Home Stretch

A few days prior to the wedding day, I called the Food and Beverage Director, Catherine, who handled all the wedding stuff at the Anatole (and with whom I love oh so much because she's freaking awesome), to inquire of reserving a room for me and the girls the night before the wedding so that we'd have a central location to be since the hair and makeup artist was to arrive at the hotel at 7:30am the next morning. Who wants the hassle of waking up super duper early, grabbing all your necessities, drive 30 minutes, find parking space, grab all your stuff from the car, walk to the hotel only to realize you forgot your cell phone, walk back to the car, grab forgotten phone while dropping a few other things, cursing the bride while picking up dropped items, walk back to the hotel, press elevator button and patiently wait for the lift while trying to not look pissed off because your friends that are getting married today made you wake up at 6am. On a Saturday. I can see you nodding your head agreeing that this is the real deal! Ha!

Now where was I? Right. Reserving a room for my lovely ladies and I... Catherine said she would look into it and get back to me. A few hours later, I received an email from Catherine stating she had taken care of everything and that I was all set. When Catherine said she took care of everything, she really meant. The hotel room the night before and the night of the wedding was taken care of by Hilton Anatole!!! OMG!! No. freaking. way! I literally wrote a response to her in all caps and with more exclamation marks then there ever should be utilized in a lifetime of emails. Never the less, in a single one! And if she wasn't rocking awesome enough already, she also blocked all incidentals from being charged to the room!! OMG!! Again, more thankyouthankyouthankyou words filled with excitement and exclamation points. However, I didn't incur any incidentals so no worries. I didn't take advantage of her scorching hot hospitality. You crazy???

Fast forward to a few hours prior to the wedding rehearsal. We arrived at the hotel and wanted to bring all our wedding junk necessities up to the room and get situated. We checked in and headed up stairs. I will never, ever forget what greeted me as I opened up the doors to my room. I wish someone, somehow had captured my excitement because I don't think I've ever been this excited. Y'all, I literally ran around the room flailing my arms and repetitively gasped, "OMG! OMG! OMG!" until I couldn't breathe and stand up anymore. The soon to be hubster stood in the doorway whole heartily laughing while calling our bridal party to see where they were and that they should totally see the psycho he was about to marry.

So what about the room that got me all rallied up? Okay, now that I've recaptured my breath, again, because I totally got all excited just talking about it, here's why.

Upon entering the room. Okay. Simple room. No

biggie. As I rounded the corner, I saw this...

shut. up. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Y'all, that's the Parlor Hospitality Suite connected to my room.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!

Above two photos from the Hilton Anatole's Photo Gallery

I wish I had taken more pictures of the suite to show you the grandeur of it all. The TWO bathrooms. The bar area. The view. The room. The couches. EVERYTHING!!! I was so amazed at how much love Catherine showered me with. Once I composed myself after my running/flailing escapade, I quickly emailed Catherine and repeated the theme for my email correspondence to her - all caps, lots of thank you's and all the synonyms for it topped with exclamation points galore. Did I mention how much I love her??? Seriously. Catherine, you were freaking awesome and I still get excited thinking about that room! You were awesome to the max extreme.

Now to compose myself and head downstairs for rehearsal. Where is the rest of the bridal party???

How did a someone surprise and shower you with love for your wedding?