Wedding Party Accommodation

Cailleachdubh

I'm just wondering, for anyone having their wedding away from their homeplace, what accommodation arrangements did you make for the night before the wedding? Assuming the bride and groom aren't meant to see each other, should they stay at different hotels? Is it ok for them to have dinner with the family the night before, or should they say goodbye the morning before their wedding?! Although the idea of a girlie sleepover with the bridesmaids sounds like fun, it also sounds like I'd get little or no sleep the night before my wedding. Which would be no good!

Also, is it customary for the bride and groom to pay for the bridesmaids and groomsmen's hotel accommodation? My OH was groomsman a few years ago and had to pay for his own accommodation. And if we're expected to pay, what happens if one of the bridesmaids has a partner sharing a room with her?

ladysarah

Regarding paying for bridal parties rooms about half the weddings I was at paid for them. But they are no hard and fast rules. If you do decide to pay you would have to pay for bridesmaid and boyfriend sharing a room so could end up paying for 6 rooms if you had 3 of each. A friend of mine who is tight fisted would not give the couple the card until he knew if they paid for his room as it hapoens they did pay for him and his wife otherwise he was going to give a lesser amount of money in cash!

clint_silver

Cailleachdubh wrote: »

I'm just wondering, for anyone having their wedding away from their homeplace, what accommodation arrangements did you make for the night before the wedding? Assuming the bride and groom aren't meant to see each other, should they stay at different hotels? Is it ok for them to have dinner with the family the night before, or should they say goodbye the morning before their wedding?! Although the idea of a girlie sleepover with the bridesmaids sounds like fun, it also sounds like I'd get little or no sleep the night before my wedding. Which would be no good!

Also, is it customary for the bride and groom to pay for the bridesmaids and groomsmen's hotel accommodation? My OH was groomsman a few years ago and had to pay for his own accommodation. And if we're expected to pay, what happens if one of the bridesmaids has a partner sharing a room with her?

I wouldn't expect my room to be paid for on the night of the wedding as a groomsman. Pay your own for the night is the done thing.

If the groom asked me to stay in the hotel the night before, now that's a different matter. Now you just doubled the cost to me for your big night.

Maybe it's different for girls.

There's no rules about it. If you can afford it then fine, if you can't, explain it. Say you'd love if they could be there the night before but you'll understand if they can't.

hoodwinked

we paid for our bridal party rooms as a thank you for the work they did for us, we got the parents rooms free in the package and they threw in a third for my grandmother as she was the only grandparent still alive, so we litrally only had the bridal part to cater for.

but in our case we paid for a 3 bed town house for two bridesmaids and one groomsmen (they were all cousins and know each other plus partners well) so they stayed there and it was cheaper than 3 rooms, so see if you can do something like that.


we were also paying for the two bestmens rooms in the hotel (with their partners as again they more than helped us)
but due to a hotel mix up i think one paid for his and the other we caught just on time on check out, so my husband had to go try and sort that out awkwardly enough days later.

lazygal

We paid for bridal party accommodation. I never knew people didn't pay for it until I read online that some didn't bother. We budgeted from the start for it. I left from my parents house, my husband from our place. The groom is usually at the ceremony first so it should be easy to avoid each other.

tinkerbell

For the night of the wedding, it's completely up to you if you pay or not. However, it's good to bear in mind that if your bridal party has to travel far for your wedding and therefore don't have the option of going home afterwards or the hotel is very expensive and you expect them to stay in hotel, then you should consider paying for them.

Regarding the night before, if you expect your bridal party to come down the night before and stay in the hotel, you've just doubled their costs for your wedding. Instead of paying €150-€250 for accom, they are forced to pay €300-€500 and it is really bad form to insist that they are there and expect them to pay for it as well, that's just expecting way too much on your friends. So if you want them down the night before, do the decent thing and pay for it. Yes it costs money but your friends wouldn't be staying there otherwise the night before so it's unfair to expect them to pay for it.

Annabananna

My husbands family travelled up the night before our wedding when we booked hotel we asked for a special wedding rate for both nights we also told the groomsmen and bridesmaid that no gift was neccessary as they had the added expense of staying both nights.

TheDriver

We stayed together night before and i headed off in morning while she met other girls and did their thing, we met at the altar later that day and don't regret it at all

Moonbeam

We booked 2 houses the night before one for the groom and his 3 grooms men and one for me the kids and my bridesmaids.
It is only good manners to pay for their accommodation on the night of the wedding and the next night if you are having a 2 day affair.