Wedding Reception Update–September 2011

I have been _STRESSING_ the past few months about the details of the wedding reception. Contractually, we are not allowed to enter the space until 3 pm on the day of the wedding. I called my sales rep, Emily, and explained and pleaded my very severe concern. She assured me that their operations team would be able to handle all of my rentals and details within a four our set up time.
I waited a month and still fretted.
Also, I have been looking at pictures of the JW Marriott’s dance floor at other weddings and I HATE IT. It is just terrible. When I looked at the space, again, I told Emily my distaste for it. She said there were no plans to get a new one. I do love the ballroom and I knew all I had to do was rent a dance floor for the event.
For two months I fretted.
I called Event Rental and was quoted a price for the dance floor… $900.00. I hated the dance floor so much I was willing to pay $900.00 to not have it in any of my pictures.
For three months I fretted…(I am not exaggerating. Ask Ashley or Doug.)
THEN, last week I scheduled a meeting with Mike, the Director of Events at the JW Marriott. We met Thursday (with Ashley and Cynthia in tow) and asked him a barrage of questions. We set up the room layout, discussed vendors, asked about hotel remodeling, and finally about the dance floor and set up time. He assured me they would have enough time to set up for my wedding reception. We continued to discuss the rentals I was planning on bringing in and all of the details I am putting together.  He excused himself from the conference room for  a moment to “check on something”…
we waited….for only 3 minutes…
He arrived back announcing that he had just changed my setup time to NOON!! Oh sweet relief. That was feasible. Set up for 7 hours is sooooo much better. I relaxed quite a bit here. This was my biggest concern and had me slightly regretting signing that contract without checking the start time, BUT no longer was I concerned. 
Then I breached the other big topic: the dance floor. I asked him if they were planning on buying a new dance floor. To my shock, he said he had just received approval to purchase a new dance floor. He stepped out of the room and brought back a dance floor magazine to show me the floor he was about to purchase. I did a little dance. No lie. Ask Ashley or Cynthia.  Let me repeat that, THEY ARE BUYING A NEW DANCE FLOOR so I don’t have to rent one. And I can spent that money on other fantastic things.
After all the high-fives, I left the JW with the weight of my concern lifted. I was and am SO EXCITED. My two big concerns were just fixed in a blink of an eye by Mike. I should have met with him months ago – and spared myself all the fretting.
That is my exciting update for now. We did discuss about 100 topics with Mike, but these were the two I did a little dance over. I will keep you updated as the planning progresses.
I want to send a special thank you to Ashley and Cynthia who came with me and asked all the questions I never thought to ask. They were amazing support and I am so glad they were there with me. You girls rock.
Love and Hugs, Lizzie