My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review! UPDATED w Patken pics

I’m still missing Maui but I’m back with my VERY long and very detailed review!!!!
We had a few minor bumps along the way but everything was nevertheless SO AMAZING and we had an absolute blast! we loved every minute of the day. the weather was gloomy in the morning but as soon as we got to the church it cleared up and turned out to be perfect weather.

Riviera – A+ - everything was so beautiful and they were couldn’t have been more accomodating and attentive! the food was great. Cocktail hour on the water was my favorite part of the whole night with calypso music and such beautiful weather. the matre’d george was awesome and so attentive but not annoyingly so.

St William the Abbott – B - OK the homily itself was beautiful and everyone else thought the priest was great, however, the vows were the wrong ones (!) and when we got to the rehearsal on thurs night, the church was dark (& hot) and nobody was to be found. When we went into the rectory the only person there (some teenager) informed us that they lost our wedding license (!). After many tears, a woman showed up and rehearsed with us anyway (we loved her bc she made us laugh through this unnecessary drama) and then finally the priest showed up (with quite a ‘tude I might add) and said the file was there all along. Moral of the story – even if you’re organized and want to give the license to the church early, don’t! oh yeah and I noticed a a completely dead bouquet of flowers right near to the unity candle (?!)

Body Rock – B – they would totally get an A+ bc when they were good they were amazing and everyone danced their butts off. only issue I had was that I think the DJ zoned out to another planet bc he played dance music during dinner (everybody including us danced through dinner and didn’t eat much which we actually thought was great!) but then he slowed it down after for viennese hour (?) – after I went over to him 3 times and told him to kick it up about 10 notches and that since this crowd danced through dinner it obviously wasnt a viennese crowd and he finally did and then it was great and he totally redeemed himself when he played our entrance song (our favorite!) as the last song and we got to dance to it which was a sweet way to end.

Patken – A – we loved Nick. he made us do some cheesy poses and some of them came out good but we mostly picked the photojournalistic stuff we had asked for. we barely knew he was there though which was good too!

Skylight Video – A+ – they did a photo montage for our rehearsal dinner which came out AMAZING. and robert was awesome and so unobstrusive we barely knew he was there!
the wedding video came out better than i ever imagined.

Flowers by Lorraine – A+ - She couldn’t have done a better job. Everything was SO fresh and beautiful and she created exactly what I envisioned.

Harborview Limo – A+ - the drivers were so cool and coordinated with the photographer to go take pics and they had GPS so we never had to direct them. The limos were nice and they were punctual and flexible. Chris made me nervous sometimes bc he was hard to reach, but he totally came through as he promised!

Michelle from Nouvelle – A+ - both my and my mom’s hair looked perfect!

Clarin Cohen – A- - my makeup stayed put all night and she was great bc me & my mom wanted totally different looks and she worked with us each and managed to create the perfect look for each of us. She’s also just a pleasant and sweet person to have with you on your wedding day. Only glitch - she told my mom the total amt for all the girls but the bms had already paid her so she got paid twice for 2 girls. She called that day when she realized and said she’d mail a check – 2 and a half weeks later and no check yet….

Millerridge Inn – A - the rehearsal dinner was a blast and I highly recommend doing it 2 days before so you can have fun and relax the next day! the service was great. they actually rushed through dinner a bit which bugged me but then I realized they did it bc they saw the kids needed to get home so then after they were bringing out BP shots to make sure we stayed and had fun while we still had the room!

Gaddis Design – A+ - my invites were my little obsession and they exceeded my expectations and are one of my favorite things about the wedding! I have gotten so many compliments and people telling me they have actually shown it around bc they were so unique and made such an impression. I worked w melissa to design them and she was so patient and posted a million different designs and colors until it was perfect. I highly recommend her!

Kleinfeld’s – B - they were great in helping me pick out the dress (I got it on my first shopping trip) and it came in on time and everyone was very nice. my only complaint is I wasn’t crazy about the alterations (I had janet as a seamstress). the dress was WAY too tight (if anything I actually lost weight after the last fitting). I should have asked her to fix it but she assured me it was supposed to be like that and i was so uncomfortable all day that I had to keep going into the suite and unzipping for a breather. I also don’t think the bustle went to the right place (too long) so we couldn’t finish our big choreographed first dance bc DH & I were tripping over it (we still danced just not how we practiced for all those months – we actually thought that was kind of funny though)

Jenny Yoo – A+ - the BM dresses were gorgeous & came in very early; it wasn’t like every other bridal salon I’d been too where it was chaotic bc she just has a studio in chelsea where we were treated like gold and allowed to browse without a crowd and with jenny herself. her dresses are unique, simple and classy and all the BMs just loved them!

After Hours – B – I had very low expectations based on things I had heard & although we had several issues, all were corrected and the guys looked so great. I was kind of annoyed bc we ordered 11 tuxes and they gave us not one discount and were originally charging the same price as the guys for the ringbearers which was absurd to me and they advertise a ringbearer special (they did give us the reduced price we just had to pick a different tux for the boys). my brother had ordered from a different store which caused some confusion and my DH spent a whole day on the phone trying to find his tux bc it was the order was supposed to have been faxed over and was misplaced. then at pickup 5 of the tuxes had issues (size, vest etc) but since pickup was 2 days before they were able to fix everything by Friday so everybody looked perfect on sat.

Hawaii – A++++++++++++- what can say? its paradise! we never wanted to leave! it was quite an eventful trip.
(As a side note: Liberty Travel on 3rd/81st in NYC gets a big fat D – gave us no opinions on anything – we had to research it all ourselves and then convinced us to book excursions through them saying they’d book up yet they called us the week of the wedding to say they couldn’t get the dates we picked for them (um yeah the trip was paid in full in Jan and they didn’t even book the excursions til that week?!) and stressed us out bc we picked those dates for a reason. Ironically this actually turned out better bc we got to go to the old lahaina luau the second day which was a nice introduction and we would have been too tired to bike down haleakala the very first night we got there (both of those were great!))
anyway the trip was beyond amazing! we stayed at the fairmont kea lani in maui which was the most amazing resort ever (we also liked grand wailea and the four seasons but we loved the kea lani the best!). the food is beyond great everywhere we went and everything just smells so nice in maui. then we went to oahu where we were to spend 6 days – well let me just save someone else time & money by saying DO NOT GO! even if its booked you can change it ahead of time which we wanted to do after we heard bad things but thought we couldn’t. we did not like it at all. we were at the mandarin oriental which was actually like rock star nice and not in the middle of the city but after coming from the kea lani where it was more casual & mellow this just seemed a stuffy & hectic. we just couldn’t stop missing maui and after moping around (for a whopping 2 hrs!) we decided to go back. we went out that night into waikiki to have a better basis before we spent all the $ to change the trip but I was actually very frightened of all the people on the street (which is weird since I live in the city but that’s how crazy it was!) and kids saying things to us and we saw fistfights….yuck. we thought we wanted nightlife which is why we picked it but it was not at all what you want on your honeymoon….SO…. we set the alarm for 4am to call the travel agent when they opened and a few hrs later we were on a plane back. (that was the only part that our travel agent really came through but I think they overcharged us and im still waiting for an itemized bill). anyway maui is paradise and even 2 wks wasn’t enough time there. and bonus - Britney Spears and Jason from General Hospital were both staying at the hotel with us and brit and the fiancee posed for a pic for me on the beach!

hope this helps you in your planning! im SO happy to be married now and getting back to normal with some great pictures and memories! im attaching some pics…
Amateur Pics

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review! (ETA a few pics)

some techincal difficulties with the pics...
for some reason i could only get these 2 to post. lets see if it works...
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAOGThs4bNWzgo

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Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Congrats! Seems like you really enjoyed everything...Now it is time to get use to being a married woman!!

Can't wait to see pics!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Hi! Thanks for the review. It sounds like you had a beautiful wedding!!!

DH and I checked into the Fairmont on July 4th. We loved it also! Maui was great but we actually preferred Kauai :)

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Congratulations!


I'm getting married at St. Williams too, I definately will not give them anything early! Who was your priest?

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

You look gorgeous!!!
Great review - thanks for the honesty

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

congrats...

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

I was Allison's MOH and I have to say it was the best wedding I have ever gone to! Everything went perfectly and she was a very calm bride and she and Mark thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did their guests! I for one definitely did!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

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Posted by jen22

I was Allison's MOH and I have to say it was the best wedding I have ever gone to! Everything went perfectly and she was a very calm bride and she and Mark thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did their guests! I for one definitely did!

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awww thanks jen...

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

you looked great congrats

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Congrats!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Congrats! You looked beautiful!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Sounds like a great day!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Do you have any pics of the centerpeices? I'm getting the ones that come with the package. Thanks...

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

I actually upgraded the CPs. I'll try to scan & post a pic soon...

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Beautiful! Sounds like a wonderful time! congrats!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

just wanted to add I liked your pics...

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

congrats- great pics!
Your dress is GORGEOUS!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Great review! Congrats on your day!

Re: My 6/26 Riviera Wedding Review!

Congrats!!! I got married at the Riviera also they are fantastic there!!! I used Flowers by Lorriane she is excellant and we had our rehearsal dinner at the Milleridge also... How funny is that