Weddingbee Blog

One of the very few wedding-related tasks that I completely delegated to Mr. Latte was researching and reserving blocks of hotel rooms. I made up some lame excuse about why he should take care of it… something about how his friends were the ones that would need the hotel block, and since he knows them better than I do, he should be the one to do it. I know, super lame… but it worked!

In reality, I did not want to have anything to do with this aspect of wedding planning. I had heard horror stories from friends about hotels not honoring discounted rates, high minimums and unrelenting customer service representatives. I just didn’t want to deal with it! And to be honest, I just can’t get that excited about a hotel. I am not a fan of sleeping in strange beds, in strange rooms and hearing strange noises at night. This is unfortunate because I travel a lot for work. Sure, I’ve stayed in some really nice hotels, but it just takes a lot for me to get excited about a hotel stay.

But when you can say “bunk bed,” “hammock,” and “sunken bed,” all in 1 sentence, how can you be anything but excited? Yup, these can all be found at the NU Hotel in Brooklyn. A new boutique hotel (opened in July ’08), this hotel boasts fresh designs that looked so cool online that I had to go see it in person. I immediately loved the trendy feel of the lobby, and the clean look of the rooms. Check out these pictures from their website:

(NU’s lobby)

Their standard rooms are nice, but check out these suites:

(The Friends Suite with bunk beds…wouldn’t this fun for a family with children?)

(The Urban Suite has a hammock! And what’s that I see waaaay in the back?)

(Oh right, the SUNKEN bed!!! Don’t you want to just jump in and sleep forever???)

Besides the fact that the rooms are just so cool (the bathrooms have chalk boards where you can leave notes for travel mates or housekeeping), the hotel tries to be as “smart” as possible. There’s cork flooring in the rooms, FSC-certified sustainably harvested teak wood in the hallways and organic bedding on the beds.

NU is located on Smith Street in downtown Brooklyn, and there are lots of bars, restaurants and cute little stores within walking distance to keep our guests entertained.

The Lattes will probably be using reward points and getting our post-wedding rest at our other hotel block, the Marriott in downtown Manhattan. But if I hear of any guests that went for the sunken bed, I think I may have to crash their partay!

Anyone else excited about their guests’ accommodations? What has your experience been with hotel blocks?