Entertaining Out of Town Guest

I don't think it's necessarily "rude" per se, but wouldn't you want to spend time with these people since they're out of town and you probably don't see them often?

You COULD put activities local to the area for them to do on your website, so they'd have some touristy ideas...

I think most of your guests know that it is a possibility that you will be going on your honeymoon the day after. I wouldn't worry about it, make sure you host them well for the reception & it will be worth their travels.

Plenty of coupes do that, its very common. You are mingling with guest during the reception so I don't think its rude, You can set up room blocks for them at hotels so that they can stay overnight with other guest before having to return home. You and your FH can do the same as well, then leave the following morning to your honeymoon.

View Quoted Comment Okay, that’s a good idea.

Thank you.

View Quoted Comment I hope they don’t. & We will do our best.

Thank you. 😊

View Quoted Comment Really? That’s awesome! I wasn’t aware that could be done. I think that’s what we will do. Thank you for sharing that with me.

You could always have activities before the wedding, like a golf outing for the men or a cocktail hour to socialize. Have your parents or other family entertain the guests after the wedding. You have every right to go enjoy your honeymoon.

The majority of our guests were OOT. Shoot, we were in from OOT (it was in the state where I grew up). We did leave the next day for our honeymoon.

What we did do is left my parents house and checked into the hotel on Thursday (our wedding was on Saturday). My parents and brother did, too. DH's family, most of our WP, and a few other guests were also getting into town that day. We spent time Thursday evening going out to dinner and getting drinks with our OOT guests who had arrived, and hung out later that night at the hotel with those that got in after we returned from dinner. I spent Friday during the day with my BP, and he spent the day with his GM and other relatives, and in the evening, we spent time with more family at the RD. We tried to see as many people as we could before the day of the wedding so people would feel like they got some quality time.

Pretty much everyone checked out before we did the next day, as they had flights to catch or they were traveling nearby to see some sites or other friends before they left the east coast. I'd consider that the day after the wedding, your guests are also going to be looking forward to getting to where they need to go.

Set up hotel blocks for rooms to help them find a place to stay where others will be. If possible, try to concentrate them in the same area so that people at different hotels and still easily meet up. Put information on your website and/or in hotel welcome bags on what to do in the area as a courtesy. Go to the local tourism office, they usually have good free guides and maps you can use (they actually shipped us boxes of maps and area guides to use).

If you have time, try to arrange ways to see people ahead of time. For example, we told our guests that we'd be at Hotel Bar XYZ after 8pm the night before the wedding (after the rehearsal dinner), if anyone would like to join us for a drink and to mingle with other guests. Many people showed up, and it was a great way to see people before the wedding and for guests to either catch up with those they haven't seen in a while or meet other guests.

These are all courtesies, but are generally appreciated. I've been to several out-of-town weddings where the couple left that night or very early the next morning for their honeymoons, it's not rude at all. We were actually considered weird because we took several days between the wedding and honeymoon (which was awesome...so glad we did that).

Hi - I am having a DW. We are hosting a casual welcome party and morning after breakfast in addition to the wedding. Part of the reason behind that is that we wanted enough time to see everyone and not just on the wedding day.

I think it is ok to leave the same day as your wedding but consider hosting a casual welcome party so you have some time to see them since 90% of them are traveling to you for your wedding.

I also posted on my website things for them to do. Links to local websites with coupons, event calendar, etc.

Many of our guests are traveling from outside of the US. We opted to delay our honeymoon because of that, as well as budget/vacation time issues. I don't think you need to continue to host them the next day per se, as PP suggested if you do a hotel block you can pick one with breakfast included so people can reconnect in the morning. I've always found the discussions the next morning to be fun even if the couple is not there!

I really like the idea of doing something the night before. Host everyone for dinner, meet up for drinks, whatever. It gives you a chance to spend more time with them. And the added bonus is that people will come in the day before, so you won't be stressing about anyone getting in late, check in issues, etc etc.

Thank you everyone for your ideas. I am taking all of this into consideration as we make our plans.

Most of our guests from out of town are coming down a few days beforehand and we will visit with them then and at the reception

About half of our guests were OOT or from out of the country. We chose to stick around for the entire weekend because most of our guests we hadn't seen in years. After the reception we chose to text our OOT/OOC guests to see if they would like to meet for breakfast/lunch. We spent all weekend meeting up with our OOT/OOC guests for breaktfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks. We are super super social, though. It takes a lot to run our social battery dry. We loved being able to visit and catch up with so many people. If you don't want to formally entertain them, I highly suggest a "What To Do While In Town" section of your wedding website. We did this and had things like bus tours, museums to visit, bar/restaurants to try, and other fun local touristy things. This way if people didn't want to see us/didn't want to commit too much time they could have fun still!