Courtesy hotel block ?

If you have a significant amount of out of town guests, the sooner the better. Our wedding is November 1st and we reserved the hotel block in April right before we sent Save the Dates.

Call nearby hotels and ask if they offer courtesy blocks. If they don't, guests can still reserve a room there, but none are set aside for your group.

I'd also ask about discounts, parking, complimentary breakfasts, and a shuttle!

Most hotels offer the courtesy blocks. They're just a block of 10 or so rooms that usually have a discounted rate for your guests. If some of the rooms remain unhooked by the deadline, they just release the rooms to anybody else so nobody is responsible for paying for the rooms not being used.
Some hotels will require payment for unbooked rooms in the blocks. That's the biggest difference in courtesy blocks vs noncourtesy.
We had our block for about 3 months before. So it was available when we sent out invites and closed a month before the wedding

I’d block off rooms ASAP. You had a better chance of getting a cheaper rate the earlier you block the rooms off. I have room blocks at 2 different hotels (2 different price points). I just have to call 2 weeks before to cancel any unbooked rooms to keep from paying for those rooms. I had never heard of a “courtesy block” until this site. That maybe a regional thing.

So my wedding isn’t until next year August so would it make sense to do these blocks over a year out? Or more in the 6-9month time range?

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It is recommended you do it now so that you get the best rate and availability, especially if you are getting married in a busy city or peak travel season. Also, usually you will include this info on your Save the Dates which should go out anywhere from 6-12 months out to give your guests time to make travel arrangements.

My hotel wouldn’t reserve my block til eight months out and then it took another month to get all the paperwork done because their communication was slow

We set up a block in February for our December wedding.