Choosing a venue – Hotel Pros & Cons

Pros

• Hotels tend to be organized; they have enough staff to handle every aspect of your event for e.g. lobby staff to greet guest as they enter, bathroom attendants, banquet captain to handle hotel issues that comes up.
• Hotels are inclusive of food & drink, giving the couple less to think about.
• After a long day at the wedding, sometimes, you just don’t feel like driving anywhere — The hotel is a safe place to rest after a night of drinking, you can also get great room rates.
• Valet is available — whereby the guest can drive up towards the lobby and not have a long walk.

Cons

• Hotels charge for every little thing — Cake cutting ($7 pp), if you have 100 guest that’s $700 and that does not include the $1,300 you paid for the cake.
• Hotels are strict with vendor access time, usually allowing 2 hrs (set up) and 1 hr (breakdown) — depending on the level of décor — that may not be enough time, and guaranteed to add extra time will be additional $$.
• Hotels have valet — but more times than not valet is not free. Before locking in a venue, you want to be sure that the cost of valet is established.
• Your ceremony may take place next to the pool, but understand that the hotel pool will not close down because of your wedding. You will have people on the sidelines cheering and wishing you well in their thong bathing suit lol — One day you may look back and laugh, but maybe you won’t be laughing on your wedding day.