Be aggressive

One thing I've learned during this wedding planning process is how important it is to be vigilant and aggressive when it comes to getting what we want.

I realized this last week when we were working with our hotel contact to make sure we reserve our complimentary bridal suite.

Way back in the winter/spring, we were cranking out our hotel room block contract with Hampton Inn, going back and forth with edits and more things we wanted to include. I confess - I thought Cyrus was being a bit anal when it came to including ALL of the spoken and unspoken things we discussed with the sales manager such as getting a complimentary room, making sure there are no penalties for not filling our entire room block reservation, etc.

But check out this email exchange...

Ina:

Our room block contract says that my fiance and I will be able to reserve a room on Saturday night (August 22) at no cost. How do we go about reserving that room?

Bruna @ Hampton Inn:

We can definitely reserve that room for you, provided that the room block you had on the contract is filled.

Ina:

We talked about reserving our complimentary bridal suite, which is in our contract, and you said that we'll need to fill the majority of our room block for that to happen. Our contract also says that there will be no penalty for rooms not filled by the cut-off date.

Bruna:

We usually do not give a complimentary room to anyone that reserves less than 20 rooms because by providing them with a complimentary suite we would show our appreciation for them sending us that many rooms. Because that was not included into your contract, I will go ahead and make your reservation for you. I will need a Credit Card number for the incidentals so as soon as I receive that, I will go ahead and make your room reservation for 1 night.

BAM! Free room, thanks to Cyrus's vigilance with including EVERYTHING in the contract!