Finding a hotel to block some rooms in for our wedding was so, so much harder than I thought it would be, but there's a happy ending to this saga!
Our reception hall is in downtown St. Louis, making hotels expensive. Even a room at the Drury Inn was $160, and we wanted to keep the price under $120 and hopefully find another option under $100. I called about 12 different hotels, which took forever, because with most of them they transfer you to their national sales people, and you have to yell into the phone which city you're getting married in and blah blah blah...way more time consuming than I thought it would be. I also scratched any hotel off the list that required us to take on any financial responsibility for the unbooked rooms, which was only 1 or 2 anyway.
So get this....Ryan and I almost got in a tiff over 2 different Holiday Inns....there were 2, one right on the highway and very conveniently located, and one that wasn't so conveniently located. The one right off the highway would not answer their phone, and when they did they were always really confused and not helpful at all. Their manager never returned my phone calls and I could never even get a group rate from these people, so I was sick of dealing with them. The not-so-conveniently located Holiday Inn had the nicest people ever on staff, the rate was decent and they were great to work with. I wanted to book with them because I was beyond frustrated with the other Holiday Inn and Ryan wanted to book with the other one because of their location. Grrrr. I finally told him to figure out what other hotels to look into because I could not deal with those people anymore.
Which lead to the discovery of the
Courtyard St. Louis Downtown by Marriott. Cue heavenly light and angelic singing. The location was perfect, the parking was free, the people were wonderful and helpful and the rate....oh the rate. $79 for a room with a king bed and a sleeper sofa, $95 for a room with 2 queen beds. Way better than we were expecting! They're holding 15 rooms for us Friday night and 15 rooms for us the day of the wedding. If we don't fill up those rooms by June 25th, then they are no longer reserved, and if we do fill those up, we can start another block (depending on availability of course). So a happy ending! I'll be staying here with my family Friday night and then I think Ryan and I might stay at the Renaissance by Marriott a couple blocks away Saturday night. I wanted to book a block with them, but the location wasn't ideal and parking was $14/day.
Anyway, the Courtyard's lobby was recently redone and the entire hotel is lovely.
The rooms are simple but comfortable. We stayed in a Fairfield by Marriott in Boston last spring and the rooms looked a lot like this.
I am so, so glad to have this crossed off our list, and at such a great rate and in such a nice hotel.
What did you do for hotels for your wedding?
