A Hotel Fit For A Wedding Night
April 25th, 2008 @ 4:48 pm by Mrs. Gingerbread
I suppose before I get too carried away planning our honeymoon that won’t happen until months after the wedding, I should consider where we will stay for our wedding night. I’ve been trolling the internet (as usual), trying to get a sense of the hot Vancouver honeymoon suites. So far, I’ve been less than impressed and here is why. I was ruined by a ridiculous Vegas upgrade!
Here’s the story. A couple of years ago, Miss GB 2.0 and I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas between Christmas and New Years. We booked our hotel on hotwire.com for $90/night. When we checked in, they told us nonchalantly that we’d be getting a complimentary upgrade since we were staying for two days. They gave us our key and we headed off to our room. As we walked down the hallway, we joked, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they gave us that room at the end of the hall with the double doors?”
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Dang, $90 got us a suite with a living room, dining room, den, and two bathrooms!
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Speaking of the bathroom, we could watch the giant tv from the jacuzzi tub!
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Here’s our view of faux Paris (aka Hotel Paris).
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We went online to see how much this room normally goes for. $1099/night! What a steal! We saved $1009! Did I mention how much I love a bargain?
So now back to the wedding night and the honeymoon suite… I’m torn. I want luxury, baby! At the same time, I want to be practical (boo!) since I know we’ll be getting in late and then getting up in the morning to do brunch with our guests. Hmm, maybe we should just gamble and go with hotwire.com again and see what happens. Then again, maybe the big pay off only happens in Vegas.
Where will you be staying on your wedding night? Are you indulging in luxury or are you taking a more practical approach?
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25 Responses to “A Hotel Fit For A Wedding Night”
Awesome! I got a nice upgrade in Vegas once too. For our wedding night, we did splurge a bit and stayed at the nicest hotel in the small town where our wedding was held. I loved having the jacuzzi and the suite, but we were only in the room for about 7 hours because we had to leave for the “day after” brunch. Still, the splurge was worth it!
Due to tight finances we had to go with a city view room on Oahu rather than an Ocean view and also had to settle for a not as luxurious as we wanted hotel…. (I just keep hoping that someone at the desk will upgrade us for our honeymoon!)
*we’ll keep crossing our fingers!!!
actually we’re kinda indulging b/c of the location it’s the closest hotel to the ceremony site. the only problem its a 3-night min b/c of the holiday so we’re paying a steep price for a hotel but i think it will be worth it! i hope!
I’m getting married in Vancouver in May 09 and we will stay at the Opus since it is only a couple of blocks from our venue. The Wedgewood is also very luxurious. neither are cheap.
For luxury, you can’t go wrong with Fairmont … I’ve stayed in both the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver and the Empress in Victoria … both pretty swanky. You can have afternoon tea at the Empress.
But I’m telling you, Tofino is probably the most romantic place I’ve ever been (including Paris) 
@alyssa: I was looking at the Opus and it looks good. I also found the Loden, which I am guessing is a new hotel - http://www.lodenvancouver.com/index.html. The Metropolitan also looks like a possible contender - http://www.metropolitan.com/vanc/amenities.asp
@lou: Ooh, the Fairmont. I have admired it from the outside! I definitely want to get over to Tofino one of these days. What do you recommend?
We stayed at the Middle Beach Lodge
http://www.middlebeach.com/
Which was a lovely wooden building, right on the beach. We stayed in the main lodge (the headlands one I think), but they also have separate cottages. I’ve never seen anything to beat the view of the sea when I woke up the first morning - I was not expecting it!
It was really quiet when we were there, but it was November. Lovely walks on the deserted beach, then back to the lodge for their freshly baked cookies and a game of chess in front of the fireplace. God, I really want to go back!
The Wickaninnish Inn has been highly recommended by friends as well (although I can never say or spell it)…
http://www.wickinn.com/
I think that’s more of an upscale one, whereas Middle Beach is more of a get away from it all place. Although they’re about 5 mins away from each other.
Enjoy if you do go!
Miss Gingerbread, for Tofino, if you want luxury,
it’s the Wickaninnish Inn all the way.
http://www.wickinn.com
We’re going with a middle road. We live in SF, but the wedding is about 45-60 minutes north. Rather than find someone to drive us home, we’re staying at a cute inn in San Anselmo. It’s a splurge in that we could totally save some bucks and stay in our apartment in the city, but we are being somewhat responsible and getting a reasonably priced room. We figured we won’t be in it very long and we’ll probably be knackered from the excitement of the day anyway.
Dizamn! You guys scored with that Vegas room for what you payed! We decided to go the luxury route as much as we could afford, since we couldn’t afford to go to an exotic location. We stayed at the Meridian Luxury Suites, in Vegas,and it turned out nice.
We decided long ago that we wanted to stay in this very swanky hotel for our wedding night before flying off for our honeymoon. Oh, it’s the Royal Park Hotel in Detroit.
Because we’d already decided about that, I chose to book us two nights there over the New Year holiday and it’s there that I proposed. It was the best two days of my life, just staying in bed with my sweetie, and I’m hoping the wedding night will be equally romantic.
It’s a good idea to check out vacation rentals/B&B’s as well, usually bigger and nicer than a hotel room if they’ll let you rent for shorter stays. It’s hard finding a REALLY nice hotel in Vancouver!
WOW! Now *that’s* what I call an upgrade, baby!
I’m hoping for one in the hotel we chose to stay at. Reviewers of the hotel say they are notorious for offering upgrades, especially if you have a special occasion.
We’re staying 2 nights at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco. This is a HUGE splurge but we wanted something amazing for ourselves (and for our pictures and video). Also, Mr. JCM wants to ride in the complimentary house car (a Bentley)!
Mr. LJ and I are (as far as I know) planning on spending very little money on our honeymoon, but in our case it’s not so bad a deal. His parents own a swanky condo in Harbor Springs, MI (resort town 4 hours north of our wedding location), so the last time I checked, we were using it as our jump-off point for our last-hurrah tour of our home state.
However… I have a sneaky FI who also happens to be solely in charge of planning it. So who knows where we’ll end up
I am having trouble deciding on a hotel in Vancouver for our night as well, Opus would be SO convenient, but its way over our budget. I have always wanted to stay at the Hotel Vancouver, but I’ve heard that the rooms are not neccesarily all that great compared to the Waterfront (same chain of hotels). For us, we are trying to go for a suite in a 4* rather than a room in a 5*, thats our splurge, lol. I am thinking of holding off and checking out hotwire or priceline, I am just a bit nervous as I’ve never used them and not too sure where we;ll end up and since its an important night, you know, just want it to be perfect.
@lou: Middle Beach sounds really nice. You had me at the freshly baked cookies!
@michca: Ooh, this looks really great. Maybe we can do this for our one year anniversary. Haha. I guess I am planning ahead.
@Loaf: Aww, that’s so romantic!
@JCM9608: Good luck with the upgrade! Right on, Mr. JCM, I’d pick a hotel to ride in a Bentley!
@MrsJones: This wedding night thing is really not in our budget either. Miss GB 2.0 is justifying it by saying it’s not for our wedding since it’s after our wedding :p I’ve tried to look up the Hotel Vancouver online, but haven’t been able to find it. Do you have a link by any chance?
We’re staying in a Howard Johnson hotel in the small town that our families live in. Luckily, it’s a small town… They are giving us their jacuzzi rooms at half price, and the owner plans to sprinkle rose petals on our bed for us (so he told my mom, but it’s supposed to be a surprise to us). The owner is good friends with both of our families, though, so that’s the only reason we’re getting such a great deal.
It is sick to think of the two of you getting married, not to mention the honeymoon. Homosexuality is a sin.
@ms.earmuffs: If by sick you mean, awesome and by sin you mean a hoot, thanks! 
Also, since we’re engaged, it’s probably not appropriate for you to be thinking about us getting married.. and getting it on during our honeymoon either. After all, we’re not that kind of couple…
@Miss GB 2.0: you guys are disgusting and gross. your “love” for each other is natural. it is not even love–its a sickness. get some help.
Sorry Mrs. Gingerbread, the Hotel Vancouver is the same as the Fairmount, I still call it that even though I think that’s its old name. It’s absolutely gorgeous from the outside and I love how old it is, etc. but the rooms look a little dated.
I was also looking at the Loden online, maybe I will wonder down there one day at lunch to check it out as its brand new so no reviews to speak of yet. I will let you know what it seems like.
The Westin Bayshore is always a popular choice, fabulous views of Stanley Park, and they have the BEST sunday brunch buffet, you may want to check that out as well.
@ ms.earmuffs: why don’t you just keep your earmuffs and your blinders on and continue to live in your own sheltered small world. If it makes you uncomfortable, just stop reading and move on to the next post, you don’t need to comment.
MrsJones: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Comments like ms.earmuffs make weddingbee diverse. We all not have to agree.
@MrsD: I totally agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how mislead it may be, I just don’t think that telling someone they are ‘disgusting and gross and that they need help’, needs to be shared, I think it is best kept to oneself, that’s all.
Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
I think we had one of those same rooms for our honeymoon, and we certainly didn’t pay that kind of price: yikes! You got a better deal than we did though, lol.