Being an Orlando Wedding Planner, we see most wedding guests being from out of town. I mean, this is such a desirable destination for anyone invited to a wedding in Central Florida, with so many attractions and things to do! We always hear clients mention “a lot are from out of town, so they won’t come”, and we always say that people surprise you. If you’re getting married around Spring Break time, it’s the perfect excuse to go to Disney World with the family while in town for your wedding!
We want to start by letting you know of the old tradition that out of town guests should be invited to all wedding events. While, yes, this is true, there can be exceptions. If most of your guests are from out of town, you might not want to foot the bill for everyone a second time, in addition to the wedding. We have been seeing guests do a small rehearsal dinner with their immediate families and wedding party members, then maybe have a more relaxed/open invite Welcome Party for all guests to stop by at their leisure. Keep this as an option while you continue your planning, and ultimately, you can do whatever you would like to do and don’t have to follow any traditions for your out of town wedding guests, but also want to be polite at the same time!
Once your guests do arrive in town, they are usually greeted with a welcome bag of some sort in their hotel room, if you have a room block. These have all kinds of goodies and useful information in them! The last thing you want is for your guests to not know what is going on and have to bug you or your parents with questions while you have a lot going on already. Things that we typically see in these bags is a short itinerary of the weekend’s events (that they are invited to, of course), snacks, mints, pain reliever, bottled water and something personalized to the locale or couple. Don’t feel that you have to go overboard on these, and guests are just happy to receive anything, if you choose.
Lastly, something that you should consider for your out of town guests, but is reasonably an added expense, is transportation. Depending on how close the wedding is to their hotel, you might want to consider a shuttle service for those that are staying at the hotel with your room block. If you have multiple room blocks that are relatively close together, you can consider multiple pick up locations. When we work with our couples, we factor this into our timelines so you don’t have to worry about that! If you are looking into transportation, please ask us for recommendations and the best way to accommodate all of the logistics you’ll need. Most transportation companies do have a minimum number of hours you have to rent vehicles for that you should consider in your planning and budget. If large transportation is not in the budget, you could look into providing ride share codes for your guests too!
We hope that this gives you some insight into hosting your out of town wedding guests for the weekend. These are simply suggestions and do not have to be followed, but should be considered. Every wedding situation and logistics are different, and we are happy to help talk you through those when you’re ready!
