Hotel room grouping

Call local hotels directly and ask to speak with the manager who does bookings for price quotes and a list of the options that they offer. This is more reliable than online sites that hotel staff may not read. Be aware that a block is not necessarily cheaper but it’s a guarantee that those rooms will be set aside for you. Also make sure that you are not financially responsible for making sure they are filled so get information on a courtesy block. Keep in mind that not all guests will stay in a hotel if they are local and not everyone has the same budget, so try to get information for a variety of prices.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much, I'll start there.

WeddingWire has a free service for this. Hotelblocks.weddingwire.com
You can enter your bid online, then hotels within your chosen radius respond with quotes and you can lock in one that has the price you like.
They also have a service where they create a unique page for your wedding with discounted room rates on every available hotel within your chosen radius from a place.
For our wedding we did the unique page with all discounted hotels (radius from reception venue) & linked to that on the wedding website. It’s less stress for us having to manage booked or unbooked rooms & it makes sure that guests have options within different budgets.
You can do this all online now. The weddingwire staff emailed me to make sure it was what I wanted & they were very helpful.

Oh just adding- I suggest online bc I called a hotel asking for a block, they emailed me a quoted rate that was almost $50 higher per night than what came through when I did the request online. That annoyed me but also was glad I found the online tools as it saves money.