My late 11/6/04 review

Our wedding day was definitely the best day of my life. Everything was what I always hoped it would be. Thankfully all the mishaps were prior to the wedding as you’ll read in this review.

Rehearsal Dinner: Majors Steakhouse in Woodbury
We had the room upstairs (thankfully with my rowdy bunch). The food and service were great. They were very patient with us.

Invitations:
We ordered them from Party City in Staten Island. The employees there neglected to call us when the proof and then the actual invitations came in.

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Shoes: Parade
Good shoes, I brought 3 pairs of slippers with me to the reception but kept the comfortable shoes on all night.


Bra: Georgette’s
These were the nicest women ever. They so did not try to squish me too much. My MOH loved them as well.

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Tiara/Veil: Tri-County
Prices were good and the ladies were very nice and accommodating.

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Dress: Lestan’s
I actually had pretty good experiences there. Of course they were very helpful in getting me to purchase a gown, and they were pretty helpful at the fittings. The seamstress Josephine was really nice and I loved how my dress fit.

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BM Dresses: Alyssa’s in Brooklyn:
I can’t like it there. The saleswoman was great to help find a dress but didn’t want much to do with us after the dresses were ordered. After the dresses came in, one BM showed up to the dead store at 2pm on a Thursday (with me) & was asked if she had an appt, she said no & was huffed & puffed at. After getting a lecture on how she really needs to make an appt, a nicer person there said “we’re really not busy, I’ll get someone”. Well duh, we were the only two girls in there with at least 5 salespeople just talking amongst themselves. Then my BM was told she had to pay $15.00 to try the dress on. We were not made aware of this when we ordered the dresses. When I asked why they said, for the seamstress’ time & then they’ll deduct it off the cost of the alterations. I really didn’t like the way they handled things so I demanded the dress & we took it to get altered elsewhere. My MOH got pissed at them over the phone for some attitude they gave her & got her dress altered with the BM. In fairness, the dresses were reasonably priced & the two BM who got their dresses altered there, seemed to be happy.

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Tuxes: Dante Zeller and Men’s Wearhouse
Dante Zeller on Kings Highway in Brooklyn:
I’m pretty sure things went OK except for when my brother needed a bigger jacket size, he went back to get it, they gave him the tux and after he’d been home for a few hours, they call and say “You have the wrong tux”. My brother didn’t realize it because he said “they all look the same”. Well, they ended up sending someone to the house to exchange the tuxes.
Men’s Wearhouse in Midtown:
My husband said they were great. They fitted him nicely, even added an extra panel in his vest for comfort. He looked so handsome.

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Rings:
We got them from Dennis J. Dalton in the Bowery (both white gold princess channel set). Dennis and his girls are always helpful. We usually visit them around Christmas.

Hotel: Sheraton
They were good at blocking the rooms. They were not so good when we wanted to purchase gift certificates as BP gifts. They had none in stock and were vague as to when they would get them in again. After some harassment, we did finally get them. They also could not handle the fact that there were (I think) 3 other weddings with rooms booked there and we all had OOT bags to be distributed. My FIL who knew about them was told they weren’t for him!!!! Are they insane? They finally gave up some and as some of my guests were checking out they had some “extras” and gave them out. Oh yea, the fire alarms went off as the BP & I were taking pics in the suite, & they asked us to evacuate. Strangely no one in my room budged, my MOH then called the front desk frantically & said “we’re taking wedding pics, is this for real?” & they said we think its nothing so you can stay. We stayed, nothing happened & then a few minutes later, they made an announcement that it was a false alarm. (When I asked my husband what he did when the alarms sounded, he said “nothing, I was afraid no one would be able to find me to take me to the chapel if I left”. I love him!!)

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Hair / makeup: Michelle from Cactus Salon
I totally hated my trial (she did exactly what I asked but I didn’t like it). So the day of when she whipped out the pics to recreate it I said no and changed everything. I loved my hair and makeup for the day of. She is so sweet and patient. My hair stayed perfect all night and I was impressed that the makeup lasted almost to the end too. (I’m sure I cried some of it off). The BP, my mom, godmother, and friend had their hair done with other people there and they all seemed to love their hair too.

Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Ceremony: Historical Chapel
The day of our wedding things ran smoothly.
Prior to the wedding, things were not so good. When we all showed up for the rehearsal, tacky guy (I think his name was Allen) said “nothing was scheduled, what are you guys doing here”. (Why are you asking us what happened? Do you think we all plotted against you to make you look unprepared?) My husband went over his whole conversation with who he thinks was actually tacky guy, so the guy finally says ”well I guess we should do it since everyone’s here”. (Ya think?) So instead of getting my rowdy bunch’s attention, he just keeps talking low to us to tell us how the wedding will go. I interrupted him & lined everyone up. He let us just hang in the middle of the aisle & kept talking and saying, “sorry, I didn’t know you were coming”. I told him I wanted all of us to really practice it so he finally says “Ok, I’ll open the doors how it will be the day of”. (Well thank you so very much.) After the first run was a little messy, I asked if we could do it again. He agreed and mumbled something to my husband. Now, the rehearsal is over & he starts telling us how he shouldn’t even have been in that night because he just became a grandfather recently. (I wish he didn’t come in). Then he pulled my husband to the side. He told him how surprised he was to see us & he usually prepares something for a rehearsal and that he usually gets taken care of. We paid $50.00 for this rehearsal & now he was soliciting a tip after he did nothing except talk and open the doors. (We did everything, where was our tip?) He also mentioned how much unexpected time this took out of his night and all the work he could have been doing. He then must have noticed our group staring at him and asked me and my husband to come downstairs for a minute. (Coachman Limos is underneath the chapel so you can read the rest of this guy’s tacky behavior under there).

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Limos: Coachman and Royalty
Coachman:
The day of we had a 6 passenger for me, mom & dad and a limobus for the BP, parents etc. to get to the chapel. They both arrived clean and on time. The limobus which had some sodas and 1 bottle of champagne then took us & the BP for pics at the arboretum, then stopped at the Sheraton to pick up parents, spouses etc. to go to the CH. The driver told us this stop wasn’t on his list & even though we rented the limobus ALL night it wasn’t required of him but he’d do it anyway. Well how nice of you.

They also sent the town car on Monday to take us to JFK which was on time and the driver was really cool. He made fun of me when I cried about leaving my dog for a month as I was getting in the car (I really needed a good laugh at myself).

Back to tacky guy, he gets us downstairs and reviews our day (limo & bus times). He tells us that John (the guy we booked with who was really nice but wasn’t there that night), didn’t schedule enough time for the limobus to arrive with my husband at the chapel before my limo with my parents would have. He tells us we should have the limobus come an extra half hour early. As he’s trying to gage our reaction I pinched my husband and gave a blank stare. He then gives a few reasons why, I didn’t believe him, so still the blank stare. He then excuses himself for a moment so I clenched my teeth & said to my husband, “I am not paying for any extra time so if he asks for more money tell him to leave the times alone”. Tacky guy came back and says he’ll make sure the limobus driver is at the reception a half hour earlier too. (Were we going to leave our wedding early? I think not.) Then he kept looking at us and finally says, “so I’m giving you an extra hour free but make sure you take care of us, the driver”. And YES, that’s EXACTLY how he said it!! We said thanks, I stood up to leave and he comes and stands in front us, very weird moment, I guess he was waiting for his tip that he wasn’t getting. We say goodbye & then he says he’ll walk us upstairs. We get upstairs & he starts telling us how nice our day will be & he probably won’t be there because he’s babysitting. He talked for a few minutes and I’m giving my husband all sorts of looks so hubby finally says “OK we have to get to our RD now”. Tacky guy stumbles for words and then says” ya know what, I will come the day of your wedding to help direct the parking lot and make sure that everything goes OK”. We said “Ok see ya then” and practically ran to our car to get away from him. When we got home after the RD my husband told me that tacky guy asked for a tip a few different ways but he didn’t want to piss me off by telling me and making me possibly think of that on our wedding day. BTW, I’m sorry that I am not positive on tacky guy’s name and am complaining about him but if you need further details about him FM me.



Royalty:
We rented a limobus to take our hotel guests to and from the reception. It was on time and clean. Manny gave us a good price at the last minute when Coachman wouldn’t honor the same price as the original limobus we booked from them. The only bad thing was the driver did not wait for as many people as he should have going back to the hotel so the Coachman limobus that was taking us & our immediate family back to the hotel was a wee bit overcrowded for my taste. The driver didn’t even wait around for two minutes “to say goodnight”.

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Photographer: Steve from Patken
He certainly lived up to his reputation. We loved him. He was by far our favorite vendor. He was patient with a rowdy BP, got all the shots we requested (even the ones where he had to chase after my FG and dog). We love our proofs which came in an album and were ready within 2 weeks.


Videographer: Robert from Express it Video
We have not received our video yet but the day of, him and his helper David were unbelievable. They were always fixing and picking up my 96” train, helping out the photographer (lighting, carrying equipment), directing people and really doing everything to help the day run smooth.

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DJ: Nick from Dash of Class
Nick before the wedding was perfect. The day of there were a few mistakes but we really enjoyed ourselves. We also had them tape some of the ceremony to be played at the reception. I loved seeing it because of course even though I know I said my vows, I couldn’t really remember the ceremony. He played what we wanted and the DVD that we just watched had the photo montage they played at the reception as well as the digital photos one of their guys was taking all night. He got a lot of great shots that the photographer just wouldn’t have been able to cover.

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Chocolate Fountain: Audrey’s
Yummmm! It was a big hit. It didn’t splatter anywhere and he set it up in a corner of the room so the line wasn’t in the way.

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Favors:
We made CDs and had bags of peanuts with a sticker on them that said:
Nicole and Michael
Nuts for each other

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Reception: Larkfield Manor
The whole staff was really great to us, from the top down prior to the wedding and the day of. They catered to us and our families and that’s all we wanted. They even packed us meals, treats from the chocolate fountain, and every last thing that we brought there and wanted back!

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Honeymoon: Australia for almost 3 weeks and then the Bellagio Suite!!
We loved our honeymoon!!!! Feel free to FM if you need details.


Thank you to this site and all who participate. Your advice, rants and raves were truly helpful in planning.
Special thanks to all the 11/5,6,7 girls, what a nice bunch of people!!

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Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Wow what a great review. I know excatly who you are talking about at Coachman - he is the reason we did not book them.

Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Beautiful pics and great review!

Re: My late 11/6/04 review

Congrats!!