by Shannon Morehouse

Created on: December 04, 2008

My wedding was in September of 2007 and my favorite aspect of the planning process was making MY special day just as special for my out of town guests. As I was planning, I did a lot of research on the etiquette of hosting out of town guests. I will provide you with several ideas of how to make the stay enjoyable for your out-of-town company.

WHO PAYS?

This really is a tough call. It depends on your budget. Most wedding experts agree that your out-of-town guests should pay for their own accommodations. You can certainly help the guests out some by getting a group rate at various hotels. My husband and I selected hotels that were close to the wedding ceremony, reception, and also the rehearsal dinner location. We chose a classy hotel and a middle-of-the-road hotel to suit the incomes and tastes of our diverse guests. The group rate for the classy hotel was $119 a night, and the rate was $89 a night for the middle-of-the-road hotel.

We did pay for special guests, such as our officiating pastor and his family. He was going out of the way to marry us in our new city. We agreed that he should have his travel costs covered.

We also agreed that we should try to accommodate the out-of-town guests who couldn't afford the hotel expenses. We were very grateful for their presence at the wedding. For some of these guests, we put them up in our place. For other guests, we urged them not to purchase us any wedding gifts, that their presence was our present.

THINKING OF OUT OF TOWN GUESTS WHEN PICKING YOUR DATE:

It is very important to think of your out-of-town guests when determining the wedding date. Winter weddings may make it extraordinarily difficult for guests to travel in many areas of the country, so definitely keep the season in consideration. If you live in hurricane-prone vicinity, consider not having your wedding during hurricane season.

Another time-specific detail to think about when planning your wedding date is local events. My husband and I avoided having our wedding during a major music festival that happens in our city in July and August, as the city gets very congested and the hotel rates soar up. However, if there are smaller scale local events, that may just be the perfect time to invite guests, as it will give them something fun to do in their free time. We opted to have our wedding on the weekend of a local Celtic festival. This allowed for our guests to enjoy Celtic music, dancing, highland games, Border collie exhibitions, and fabulous traditional Irish

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