Save the date for destination wedding - We want the guests to stay at our wedding villa!

I think you can only suggest that your guests stay there if they are paying for it themselves. you can give them the option on your website, but I'm sure some guests will find accommodations elsewhere too.

For our destination wedding, we added a note to the invites with more details. The invite only listed the wedding date. The added note included airline pricing from airports our guests would be traveling from, suggested travel dates, our travel itinerary, sugegested accommodations and rates, airport transportation details, wedding transportation details,
etc.

That sounds so fun! I'd give your close family and friends the info as soon as possible so they're sure to get space. Then send the STD with your actual wedding date but point to your wedding website for more info. There, you can explain the accommodations and the timeframe in more detail. The tricky part is that ~10 of your guests will be "the odd man out" and might feel a little sad about not being able to partake in the villa. Might not be a big deal though, it's kind of a know-your-crowd thing.

Since this is your wedding venue it isn't appropriate to ask your guests to pay for it, so you should be prepared to cover all of the cost yourselves.

I would pay for the accommodations if possible. That would really encourage family and friends to stay at your villa

Hi Rui, how are you planning on having your guests pay for to stay at the villa? Per night fee? Per Person?

Are the prices better than those of surrounding hotels? Airbnbs?

I remember looking at some villas and at their cost and am just wondering if your price will be about the same as other accommodations, lower or higher?

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Thanks for your reply Alejandra. We are thinking in this way as most of guests come in couple/family: how much do they spend for 3 nights in total as a unit?

We'll definitely set the price lower than the surroundings. Our venue is in a town right outside of Barcelona. Within the city of Barcelona, accommodations are more expensive for sure. In the town of my venue, it gets cheaper.

I think we might have to lower the price much much cheaper than surroundings otherwise many friends we do care about might not be able to afford (they can afford but it's like we are "forcing" them to come and spend more than they should have when we could have had the wedding in Belgium - where we are based now).

We definitely won't "force" people to stay with us at the villa. It's such a difficult thing to pull off with so many many things to take into consideration.

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Hi Cher. Indeed, we booked a villa with accommodation is not because the guests would share some cost with us. I also found lovely venue only option but we want a more intimate celebration where we could spend more time together.

However, it's almost 11k for us to pay the entire villa. We are now thinking if there a way to twist it:

- We are going to pay for the flight ticket for guests to come (Within Europe). Guests might end up paying something similar but it makes them feel good that we are paying for the flights?

- We pay for the accommodation at the villa. As a result, guests might feel more comfortable giving out more to us? But what about the guests who don't stay at the villa?

Trust me, we would pay for the accommodation if it allows

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Thank you Jennifer for your help!

Exactly, how can we decide who to stay at the Villa?

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Hi! thanks for the reply. Does your venue has accommodation?

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There is no way to "twist" it. You can't assume that if you pay for plane tickets or rooms in the villa, that your guests will respond in kind (plus more, presumably) with their wedding gift. They may give something that doesn't even come close to that amount. They may give nothing because they think their attendance at a destination wedding is gift enough.

And, needmorewine is correct, it's not appropriate to ask your guests to pay for your wedding venue by having them pay for the rooms there.

You should seriously consider going with the non-accommodation venue you can actually afford so you don't have to try to figure out creative ways that will hopefully work out in order to pay for it. To many things could not go the way you think they will, and you'll be stuck with a huge bill and no way to pay for it.

Also, I think you'll find that you'll have plenty of time together with your guests. If it's a destination wedding, they may not want to spend every second of all 3 days with you and the other guests. If I were to attend one, I'd want some time to go off and see the sights. Just a thought!

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So around 30 guests could stay at the villa for free and the rest of the guests need to pay for their own accommodation outside of the villa? Then how do we decide who will stay at the villa

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That's an excellent point, and another reason to consider booking the non-accommodation venue. There is no good way to choose that would be fair. You could narrow the guest list down another 10 people, so there is room for all, but that is all I can think of.