Resorts flip to elopement packages to draw these planning weddings

(NerdWallet) – As the number of large weddings and lavish receptions fell in 2020 – a trend that should continue for at least the early part of 2021 – luxury hotels are turning to a new strategy for marketing their event space: elopements.

While an elopement evokes images of a casual court ceremony, a secret getaway, or a drive through Las Vegas with Elvis as your incumbent, some hotels will have a completely different clientele in 2021. Luxury hotels are expanding their capabilities to offer what they call “Elopement Wedding Packages”, sometimes referred to as micro-weddings.

A hotel elopement wedding package is hardly different from a traditional hotel wedding package. The big difference? They will keep the number of guests to a minimum. Oh, and you’ll save a ton of money.

Save money with a Micro Wedding Hotel package

Take the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort. For only $ 6,500, you can host an “intimate wedding” for two to 35 people. This price tag covers pretty much everything you need (other than what you wear and what you eat), including access to indoor and outdoor ceremonies, recorded music, flowers for the couple, a photographer, a celebratory toast, and a one night hotel stay.

This is a sharp contrast to the $ 20,000 minimum you would spend booking a venue for a more traditional 100-person wedding in the same hotel. Additionally, the bigger $ 20,000 price tag doesn’t include many Extras that you will inevitably pay for for how professional makeup services, a photographer, and flowers Wedding insurance.

Across the country, you can book a wedding at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands, a luxury California hotel overlooking the Pacific. In normal times, the cost of booking the hotel pavilion alone is $ 3,000 for the ceremony (or $ 5,000 if you choose to do so for the ceremony and reception). However, if you limit your wedding to 20 people or less, you can book a weekday wedding for as little as $ 1,500 through the hotel’s Elopement package, which includes extras like use of the hotel’s dressing room (this room is usually an additional $ 500 for a traditional wedding).

Elopement packages are becoming a win-win for couples who have found the opportunity to get married at a lower price or in places that may have been just a fantasy in a pre-coronavirus world. Event planner Keith Willard says it’s a win for hotels desperate to get someone to book.

“Remember, hotel event managers, as salespeople, are trying to hit their budget and meet their sales goals,” says Willard. “These catering managers are looking for ways to make sales.”

And it’s paying off: In 2020, the Four Seasons Resort Orlando hosted three times as many micro-weddings as traditional celebrations, says Laure Hitzig Clavette, head of the hotel’s catering department.

When smaller weddings aren’t cheaper, they are often more extravagant

For a wedding at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando during the coronavirus, your entire extended family is unlikely to be flying in from across the country. But with the money you’ve saved on a plate that your picky cousins ​​aren’t eating anyway, some couples are using the money to make or choose one of upgrades like better food and an open bar Destination wedding versus staying local. At Four Seasons Resort Orlando, you can even spend a little extra to see Minnie and Mickey at your wedding (although the add-on option for Minnie and Mickey is currently suspended due to COVID-19).

“It’s cheaper in the sense that because of the sheer number of guests, the overall cost is lower,” says Hitzig Clavette. “Couples tend to indulge themselves a little more and add more fun, individual touches because they don’t have to strain their budget that much. While the grand total may be lower, the spend per guest tends to be higher. “

According to the 2020 American Wedding Study commissioned by Brides, 26% of couples said they would spend more on a wedding after the pandemic.

Earn these points

But if you want to mess with the extras, there’s another good side: you can probably earn more points than ever before. As hotels look for ways to encourage people to book events in their otherwise empty ballrooms and courtyards, many large hotel chains are offering additional promotions to earn extra points for your expenses that can then boost your honeymoon or future vacation.

For example, Hyatt launched “Hyatt Together,” which promises to be World of Hyatt Loyalty program bonus points plus additional discounts for event reservations booked and carried out in one of the hotels by December 31, 2022. With this offer, you will receive approximately 20% discount on event costs in the form of World of Hyatt points and credits.

Book sooner rather than later

While Hitzig Clavette says the hotel is seeing “a significant increase in micro-weddings,” that doesn’t mean massive events are over for good. In fact, most of the larger celebrations planned for 2020 have been postponed to 2021 as many couples on their guest list refused to compromise. She said it simply means that the combination of micro and traditional size weddings is likely to create business problems expand in 2021.

Whether you’re one of those people who doesn’t compromise on the huge guest list and intend to celebrate your wedding in 2022, when you’re sure everyone is safe to attend, or you’re convinced that this year will be for a Marrying audiences by only about a dozen people is the way to go. Wedding planners recommend jumping to dates now.

“As soon as we get into the scenario where the world goes back to normal, prices will go up again,” says Willard. Throw in the fact that the dates for the extra year of couples postponing their weddings in 2020 are full and the next year or two could be some of the busiest in the wedding industry. It will hit people soon. “

More from NerdWallet

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. E-mail: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

Copyright 2021 NerdWallet via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.