Post # 1

Member
5 posts
Newbee
hi all – we are having a key west destination wedding next winter. our friends & family are already asking me where they should stay. the problem down there is many hotels will require you to pay for any rooms not booked that are part of your room block.. that is not a condition we want to take on. for anyone who got married in key west, how did you work the hotels/where your guests should stay? our wedding will be at the audubon house, just to give you an idea of where we will be at.
also – if anyone has any nice waterfront rehearsal dinner options in key west, that would be great. we are looking at louie’s backyard currently but want to check out all our options
thank you!!
Post # 2

Member
1988 posts
Buzzing bee
I didn’t get married in Key West, but I’ve been to two weddings there. One bride didn’t pay squat for our hotel rooms (and they were expensive as all hell, buttttt they were literally a block from venue and I guess it was convenient). The quality of the wedding was nice, but it did kinda sting that these people could afford a black-tie wedding but not get a hotel block. We were left to our own devices and it just didn’t feel warm.
The other bride paid for hotel blocks; we got a banging discount. The wedding was far more simple, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than the crazy black-tie wedding.
My advice is to keep your guest list small, keep your wedding simple, and use that saved money to get hotel blocks, but I’m only going off my personal experience lol
Post # 3

Member
5 posts
Newbee
megm1099 : thanks for responding! we are definitely not having a black tie wedding, so there will be none of that sort of situation going on, ha!
we never got the impression from our planner that we had to pay anything upfront for room blocks… it’s just that if you don’t fill all the rooms, the bride and groom are stuck paying for them. and i think it’s up to each hotel as to what discount you get. apparently they’re less likely to give much of a discount during “wedding season”, which is when we are having our wedding.
many of the people we’ve spoken with (planners, venue coordinators, photographer) have said that nowadays a lot of visitors like to get condos and are not using the hotels as much. i feel like we need to call our guests and get a feel for what they’d want.
where were the weddings you went to? just out of curiousity. and do you remember the hotel names and if you liked them?
Post # 4

Member
6929 posts
Busy Beekeeper
missparrotfish : This is a thing with a lot of destination locations. The hotel is essentially holding these rooms for you so it costs them money if these rooms go unbooked. So if you ask them to hold back 10 rooms but your guests only end up booking 5 rooms, they’re losing out on 5 room reservations during prime vacation season. Can you work it out with them where they only hold the rooms for a shorter period of time so they still would have plenty of time to book them if your guests don’t? Also, if you’re getting married in season there’s just a chance that other weddings are going to fill your slots. So if you don’t get any room blocks your guests are just going to have a really hard time finding suitable rooms anywhere.
Post # 5

Member
1988 posts
Buzzing bee
missparrotfish : The black-tie wedding: I was thirteen and I do not remember details sadly! It was my first black-tie wedding. I remember having to buy a gown and I remember my parents paying out their ears for the hotel, but I don’t remember the names of the hotel and venue. However, I just asked my dad if he remembers why we had to stay at the hotel we did even though there were no blocks. He said that he doesn’t remember exactly, but his sketchy recollection was that EVERYONE was staying there (there were about 200 guests, he says), so he just went with the crowd.
For the more casual setting, YES I remember it because I just went last year 🙂 The venue business was called Weddings on the Water or something like that. There was a total of only 20 guests and the wedding was right on the beach. I stayed a bit of a ways away with a couple friends at the Palms Hotel which I believe was a home converted into a hotel. It was not a five-star level of a hotel, but it was homey and cozy. I only stayed for two nights but I didn’t have any complaints!