Guest list or Group Rate first ??

[JillEBean]

Hello All,

 

I'm starting to plan for my DW in Dec 2010. I know the travel rates won't be posted until Jan 2010 but I really don't know which step to do first so need your help.

 

A little background, we started this process with the travel agent for this year but decided to postpone due to financial issues so I already know about how much the pkg is gonna be.

 

Here's my problem: The travel agents want a head count and deposits within 2 weeks of providing the group rates. Only at that point have we secured our actual pkg and ceremony date. So how do I send an invitation without knowing what date the wedding will actually be ? And how do I prompt ppl to make their deposit within the 2 week time frame considering the invites take 3-4 days to be delivered?

 

I know a lot of ppl have suggested a wedding website but not many of my family are tech savy so unfortunately that's not an option.

 

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Jill

[bholthof]

Hi!

 

What we did (what our travel agent was able to do) was to get us a great rate first. We then secured 20 seats by paying the deposits ourselves. We secured 20 seats because we KNEW that there were 20 people coming. Our TA was then able to get the airline to set aside an additional 9 seats/rooms for our group. So then we had a bit more time to tell the people we knew were going to call the TA and pay thier own deposits. As thier deposits came in, we had the option of having the money refunded back onto our credit card or applied to our total account. (we applied it to our total) Our final payment date is February 1st. So we sent out our invites a couple weeks ago, with an RSVP of late January. Now, if anyone else wants to go, they have the option of getting our group rate with the 9 extra set aside for us. If nobody decides to come, however, we lose those seats in the beginning of January and people are on thier own for getting a rate.

 

I notice that you don't know your wedding date - yyou might want to find that out... hopefully your resort has dates available.

 

Don't know if that really answers your questions, but it is a solution that might be possible, as long as you know that some people are DEFINATELY going. In our case it was almost all immediate family who'd already committed.

[JillEBean]

Well the problem with setting the date is I'm really not particular about the "date" but more of the "day". I'll explain, I want the ceremony on the 3rd day of the vacation so I kinda have to wait for the new pkgs to come out before I can set the "date". Don't want the ceremony towards the end of the vacation because I'll be to anxious and probably burnt by then. So how do I proceed

[Woodsylou]

that's harsh. where are you getting married? have you considered talking to the hotel direct about discount group rates?

[JillEBean]

Woodsy:

 

I really want to use an agent only because my family is spread out all over the country. I figure I'm paying for their services I want a single point of contact (and a toll free #) that all my guest can call into and make their arrangements once we've secured the rate.......I can't be the only one who's gone through this. I've had some ppl tell me to forgo the group rate and just look after B&G but that's really not what this is about because the group pkg includes lots of extras and upgrades for us too.

[Woodsylou]

oh i see. i think things are different in the US (i'm in the UK)

 

it's a real toughie. i would email the people you REALLY want there and tell them the details of the wedding, where it will be and an approximate cost, and ask them to let you know if they'll be going. say you have 20 people (10 couples) going, then ask your travel agent to quote you based on that. then if more people book then it doesn't matter really.

 

or do you get bigger discounts if say 30 people book compared to 20?

[JillEBean]

Most of the group rates are based on 10 ppl or more which shouldn't be hard to do considering we're having an actual wedding party (two on each side). I guess I just gotta play the waiting game until the new pkgs come out and go from there. So how did you go about picking your date? was it based on what days were avail or did you have it set when you brought it to the travel agent ?

[bholthof]

The way we picked our date was that we emailed the resort saying which weeks we were considering, and asked for the availability during those weeks. She then gave us a couple dates and we picked the one we wanted.