This is such a wonderful (and BIG!) giveaway and I am so excited to share it with you today!
The Hilton Family is offering a complimentary room block (meaning rooms for not only the bride and groom but their guests as well!) to one lucky Classic Bride reader! If you are planning a spring or fall 2009 wedding, please read the details below and leave a comment telling us why you, your honey and your guests are the best candidates to receive this fabulous prize. You have until next Tuesday at midnight (CST) to enter! The winner will be announced on Wednesday. Good luck!
Here are the details:
A room block consists of five to 25 reserved rooms a bride can block off for her wedding guests. Normally, guests use their own credit card to pay for their specific room. However, one lucky bride and her guests will receive a complimentary room block, courtesy of Hilton e-Events.
To qualify the bride must:
- Book her guest room through e-Events online planning tool.
- Book her guest rooms in a Hilton market at a participating Hilton family property
- Hilton will compensate the bride for a guest room block up to and including $3,000 in value (average price of a room block).
What is Hilton Family e-Events?
Hilton Family e-Events is an online group booking tool that allows customers to book between 5 – 25 guest rooms for their events along with meeting space, food and beverage and audio visual equipment. Hilton Family e-Events is the fastest and easiest way to plan and book small meetings and events.
It offers:
- 24/7 online access, no negotiation, no RFP, no waiting, immediate confirmation
- Online contract
- Access to over 2,500 Hilton Family hotels (variety of brands, price points and amenities)
How does Hilton Family e-Events help brides?
With resources available online at your fingertips — including accessing wedding checklists, reserving hotel event space and guest rooms, managing your own out-of-town hotel guest list and yes, designing your own personalized Web page for guest reservations all on one site — you can take control of your own planning, creatively and instantaneously.
---Please note---
This offer is only valid for brides who are planning a spring or fall 2009 wedding and is only applicable in domestic locations (US and Hawaii). In order to qualify for the promotion, brides must book their guest room blocks through e-Events, which may be used at participating hotels including Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hampton Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Homewood Suites by Hilton.
Oh my goodness... this would really save me! Almost all of our guests are coming from the midwest, and I don't know how to prepare them for the price of a hotel in beautiful downtown Long Beach. I'm desperate to get them a good deal, especially with so many people watching their pennies.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is possibly the best giveaway I've ever read about! I would so love to be able to treat my family and out of town guests. My fiance and I are getting married in Chicago, but a large portion of our family and friends (including everyone in the bridal party) will be coming from the East Coast. On top of that, my fiance is the oldest of 12 children--meaning that my future parents in law would need to pay for hotel rooms to accommodate 13 people (2 parents + 11 kids). That's a lot of cash for downtown Chicago! I'd love to be able to help out my new family and all of my bridesmaids. Thanks for the chance, Classic Bride!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an amazing giveaway! :)
ReplyDeleteThis would be a great way for me to help out my family and my fiance's. We both have family members struggling with money right now. My aunt was laid off, his sister is about to lose her company, and we have siblings that are broke college students. I feel guilty enough making them travel to OHIO for our wedding, when they all have their own problems. I am always looking for ways to help them out!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great giveaway! Booking a hotel has been the biggest dilemma in our wedding planning to date. We're getting married in a location that happens to fall in the middle of a grand prix that takes place in April in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. They place barricades all around the perimeter and then have to take them down after the race. The set-up and takedown eliminated about five weekends in March-April (best weather in Florida during those months). So just when think we've nailed a date that is free and clear, we find out a few weeks later that that same weekend there is a huge triathlon downtown! It has been impossible finding rooms because of all the triathlon participants and about 80% of our guests are coming from out of town. We'd really like to keep our guests centralized so they don't get lost driving to hotels that are miles away from our wedding activities. I would love to win this giveaway...it would alleviate so much stress!
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that the winning bride actually has to book the rooms and is winning possible reimbursement? If that is the case, it may not be as good as it sounds. If the booking requires payment upfront then you could be stuck at the Hilton, regardless if you can afford it or not. Free would be great, but my gut tells me there is a catch...
ReplyDeleteThis room block would be the most amazing way to help out my guests! More than half of our guests (and all of our family) will be coming to our Los Angeles wedding from the East Coast. We understand that a large portion of our guests may have to forgo coming to our wedding because of the cost and we completely saddened to know that the people we love may not be able to be there on our big day. Any help we can give them would just be amazing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteVilija:
ReplyDeleteThe winning bride does have to book the rooms herself, but since e-Events is a free process, there is no up-front payment (which seemed to be your concern). Once the winning bride has made her reservation, she just e-mails me her confirmation number confirming the e-Event booking. Then, Hilton will handle payment with the hotel directly up to the $3,000 limit.
I think that addresses the question. Keeping in mind the $3000 limit, there is no “catch!”
Both families will be coming from a wide variety of locations. My fiance and I both moved many many times as kids [I racked up seven states alone! He's got several countries], and we have lots of far flung special people in our lives.
ReplyDeleteWe met in Atlanta [Emory University!] and are determined to make this our joint home, and put down real roots. I would love to be able to show both of our families how truly wonderful this city is and how much their presence means to us.
Our wedding will be in-town Atlanta in Fall/October of 2009. Can't wait!
Oh, wow! We could definitely use this prize because just about all of our guests will be coming from out of town for our May 2009 wedding. My fiance and I live in Baltimore and will be getting married here, but my Fiance's family is in New York and my family is sprinkled around New York, Florida, North Carolina, and western Pennsylvania. We recently heard that nobody from the Pittsburgh contingent (My Aunts, Uncles, and cousins on my mom's side) thinks they will be able to come to the wedding because they'd be willing to drive down, but it would just be too expensive for any of them to stay for the weekend. One Aunt lost her job in September and one Uncle was also laid off this fall... no luck on the job search for either of them yet. I don't expect my family to sacrifice and scrape by to come to my wedding, but I (and the rest of our guests) would certainly miss them and our guest list will take a big hit. With free hotel rooms, they could probably join the rest of us and forget about money, if just for the weekend!
ReplyDeleteNot to mention, a brand spankin' new Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites were just opened right by the harbor in downtown Baltimore and would be an amazingly convenient place for everyone from both sides of the family to mingle and stay!
This is a fantastic giveaway!! We are planning a wedding in central Virginia for June, 2009, and every one of our guests and everyone in the wedding party is traveling in from out of town. This would be a wonderful gift to all of those who are spending so much time and effort and so many resources in order to surround us with friends and family on our wedding day. There is a Hampton Inn within walking distance of both our ceremony and reception, and would work perfectly!
ReplyDeleteThis has to be the most amazing contest ever! I just told my blog readers to come on by and enter asap.
ReplyDeleteHilton, take me away! This would be so amazing to win.
ReplyDeleteAbout half of our guests live either across the US or in another country, so we'll have plenty of need for hotel rooms.
But why I really want to win is that, beacause of the failing economy, several of my dearest family members have told us that they fear they can't afford the cost of traveling here and staying in a hotel for the wedding! I'm so sad at the thought of family missing our wedding because of economic woes - I have an incredibly close family and it will feel like a piece of my heart is missing if they don't come. However, I can't ask them to go into debt for me either :)
Winning this contest would allow for our loved ones to be able to come with the piece of mind, and wallet, they deserve. Please pick me!!!! xoxo
PS: thanks, classicbride, for the contest!
Oh, my fiance and I really need this. We're getting married in early September 2009 in NYC. I'm from NY and almost all of our family lives here or very nearby. However, my fiance is from Florida, and most of his family lives there...and most of them are not very well off. We've already heard from a few people on his side that they won't be coming because they can't afford both hotel and airfare, and it breaks my heart that some of his close family members can't be at our wedding. A paid block of rooms would be an amazing wedding present - it would allow more of my fiance's family to attend!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great contest!
ReplyDeleteMy wedding party includes five (5!) kids from 5 different families, 3 of whom will be under 3 years old. Being that my wedding will start before noon and is at least an hour away from our homes, all of the families wanted to stay at the hotel by our venue. Easier to get the kids ready! This room block would be GREAT to accomodate the special people in our lives!
What qualifies as "Spring 2009"? This would be amazing for me and my wedding guests, but I'm not sure if my date would be considered winter or spring.
ReplyDeleteWhy should my wedding win this room block?
ReplyDelete*EVERY one of my guests is from out of state.
*I haven't been able to find one hotel where there is room for everyone to stay.
*April is Miami's busiest (and most expensive) time of year (i.e Spring break. AGH! I should have thought of that!) There are no hotels.
*My family will be stuck at a hotel really far from my beach wedding. Can you say lost and late?
And most important...
*Who wants to come to Miami in April and not get to stay on the beach? NO ONE!
Thanks for this opportunity. ;o)
What an awesome giveaway! And it couldn't have come at a better time, as hotel accommodations just moved to the top of my "biggest stress inducer" list.
ReplyDeleteWe're getting married in May in my home town, Alexandria, VA. Since I've never had to stay in a hotel in my home town, it didn't occur to me just how UBER-EXPENSIVE they are.
Like a lot of people have said, almost all (95%) of our guests will be coming from out of state, and most of them don't have a lot of extra money on hand (does anyone have extra funds right now, honestly?). We've got a bunch of teachers, grad school students, and older parents who are watching their retirement funds slowly--or not so slowly--get depleted.
On top of that, we have the added stress of two+ hour break in between our ceremony and reception (Catholic church weddings are not especially flexible, and we weren't really interested in paying an extra $5000 to get our reception hall early), so it would be amazing to be able to put our guests in one of the Hilton family hotels in Old Town Alexandria, just a few yards from the Metro to DC and a nice Spring walk to the Alexandria waterfront. Perfect!
Thanks so much for posting this!
This is fantastic! I'm currently working on hotel booking and this would help out a lot. ALL of the guests to my June 2009 wedding are from out of town. For the past five years, my fiance and I have been dating long distance. He is from Georgia and went to UGA; I am from Virginia and went to Purdue for school. Since our families and friends are scattered up and down the East coast, we decided to get married in our new hometown (Knoxville, TN) rather than where one of us grew up. Unfortunately, all of the guests will be from out of town. Having Hilton supply our rooms would be a blessing! My fiance's parents are unable to pay for any of the wedding and I would love to help out my parents as much as possible with the wedding bills, but my fiance is a grad student and I'm teacher. We're pretty poor! This would seriously be amazing!! Please pick me!!!
ReplyDeleteHow amazing of Hilton!!! And what perfect timing because I have been having such a hard time figuring out how to find appropriately priced rooms for a June 2009 wedding on the east end of long island! And I just today think that we should have eloped (or at least not planned a wedding during the peak season)! This will be a life saver since ALL of my guests (including me and my future hubby) are out of town and need a place to stay! And who knows what the state of the economy will be in six months! Thanks to hilton for providing such a great gift!
ReplyDeleteMany of our friends are in grad school or recently finished with grad school, and this would make traveling less of a burden on them.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and her fiance are getting married in San Antonio, Tx in October, 2009. EVERY guest will be from out of town!! Since her fiance' is in the Army and doing his medical residency there, it is impossible for them to take off enough time to come home to Virginia for a wedding....they wanted a destination wedding, but the military limits the number of days that he can take off during residency. I suppose it's a destination wedding for all but them! This block of rooms would really be a huge help to them in the planning of this wedding...what a prize it would be! I won't tell her....I'll just keep my fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteMy entire wedding is actually taking place at a Hilton brand hotel - a Doubletree Hotel is going to play host to both our ceremony and our reception. We were already planning on reserving some rooms at the Doubletree, but were also going to have to block some off at a nearby hotel to offer a more budget-conscious option for many of our guests (99% of whom are traveling from either across the state or across the country). Winning this would allow even our recently graduated from college friends the chance to enjoy Hilton-brand elegance!
ReplyDeleteThis generous offer is really too sweet,
ReplyDeleteA free stay at the Hilton would be such a treat.
What more luxury could a bride and groom want
Than our own reserved room block in lovely Vermont.
Yes, the Burlington Hilton will soon be our host,
But to have the rooms paid for would be the utmost....
Many thanks for this opportunity!
Holy smokes!! Pick us, pick us! Our wedding reception will be at the ultra chic Irvine Hilton Hotel in May 2009 (late spring, right?). We're super excited and can't wait! This would help our out-of-town guests so much! Thanks!!
ReplyDeletePlease pick me...
ReplyDeleteI am MOH in my best friends wedding next year and she could truly use this. She is planning her wedding and paying for it on her own which has been a huge stress for her. I think winning this would make her life just a little easier which she truly deserves because she is one of the greatest and most caring people I have ever known. Thanks for the chance to brighten her day.
There are so many wedding giveaways for prizes like flowers, photography, or bridal attire. This is the first giveaway I have seen that focuses on having all the people you love and care about at your wedding. What a great idea Hilton and Classic Bride!
ReplyDeleteWe are planning a fall 2009 wedding in Charleston, SC. While Charleston is a special place for both of us, very few of our family or friends are from there. Lodging cost and location is a thorn of our wedding planning and offering this prize will allow more of the people we want to attend.
How exciting for Hilton to do this. We are planning a May Wedding for my daughter and her fiance in Tulsa, OK. Everyone in the wedding party, including the bride and groom are coming in from out of town and we need to find a place to stay for everyone. The bride and groom will be traveling from Wyoming, the officiant from Denver, grandparents from California and Missouri. Family from Greece, California, Florida, and Oklahoma. It will be a fun Greek Wedding. The Doubletee hotel in Downtown Tulsa is a great place that we have stayed before.
ReplyDeleteMy fiance and I are getting married on April 16, 2009.
ReplyDeleteWinning this prize would change our entire wedding. My fiance moved from Northern California to SW Florida two years ago to be with me, leaving all of his friends and family behind. He hasn't seen a familiar face in over two years. It has been three years since he has seen a family member (they all live in Idaho). We spoke to his parents last weekend and they shared with us that they didn't think they were going to make it down for the wedding. He won't say anything, but I know its just breaking his heart. If we had free hotel rooms, we could offer a place for them to stay and with a little help from my parents, we could afford to fly them out here for the wedding.
We met when we were just teenagers; this wedding has been 9 years in the making. We've been through our own relationship ups and downs and this day will just be the celebration of FINALLY being together, happily ever after. We want everyone to celebrate with us and share in our love and happiness.
In the very begining of planning we decided that we wanted to provide the same opportunity for both our families to be present at our wedding. (Why make one family drive 4 hours) That being said, we are planning our wedding in the city directly between both our hometowns. The travel distance will be around 2 hours for the majority of our guest. This is definately a lot claser that our friends who will be travelling all the way from China and Alaska.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a wonderful gift that we could give all our guests.
Wow, this would truly be a dream come true!! We are planning a destination wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, for May of 2009. We are getting married on the occasion of our 7th (!) anniversary, and have invited 90 of our loved and dear ones to come and celebrate with us for the greatest reunion of all. We’ve both grown up all over the United States, and every single one of our guests (and us!) will be traveling to Charleston for the wedding. Our greatest dream is to have all of our friends and family staying in one spot downtown, and we can’t wait for the opportunity to celebrate with and soak up the presence of our friends and family who we see so rarely. Winning this would be out-of-this-world amazing and truly one of my greatest wishes – to have all of my friends and family staying under the same roof – fulfilled. I know that all of us planning weddings in 2009 have been hit hard by the economy, but this would go REALLY REALLY far for a domestic destination wedding such as mine. I couldn’t ask for anything more!
ReplyDeletethis is such a great opportunity and would greatly help my family! we are having a semi-destination wedding and planning from afar...i would love this!
ReplyDeletewww.serendipityandspark.com
After 8 years of being friends, hanging out and working together I never thought that this person I spent so much time with would be my soul mate. After two amazing years I thank God for bringing our two hearts together. I have been through many obstacles in my life and to know that somebody close to me has been very patient and been so kind to go through my ups and downs makes me realize how lucky I am. So for our wedding, we decided to have in my home town, our college town, the place close to my family and our friends, were I met my new best friend and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. We go through hard times planning this wedding. I'm from a Hispanic backgroung and much of my family will be coming from Mexico and Panama. My mother has had some tough times due to a serious illness and we both are trying our best to pay for this wedding ourselves. This contest isn't only a way to make our financial burden less, but to make this special day one that we can share with our loved ones and to write a new page in the lives that we all shall share together as one.
ReplyDeleteThis might be the coolest contest I've come across- and I deserve this because me(and my guests) would absolutely LOVE to stay in The Hilton on the night of my wedding!
ReplyDelete-Amanda
P.S. I am having a Spring of 2009 wedding. :)
Ooh! This would be perfect! Me and my fiance are getting married (maui'd) in Hawaii in May. There are about 60 people coming and the room block would be perfect!
ReplyDeleteThe Grand Wailea in Maui, which is part of the Hilton family, is a beautiful hotel with lots of fun waterslides. I would love for our family and friends to stay there!
What a fabulous contest! My people all live across the country from us, and I've debated not inviting anyone but our immediate family because I don't want them to struggle to make the trip.
ReplyDeleteMy people (this is what I call my family) have always been there for me, and I would love more than anything for them to be with me on the day I become a family with my fiance.
My fiance and I are pretty much broke, so this would be great for us. I was just laid off last week. He is currently serving a mission for our church, so not only is he not making money, we have to pay for him to be on the mission. He is loving it though and he returns in 15 days (after being gone 2 years!!!!). I am so excited to see him!
ReplyDeleteI worked for Marriott for 5 years, but I guess I could use Hilton. :) He worked for Hilton before he left, so he'll love it!
We are both from a town in the High Desert of California, but have been flirting with having the wedding near the coast, where I live now. This would allow us to do that, as we would be able to provide accommodations, the biggest obstacle. We have all been hit hard by these economic times, and this would be such a blessing.
Thanks for the opportunity!
I have never been so excited about a contest before this one!!! This would help both my fiance and I plus both of our families. We are having a destination wedding so everyone is coming from out of town. We already know of some people that just cant make it because of the cost of the hotels.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest! I hope I win!!!!!!
Wow! I don't know if my Aug 29th wedding would count as a fall wedding but we have so many out of town guests and this would be such an amazing treat!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous contest! My wedding is June 27, 2009 so I guess its technically summer but it would be so helpful.
ReplyDeleteMy fiance and I live in NYC but I grew up in southeastern MA and have always wanted to get married in Newport, RI. We thought it would be less expensive than having everyone come in into New York City so we picked the date and selected a venue in Newport without any problems. Then as we started to look into hotels for our guests and realized that all the hotels in the area have a two night minimum and are just as expensive, if not more so, as the hotels in NYC. Most of our guests will be traveling from places as close as new york to as far away as Australia! I did find a hostel in town, but the $3,000 would be a great help for our wedding party. They have to wear what we tell them to, be where we want them to be when we want them there and are tasked with throwing a great bridal shower and bachelorette party for me and a bachelor party for my fiance that it would be awesome to be able to help defray some of their costs as well. Everyone has their financial problems and times are particularly tough right now for everyone yet there have been no complaints about anything at all. Friends like that are hard to come by!
What a wonderful giveaway!
ReplyDeleteThis would be a godsend for us - we're having our wedding on a very tight budget, and 95% of our guests will be coming in from out of state. I'm from the east coast and my fiance is from the west coast, and we live in Illinois, so everyone has to meet in the middle! In this economy, the gift of free lodging would make so many of our guests more financially able to actually come to our wedding.
Thanks for the opportunity!
This would be an amazing wedding gift to us and our guests. Our wedding will be in May in NYC and at least 70% of our guests are travelling to NYC from England, Upstate NY and Boston. We are concerned that alot of our out of town guests will not be able to attend due to the economony. This would be a great help to them and allow us to celebrate with all of our guests.
ReplyDeleteI read through every post here, and there are a ton of deserving brides for sure! I myself am not one of them, I am posting this on behalf of my sister Kara. She is getting married in fall of 2009, and I was honored to be chosen as her maid of honor. We come from a strictly middle class family, with enough money to get by with maybe a little extra. Doesn't exactly set the stage for a beautiful and lavish wedding. But we sit together all the time and watch Platinum Weddings and Celebrity Weddings together marveling at all the beautiful things and beautiful places, while she goes back to planning the best wedding she can on what can only be deamed a meager budget. As much as I would love to help, I'm only 23, fresh out of college, trying to make it in the wonderful but expensive city of Boston, and I know the fact I can't host eleborate showers or buy her a great gift makes her a little sad but she chose me anyways and has never complained. If I could go to her and tell her "Hey sis, YOU WON, for the first time in your life a contest, and its for you wedding", well, I couldn't imagine anything better. We don't have people flying in from across the world, she isn't working 5 jobs while caring for our sick mother, we don't have any real setbacks in life. This is just a maid of honor who loves her sister and wants to do anything in her power to give her sister the wedding she DESERVES any way she can. Thank you to the Hilton for hosting this contest, and I hope we'll be seeing their fine staff on her wedding weekend!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of this contest! We are getting married on April 25, so looking forward to April Showers! Our guests will be coming from all over the country, and we've also had a large number of our hometown homies tell us that they plan to stay at a hotel near the reception site. We already have a block of rooms at a wonderful Embassy Suites (love that place!). So, winning this contest would be wonderful for all of our guests, in-town and out-of-towners. Finally, I know that traveling in the spring will be a bit of a hardship for some of our relatives with kids, so anything we can do to make it easier on them is great.
ReplyDeleteThanks Hilton and Classic Bride!
I am getting married April 4, 2009 in Monterey, CA. My guests, my honey, and I are the best candidates to receive this fabulous prize because my honey and I live in Philadelphia, so all of our guests will be flying completely across the country to my hometown that is actually quite difficult for everyone to get to! My second reason is that two of our groomsmen are getting married immediately after us, causing all of our friends to spill money over and over! And finally, my honey is a law student and I am an inner-city teacher, causing us to cut corners on so many parts of our wedding that this would really brighten our spirits!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for considering me!
I love this contest!
ReplyDeleteThis would be a great prize for me and my fiance.