The Suite Life

When deciding where our guests would stay the night of our wedding, we wanted somewhere close to the Curtis Center, so if it is nice out our guests could walk to and from the wedding if they wanted.  One of my bridesmaids got married a few years ago at the Downtown Club, which is right next to the Curtis Center. After her wedding, we stayed at the Omni Hotel, and walked through Independence Park back to the hotel, which was the perfect way to end the night. Once we settled on our venue, I knew the Omni was going to be our best option. We immediately blocked a group of rooms for our guests to stay.

Guest room at the Omni Hotel at Independence Park

Then we had to figure out where we would stay, the night before and the night of our wedding.  Once, Mr. Ly actually said to me that he thought we would just come home after our wedding.  Ha. I quickly convinced him otherwise. (There was no way I was going to come home to a pile of laundry and a messy house the night of my wedding!) Before we could make any decisions, we needed to figure out the details of where our rehearsal dinner was going to be, and I needed to figure out where the girls were getting hair and makeup done. Once we got all those details settled, we decided it made the most sense to stay over the night before as well as the night of our wedding.

Mr. Ly and I are not staying together the night before, and having such a large bridal party, I knew I would need a big room for the girls to get ready.  When I finally called reservations, they told me they had no availability for any of their suites. Cue: freak out. I was so angry at myself for not booking our accommodations when I blocked the rooms way back in March. However, I decided before I had a total melt down I would speak to our coordinator, Chris, who had blocked the rooms for us.  Thankfully, they hold some of their rooms for their weddings, and they still had availability.  Chris was able to make some suggestions for our stay. We had a few options - the conference room attached to a guest room, three connecting guest rooms, a junior suite with a connecting guest room, or the penthouse suite. In considering pictures and video for getting ready, I was immediately drawn to the penthouse despite it being the most expensive option. The conference room would be the most cost efficient option, but I wasn't loving the idea of it for pictures. The attached rooms wouldn't give us the "together" feel I wanted for the morning, so that only left us with the penthouse.  Nice how that worked out, right?

I didn't think it was too fair that I would get to stay in the penthouse and Mr. Ly would not - and we only get one wedding night - might as well make it count! So we booked the penthouse for our wedding night as well.  The good news is since we are getting married on a Sunday, the penthouse doesn't cost nearly as much as it does the night before.  AND since it's enormous, if we want to continue the party after the reception is over, the penthouse is big enough for an after party!

There are no really good photos of just the penthouse, but there is this tour of it that I found on YouTube.  I don't know these people, and they don't give it the best review... but it gives you a really good idea of the size of the suite. Just imagine it filled with a bridal party, makeup, music, flowers, dresses, and champagne!

Penthouse Tour, Omni Park, Philadelphia 

I am really looking forward to our stay here, despite it costing us more than a regular room or a smaller suite.  Yes, those funds could be spent elsewhere and we could have just gotten ready in the conference room, and I'm sure I wouldn't miss out on any really spectacular photos, but this was one splurge I didn't want to give up.

Anyone else splurging on wedding weekend accommodations?