Welcome!

We have a LOT of people staying at the Marriott the weekend of our wedding. This thrills me to no end and I wanted to express my gratitude by providing those guests with a few treats. Thus, our out-of-town/hotel bags were created!

So many brides have put together simply amazing OOT bags complete with monogrammed canvas totes and specialty...stuff. Well, folks, if you're looking for those skip this post and do a quick search on Weddingbee. Ours are relatively simple, no muss, no fuss. Truth be told, this just wasn't something I wanted to agonize over. They're nice and they get the job done and that's all that really mattered to me.

These bags are something that my FMIL and I worked on together so I want to quickly say thanks to her for funding most of this project.

We decided on simple black bags found at a craft store. I think they were less than $1 each. I found green tissue paper at Target which served as the perfect pop of color.

The tissue paper looks yellow, but I assure you it is green. 

I know, you were worried.

Let's take a look inside:

I feel like Jack and Locke peering down into the Hatch for the first time on Lost.

(I'm gonna miss this show SO MUCH)

I'm a nerd.

Let's see what we put in these babies!

Two bottles of water (with cute little labels that Josh's mom printed)

Mixed nuts from Heggy's in Josh's hometown

Buckeyes (representing The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the state tree for the great state of Ohio) from my hometown fave Malley's Chocolates

Assorted granola bars

and

a welcome letter!

The cute paper is from Office Max (or maybe Staples). I had the damnedest time trying to find the right wording for our welcome letter. If I'm being 100% honest, I grabbed wording from all over the place. Since I know how effing hard it was to find wording, here is the full text in case you need some inspiration (or in case you just want to copy the whole darn thing. I don't really care):

Welcome!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so happy that you are able to join us here in Cleveland for our very special day! We are certainly blessed to be surrounded by so many close friends and family. Regardless of whether you came from near or far, we are elated that you were able to make the journey here. In this bag are a few treats to make your stay more comfortable. In addition, if you are driving to Windows on the River, please remember your parking pass to ensure free parking at the venue.

We hope that our wedding celebration will hold great memories for you as it will for us.

May we offer you a ride?

Shuttle service between the Marriott and Windows on the River will be provided approximately every 20 minutes, starting at 3:00 p.m. The last trip to Windows will be at 4:00 p.m. sharp (we wouldn't want you to miss it!) Return service back to the Marriott will begin at 9:00pm, and continuing every 20 minutes thereafter until midnight. 

Love, Emily and Josh

Yay all done! I hope our guests enjoy the sweets and treats!

If you're doing OOT bags, what did you put in them?

A happy ending

So yesterday I told you about how the hotel I wanted to book for my guests thought that a basketball game was more important than my wedding. Thanks so much for reading and commenting because it really felt sooo good to get all of that off my chest.

Now on to happier things! The hotel we ended up booking is ten thousand times nicer and VERY cool. First of all, it is located in the tallest building in Cleveland. Now I know that's not saying much compared to the Empire State Building or anything, but it's still interesting. Here is a picture of the Cleveland skyline.

(Source)

Our hotel is the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center. Their customer service was excellent and the rate they were able to offer our guests ($114/night) was perfect. It's in the heart of downtown, close to our venue and many other attractions. Here are a few more photos.*

Entrance of the hotel. I can't wait to take pictures in front of that fountain!

Chic hotel lobby. Maybe we can take some bridal portraits here?

Guest room. I hope my guests get a nice view of Lake Erie (which you can see in this photo.)

Nice roomy bathroom. Very important for getting ready.

Hotel bar...maybe for some post-reception drinkies?

Or maybe we'll decide to get a 'lil wet-n-wild after the reception!

I'm really excited! Many of our guests are from Josh's hometown, about an hour south of Cleveland. I can't wait to show off MY hometown and spoil them with a really nice hotel (for a pretty decent price!)

We also reserved a suite for Friday and Saturday nights. I'll stay there alone on Friday night and get ready with the girls on Saturday morning. Then Josh will join me for some grown folk business on Saturday night ;) Bow chicka wow woooowwww!! Oh who am I kidding, my ass will probably be asleep on the ride back to the hotel.

I'm so glad we have all of this squared away. It was definitely a stressful few days for Josh and me (let's be serious, mostly me.)

*All photos courtesy of the Marriott website.

Room blocking roadblock

Hotel blocking. I wasn't going to write about it because I had kind of a crappy experience. But the lovely Laura of Lucky in Love recently wrote a post about it and inspired me to write my own. Amy from Little Miss Wedding Planner also wrote a fantastic guide to blocking rooms. Definitely check that out. Anyway...here we go.

Originally I figured that booking rooms for our guests would be a relatively painless and easy process. Find a hotel, confirm the date, negotiate a rate, and book it. Done and done! I even knew what hotel we wanted to use and we planned on it serving as our Plan B picture location if the weather was crappy. HA. Right. If only it were that easy.

In early December we set up a meeting with the sales coordinator to discuss logistics. She was a lovely person and the hotel rooms were lovely as well, but there was a problem. Our wedding is at the end of May. The end of May is not only a very busy time for weddings, but also the middle of the NBA playoffs. Here in Cleveland we have a little team called the Cleveland Cavaliers. On the team are a few players you may or may not have heard of: LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal. The playoffs (and winning a championship) are a pretty big deal here in C-town.

The sales coordinator told us in no uncertain terms that they could only give us X number of rooms for X dollar amount (a RIDICULOUS dollar amount, to be exact) because they're anticipating the Cavs being in the playoffs. So let me get this straight: how much you're charging my guests is based on 1.) the possibility of the Cavs being in the playoffs and b.) the possibility that there will be a playoff game in Cleveland on those exact nights. Mmmmkay. Let me just add that there is no way of actually knowing ANY of this because the schedule for these things cannot be made until the NBA knows exactly who will be in the playoffs.

Obviously, we chose to look elsewhere. I didn't appreciate that they were putting a hypothetical event above my set-in-stone wedding. Do I think that the world should stop for my wedding? Of course not. But I do think that my wedding should get the same amount of respect as a basketball game. Their lack of customer service lost the sale. If you'd like to know what hotel I'm talking about feel free to ask and I'd be happy to let you know :)

Next up...the fabulous hotel where we blocked our rooms!

Did you have a hard time blocking rooms for your wedding? Also, have you had fairly decent customer service experiences throughout your wedding planning or have there been difficulties in that area?