My April 16th wedding at Stewart Manor Country Club!!!
This was the most wonderful day of my life (so far) – we had perfect weather, everyone special to us was together to celebrate, and nothing went wrong. At times during the planning I wondered if we were crazy spending so much money on one day but I’m so glad we decided to have the big wedding, and wouldn’t have changed anything,
Photographer/Video – DUET A+
Duet was great – Hung and Woo showed up at my house as I was getting my makeup done, and got shots of us getting ready and some family pictures as well. Since we had a gap between the ceremony and cocktail hour, we finished all group pictures before the cocktail hour started so Ken and I were able to enjoy the entire cocktail hour. As far as I can remember, they got all the shots on the list I gave them. I’ll add to my review after I get the proofs.
DJ – High Voltage A
Vinny was our DJ, and he was wonderful to work with – we didn’t give him a long list of songs to play – we just wanted him to play whatever would get the crowd up and keep them dancing, and he did. So many people came up to me and said the music was great.
Dresses - Burton’s A
Once I knew what dress I wanted, I didn’t want to pay full price for it, if possible. I found it cheaper online (netbride and bridesave.com) but I didn’t know of a seamstress to do alterations, so I decided to go with a bridal shop. My dress came in right on time and the fittings were great. I think I saved about $300 from what the price was at Bridal Reflections. Since I got my dresses there, the bridesmaids got a 15% discount on their dresses.
Florist - Burton’s B
I also got my flowers through Burton’s. I didn’t need centerpieces, since they were provided by the hall, so we got bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, 2 altar arrangements, and pew bows for the church. As I was getting ready the flowers arrived (about an hour early). Everything was there. I LOVED my bouquet!!! I got lavender roses (to match the BM dresses) and white stephanotis. I think I had about 3 dozen roses, which sounded like a lot at first, since I told them I didn’t want to the bouquet too big, but it was perfect. My bridesmaids had white and purple roses with a darker purple flower (can’t remember the name). The reason they got a B is because as I was pinning my Dad’s boutonniere on, the rose fell off (it was fixed though) and we had to get the flowers for the cake ourselves, since they wouldn’t deliver anything to the hall (because we didn’t get centerpieces through them).
Hair – Hair Genie (Jen) A+
I wasn’t sure how I wanted my hair at first, so when I went for a trial with Jen, I looked through an album she has of styles she’s done before. I love how my hair came out; the only thing is you can’t really see it through the veil in most of the pics. But I did take a few in the morning before Jen put the veil in. She also did a great job on the bridesmaids as well.
Makeup – Oksana A+
After reading reviews on LIWs, I booked a trial with Oksana and booked her for my day on the spot! She’s great, I told her that I wanted to look very natural since I don’t usually wear a lot of makeup. I was very happy with how my makeup came out, and it was fun having Jen and Oksana there in the morning as we were getting ready.
Limos - Royalty A+
Royalty was great. We only got one limo since the BP was fairly small. They were right on time picking up the guys. After they were dropped off at St Thomas, he came to my house and we had time for a few pictures in front of the limo before we had to leave for the church. We also got a ride to the airport the Monday after the wedding, the driver was early, and got us to JFK with plenty of time to spare.
Stewart Manor Country Club – A-
We visited a lot of halls, but I immediately loved SMCC. It has a different feel from most of the other halls we visited, and the manager, James, was so easy to work with. He was always around to answer the many, many questions I had. We got to the hall around 5 (an hour before the cocktail hour started) to take BP and some family pictures before the CH started, at the gazebo in the front. As we were finishing up, guests started arriving and we went inside and the rest of the evening flew by. James kept everything on schedule, and we had an amazing time.
If anyone has any questions about the vendors, feel free to FM me.
Photographer/Video – DUET A+
Duet was great – Hung and Woo showed up at my house as I was getting my makeup done, and got shots of us getting ready and some family pictures as well. Since we had a gap between the ceremony and cocktail hour, we finished all group pictures before the cocktail hour started so Ken and I were able to enjoy the entire cocktail hour. As far as I can remember, they got all the shots on the list I gave them. I’ll add to my review after I get the proofs.
DJ – High Voltage A
Vinny was our DJ, and he was wonderful to work with – we didn’t give him a long list of songs to play – we just wanted him to play whatever would get the crowd up and keep them dancing, and he did. So many people came up to me and said the music was great.
Dresses - Burton’s A
Once I knew what dress I wanted, I didn’t want to pay full price for it, if possible. I found it cheaper online (netbride and bridesave.com) but I didn’t know of a seamstress to do alterations, so I decided to go with a bridal shop. My dress came in right on time and the fittings were great. I think I saved about $300 from what the price was at Bridal Reflections. Since I got my dresses there, the bridesmaids got a 15% discount on their dresses.
Florist - Burton’s B
I also got my flowers through Burton’s. I didn’t need centerpieces, since they were provided by the hall, so we got bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, 2 altar arrangements, and pew bows for the church. As I was getting ready the flowers arrived (about an hour early). Everything was there. I LOVED my bouquet!!! I got lavender roses (to match the BM dresses) and white stephanotis. I think I had about 3 dozen roses, which sounded like a lot at first, since I told them I didn’t want to the bouquet too big, but it was perfect. My bridesmaids had white and purple roses with a darker purple flower (can’t remember the name). The reason they got a B is because as I was pinning my Dad’s boutonniere on, the rose fell off (it was fixed though) and we had to get the flowers for the cake ourselves, since they wouldn’t deliver anything to the hall (because we didn’t get centerpieces through them).
Hair – Hair Genie (Jen) A+
I wasn’t sure how I wanted my hair at first, so when I went for a trial with Jen, I looked through an album she has of styles she’s done before. I love how my hair came out; the only thing is you can’t really see it through the veil in most of the pics. But I did take a few in the morning before Jen put the veil in. She also did a great job on the bridesmaids as well.
Makeup – Oksana A+
After reading reviews on LIWs, I booked a trial with Oksana and booked her for my day on the spot! She’s great, I told her that I wanted to look very natural since I don’t usually wear a lot of makeup. I was very happy with how my makeup came out, and it was fun having Jen and Oksana there in the morning as we were getting ready.
Limos - Royalty A+
Royalty was great. We only got one limo since the BP was fairly small. They were right on time picking up the guys. After they were dropped off at St Thomas, he came to my house and we had time for a few pictures in front of the limo before we had to leave for the church. We also got a ride to the airport the Monday after the wedding, the driver was early, and got us to JFK with plenty of time to spare.
Stewart Manor Country Club – A-
We visited a lot of halls, but I immediately loved SMCC. It has a different feel from most of the other halls we visited, and the manager, James, was so easy to work with. He was always around to answer the many, many questions I had. We got to the hall around 5 (an hour before the cocktail hour started) to take BP and some family pictures before the CH started, at the gazebo in the front. As we were finishing up, guests started arriving and we went inside and the rest of the evening flew by. James kept everything on schedule, and we had an amazing time.
If anyone has any questions about the vendors, feel free to FM me.
