This is more of the planning part. Still 1-5 with 3 being what I expected.Hotel Room Block: Homewood Suites - 5Our guests raved about this hotel. One said it was the best hotel she'd ever stayed in. It has a pool. And it's pet-friendly! (Which I didn't know, but my aunt was thrilled that their dog could come to the wedding!) Very nice whenever I called to check on our block. Gave out the OOT bags. A funny story: in the summer, my car got broken into by some teenagers, and they stole my camera. Bummer, right? I didn't think I'd get it back. Well, the police found the kids and got some of the loot back, my camera included. On the camera were pics I'd taken of our save-the-dates (to post here!). We'd included a postcard with the hotel info. The police called the Homewood Suites and explained the situation, and asked for the contact info for our block. So because of the Homewood Suites, I got my camera back. Cool.Hotel Room Block: NYLO Hotel - 4VERY nice whenever I called to ask who had booked already. (Even offering to email their most current list rather than listing them to me over the phone!) Also very good about handing out the OOT bags. We had no issues with guests not getting rooms or not being added to our block if they booked online instead. We warned our guests to ask for a front-facing room if they thought the late-night DJ would keep them up, so no one complained about the loud music. A guest told us that the NYLO staff said ours were the best OOT bags they'd ever handed out. Haha. I love compliments. The annoying part with the NYLO is the parking lot and how full it gets. We had a suite for our wedding night, so we returned to the NYLO after our reception, around 10:30pm. We had to walk from the valet lot. That's a long way when you're wearing heels and a wedding dress. I know, we could have valeted. THEN we got to the bar and they wouldn't let us in without ID. Obviously, I didn't tuck my license into my wedding dress somewhere. They weren't really nice about it. My groom was wearing a ball cap and they said he couldn't enter b/c his attire violated their dress code. They could have just asked him to remove his hat because obviously his tuxedo was ok! Anyway, it was sort of a letdown at the end of a great night. We decided to skip the bar and go to our room. I had asked ahead of time about reserving a section of the bar for our unofficial after-party, which they said I didn't need to do. I wish I had though - they charged everyone a $5 cover! And then the bride and groom didn't even show! Haha. Invitations: Studio on Fire - 5I designed them in Illustrator and sent them the files. They offer free critiquing. They printed all the components of our invitation suite on one piece of paper to save money, then cut them all down for us. We bought envelopes separately so we saved money there, too. I really wanted letterpress invitations, and I love ours. My grammy framed one with a pressed Queen Anne's lace bloom and I must say, it looks lovely! The invites were my baby, my child. I worked hard on them and I love how they turned out. Rounded corners, painted edges, deep impressions.... Love.
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