Guest Management Tips for Your Dubai Destination Wedding
Ah, Dubai.
Picturesque, elegant, stylish, luxurious, cultural – the perfect backdrop for a wedding. All that, plus its central location and high tourist appeal make it a total favorite for brides and grooms that are looking for a wedding destination.
Couples from across the Middle East, especially the GCC, are drawn to Dubai’s many charms and often choose to host their weddings here. With over 500 hotels and resorts, wedding couples and planners have a wide variety of venues to choose from. They can have their pick from amongst high-ceiling ballrooms, boutique gardens, palace grounds, beachfront venues and more.
As for the after-party? Don’t even get me started on your swanky venue options on that front!
But I’m guessing if you’ve clicked through and are making your way down this article, you’re already sold on Dubai, and you’re ready to start working out the details. Guest management is a big part of those details – where you’re going to put them up, how they’re going to get around, airport transfers, guest entertainment and so on.
Whether you’re a born-and-bred Dubai-ite or not, here’s a list of expert guest management tips that will help you keep your head above the wedding waters, leave your guests happy, and leave you stress-free to focus on your big day. Here they are:
Give your guests as much advance notice as possible
Flying to Dubai can get expensive, and many of your guests might need visas to get here. Give your guests plenty of notice so they can plan ahead and get their documents in order to be with you on your special day.
Personalized travel information pack and itinerary
There’s so much to see and do in and around Dubai that it might be an impossible feat for your guests to cover it all if they come over for a typical 4-day wedding trip. You probably know your friends and family best, so instead of pointing them to general tourist websites and guides, create a personalized travel information pack for them that you know they would enjoy.
If you really want to get into it, you can send them each an e-mail with a note based on their preferences. Bet the uncles and aunties would love that you’re thinking about them personally! Brownie points equal bigger wedding prezzies!
You don’t want to pack their days up – give them time to dress and groom for all your wedding events, which is, after all, the reason that they’re there.
Assign a dedicated Guest Manager
Leaving this one out is a big, big mistake. Whether it’s someone on your wedding planner’s team, or a family member or friend you trust with the details (and can handle a stressful situation), make sure you have one person in charge of it all. Guest arrival times, airport pick-ups, hotel reservations, tour tickets and so on.
One hotel or one locality for accommodation
Dubai can pose some nightmare rush hour traffic. I strongly recommend accommodating everyone either in the same hotel or the same locality. You might have a couple of outliers – people that have their own homes or preferences during their stay, but as far as possible, keep all your guests within the same vicinity.
This makes logistics much easier, and your guests have familiar co-guests for neighbors if they need to ask someone a question or two about how to get around town!
These basics will ensure that your guests are pretty comfortable! A lot depends on the degree to which you are hosting them. Some couples choose to take care of (and pay for) everything for their guests from flights to meals to taxi fare, whereas others take on a more laissez-faire approach. Both methods work just fine!
Your safest bet is to notify your guests as early as possible and let them know that they can reach you (the bride and the groom), family members of the couple, and perhaps even your wedding planner with any questions they may have with regards to their stay in Dubai.
That way, you’re not stressed about the wedding around the corner, and you can be as helpful as possible, or at least point them to some help.
All in all, Dubai is a gorgeous destination for a wedding, and it’s a city where hospitality, hosting and treating guests well are taken extremely seriously. You’re in great hands!
If you need a pair of helping hands on the ground here in Dubai, then our dream-team has helped executed some fantastic wedding weekends and can certainly help with yours! Drop us a line on info@wedoevents.ae.
Image Credits
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-white-blazer-holding-tablet-computer-789822/
Photo by Karolina Grabowska: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-woman-writing-down-notes-in-diary-4476376/
Photo by Татьяна Контеева: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sunglasses-a-sun-hat-and-an-slr-camera-lying-on-a-travel-brochure-10585076/
Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-hotel-receptionist-handing-a-key-card-to-a-guest-7820321/
Photo by Vladimir Konoplev : https://www.pexels.com/photo/grooms-wedding-speech-to-guests-on-boat-10955585/