Hotel Rooms

Something that I didn't realize needed to happen as early as it did - hotel rooms.

After the question of the date, that is the question I continued to hear.  Lucky for us, our venue gives us a free room at one of these three hotels nearby: Hyatt, Wyndham, or Hilton.  So we started with those three, but also looked for others to find the best choices for our guests.  I also found a website that works with you to find the best group deals for the needs you have, grouptravel.org/.  It was interesting to look at the site, but I didn't end up using it and just contacted sites on my own.

I contacted them all to find prices and ask them questions to be sure we were getting the best choices for us.  Below are the questions I asked each of the hotels:

• How will you let us know who has reserved rooms? Will you email us, or could we contact you to get a list?
• Is there a point person who coordinates these types of events, or will I be dealing with a different person every time I call?
• Do you have an online code for our guests to receive the group rate or do they have to call the hotel directly?

• Is a deposit required? If so, how much? When is the deposit due? May I make partial payments? When is the final payment due?
• Is there an attrition clause?
• It says there is a minimum of 10 rooms that need to be filled, what happens if that number is not reached?
• What responsibility do the bride and groom have in the contract?
• Can you add more rooms if you fill up your block at the same discount?
• At what date will the rooms be released
• Can guests extend their stay at the discounted rate if they want to make it a longer weekend or short vacation?

• Will the guests room be scattered throughout the hotel or will they be close to each other?
• If we wanted to possibly do out of town bags for our guests, does your hotel allow for that and if so, do you have a policy regarding how they can be given out? How can I deliver OOT bags?
• Do you have a room available for a day after brunch or to open gifts in? If so, is there an extra cost?
• How exactly does the shuttle service work - are there specific times the shuttle will come or do the guests just call to be picked up?

 After hearing back from hotels and not hearing back from others, we decided to go with the Hyatt and Wyndham Hotels.

The Venue Search - Part 2

On our way back from Wisconsin, we decided to stop by a few venues to check them out for the wedding!  In the end it was a really hard choice to decide where we were going to have our wedding, but ended up choosing Bobak's Signature Events.   We really loved lots about each one of the locations we visited and they really would have made an amazing wedding!


Meridian Banquet & Conference Center

Outside Entrance

Inside Location we would use for reception

This location was just beautiful! They had a room available for a ceremony to take place and could offer us a lot for our reception.  It was amazing how small a room could look without anything in it!  We saw a room with nothing and a room full of tables, and it was amazing how small the empty room looked!  The coordinator we talked with was so helpful and nice - since she knew this was our only time in the area she even showed us cakes and helped us find a way that she could work best with us across country!  The only down fall was that there was not really any place to take photos nearby or on-site.  If we were going to be having out ceremony and reception in the same place, we didn't want to have to leave after the ceremony to get some pictures!

 Midwest Conference Center.
 Next, we traveled to the Midwest Conference Center which promoted amazing views like the one below. 

The Publicized View

The Actual View

Oh my! How amazing did that first picture's view look?  Well - really it didn't look that amazing in person.  We saw a ton of trains and tracks!  Also, the lady was so disorganized that we didn't feel like this was our fit!  She seemed in a big hurry to get us in and out and kept leaving us to go check on others who were there.  She kept trying to give a bottle of wine to this other guy she kept leaving us for, and in the end he was not allowed to accept gifts!  So, we left that meeting with a bottle of wine.  The really cool thing about this location was that we would have our own FLOOR to ourselves.

Bobak's Signature Events

Lastly for the day, we went to Bobak's Signature Events and met with Liz. 

Outside, ceremony location

Inside, reception location

We absolutely loved Bobak's!  Liz was absolutely amazing and so down to earth!  Liz also had a ton of ideas that she started giving out from the moment we walked through the door.  It is almost like having our own wedding coordinator. Something that set this place apart was not only did it have a great interior, but the exterior was amazing as well.  We had places for photos as well as the ceremony and reception.  

Look for more on Bobak's in future blog posts!  

The Venue Search - Part 1

Searching for the perfect venue! What a trip!  I never realized how hard this part could be... I mean - I guess with so many choices and perks each place has - how did I not see this coming!?!

Well - because Jac and I were moving down to Texas about one month after the engagement, we decided that the first thing we needed to figure out was our venue!  We both had lots of time (as we just graduated) and both began the research process.

This was a very overwhelming process - it was like information overload! Being the crazy organized person that I am, I created an Excel document that helped us to compare what each of the different venues had to offer.  Most of the venues we had been researching had many of the items we would need included (i.e. cake, open bar, champagne/wine...).  Having all of these items in a easy to read spreadsheet was really helpful and definitely made the process less overwhelming.

From there Jac and I narrowed our search down and chose what locations we wanted to visit first.  We were headed to Wisconsin (Bri's home) in a few weeks so I could go dress shopping with my family.  We were planning to head back down through the Chicago area to get back so we spent a day checking out our favorites.

We put together a list of general questions we had for all of the venues as well as more specific questions for each of the particular ones (if we had any).  I found an amazing website, called Here Comes the Guide, that has amazing resources of all the questions you should make sure you have answers to before booking anything.  Check it out!

Check out the future post about checking out the venues and the venue we eventually picked!

What other fun resources have you found that have helped with the planning?