And the winner is...

The Sheraton Hotel, downtown brooklyn.  The better rates, CSR, brand new facility and parking sealed the deal.  We have 20 rooms blocked from Friday, May 6th until Saturday May 7th, and 3 rooms blocked from Sunday in case a few people want to stay a little longer. Reservations must be made no later than April 6th, 2011 after which they will release our hold and you're on your own.  Reservations can be canceled up to 72 hours prior to arrival without penalty so if you decide you don't want to spend the night after all, you have a 3 week window to change your mind.

Also, if we fill 80% of the wedding block, there's a free suite upgrade for the bride and groom (that would be us), so we'd like to thank you in advance for helping make our night just a little more special.

An Etsy Wedding!!!!

I just ordered my headpiece from a wonderful girl in the UK who makes the most amazing fascinators. its lots of black and white mixed printed netting, a birdcage veil and some feathers, im VERY excited about it! i basically told her i trusted her judgment on the fabric choices so just go ahead and create and send me a pic when its all done. i did the same thing with my dress, i wont see that either until its all finished and at my doorstep :) im either super adventurous or completely crazy. or a little bit of both!

Hotels, Hotels, Hotels

We were very surprised to learn just how few hotels there really were in the area. There's some hotels out by the airport (too far: "Thanks for coming to our wedding and sitting in traffic for an hour on the way over from your hotel), and all up and down 3rd ave (too industrial: "Thanks for coming to our wedding, but don't worry you won't get mugged, it just looks like you will"), but for the most part Park Slope has a YMCA and handful of BNB's.  I imagine they don't have 20 room blocks they could hold for us, six months out with no down payment but thankfully corporate America comes through again! We've already received a response from the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott, and have submitted an RFP to the new Sheritton just around the corner. I doubt we can squeeze a bidding war out of them, but at best we'll be able to offer guests a choice depending on whichever reward program you might have.  They're gonna be in the $200/night range, not sure about parking but there are plenty of garages in the area.  If that's a little too steep, you better call dibbs on our couch now as the current resident (or mayor if you go by 4Square methodology) will probably beat you to it.