Bridgeview Brides Hotel Block questions/rant/ help me please lol

ok so i know we've probably discussed this 3290428 times but of course my frazzled brain is freaking out. I can't decide where to have a hotel block after my wedding!

Currently we have 2 blocks at Allegria and the Holiday Inn Express. I feel like im going to make myself nuts second guessing having 2 blocks (neither with a good breakfast option for the following morning, Holiday Inn doesn't have a private room and Allegria is a small fortune for breakfast). FH would like to cancel those 2 blocks and just pick one hotel a bit further away. He's thinking the Marriot in Uniondale. The rooms are reasonably priced and I believe we have the option for the private breakfast. Our wedding is going to be at Holy Spirit in NHP so it could be argued that Uniondale is soooooooooorta in between both locations.

I'm just so torn. I feel like i cant decide what is more important to me, proximity or cost for rooms or the breakfast. Our save the dates should arrive on Friday and I'm hoping to get them out ASAP (before Christmas takes over!) so I want all the information on our website to be accurate.

While I have your attention, is 3:30 too early for my ceremony (not a full mass)? I'm also freaking out that the gap before the 7pm reception is too long for my guests. Maybe I should bump it to 4:00?

As you can see my head is spinning Any advice is much appreciated!!

Deep breaths Caity...deep breaths.
I agree having 2 hotel blocks will be crazy, especially if you want a breakfast the next morning. I have rooms booked at Allegria and I was actually going to ask them if they offer a continental breakfast, bagels, muffins, coffee, and not in the dinning room maybe out in the lounge area, as I agree there's a way too much money. And if they don't offer a continental breakfast option I was going to ask them if I could have my own brought in and just have the local bagel place deliver it

I would be ok with the Uniondale Marriott as long as you are providing a shuttle bus.

My church is starting at 4:00, not full mass either, because of the reason you mentioned I didn't want people to have too much time in between. My mom felt she would of then had to have people back to her house in between and I didn't want too do that to her.

I dunno how many people you have for breakfast the next morning... but when I went to the Holiday Inn, they mentioned you can cater a breakfast at their sister hotel across the street (the rockville inn). Not sure how big the room is, or how expensive the catering would be, but it's a thought! If not, I dont think that Uniondale is very far!

As far as your ceremony time, if you keep it at 330 then everyone can head back to the hotel to change/check in/have a drink etc. If there is too little time to do that, then guests might not know what to do. I would leave it if it's what you originally wanted! Don't second guess yourself! It's all about you and your fiance anyway!!!! Everyone else will go with the flow :)

Emily I'm definitely trying to practice some deep breathing techniques lol!

We will definitely pay to get a shuttle from the hotel to bridgeview regardless where the block is. I feel as if we do the Marriot in uniondale, we should just get 1 giant bus for everyone coming from there instead of a few 'shuttle buses' since 30 mins away (time wise, it would be too long for the same bus to make multiple trips).

Now FH thinks we should keep the 3:30 ceremony time and just add 30 mins to the cocktail hour making it start at 6:30.

There's just so many moving parts and pieces to planning a freakin' wedding. OYE!! I figure we can get the opinions of our families over thanksgiving, i just hope that doesnt make this more complicated lol.

Is this the stuff a coordinator could just figure out and do for me? If so, i think it might be time to make that investment

Marisa! You're totally right. That's what I keep thinking (about the time gap) but then stupid David Tutera () got into my head when i was reading one of his wedding books yesterday and he was so anti a 2 hour gap!

I think ordering the save the dates and know this ish is getting real has made me into a bride-freak of a human.

Pish posh to David Tutera. If I had unlimited money or he wants to plan it, I wont have a gap. Otherwise, gaps happen!! I think it might be more manageable to have one hotel and transport all the block guests back at the end of the night in one shot. My issue with hotel blocks and shuttles is where are peoples cars? If they leave them at the hotel, do they need a shuttle to the reception?
The hotel block/ RH logistics have been the most aggravating for me. Our RH is about 45 - an hour from our church, which kills the issue of a gap, since everyone will be driving and can go back to the hotel and get their **** together, but our block offers a shuttle to the RH and back as many times as we need it to. So that helped resolve a lot of my anxiety. I think ive been in the city too long - if I cant get somewhere on a subway, I get totally confused.

That.. was probably not helpful. But i do think having some option for breakfast is nice.

Kat, I never watched any of Tutera's shows until last week when i ran out of Say Yes to the Dress episodes and Four Weddings on Netflix. Now his snootiness is making me feel like i've been planning a redneck wedding all along I need to put some of his nonsense out the window. YOu're right hahaha

Ok i think i can settle on one hotel and hopefully one bus to shuttle our people to and from the hotel and RH (we need to do transportation next, once we settle the hotel debacle).

I swear this is free therapy. Thank you ladies for making me feel a little saner.. or equally crazy as everyone else hahahaha

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Posted by Caity828

Kat, I never watched any of Tutera's shows until last week when i ran out of Say Yes to the Dress episodes and Four Weddings on Netflix. Now his snootiness is making me feel like i've been planning a redneck wedding all along I need to put some of his nonsense out the window. YOu're right hahaha

Ok i think i can settle on one hotel and hopefully one bus to shuttle our people to and from the hotel and RH (we need to do transportation next, once we settle the hotel debacle).

I swear this is free therapy. Thank you ladies for making me feel a little saner.. or equally crazy as everyone else hahahaha

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haha free therapy is great. we should do this over drinks soon! hotel/ transportation were notably my absolute least favorite part of wedding planning so far. I told FH to 'deal' with it after a while.

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Posted by kadymry

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Posted by Caity828

Kat, I never watched any of Tutera's shows until last week when i ran out of Say Yes to the Dress episodes and Four Weddings on Netflix. Now his snootiness is making me feel like i've been planning a redneck wedding all along I need to put some of his nonsense out the window. YOu're right hahaha

Ok i think i can settle on one hotel and hopefully one bus to shuttle our people to and from the hotel and RH (we need to do transportation next, once we settle the hotel debacle).

I swear this is free therapy. Thank you ladies for making me feel a little saner.. or equally crazy as everyone else hahahaha

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haha free therapy is great. we should do this over drinks soon! hotel/ transportation were notably my absolute least favorite part of wedding planning so far. I told FH to 'deal' with it after a while.

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LOL I couldn't agree more!! This hotel/transportation debate is the worst! It's these annoying decisions that i have to decide all at once, they go hand in hand. I think I scared FH this morning when i was in a tizzy after getting the shipping info about the STDs... 'WE HAVE TO FIGURE OUT SO MANY THINGS'. You've all talked me down hahaha thank youuuuuuuuuu!

You're getting me worried too lol

Our Mass is at 2 and reception at 7! Reason being, in October it gets dark early. There would be too much rushing to grab last bit of daylight by the time the Mass/receiving line/pictures outside of church were done. I felt so bad about the gap between church and reception for guests but people kept reassuring me not to worry about others. So I feel your anxiety over that. We already gave the limo company all the times so I feel it would be a hassle to change that now.

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Posted by coffeeisgreen

You're getting me worried too lol

Our Mass is at 2 and reception at 7! Reason being, in October it gets dark early. There would be too much rushing to grab last bit of daylight by the time the Mass/receiving line/pictures outside of church were done. I felt so bad about the gap between church and reception for guests but people kept reassuring me not to worry about others. So I feel your anxiety over that. We already gave the limo company all the times so I feel it would be a hassle to change that now.

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Aww i didn't mean to make my craziness contagious!! I've gone to several weddings in the fall/winter and I feel like people expect that gap (especially is getting married at a church!). You need to make use of those precious hours of daylight! It's so funny how we feel so guilty about these mini inconveniences yet I've lived through many of them myself (super expensive hotels, needing to fly to other states for weddings, long gaps, costly dresses). I need to keep reminding myself that some of this is just bound to happen and the people who love us will support us either way. I can never take my own advice!

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Posted by Caity828

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Posted by coffeeisgreen

You're getting me worried too lol

Our Mass is at 2 and reception at 7! Reason being, in October it gets dark early. There would be too much rushing to grab last bit of daylight by the time the Mass/receiving line/pictures outside of church were done. I felt so bad about the gap between church and reception for guests but people kept reassuring me not to worry about others. So I feel your anxiety over that. We already gave the limo company all the times so I feel it would be a hassle to change that now.

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Aww i didn't mean to make my craziness contagious!! I've gone to several weddings in the fall/winter and I feel like people expect that gap (especially is getting married at a church!). You need to make use of those precious hours of daylight! It's so funny how we feel so guilty about these mini inconveniences yet I've lived through many of them myself (super expensive hotels, needing to fly to other states for weddings, long gaps, costly dresses). I need to keep reminding myself that some of this is just bound to happen and the people who love us will support us either way. I can never take my own advice!

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Yes! Great point! Funny how you made me feel better when I'm supposed to be here to make you feel better, haha. I literally was telling myself that before reading this lol. I've done the waiting thing before and survived!

GROUP HUG!!!

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Posted by Caity828

GROUP HUG!!!

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I'm in!

We didn't do allegria because the room rates were outta control in August. We went with the best western in RVC. They don't provide a private breakfast but they do have a continental one. She said is has eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins, cereal, etc.
we actually looked into the Marriot as well. We were quoted $179 for August 2014. We decided against it for a few reasons. 1, the breakfast was pretty expensive as well. Like $32 a person before tax and tip. Plus, we are having an evening ceremony and reception and wouldn't be getting back to the marriot til after 1. We wanted a place to have an after party and they said champions now closes at 2am. No exceptions. They also don't provide a shuttle and party buses are not allowed on the meadowbrook. So they would have to take all the back roads to get to the bridgeview which just seemed to long. So, we decided against it.
So far the best western has been good to work with. $149 a night and were working with the manager of the attached restaurant to set up an after party.
Hope this helps!