Wednesday Weekend Wind-Up: Jazmine's Wedding

My sister-in-law got married on Saturday; the wedding was in Valparaiso, IN, which is about a 4-hour drive for us.  It was at 2:00 PM, so we didn't have to leave crazy early. I drove the majority of the way there, and we did see a little bit of snow along the way!

Jazmine had a very traditional church wedding, which is the complete opposite of what mine and Francisco's was. We went the quick courthouse elopement route. ;-) We both couldn't help thinking how glad we were that we didn't go the traditional route, all things considered. Neither of us are overly religious, and some of the wording the preacher used was unsettling.

At least I had this handsome man as my date.

Jazmine seemed really happy, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. On one hand, I couldn't help wondering if she was too young to make this huge of a decision, but actually, she's the same age we were when we got married. At 6.5 months pregnant, she's obviously capable of making very adult decisions.

The cake was handmade by the groom's father, and he did a darn good job!

There was a buffet spread and some mingling before Jaz and Travis headed to Michigan for a small getaway.

Afterwards, we headed to Martha's house to hang out with the family for a little bit. Oh, and open Christmas presents - can you tell how long it's been since we've gotten together? ;)

We headed to the Hilton Garden Inn in Merrillville and had one of the worst hotel experiences ever. We got there around 9:00 PM, and we were very tired, so we asked for a quiet room. What we received couldn’t have been further from that. I popped in some ear plugs and tried to rest, but I kept hearing noise from next door that was disturbing me. I’m a sensitive sleeper, so I tried to just push this aside until I finally couldn’t take it anymore – I looked at the clock and it was 1:30 AM. I woke up my husband who can sleep through anything, and once he realized what was going on, he said that the noise had even been in his dreams. He got dressed and went to the room next door, knocked on the door, and politely asked if they could keep it down. Several minutes later, it was clear that they weren’t able to keep quiet. We called the front desk and asked if we could switch rooms. An employee came up to assess the situation, then knocked on our door and gave us a new key card and said there had been 5 complaints already about this room. At this point, we even asked if it were possible to just leave and get a refund, and she just said something about maybe we could get extra points instead? In any case, we decided to just give the room a chance, so at 2:00 AM, we quickly packed our stuff and walked down the hallway to crawl into a new bed there. We had to be up early to drive back to Ohio, so I didn’t get much sleep at all. At check-out, we shared our dissatisfaction, and some vague apologies were issued. I was immensely disappointed with how the experience was handled, and I would expect more from the Hilton brand. It shouldn’t have taken more than one complaint to address a guest disturbance, and I would expect more in the way of service recovery, especially given Hilton Garden Inn’s Satisfaction Promise: “We promise to do whatever it takes to ensure you're satisfied, or you don't pay. You can count on us. GUARANTEED™."

We had breakfast down the street at Jelly Pancake House before beginning the drive back to Ohio. I ordered the Eggs Florentine but ended up swapping dishes with my husband - the pancakes were delicious!

Eggs Florentine, Bananas Foster Pancakes, Hash Browns