For those of you who have not already heard what happened to us on our wedding night I can assure you that this story will bring you a laugh.
Around 11pm on what was a particularly hot summer night in July we begin to get ready to leave our wedding reception in my mom’s borrowed Camaro convertible. Our wedding party had decorated the convertible with lots of balloons and signs all tied at various heights to the car along with the traditional cans tied to the rear. After saying our goodbyes, and watching the fireworks that were shot off in our honor from the end of the street, we were anxious to make the 45 minute drive to Atlanta to our hotel room. After all it was our wedding night. Before we could begin our drive, however, we stopped to cut down all the balloons, attached cans, and take off the signs. I watched while my new husband did so…quite quickly I might add! He jumped back in the car. We were ready to go! That’s when we began to have car troubles.
Stuck at the end of the street, we watched for almost an hour as all our guests drove by us smiling and waving…This part I really do not understand. No one stopped to help us?!? I mean what in the world did they think we were doing parked at the end of the street? Did they not realize it was our wedding night and we had much better places to be? I tried to call my family…bridesmaids… anyone who could come save us. Unfortunately they were all busy cleaning up and did not have their phones with them. FINALLY we got the car started and began on our way. That’s when Josh realized he had left his backpack (which had our passports for our flight out of town) in his brother’s truck. He called his brother but they were already half way back home which was a good 30 minutes from our wedding location. So we had no choice but to turn around and wait for them to return. Josh refused to return to the wedding location so we hide out in the parking lot. For me it was a bride’s nightmare. As you can image we were exhausted from all the stress and excitement of the wedding…along with talking to about 400 people. Finally, after what seemed like forever, his brother arrived with the backpack. We were FINALLY on our way to the hotel. Little did we know our nightmare was just beginning!
our “getaway” car
Approximately 45 minutes later, exhausted and STARVING, we arrived at our hotel. My sweet husband had planned ahead and had checked-in early to the hotel earlier that afternoon. When he checked in they told him they did not have the room ready yet but that he could leave our bags with the front desk and they would ensure that our stuff got to our room. They told him that all we would have to do would be to stop by the front desk and pick up our room key upon arrival. We could not WAIT to eat something. I hadn’t eaten anything all day other than a couple pieces of fruit around 10:30AM and a bite so tiny it is just enough to tease you of wedding cake that was pushed in my mouth for the pictures. Luckily our caterer had packed us a “to-go” bag. We could not wait to dig-in.
As we walked into the lobby (mind you…I am STILL in my wedding dress which, by this time, I have been in for 15 hours and it is becoming more and more uncomfortable by the second) we were surprised to find our bags sitting in the lobby. The two men behind the hotel desk counter went on to tell us that our room had been given away since we had not arrived prior to midnight. (I think it was about 1:30pm by this time). Given AWAY! That’s right. A very tired, hungry bride standing in a hotel lobby in her wedding dress being told that her hotel room had been given away does not make for a very pretty picture. Let me just tell ‘ya.
Eventually they found us a room (which was NOT the suite we were supposed to have had). We walked into the room and instantly were aware of the powerful smell of smoke (we had asked for a no smoking room). “Who cares…I am SO tired. Let’s just tough it out,” I told Josh. We both plopped down on the couch. That’s when we became aware of the noise. Apparently we had been put on the fraternity hall. No lie. Some frat was having some kind of event and had decided to bring their party back to our hall. The noise was crazy. Music blaring, kids screaming, not exactly how you would picture your wedding night. We opened the door (still in our tux and wedding dress) to discover a person passed out in the hallway in front of the door and beer bottles everywhere. We still had not received our bags that had to be brought up to the room (which was why I was still in my wedding dress) so we decided to call management. They told us to come back down to the lobby and they would try to figure something out.
Over an hour later we were finally given a room. It was NOT the room we had requested but at least it was a room. After waiting another 30 minutes for the guy to bring our luggage we could finally eat. It was now 3:30AM. We opened up our food only to realize that the caterer had poured all the food in one bag. I’m talking everything. Ever tried mashed potatoes that are sitting in a bag of pickle juice with some cheese? Let me just tell you. It is gross! Not worth eating even if you are starving.
We gave up. We had no food. We were not in a nice room like we had reserved. We were exhausted. There you have it…our wedding night nightmare!
The good news is that after the first 48 hrs were behind us we had a wonderful rest of our honeymoon in St. Lucia. It was a total turnaround. Of course it wouldn’t be hard to beat our first night in Atlanta. Plus I can guarantee you we will NEVER forget our wedding night!
Oh my goodness! What a nightmare! We stayed in a hotel in Atlanta too and didn't arrive until about 1am. I would have been livid if they had given our room away. We went to the Dominican Republic for a week. The only issues we had were some problems in the Miami airport and then landing in the DR during a rain storm. The car that was supposed to pick us up was not there. We were stuck in pouring down rain without a ride. After a couple of panic filled hours we were finally at the resort. When we checked in they gave us the wrong room. We were so wet and tired we didn't want to bother with trying to fix it. Thankfully everything was straightened out the next morning and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our wonderful and relaxing honeymoon!
Yes it really did suck. How fun being in the DR. Never been. Would you recommend it? I guess not on the resort if they gave you the wrong room, lol.