You're getting married at a country estate, miles from anywhere. The question always arrives at the same moment, a few weeks after the invitations go out: "where do we sleep?" Then it comes back, guest by guest, by text, at all hours. Here's how to settle the subject once and for all, before it eats your evenings.
Three models, to be chosen before you say a word
There is no single custom in France, and it is precisely that vagueness which creates the awkwardness. Decide first, communicate second.
The couple covers everything. Elegant, expensive, and rarely sustainable beyond a dozen rooms. Keep it for close family travelling a long way, or for the witnesses.
Every guest sorts themselves out. You list three or four places to stay with their rates, and everyone books on their own. Simple for you, but you lose control: the best rooms go to the quickest, the latecomers end up twenty miles away, and nobody knows who is sleeping where on the day.
You block, they pay. This is the most common model as soon as the venue offers beds: you reserve the lot with the estate, and your guests pay you back their share. You keep control of who goes where, they keep the choice of coming or not. It is also the one that generates the most paperwork, and that is where everything is decided.
The real cost of the third model
On paper, it's simple. In practice, here is what awaits you if you run it by hand.
You front the money to the estate, sometimes several thousand euros, months before the event. You keep a spreadsheet of names, rooms, amounts due, amounts received. You chase the ones who forget, and there are always some, because nobody enjoys chasing a friend for €90. You take payment by five different means. And you redo it all at every cancellation.
The friction point isn't the money, it's having become the accountant of your own wedding. Many couples give up on the third model for that reason, and lose control of their sleeping plan along the way.
What makes the subject manageable
Four principles, whatever tool you use.
Announce the accommodation at the same time as the date. A guest who finds out three weeks beforehand that they must sleep on site and pay for their night takes it badly. The same guest, told from the invitation onwards, finds it perfectly normal.
Show the price per person, not per room. "The yurt at €180" is frightening; "€45 per person" compares to a hotel night and is decided in three seconds.
Hold the place the second it's chosen. The worst case isn't a guest failing to book, it's two guests booking the same bed. You always find out too late, and you are the one who has to arbitrate.
Keep the booking separate from the rest of the reply. Mixing accommodation into the RSVP in a single form makes both drop. The guest must be able to say yes first, and choose their room afterwards.
How we handle the question
At Invitez-nous, beds are a section of the invitation, just like the schedule, opened by the Signature plan: 5 places to stay on Signature, as many as you like on Prestige. You describe each place to stay, its photo, its price per person and its number of places. Your guests choose from their phone, the place is held immediately, and payment reaches you directly through your usual links: Wero, Lydia, PayPal or bank transfer.
Two practical consequences. You front nothing, since the money goes from their account to yours without passing through us, and therefore without commission. And overbooking becomes impossible: the counter is kept by the system, not by your spreadsheet.
The detail of how it works is on our page dedicated to booking beds.
The table we wish we'd had
Before writing your accommodation section, fill in these five columns for each place: name, distance from the reception, number of places, price per person, and who pays. If you can't answer the last column, your guests won't be able to either.
That is usually the moment you realise you have promised three more rooms than exist.
Want to see what a beds section looks like in a real invitation? A demonstration is online; the booking there is real, try it.
