Many of you may not know but, our honeymoon hotel for 5 days was completely free to the point they could not print a receipt because there weren't any charges. FREE FREE.
But, how Jay?
Let me tell you. When we first were deciding on venues, I knew I wanted to have it at a hotel. Why? Large Hotels are mostly a one-stop-shop and eliminate a lot of your search for vendors since they have many of them on the property. Here is a list of everything that came with our venue. The Hyatt Lodge Oak Brook.
-Catering
-Ceremony and Reception Space
-Outdoor scenery for photos
-Outdoor and indoor cocktail hour options
-Three tier cake for 100 people included
-Dance Floor
-Gold Chivari chairs
-Table linen, candelabras, napkins and chargers
-A 20 room complimentary hold for the wedding weekend and an additional 10 rooms the day of the wedding.
- Hospitality rooms for the bride and Groom
- An alcohol open bar package
- Complimentary room for the Bride and Groom the night of the Wedding.
Crazy right! If we had it elsewhere we would have to hunt down and pay the vendors one by one, which would have been a fortune in taxes. Not only that you noticed it was a Hyatt right?
That my friend is where points come in. The Hyatt had a $20,000 food and beverage minimum and if you were a Hyatt member which I became that day you get 30,000 points upfront when you pay your deposit.
Not only did I get that 30,000 points, I got a Hyatt credit card for all my payments to the venue and in your first year you get 90,000 points if you spend 4k in 3 months. Pretty easy when you have wedding planning and a $3,000 payment due every two months to the venue. Did I mention Hyatt purchases get you 12x the points per dollar spent?
Do you see where I'm getting at? We booked the venue in August of 2020, by October I was at 165,000 points. Just enough to completely book the Hyatt Regency Spa and Casino in Palm Beach, Aruba 🙂
Oh and I am already back up to 90,000 points now with other purchases for the wedding and have already booked a weekend trip for free in Memphis.
Hyatt is such a large brand but, you can do the same thing with Hilton, Marriott, or IHG so don't think this will limit your options.
With that extra savings we splurged on our flights and entertainment for the honeymoon instead. Making sure the experience was amazing, from a restaurant in the water, jetskis, a sunset boat cruise, and seeing a lady miss out on her $11,000 jackpot at the casino.
But, if you want to learn more about that check out Episode 11 of the Harder Than It Looks Podcast on any of your streaming platforms and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
P.S. if you want a World of Hyatt card like yours truly, use this referral link (https://e.chase.com/T/v60000017be4657b68b18a70f4bbcf76f8/a4ac738633a74ca80000021ef3a0bcc2/a4ac7386-3 ) for even more points for you and I. All mentioned above is with no referral bonus on my end.
K Byeeee.
Comments