AnniesSS
We're now homewoners!!!
Member since 1/05 3147 total posts
Wedding Date:
6/12/2005 11:30 AM
Wed. Location:
Beach Club Estate
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Our wedding review of Beach Club Estate, etc from June 12, 2005
Now, this is a bit long, but I felt that giving a review of every detail would help out others - as other reviews have helped me  I have a few pics in my community album, but will post my pro-pics upon receipt 
Long Island Weddings and all the Brides A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As I follow in other LIW bride’s footsteps, I want to thank everyone here for their continued help, support, guidance, influence and love! I really wouldn’t have had such a successful and personalized wedding had I not found this site. I have met some wonderful women here that I can call friends and hope to do so for a long time. Thank you all very much for everything!!!!!!! 
I really had such a fun and easy time planning my wedding. DH and I were on a rigorous schedule for the first 1-1½ months following our engagement on Christmas Eve ‘04, but it was necessary in order to have our wedding in the time frame we wanted - before moving the NC. All of the projects - cry packs, card/photo box, programs, menus, favors - were so fun and kept me busy and out of trouble for a few months. (Thank you honey for all of your help on these!!!) Now what am I going to do!?!? (Call me and I’ll be glad to help out with your projects!  )
On the day of my wedding, I was very calm (strange for me), but I really was looking forward to seeing my handsome fiancé - turned husband - and to having the time of our lives!! I felt so loved and cared for as I walked up the aisle that nothing could bring me down (and believe you me, my father tried - he had daggers in his eyes because I wouldn’t let him walk me down the aisle - but it just didn’t matter). I was so happy that all I could do was smile and laugh. The only time I cried a bit was when my sister/MOH and BIL/BM read the Hands poem to us. It really meant so much that they did that for us - very touching. DH and I spent every moment together from the time I met him up at the alter to the time we got into the town car to go to the hotel and I’m so glad we did. Another LIW bride recommended this and I’m so glad I listened to her, because we saw and did everything together and had an infinite number of photo ops the entire time.
During the reception, my friends from Canada and Indiana gave us a special gift - a pair of boxing gloves!!! DH and I laughed during the entire time we put on a show at the reception. Even the DJ had never seen anything like it and everyone gathered around us like it was a prize fight! It really was hysterical - what a way to celebrate the beginning of our lives together. 
I have written my review below and included many vendors who I purchased items thru from Ebay and other online stores. I hope you enjoy it and gain some help/information from my experiences:
Review of items received from Ebay vendors:
Bridal Images - Wedding gown & Petticoat
Great customer service. Dress is gorgeous and arrived 1 week before it was originally scheduled. The fit is perfect and is accurate to street clothes. The petticoat was not needed and she accepted the return without question.
Gen X Boutique - Tiara
Very pretty, exactly what I wanted - great price and quick shipping
veiledandbejeweled - Bridal Veil
Very pretty, it looked great, held up all night - great price and quick delivery.
Casa Di Mario - wedding slippers
Awesome selection of shoes and very nice people. Very quick return when I dropped the slippers off for dyeing.
Blum's - Bra
Not so great on getting the bra in from the manufacturer or the other store. Didn’t fit my dress well at all and no returns.
Diamond Roof - Sam E-ring and wedding bands
Sam was awesome! He came referred to me from another friend. He was very attentive and made our rings exactly how we wanted them. Very fast, great prices and great customer service from his girls also.
Roger’s Tuxedos
We dealt with Ray and he did a great job fitting DH, BIL and FIL. Very patient and a funny guy
questforfun - Shower Thank You cards
Very quick service, great communication beautiful cards.
babysworld0 - BUTTERFLY CAKE DECORATIONS
Very cute and life-like butterflies. They looked great on my cake. Quick delivery.
mdssdm - "YES DEAR" T-SHIRT
A little cranky when I tried ordering, but it arrived in decent time and is cute. DH laughed when he received it at our rehearsal dinner.
engravedgifts - Personalized Ribbon
Ribbons are good - not the best quality, but you get what you pay for and they did the job.
www.balloons-galore.net - Butterfly Shape Wedding Petals
Cute, but not perfect. Slow delivery.
efavormart - IVORY RIBBON ROSE
Very cute and easy to use - quick delivery
NetBride.com - MOH dress
Came in great condition.... size was listed as smaller then street clothes, but it fits good. Was scheduled to arrive end of April and in came in 4/4/05
mslynmill - Butterfly Hankie
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT ebayer!!! Very honest and a very nice woman. FM me for details.
Sweetheart Collectibles - Cake topper
Quick delivery and in excellent condition.
Other sites and purchases
FreeWeddingCameras.com Table cameras
Quick delivery and great price - In the process of being developed. The camera on our table didn’t work!
TheWeddingCoach.com Coffee scoops and butterfly table place card holders
Quick delivery, great customer service
Florida Monarch Butterfly Farm Butterflies
Dale is super nice and very willing to explain the entire process. The butterflies arrived in good shape and out of 30 butterflies, only 1 had a little difficulty getting going. Everyone LOVED watching them fly away.
EvesAddiction.com - Silver and pearl jewelry
Very nice products, great prices, quick delivery - but my pearl bracelet broke.
Walmart.com Personalized - pic frame
FAST FAST FAST delivery! Real nice frame.
Bridal Suite-Patchogue - MOB dress
A little slow to call back, but nice in person. My mother’s dress arrived and she hated it because the color was wrong and the size ordered was much too big. They took that dress back, gave us a full credit and a discount on a new dress off the rack.
Genwax.com - Centerpiece Candles
Very fast shipping and very nice candles. They melted very nicely and made no mess. The 6" candles had at least 4 ½ -5" left after being lit for 5 hours!
Vendors:
Hair and Make-up - Jen A++++++++++
I had many friends and family help me out for my wedding, but only because they are the best at what they do. My DH's best friend's wife is a hair dresser/make-up artist and she came to my house the morning of my wedding, did my hair, make-up and my mom's hair and make-up and she did an incredible job! We both looked great and at such an early time.
Seamstress - Rita A+++
I got a recommendation from another LIW bride about Rita. She is very local to me and I gave her a try. She was extremely nice and worked quickly to get my gown, my mom’s, sister’s and grandmother’s dress altered. She did a great job.
Rehearsal Dinner Cake - Stop & Shop A++++++++
I purchased this cake at the last minute - 3 days before the day before the wedding. I called up, asked the baker a couple questions, made my selections and it was ordered! The next day, we dropped off the picture I wanted for the cake and the saying and I picked it up on Saturday - it was delicious!!! Highly recommended!!!
Officiant - Joan Psotto A++++++++++++++++
I am biased, because Joan is my cousin, but I have never seen her perform a wedding ceremony before. We gave her an idea of what we wanted - a non-religious ceremony - a copy of the Hands of the Bride and Groom poem and the Butterfly Indian Legend and she incorporated it into the ceremony flawlessly. There were no flubs and it was written well within the ½ hour time-frame we had for the ceremony. Everyone commented on how nice the ceremony was - and not too long either! Highly recommended.
Photographer - Deanna DeMarco A++++++++++++
Again, I am biased here as Deanna and I kind of grew up together, but after seeing her wedding photography - and knowing that she was the lead photographer at VIP Studios, I knew she would be perfect for the job. She photographed our engagement/casual photos at Dowling College and was very attentive to everything... even making sure our clothes were in order and my hair out of my face! She is extremely sweet. On the morning of my wedding, she arrived and just started taking pictures of me and my mom and sister getting ready, of our bo-ks and shoes and even helped my sister put all the little loops on the buttons on the back of my dress! Again, HIGHLY recommended.
DJ - IV Generation A+++++++++++++++++
DH and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time researching DJ’s. We knew we wanted a company that would play our music we chose, would have fun with us and all of the special dances and such, but we didn’t want a high-energy company who would drag people onto the dance floor. (Sorry, I forget his name exactly, but I think it was Frankie - I’m sorry!!!) Anywho, he was really great and always smiling and having fun. When I was on my way to walk up the aisle, he shouted out to me and gave me a big smile and thumbs-up and believe it or not, that really helped me to calm down. He also had an assistant with him - which we didn’t know we would have more then 1 DJ (again, I don’t remember his name), but he was very cute and led me and everyone else on the dance floor to the Congo Slide - it was a blast!!!! They also played the music during the ceremony and cocktail hour and although I don’t really remember the music, no one had any complaints. The only problem I remember was that I had chosen the same song for our parents and for the MOH & BM to walk into, but they split them up, sent the parents in first, then my dog and his “date (my SIL)” and he had his own song (Who Let The Dogs Out?) But they never played music for my BIL/BM & my sister/MOH (which was the Austin Powers Theme), so they weren’t able to do their Austin poses. :( But that was my only complaint. DH and I walked in to Ozzy Osbourn’s Crazy Train and it really got the crowd going!!!!! All in all, a great job - highly recommended.
Florist - Sprigs & Twigs B+
OK, I first raved about the price with them, because they were inexpensive. But after receiving the flowers, I was a bit disappointed. But, I believe that was my fault for not really giving them accurate instructions. My bo-k and my MOH’s bo-k were very pretty and exactly what I wanted, but they were a bit on the small size. The swag over the arch was very pretty and huge, but had purple flowers in them - and all the other flowers were ivory and yellow. The centerpieces were a little sparse, but pretty. The corsages and bouteniers were perfect - no complaints there. The flowers were very healthy and lasted at least a week, so that was great. My biggest complaint.... instead of calling me to ask me a question about delivery and the size of the vases for the centerpieces, they asked my SIL (Now, they are a customer of hers and she sees them every week), but if I’m paying the bill and I’m the bride, why would you ask someone who’s not even in the wedding party about details??? This REALLY pissed me off. Then I find out that the day after the wedding, she again called my SIL to ask how everything was/went. Why the he!! would you ask her when she has all of my phone numbers and could have called and asked me?! Again, this also PISSED ME OFF - hence the B+ grade.
Limo - Mark of Elegance A
I have mixed emotions about them. First, they arrived on time to pick up DH and BM - but his mother held them up.... making me late to the wedding. But, the driver was very nice and the car was fairly clean (it had dirty rugs). We had a town car bring us from the hall to the hotel after the wedding and this is the part that really ticked me off. We paid a large sum of money for about 45 minutes worth of service. The tip from the morning driver was included in our contract, but the tip for the town car driver was not - and they “recommended” a $40+ tip. Now, the hotel was less then 5 miles from the hall, so we decided not to give $40 because, frankly, it’s really not worth it. So we gave less and the driver had the b@lls to ask my BIL/BM for more money!!!!!!! I was floored! But of course, I bit my tongue, allowed my BIL to give him more money and he drove us to the hotel. That was my biggest gripe - but what could I do at that point?
Ceremony & Reception - Beach Club Estate A+++++++++++
The main event!!! Everything really went smoothly and perfectly! Karen, our Matre’D was very nice and kept us on schedule as best as possible (she allowed us a little more time during the cocktail hour since the limo was late bringing me there) and Kara was our Bridal Attendant. She was also very nice, but turned into a waitress once the reception started - and we had trouble getting our own drinks refilled! But, the ceremony, was set up perfectly, everything was where I requested. I heard the cocktail hour was incredible!!!!!! Unfortunately, I only have a few pics (so far) of the area and some food. Everyone raved about the food - but we took pictures during this time, so we saw or ate nothing.
The reception was also delicious. But a couple complaints.... DH and I wanted a couple of pictures inside and when I walked in, I saw our cake sitting behind our table. It was ugly and the items I provided for the cake (flowers and butterfly decorations) were sitting next to it and not in the cake. The baker drew a butterfly on the side of the cake and that’s what ruined it for me. But, Karen was right there to fix it up according to my instructions and it was 100% better. On the plus side - IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!!! Everyone raved about the taste of it, but no one was able to have seconds! There was just enough to feed our guests and many were disappointed. The appetizer, salad and main courses were so yummy!! We had stuffed flounder, filet mignon, spinach ravioli and chicken champagne. You were also able to have a sampler plate of each. They also offered seconds to us and our guests, which was a very nice touch. We also had the mini-Viennese, which was supposed to be a small tray of pastries left on each table, but instead they passed them around, which really disappointed us. DH made sure ours was left on our table, but not everyone else had that option (prolly because they didn’t ask).
Now, all of my complaints were details that I requested/paid for, but were not noticeable to anyone else, so that was ok by me. One thing everyone did notice was that on that very hot afternoon, the AC wasn’t working well at all.  I felt like I just walked in from swimming in Lake Ronkonkoma because I was sweating so bad. I felt very dirty and yucky. The staff at BCE did a very fine job and we are very happy we had our wedding held there. We definitely will recommend them - but make sure the AC works
Hotel - Courtyard Marriot A+++++++++++++++++
I worked with Susan to get all of our rooms straitened out and she was very nice, sweet and attentive. Many of our guests booked late, but she still gave them our group rate - which was wonderful. We arrived there after the reception Sunday night and checked into a nice clean room. Some guests had been there since Thursday or Friday and were very pleased with the accommodations. Now, some of my friends are real wise-guys and prior to our arrival, they decided to leave us a little “welcoming present” in our rooms - only they got the room key to DH’s uncle’s room instead!!!!!!! Let me tell you, I laughed so hard when I heard this. Luckily, DH’s uncle is a very good sport and just laughed along with them. Our friends called housekeeping and they sent up a couple woman to help them clean up the mess they made. We spent a few hours later on by the pool and on the patio and had drinks and pizza brought in. It was very nice. BUT, we didn’t realize they were taking turns going up to our real room and when we got up there later that night, we found our surprise waiting for us. Again, we called housekeeping and they came and cleaned up a bit - no questions asked. Lastly, I would definitely recommend going to this Marriot on the Service Rd of the LIE in Ronkonkoma.
Message edited 6/19/2005 10:33:32 PM.
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