot of destination weddings, so she does a lot of weddings for people she will work with once. She sets the price. I don’t think she should be tipped (although almost always is). If she wants to make $450 instead of $400, she should set the price at $450. If she wants $1000, she should set that as the price.
I’d expect her to do a fantastic job no matter what the price. That’s what she contracted to do.
My mother really liked the flower arrangement made for a funeral. She paid the price the florist asked and didn’t go back and give a tip when they were nice, nor would she have gone back to complain if they weren’t. She will, however, tell everyone how wonderful they were and shop at that florist forever.
Tipping is just way out of hand, adding 20% to the cost of everything.
D’s hair and makeup people went over and above, and their prices were so modest … an example of tipping because D felt compelled to tip, not because she felt she needed to.
I took tip money with me…with nice notes written to the folks who had already gone above and beyond. I knew I was going to tip them…regardless of their compensation otherwise. We tipped the band members, photographers, florist, and the fabulous wedding planner who probably deserved twice what we gave her.
Our venue had a policy about not tipping waitstaff or bartenders…so we didn’t.
Our bridesmaids tipped the hair and makeup folks. We paid for the hair and make up to be done…so that was their contribution.
D got married in December in a small wedding in San Diego. She didn’t have a reception at that time, it will be in Chicago in a couple of weeks. I think she has it under control, I have done very little for it. My biggest fear is that I will forget to take her wedding dress. I have it here in California and need to take it as she wants to wear it at the reception.
Registry questions. DD and FSIL have decided to use Zola and I have a few questions.
is it okay for parents to purchase gifts off the registry?
what if you can find a much better deal on the exact same thing else where, is there a way to remove if without buying it through Zola?
since they created the registry a few things now say "temporarily unavailable" should they level it as is in hopes they become available or find something else similar to replace them?
when should they make the registry public (wedding is 1/1/20)?
how should they let people know where they are registered?
suggestions for grandparents that to not use computers?
