question about hotel blocks - i've never done this, need some advice please!

i've NEVER booked a block of rooms in a hotel so i don't know how to do it...

if i reserve say, 10 rooms, do i have to make sure that all 10 rooms will be booked? and if not, do i have to pay for the 'un-booked' room? will the room booking be for a specific number of days? say, all 10 rooms are booked for 1 week? some of my OOT guests will need a week while others just a few days...

tips/advice would reaaalllyyyy be appreciated here!

TIA!

I just secured my hotel block last week. We are using the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Garden City. They offered us a $139/night room rate. We blocked 18 rooms but we have until one month prior to the wedding to add more rooms. After that, any other guests will have to pay the current rate. We have no financial obligation towards any rooms that are not booked, which is great. If 15 or more rooms are booked, we get a $150 credit towards the bridal suite. We did not have to pay anything or give a credit card to do the room blocks.

When you call around, also inquire about a shuttle. Your OOT guests will def need transportation to and from your wedding. La Quinta is giving us a free shuttle all weekend. Other places I called required anywhere from $400-$500 to have a shuttle.

Four Points Sheraton said I could have up to 15 rooms for free regardless of who books them ... if i want more than 15, then I have to guarantee 10 less than what i ask for (so if i ask for 20, i need to guarantee that 10 will be booked).

If you're worried about paying for rooms, maybe you can reserve more than one hotel :)

I blocked rooms at the Melville Marriott and the people there were extremely helpful in terms of giving us a great deal (and comping us one day for our own stay, as well as giving us a suite at normal room price).

You usually only block rooms for the weekend of your wedding, as long as it isn't a high traffic holiday weekend. Our wedding was a Saturday afternoon, and we blocked Friday night and Saturday night for our guests. We were told that as long as we block 15 rooms or fewer, we were not obligated to guarantee any of the rooms. If we wanted to block more than 15 rooms (that's per night), we had to guarantee half of the rooms with a credit card. However, we were also told we could add to our block at any time if the block filled up. Once we had 10 rooms filled, I asked them to increase our block to 20 (since we were already past the 1/2-way point, so there was no way I'd be out any money).

The room rate (which was $129 per night) was available until 4 weeks before the wedding. Some of our friends got a better rate on expedia during a special weekend sale (they got $119) and I was able to add them to our guest list so they got welcome bags without a problem. The hotel was also willing to extend our block an extra week since the hotel was not nearing capacity as it got close to the wedding.

My mom and I went and looked at 4 hotels in the area before choosing where to block rooms. We loved the Melville Marriott because the rooms were super clean, there was no smoking there at all, and the lobby area had a great spot for a BYOB after party (which my guests loved and we had lots of fun playing games and chatting to the wee hours of the morning, since we had an afternoon wedding).

HTH! Let me know if you have any specific questions I haven't answered.