Hello, all! Sorry for the temporary absence, things get pretty crazy here for the first week of August! But we have been able to secure our hotel and took the first steps toward booking our caterer.
The hotel we chose for our group is actually 20 miles from our ceremony/reception site; that's quite a bit further than what I was hoping for, but it was by far the best deal at only $50/night (and our jacuzzi suite will only be $80, or FREE if we get 30 rooms booked!). I used a priceline service called FindGroupDeals, something that I just happened to find during a Google search, and it took about 5 days but then this hotel finally came through. The way it works is similar to priceline's Name Your Own Price. You enter your location, the number of rooms you want for the specific date, and the max price you're willing to pay. Your request gets sent directly to hotel managers in the area, so if you want to follow up on any offers, you know where they came from and already have that line of communication started. Added bonus: Once you book a hotel, they give you your own page online where guests can add themselves to the rooming list. From there, they only need to call to confirm!
Just so ya know: The first 4 or 5 bids I got really didn't fit my criteria - they were too far away, cost too much, didn't have the amenities I requested. That was a bit frustrating, but obviously it did pay off eventually! Patience seems to be key with this service.
To get the ball rolling on catering, we looked at a few of the caterers on our venue's preferred list. Without going in-depth on all of them, MCL seemed to be the best fit for us. They offer buffet service and their most expensive package is $15.95/person. After seeing some other caterers listing prices at over $30/per, this seemed more than reasonable! I will need to meet with the manager once I'm back in Indiana, but after the initial phone call we have been penciled in to their schedule. Yay!
If our venue hadn't required that we use one of their preferred caterers, we would more than likely be using Gordon Food Service. This is a great way to feed lots of people for a relatively small amount of money, exponentially cheaper than professional catering, and they have tons of options. If you're into DIY food, this is definitely the way to go.
We've also been considering a splurge on a ceremony musician...if we do book him I want to keep it a secret, so I won't really go into detail, but it is difficult deciding if we can really afford him or not :-/ I will also be purchasing (and blogging about) bridesmaid gifts and wedding insurance in the near future...so much to do! Stay tuned :)
The hotel we chose for our group is actually 20 miles from our ceremony/reception site; that's quite a bit further than what I was hoping for, but it was by far the best deal at only $50/night (and our jacuzzi suite will only be $80, or FREE if we get 30 rooms booked!). I used a priceline service called FindGroupDeals, something that I just happened to find during a Google search, and it took about 5 days but then this hotel finally came through. The way it works is similar to priceline's Name Your Own Price. You enter your location, the number of rooms you want for the specific date, and the max price you're willing to pay. Your request gets sent directly to hotel managers in the area, so if you want to follow up on any offers, you know where they came from and already have that line of communication started. Added bonus: Once you book a hotel, they give you your own page online where guests can add themselves to the rooming list. From there, they only need to call to confirm!
Just so ya know: The first 4 or 5 bids I got really didn't fit my criteria - they were too far away, cost too much, didn't have the amenities I requested. That was a bit frustrating, but obviously it did pay off eventually! Patience seems to be key with this service.
To get the ball rolling on catering, we looked at a few of the caterers on our venue's preferred list. Without going in-depth on all of them, MCL seemed to be the best fit for us. They offer buffet service and their most expensive package is $15.95/person. After seeing some other caterers listing prices at over $30/per, this seemed more than reasonable! I will need to meet with the manager once I'm back in Indiana, but after the initial phone call we have been penciled in to their schedule. Yay!
If our venue hadn't required that we use one of their preferred caterers, we would more than likely be using Gordon Food Service. This is a great way to feed lots of people for a relatively small amount of money, exponentially cheaper than professional catering, and they have tons of options. If you're into DIY food, this is definitely the way to go.
We've also been considering a splurge on a ceremony musician...if we do book him I want to keep it a secret, so I won't really go into detail, but it is difficult deciding if we can really afford him or not :-/ I will also be purchasing (and blogging about) bridesmaid gifts and wedding insurance in the near future...so much to do! Stay tuned :)
No comments:
Post a Comment