March Madness has a different meaning in the Hoey household this year. Yes, there is still an outrageous amount of basketball being watched, but the last half of this month has been and will continue to be somewhat of a whirlwind.
I am proud of Bryan and I, though. We were efficient on our invitation/hotel hunt last weekend. And with Bryan's basketball-induced "illness" that he suffered today, we took a gorgeous Atlanta morning and turned it into pure productivity. I am happy to say we have selected our host hotel!!!
When I mentioned all of the things we wanted in hotel accomodations, we found the perfect match: Homewood Suites (a Hilton-owned hotel). Now before you immediately look them up and get outrageously excited, I will tell you, we haven't faxed our contract back to them just yet. Bryan wanted to have a friend in the hotel business take a look over the contract for us due to his fear that our guests may trash the rooms and we would be held accountable for damages. I am not aware if he has stories from the past that would provide the foundation for these fears, but if it makes him feel better to think over the contract, that's fine with me.
After I read the contract in the car to him (all page and a half of it), he said, "Why didn't we just sign it in there? We're not held accountable for anything!" So there you have it. If someone cuts you off in Duluth traffic while you're visiting, feel free to take it out on your hotel room - they're charging your credit card, not our's :-)
Once everything is official, the hotel will set up a website for our guests to receive the group rate by booking online (and, of course, if you want to talk to a hotel associate, you can always call, give our name, and get the group rate that way). So what is the group rate? A reasonable (in our opinion) $79 a night. I can go on and on in another blog about the types of rooms that are available for this price (some of the rooms comes with a full kitchenette!) and then there is a 2-bedroom suite option for $199 (there are only 4 in the hotel - so no group rate on this type of room). Again, once we are finalized and the website for guests to book is up and running, I can give lots more detail on what comes with each room.
The amenities of the hotel as a whole are nice, too. The group rate includes a complimentary breakfast for all guests. There is a complimentary shuttle service which will be available to take guests to and from the rehearsal dinner on Thursday evening as well as to and from the wedding on Friday night.
One big question that has come up is: does this shuttle service run down to the airport? Just a reminder: Duluth is not Atlanta-proper. It's a suburb outside of Atlanta and this hotel is about 30 miles north of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. That being said, depending on what types of activities guests want to check out, there is a nice amount of shopping and beautiful restaurants in Duluth and the surrounding areas. But, of course, if the tourist scene strikes your fancy (and in Atlanta, there is alot to do!), most things are easily accessible within about a 20-30 minute drive from this hotel.
I am going to start blogging alot more about things to do and see in Atlanta within the next few months so that our guests can start to plan their stays and figure out, for example, how long they might like to stay during the time surrounding the wedding. Bryan and I can be as involved in planning trips for our guests as they would like. In fact, I'd like to mention that I started a new gmail account for this purpose, specifically. Any questions or concerns about the wedding, please e-mail me at tomboybride2010@gmail.com
I get so much "junk" and advertisements from all these vendors lately in my regular gmail account, I wanted to prioritize communications with guests in the months leading up to the wedding. So please feel free to contact me at that address (of course phone calls and facebook messages will always be answered, too).
The only downside of the Homewood Suites? I didn't see any cookies at the front desk. I felt that this is something we can all live with. If you do walk in and see cookies, I probably put them there...don't put it past me, if I think guests should have cookies then cookies they shall have!
Bryan and I continued our amazingly productive day with a visit to the ING Georgia Marathon and Half-Marathon Expo. Oddly, I had forgotten that this was Bryan's first Expo! We had a fabulous time. We are preparing for a chilly morning on Sunday, so Bryan got me a little gift - a headband/ear-warmer that says: "Some girls chase boys, I pass them". So me. I love it. I can only hope to be passing them on Sunday and not freezing my butt off and helplessly huffing and puffing. Bryan and I are relatively well-trained (him probably a little more so than myself), so I'm actually looking forward to it.
Finally, we are winding down the night with, what else, more basketball. I am also looking at wedding invitations online. Bryan has a newfound fascination with monograms, so if our monogram shows up on the wedding invitations don't be surprised. I may blog more about this in-store versus on-line wedding invitation shopping issue next week - I think it's interesting to talk about!
Go Wildcats!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment