We were two of the very fortunate soles to have gotten married during Hurricane Irene!!!
After months and months of planning the “perfect wedding”, all our plans were thrown out the window just days before our big event when we heard how bad Hurricane Irene was expected to be. The Friday before our wedding, 1/3 of our guests cancelled. The next day, we started to worry that dinner would not be finished if the hotel lost power while still cooking, that our guests could get stranded, and that our band would have to leave early so that they could make it home before the worst of the weather hit. Needless to say, we weren’t going to have the outdoor ceremony that we were hoping for. Despite all this, our wedding turned out to be more memorable than we ever could have imagined. Everybody had such a good time, and it still was the perfect wedding, just in a very different sense than we had initially expected. In large part, we owe it to the Hotel Monaco and its staff for making the night so great. Through their heroic efforts we were able to roll with whatever punches Mother Nature threw at us and have some fun with the fact that a lady named Irene was going to be attending our wedding. Annee, the catering manager, and Allison, our catering sales manager sprang into action. They asked the bartenders to make hurricanes for our guests. Given the reduction in headcount, they were also great in allowing us to redesign the layout of the reception room. It was a lot of work for them and the rest of the staff, but they never hesitated in doing whatever was necessary to make our event wonderful. Through their experience, knowledge, and hard work they showed us how we could put the dance floor in the middle of the room, rearrange the tables, and move things around so that the room did not look empty. In the end, the room looked great. The hotel had already gone above and beyond, but it did not stop there. When our rabbi informed us that we needed to have our ceremony in the early afternoon because of the impending storm, we were concerned that our guests would miss out on seeing us get married. Hotel Monaco to the rescue once again. Rob, the hotel general manager and an ordained minister, agreed to officiate a wedding service for our guests. Despite having met us just hours before, he did an incredible job. Everybody enjoyed the service - it was short, sweet, and sincere - and it really helped us kick off the evening on a great note. Initially, my wife and I were seriously worried how the evening would turn out. However, seeing the Monaco do everything in their powers to make the night special gave us confidence that everything would be fine and allowed us to enjoy the evening as any bride and groom should. We continue to get comments from our guests on how nice the rooms were, how good the food was, the quality of the drinks, and the overall great service of the hotel. For guests that got stranded an extra day, the hotel was also generous enough to extend the wedding rate. It was clearly evident from the hotel manager on down to the waitstaff to the doormen that this level of service and willingness to go the extra mile is standard fare at the Hotel Monaco. It wasn’t a one-time occurrence. We could not have been any happier with how our wedding turned out and are so glad that we chose to entrust the Hotel Monaco with holding our special occasion. We will forever remember this day and the Hotel Monaco.