What do you do when you realized that you picked a really popular area to get married during the start of the tourist high season? I find myself in that position, as I scour the interwebs for a hotel for our wedding night / mini-moon. It turns out that Santa Barbara - one of my favorite cities in the summer, while a lovely place to get married, is also extremely pricey if you want to stay in a nice hotel to celebrate the start of that marriage. All the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts that come highly-rated cost at least $250+ a night, plus taxes and fees. The places that are a little cheaper, at between $150-$200, have some fairly uncharitable reviews that give me pause. There are some lower-end motels or hotels that are around $150, but I am not THAT frugal.
Still, as much as I enjoy a luxury hotel stay (I do), and as much as I understand that weddings / honeymoons are probably not a time to skimp on accomodations (I do), it pains me to think about spending $300+ when I’ve stayed at gorgeous properties for half that price. On the one hand, I suppose it’s better to just spend a little extra to guarantee a good experience, but on the other hand, it’s so much money. Thus began an internal battle between the personal finance blogger and the bride-to-be.
But then, inspiration! I started looking outside Santa Barbara… and found that by staying in a seaside town a few hours north instead of the seaside town where we are getting married, we will save up to $100/night for a hotel of comparable quality. Instead of $250/night, we can pay $150/night. Three nights stay means a saving of $300, which will be enough to pay for some horseback riding, a nice dinner, and event a jaunt to the Hearst Castle. So here’s our plan: after our day-time wedding, we are going to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and check into our hotel for a 3-day mini-moon before our official honeymoon to Buenos Aires the week after.
What would you have done in my case? How much would you spend (or have spent) on your wedding/honeymoon hotels?
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The honeymoon hotels are painful! I looked into condo rentals, but my fiance really enjoys when we go to resorts, because we always meet new people and interact with them.
Our intention for our 2 week trip is going to be 1 week in Puerto Rico and 1 week on a cruise from Puerto Rico, and at this point, we haven't booked anything because my fiance is trying to switch jobs, and we don't want to book and then have his new company say, "sorry we won't give you the time off during this time of the year".
So, as I watch prices climb and see the high taxes for staying at the "resorts" (aka on the beach, with a pool), I keep thinking we should book with hotwire or priceline. I don't really care about the hotel so much – I want a clean room and we both enjoy swimming, so having a nice beach at the hotel is ideal – but the actual hotel we end up in doesn't matter that much to me, especially since the 4 star hotels all seem to have good reviews anyways.
My fiance does want a place that looks good and has a kind size bed, too, so we may go the cheap-deals hotel route (even though it's our honeymoon), since a lot of the condos that we're finding are cramped studios with a double bed, or multi-bedroom apartments with several doubles and a queen if we're lucky. What I really care about are the activities – I absolutely want to go kayaking through the bio-luminescent bay, and going to the rainforest, exploring the history of the cities, going exploring through the caves, etc. Those are much more important to me than which hotel we end up with, provided it's a nice hotel and has a beach, etc.
Tip: Priceline segments the downtown areas pretty well, and if you stay at 3.5 stars and above you can pretty much be certain which-of-3 or which-of-4 places you'll stay at bc there are only so many properties of that quality in any given area.
I had a post similar to this the other day because I'm going on vacations and don't know if I want to splurge or be frugal. If it was my wedding night, I think I'd splurge though!
I think you found a fine solution. I wouldn't worry too much about others' expectations of you on your wedding day once you are alone. My father somehow could not accept that my soon-to-be-husband and I planned to spend our first night together in his (newly our) apartment in his (newly our) bed. He even offered to pay for a hotel room for us multiple times and went so far as to reserve one despite our consistent refusal. Very strange. We wanted that special night to be in a comfortable, familiar environment and my father just didn't get that.
We used my husband's hotel points to stay at a more expensive hotel when we got married. The room would have cost around $200 otherwise.
Are you planning to start your drive right after your reception? A couple years ago we went to a daytime wedding where the reception ended around 3, and afterwards most of the guests were at a loss for what to do. Later we found out the newly married couple would have rather spent more time with their guests (rather than doing a big exit and leaving), since many came from so far away and they only got to see them for a couple minutes at the reception. I know wedding planning is a pain in the butt, but that might be something to think about. Best of luck!
That sounds like a pretty good compromise! Wow, having your honeymoon in a seaside town sounds absolutely amazing! Depending on how much time I had to do the research, I might have paid the $250/night or tried to find something cheaper. I'm really terrible at researching small details for vacations like that though and probably would have just ended up paying the $250/night and been done with it.
As a newlywed, I can assure you won't care what the hotel looks like! Enjoy the cheaper place and splurge on activities that will make lasting memories. Congratulations!!
I really love staying in hotels (when I go to Vegas it's to stay in nice hotels, not go clubbing. LOL), so it's important for us to find somewhere where we can feel a little spoiled.
I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. You'll love driving off along the coast as husband and wife! My husband and I were married at an old inn built in the 1800s, so our room was comp'd for the night. Of course, it cost us quite a bit to get married there so it wasn't really a bargain. The inn was beautiful though, we had a hot tub right in our room and a huge canopy bed to snuggle in after an amazing day. I'll never forget that place or that night. No matter where you end up you'll be so excited to be married that it probably won't matter. Even if it was a shack, it'll be a shack you'll never forget
On your way north from Santa Barbara (if you have time), make a quick stop at my home town, Santa Maria, to buy some strawberries. It's kind of what the city's known for. We have a Strawberry Festival and everything.
thanks for the tip. I love strawberries… will they be in season in late May/early June?
Drivig up or down the California coast is filled with beautiful places and varied prices. Finding that particular interesting place to stay can be an adventure in itself.
What about checking yelp deals, foursquare check in offers, and scouring living social and groupon deals for that area? Might be able to get something really nice for half off!
Trust me, I've been looking! But I haven't found anything. Given that Santa Barbara is such a touristy spot and June is the height of the season, I don't have much hope for finding a deal, at least not a deal that would bring a $300/night room down to $150/night.
That's a wonderful solution. The drive sounds kind of romantic as a bonus. I've known couples to spend their wedding night in the same hotel where they had the reception to keep it simple. Then they went on to their honeymoon destination after that. It all sounds lovely; enjoy!
I'd worry about cost too. But a note of caution – you will be EXHAUSTED after your wedding (being "on" for hours on end is tiring), and not ready to drive for hours. You might not have eaten! You have to pack the car with gifts. Another solution is to spend the night 30-45 minutes away in a fairly nice place (so you won't mind lounging in the morning), and then drive up to the coast the next day for the awesome place. Just an idea.
I know what you mean about SB prices. I went as a date to a wedding at the Bacara and stayed there for a few nights. I later googled it and our room was $500 a night or some shiz! Back in 2006, I believe. The couple had a falcon (A FALCON!) retrieve their wedding bands on cue during their wedding. Every person also got a dove to release. (There was a bird, 'our love is like flying' theme, obviously.) It. Was. Insane. I don't even want to think how much that wedding cost. I was just lucky because my date was a lawyer and rolling in it, happy to treat me to a beautiful weekend.
I probably would have done what you did–depending on how tired I thought I'd be and if my husband to be would be up for driving a few hours after what is certainly going to be an exhausting, adrenaline-filled, roller coaster of emotions day. It's one of those once in a lifetime things, but there's no shame in saving some dough if you can!
(The Bacara, though…it was fabulous.)
A falcon!?! Wouldn't it be… distressing if somehow the falcon got one of the doves? o_0 I would have loved to stay at the Four Seasons Santa Barbara, but it's $600/night during our weekend.
That sounds like a lovely idea! I am picturing you guys driving up the coast in your car, just the two of you, newly married and basking in the glow of your awesomeness as the sun sets (or the moon reflects off the ocean). Just wonderful.
We are spending the weekend in a cabin we're renting with our whole wedding party (and their guests), so our wedding night will be spent probably with a continued party of exhausted craziness at our house. We're staying 3 nights with the wedding party (arriving the Thursday before the Saturday wedding), and get the 4th night free, so we're taking Monday off work to get a free night (Sunday night, by ourselves) in the cabin
"basking in the glow of your awesomeness" < — hahah I love this! Can't wait to read about your winter wonderland wedding.
That sounds like a good solution! Though, I do second the point that you might be very hungry and tired, I know I was!
We actually stayed in the honeymoon suite at a mid-level hotel for free! The hotel had a deal that if we booked some number of rooms (10, maybe?) for our wedding party, we'd get the suite for free for one night, and we had more than that number of out-of-town guests. But…we got married in a small town, nothing touristy about it, and we didn't really have any fancy/expensive options without driving several hours… and a decent suite for free was easy to say yes too!
OK, I've heard of brides and grooms being so nervous / busy during the wedding that they barely eat, but I really can't imagine the same for me! I've already mentally picked out my entree (coq au vin… mmmm) at the restaurant, and I plan to enjoy every bite of that sucker.