Trying to Accomodate

A large issue with our wedding planing has been the accommodations for our guests, which I naively thought would be so easy! Call a few hotels, book a couple of rooms, score a discount, bada bing bada boom, scratch it off the list.

Well unfortunately, we seem to have chosen the same weekend for the wedding as "Rock Fest" - a huge summer music festival in the area. We thought that we would be safe since the festival is in Cadott and we are in Chippewa Falls, but boy were we mistaken.

At first we were kind of bummed when the hotels we were calling said that we could block rooms, but that they couldn't give us a discount because it was one of their most sold out weekends of the year, but we understood.

We recently found out though, that some of the hotels in the area are also tacking on a one time 9% service charge - just for that weekend. Oy.

The FH husband and I realized from the beginning that many of our family and friends would have to travel to make it to our nuptials, but that would have been true for any location that we could have chosen, so we intentionally went to where the most people would not have to travel (my family) and where we thought it would be most cost effective for out-of-towners to stay.

At this point there isn't much that we can do, except suggest more places to lodge. My family has, however, graciously thrown open their homes to allow people who need to to stay with them, free of charge. My first priority is the bridal party, followed by any friends and family whose decision to come or not come will be based on the finances (and with times like these whose won't be?)

What tasks did you think would be no-hassle that ended in you working to welcome your guests?