Hotel check in question

Ask to see if there is an area to store luggage.

Can you book a room block for two nights instead of one? I think having a later ceremony is definitely the kindest option, but for any guests with a long journey to the wedding, they might want to check in the day before and get ready at the hotel anyway.

Luggage storage is also a good option, but still not the most convenient for guests who were hoping to freshen up before heading off to your ceremony.

I've been in this situation as a guest a couple of times. at one, the hotel allowed us to get dressed and freshen up in their fitness/pool area washroom and change room so we had a bit of space, and we were able to drop our luggage off at the desk. if i were you i'd inquire about both those options!

For the BP I had rooms the night before the ceremony to help the issue. The only suggestion I have (other than what PP mentioned) is reserving a room the night before your wedding to be used as a "changing room" for your guests; and possibly having a family member use that room for the night of the wedding, since you pretty much need it for in between two reservations. Definitely not ideal from a cost perspective but maybe you can inform the hotel that they are to use this room as a concierge room for any of your hotel guests who's room isn't ready. The hotel we stayed at for our HM actually had rooms like these, so I don't think the concept is new to the hotel industry, it'd just be new in that your paying for it. Then after all guests have changed etc have someone clean the room so your family member/friend who agreed to take that room to offset cost can have it. We had to eat the cost of a hotel room the night of our wedding because DH stayed with me, but we needed his room for the guys to get ready in earlier that day.

Don't you already have a gap between your ceremony and cocktail hour? You should push your ceremony time back to eliminate the gap and give your guests more time to get into their rooms.

View Quoted Comment No, this is our timeline.

There "changing room" idea is a pretty good one. There isn't really anything you can do besides cross your fingers that the rooms are ready and make sure the hotel has decent bathrooms for people to change/get ready. People will likely notice this and get most of the way done before they get there. (i.e. if this was me I would have noticed and had my hair & makeup done before I arrived. That way I could just change and touch up my makeup if my room wasn't ready)

View Quoted Comment

What are they going to do from 3:45 to 4:00?

View Quoted Comment Walk time for 185 people to get indoors. The venue suggested it based on previous weddings our size.

I had this same issue, and decided to push my start time to 3:30. I still feel a little obnoxious about it since it doesn’t give real getting ready time but they can at least drop bags and get settled. Ideally I’d push the whole thing to 4 but the event has a hard end time and that starts really cutting into the party.

One of the hotels suggests guests needing to get ready also reserve the night before but I think that is some major BS and I’m not suggesting anyone pay for a full night for a room bc they want to arrive just one hour early

Most hotels are willing to hold your luggage also it's not a huge deal if you don't check in at 3pm most people tend to check in between 5 and 7pm. If your guest will be checking in after 10pm though it's usually good to let the front desk know. Around midnight is when checking in can cause problems as I know some chains require hotels to run end of day at midnight which can prevent guest from checking in for about 15-20 minutes.

As a former hotel manager, a few things I can offer

1. If your wedding is in the hotel's off-season having the rooms ready shouldn't be a problem assuming the hotel is properly staffed and has a decent inventory supply. If they don't sell out the night before there's less to clean, more open rooms at the start of the event day, so everything flows easier. If the hotel is close to sold out, or there are a lot of requests for late check-outs that the hotel chooses to honor, then you will see problems with early check-in.

2. See if they can a handful of rooms ready early for guest to change in. Guest may have to rotate through the rooms, And it might not be their final room, but at least a bathroom to change, brush teeth, do hair and make up. When I was in the industry I would tell the family checking in "this room isn't totally ready yet. All the dirty linen is out, and the bathroom has been cleaned. We'll make the beds and freshen up the towels while you're out partying. Just leave the beds clear"

3. Tell your guests if they know they are checking in early to specify that when they make the reservation. Give an approx time frame. Have the guest call the day of, at least two hours prior and to give the hotel a heads up of an actual check in. "Hi this Ms. Smith and I will be arriving at 12:30 to check into my room. I have a wedding ceremony at 3:30, I will be leaving the hotel by 2:30. If I can get a room to change in, I don't mind if it's not ready, as the clean team can finish after I leave"

4. Arrange with the hotel some place to store the luggage. This might mean renting a small banquet room, or board room if they have one. Or they might have a bellhop closet.

5. See if they have a small banquet or board room to rent. I would also encourage brides to do this. We would set-up folding tables and chairs, put heating pads down (to set curling irons on), pitchers of water and cups, bring in some extra mirrors, as well as coat racks to hang things on, and if I could, depending on the size of the room, add pipe/drape changing stations., or Bring out some portable folding dividers, extra blow dryers, and one or two irons + ironing boards. It's not as nice as a private room, but it gave them space. This service is usually an extra fee. Families with several kids like this option too as it gave them more room to move, and Usually 2 or 3 aunts would be in there with all the kids, so there was more adult supervision. It made for a nice social/hang out spot while people were getting ready, and it avoided them running from room to room.

6. Some hotels will charge an extra fee to have the rooms ready early. I would not rent the room the night before, but charge the guests 2 nights worth of charges to guarantee the room stayed open and ready for their early arrival. I also had guest check in the night before so they had the room day of.

Good luck!