Wedding “guest Choice Hotel”

We looked into this but the hotel we were hoping to reserve a block of rooms at told us that if our guests didn't end up booking all of the rooms set aside for us we would have to pay the balance of the unreserved rooms. Because we are getting married in Banff and there are so many hotel options we decided against it so we didn't have to end up potentially paying thousands for unbooked rooms. This may just have been the case because of the area but it's definitely something to ask about!

My venue is at a resort so my hotel is included with a discounted guest price, but if your venue does not have that option, try calling around to different hotels in the area and see what they offer! You'd be surprised at how many hotels offer a blocking of a certain amount of rooms to accommodate guests at a wedding. It's great business for them and I'm sure there's one that would be able to give you a rough idea on pricing

My fiance and I had called a few of the hotels (we picked for options, high medium and low prices) that we were thinking people would want to stay at and they gave us a groups rate with a code, so when people booked, the hotel knew that they were staying for our wedding and they would also get the room at a discount. We did ours a year before our wedding since where we're getting married, hotels fill up super fast.

Typically you can get a good rate either by a venue referral or calling a hotel and holding a large number of rooms. Ask your venue if they have a partner hotel and if not, call a hotel that's within your venue's range and ask what kind of group discounts are available.

Each hotel will vary: some will require a minimum number of booked rooms, some will hold until a certain date before releasing to the public. Some may require a deposit on your end to guarantee the hold.