The Brides' Review - July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

duke Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:26 PM+

duke MEMBER SINCE: 4/04 TOTAL POSTS : 60 WEDDING DATE: Jul 24, 2005

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:26 PM

July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

I hardly ever post but I have gotten a lot of help from reading other reviews so I would like to tell you about my vendors. In all, my wedding was perfect for me and it was everything I had pictured in my head. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
All of my vendors were amazing with the exception of one of them.

Dress- netbride.com- excellent
I ordered a Marisa gown, and while still expensive on netbride, I saved about $300 from the price that it was from the salon in LI that I tried it on. This $$ paid for the alterations that I needed so in all I came out even to what the store would have charged. It came early and was in perfect condition.

Alterations- Menekshe Boutique- Hewlett- AWFUL
I would never recommend this place. I had stress every time I went there which was only 3 times. The owner of the boutique is rude, abrasive and always in a rush. The first time I put on the gown and told them I wanted the top as tight as it could be. I had on the stick on boobs because my back was too low for a bra. The top was just not fitting correctly but they pulled it pretty tight. I told them to please cut the crinoline it was scratching my feet and to make a French bustle. That was all I needed the hem was actually perfect. Meanwhile the actual seamstress was very nice but didn’t really speak because the owner was so overpowering. Anyhow I go back 2 weeks later to try it on again. Well I get there and its in the bag and she says here its ready. I said no way am I leaving this store without putting it on again! Well thankfully I did because nothing except the top was done!!!!!! I said hello- you didn’t cut the crinoline nor make a bustle! And the top still wasn’t as tight as I wanted. She then decides to tell me its because I didn’t have on my shoes last time. I said 100% I had them on. Anyhow then she decides to tell me that my stick on boobs are bad and I should have cups sewn in. I completely agreed but why couldn’t she tell me this in the first place? So she mysteriously find cups in the back that “belong to someone else” but she will sew them in but my mom had to buy new ones from somewhere to replace these! Finally she rushed us out again and made a date for the last time. I go back and finally its done. The top in my opinion still could have been tighter but the seamstress really did an excellent job. I loved my bustle. She made a double French. But once again I had it on my body for maybe 5 minutes before the owner rushed us out again. Ever in my life will I go there again but I hope the seamstress goes to another place because she is very good.

Headpiece- RK Bridal
Excellent place to look because since they have so many dresses there you can put the headpiece up to the dress to see if it matches, which is what I did!

Shoes- Sandy’s Shoes- Massapequa - Excellent selection

Bridesmaid Dresses- RK Bridal No Frills Program- Excellent
My bridesmaids got a Jim Hjelm tea length dress in baby blue and this way I saved them a lot of money from the original price. It was so easy too because I saved them the hassle of having to go to a salon to get measured and to go back and pick it up. The dresses were ready early and I picked them up from the store and delivered them to my bridesmaids. They all got their alterations done at their leisure at their own place and they looked perfect.

Airbrush Tanning- Le Donne Bronze- Uniondale- Excellent
This was so fun for me! I will be completely honest at first I thought I was getting scammed. I found this place on line and went with my husband. We get to a random building in Uniondale and the security guy had no clue about this place. So I call the number and she said to come to the 4th floor she would be out in 10 minutes. At the floor there is no one around, locked doors and no signs. I was about to leave thinking I’ve been scammed when finally the girl came out to get us. It turns out she has a little room on the floor. It was legit! Anyhow I didn’t have a “trial” so I was nervous. But it worked out perfectly. I had it done on Thursday night for a Sunday wedding. I was DARK! But by Sunday it was a perfect color and it hardly came off on the inside of my gown. It was well worth it. I think it was about $50.

Hair – Tarale- Amazing!!
I had a trial months ago where she curled it and put the bangs back like Carmen Electra. I was never in love with how it looked but I absolutely loved Tarale. Well she did my hair again at my MOH’s wedding (eogara) and I LOVED it. She did the same curls and pulled the sides back. I decided this was how I wanted it for my wedding. I emailed this to her and she said no problem just bring pictures the day of. The morning of my wedding Tarale showed up at 4AM (her decision) and was perfectly on time. She did my hair and 2 of my bridesmaids and they were all amazing. She is just so funny and such a pleasure to be around it was a great start to my wedding day. It was the first time I liked my hair when it was done without my makeup on yet!

Makeup- Denise from Angel Eyes- Amazing
Denise is fantastic to be around as well on your wedding day. She came perfectly on time as well and did me, my mom and 2 bridesmaids. My make up stayed on perfectly in the hot sun and never moved. I got many compliments on my makeup.

Tuxes- Tuxedo Park- Carle Place- Excellent
No complaints at all from the guys. They all fit and were nice to deal with. They actually called me to tell me that two of the guys hadn’t called in their measurements yet.

Aisle Runner- Made by E- Great
I loved my aisle runner and working with Erin was very easy. However I don’t know if anyone even noticed that I had it! I had the monogram in the front and people in the back of my ceremony probably never saw it! If I could do it again I would have the monogram bigger and in the middle, but none the less I love it and was happy I had it.

Flowers- Flower Michele- Amazing!!
What can I say about John which has not been said before. He was absolutely my husband and I’s favorite vendor throughout the whole planning process. He is so relaxed and has great ideas and is honest. I came in with a vision of sunflowers and we changed it to a blue and white vision with sunflowers at the ceremony and cocktail hour. My bouquet was perfect. It was blue and white hydrangea, blue delphinium, white roses and stephanotis. The girls had more white than blue and I had more blue than white. There was supposed to be bunches of blue flowers with sunflowers on the arch but John was smart enough to know that my arch was crappy and by putting more flowers on it was going to make it fall over! My centerpieces were awesome!!! High alternating heights bases with blue and white hydrangea and white roses. John attached matching ribbon on the bases and glued sea shells on them. Then he placed huge starfish at the bases and sprinkled other sea shells around it. It was a perfect beach themed idea. I loved everything about my flowers.

Officiant- Captain Arnold- Very Good
I only met with Captain Arnold once before the wedding and it became clear that he spoke a lot and didn’t really ask us any questions. We knew the ceremony was not going to personalized and my husband did not want to write his own words. We are different religions and at the same time no religion so we wanted a non denominational ceremony and thought Capt Arnold was perfect for that. Plus we thought it was cute that he was a sea captain and we were on the beach. We chose to do a sand ceremony which was very nice and everything was going along perfectly. I loved our vows and exchange of rings. But at the end he tells us to bow our heads as he performs a benediction and keeps using the word God. We didn’t know what was happening! We didn’t want any mention of that in our ceremony but I blame it on ourselves because in our meeting he did mention he only says the word God once in his benediction- and us both being very non religious- didn’t know what a benediction was so we said ok!! Anyhow all in all it was a great ceremony and I recommend Captain Arnold highly.

Photo and Video- Duet- AMAZING!!!!!!!
I smile to this day when I think of Jay and his team!!!!!!!!!!! I am still getting compliments on how awesome they were!! They were on time to see me getting dressed in my hotel room and then left to go to the Crescent to get my husband and some groomsmen shots. They set up a beautiful first moment and were on from the minute we started. We took all family shots and a million bridal party shots all so quickly. They took a million pictures of us on the beach and we had a BEAUTIFUL day. Everything was going so smoothly. They took such creative pictures and were so energetic and so much fun to be around. I have zero complaints and I don’t even care what my proofs look like at this point I know they will be amazing because these guys work hard and are awesome!!!

Band- Ceremony and Cocktail Hour- Andre Philips- Steel Drum Band-Amazing!
I wanted so badly to have a steel drum play the processional and cocktail hour. I just found it to be so fitting for a day wedding on the beach. It was perfect. They did an excellent job. They are not the best to stay in contact with but I was told they always come through. They work at the Crescent anyhow on Sundays so I was pretty confident they would show up! It was a great touch.

East Coast Band- Reception- AMAZING!!
This band can play! I will admit at first I was not thrilled with the songs they were playing even though they sounded amazing. I went up to the singer and told her and she had something mixed up with my play list suggestions and from that moment on they played exactly what I wanted. They had to learn our first dance song because its by Clay Aiken called The Way and no one has ever heard of it! But I couldn’t believe how amazing they played it. The male lead singer gets on the dance floor and gets everyone moving and the lady singer is amazing as well. I dealt with John through email and phone a lot and he never put me at ease because they don’t have an office that they work out of but it all came together perfectly. If you have never heard of East Coast check them out they are not expensive and have the greatest sound. They are able to play modern stuff and hip hop as well as rock and oldies. They rocked!

Crescent Beach Club- The Best Place Ever!!!
My husband wanted to elope on a beach and I wanted a wedding so the Crescent was our compromise. It was the second place we saw and when we left we never went anywhere else to look. It was perfect in every way for us. We had a morning 11:30 ceremony which I had always wanted a night wedding but in all honesty the sun and the beach and the pictures would have lost its effect if it was night. We dealt with Bill, Kathy, Denise the whole way and they were never anything less than perfect to deal with. My bridal attendant that day was Campbell and she was a lifesaver. Anything I needed she was always there. From every detail they were on top of everything. Someone must have told her that I like Iced Coffee because all of a sudden I had one waiting for me during pictures and another one waiting for me with dessert! After the ceremony they take the bride and groom into the bridal suite (which is huge and fabulous) and gave us every single item to eat from cocktail hour. They also served our main course first and gave us all the choices. The food was wonderful. We had the choices of filet mignon with shrimp, Chicken in lemon beurre Blanc Sauce and potato crusted salmon. I heard great things about each choice. Our cake was beautiful! We chose the seashell cake, white cake with cannoli filling-yummmmm. Kathy really knows how to move a party along and it was just such a wonderful experience at the Crescent. Crescent Brides you have nothing to worry about in terms of your party running smoothly. My words of advice for Crescent Brides who are taking pics on the beach is to buy white flip flops. You can’t wear your shoes on the sand so I was barefoot for the pics (you can’t see the feet) but the sand by the water is rocky and it started to hurt my feet. My husband and groomsmen wore black flip flops with their tuxes which was such a cute look that worked so well and hopefully kept them a little cooler.

Any questions at all you can FM me with!!

ckgmwedding Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:32 PM+

ckgmwedding MEMBER SINCE: 6/04 TOTAL POSTS : 4818 WEDDING DATE: Jul 16, 2005

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:32 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

Everything looks perfect! You look gorgeous! I love your hair!

Mrs.A2006 Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:49 PM+

Mrs.A2006 MEMBER SINCE: 7/05 TOTAL POSTS : 980 WEDDING DATE: Jul 03, 2006

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:49 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

Congrats

I love your flowers they were beautiful!

KarAnthony Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:51 PM+

KarAnthony MEMBER SINCE: 6/05 TOTAL POSTS : 833 WEDDING DATE: Jul 03, 2006

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 08:51 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

Love your dress, hair, day, flowers!! Congrats!!!!

Aga Posted: Aug 10, 2005 09:09 PM+

Aga MEMBER SINCE: 6/04 TOTAL POSTS : 5455 WEDDING DATE: Sep 03, 2005

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 09:09 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

beautiful, everything looked perfect... congratulations

CalJoe0124 Posted: Aug 10, 2005 09:36 PM+

CalJoe0124 MEMBER SINCE: 4/05 TOTAL POSTS : 2308 WEDDING DATE: Oct 28, 2006

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 09:36 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

Your pics are beautiful and your dress is so pretty!!! Congrats!

cormar Posted: Aug 10, 2005 10:24 PM+

cormar MEMBER SINCE: 8/05 TOTAL POSTS : 152 WEDDING DATE: Oct 22, 2006

Posted: Aug 10, 2005 10:24 PM

Re: July 24, 2005 Crescent Beach Club

Everything seemed perfect. I am interested in going their to look for my wedding and you made all the more convinced. I love the bridesmaid dresses ( I actually recognized on of your bridesmaides) Thank you for all your suggestions. Can you email the info about the steel drum band. I would love to have that for cocktail hour. Where they expensive?