Heyo!
It's been 2 weeks since the wedding!! I figured I would follow up on my trip report (if I can call it that?) especially since Expedia found something wrong with my review and rejected it.
The American Hotel in Freehold worked out beautifully for our Lakewood wedding. My friend drove (in a separate car) to the hotel the morning of with me. We checked in, took a peek at the room and then took his car to the hall. As I said before, they upgraded us - once I said it was our wedding night - to late-checkout and a suite which had a king size bed and a couch (going to avoid commenting on whether it was used or not
) Bathroom did not have the separate shower/tub situation that was pictured on Expedia but the shower was humongous and had 3 heads coming from different directions (again, will avoid commenting on whether we used it or not
). The limo was beautiful, driver did not care at all that we were running a little late and the ride was about 20-25 minutes as expected. As per a friend's suggestion, I brought Moscato "champagne" and flutes (that he toveled for me) for the limo ride. That experience was definitely fun, and as I said, it was worth it for the once-in-a-lifetime event, but I could hear why someone would save the money and skip it. We already had the key when we got to the hotel, so we just waved to the front desk clerk (who said "Oh, it's the newlyweds!" Was kinda nice how several employees knew it was our special night) and went upstairs. I had her favorite flowers waiting in the room - great suggestion from my Chosson teacher, and the hotel referred me to the local florist and took care of setting them up in the room. Caterer gave us packed food + plastic utensils which was great, but I also picked up snacks earlier that morning for dinner/breakfast. Late checkout was awesome, took our time leaving until we went to Sheva Brachos.
Thanks for the all the suggestions! Follow me in "Up In The Air" as I plan our Israel/Eurotrip honeymoon for this summer!