August 31, 2003 Oheka Wedding Review

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has answered my questions, provided wonderful ideas, and who posted their own vendor reviews, which were essential to my planning experience. To express my thanks to you all, I leave you with my own reviews:

Bridal Reflections, Carle Place
Grade: A-

I've heard mixed things about Bridal Reflections in Carle Place, but had no problems with them whatsoever. They redid my neckline of the dress until I was happy with it, and I loved the alterations. The dress came in on time and without a hitch.

RK Bridal
Grade: B+
For the bridesmaids, we used RK Bridal and the no frills option. Again, the dresses came in on time. One of the bridesmaids dresses was WAY too big, but I think that was a problem with the Jim Hjelm chart, rather than the dress itself.

Flower Michelle, Huntington
Grade: A
John was a pleasure to work with, and even though we had an extremely limited budget, he made it go far. He was willing to be creative when I resisted every traditional flower arrangement, and it was he who finally came up with the idea of different exotic orchid plants for each table. Exactly the architectural design I was looking for. And the arrangements were lovely.

Royalty Limo:
Grade: B

This grade may be a bit unfair. We had a limo to take the groomsman to the reception site, and that ride was fine -- the limo was prompt, clean, and the driver professional. We also hired a small shuttle bus from them for our guests to return to the city. The first pick-up was supposed to be at 11:30 pm and the second at 1:30. The 11:30 bus was on time, but then sat obscured by a delivery van in the parking lot. The guests came out, milled around the door, then headed back into the reception after 15 minutes, assuming that the bus never came. It took another 15 minutes to round them up once we figured out what had happened. It was a stupid hassle, and needn't have happened if the driver had just stood by the door to tell people where the bus was parked.

DJ Spin Around Sound
Grade: A
Tom White was FANTASTIC. I gave him a playlist of mostly 80s music, and he played exactly what I wanted. Gave the first hour of the reception a total club atmosphere. He was not cheesy, talked enough to keep the reception flowing and nothing more, and also managed to find some Hindi music for the Indian half of the reception, which was much fun.

The one thing about the amazing dessert buffet at Oheka -- everyone goes into the other room (which is where they set it up) and only a few people ever return to the main room. If you really want to end with a final 45 minutes of dancing, it's better at Oheka to do the plated desserts. Less selection, but it keeps people in the room. We left for about 30 minutes, but then I realized that the dance floor was dead, so my bridesmaids and I went back for a final 30 minutes of wild dancing (this was when he mixed in some Indian with the 80s). About 10 of our friends joined us, so we had a great time, but almost the entire rest of the party was happening in the dessert room.

By that time, it was actually past midnight -- and we were only supposed to have the dj from 8 until 12, followed by the jazz hour. But Tom kept playing, despite a few dirty looks from the maitre'd, until about 12:20. I was very happy, as this was my only wild dancing time during the entire night. Girls, fight your way onto the dance floor, and if someone tries to talk with you, just drag them with you! Fight to enjoy every moment - you can't get those moments back!

Photographer Gabriel from Bill Fredericks
Grade: ?
I haven't got back the proofs yet, so it's hard to say. What I can tell you is that I loved Gabriel's artsy style. He really is more of an artist than a wedding photographer. Our engagement photos were amazing, and the wedding party kept coming up to me in amazement at the shots he was capturing. He did interesting framing angles through windows or reflections off the water, he grouped people in interesting ways -- I'm very excited to see what the proofs look like.

That said, he's not a people person. He's not going to be a warm and fuzzy presence on your wedding day. That's not to say he's unpleasant -- he's a perfectly nice guy. He's just much more interested in the photography than in YOU, and so he's not going to chat with you, or tell you you look great, or do any hand-holding. I don't think he remembered my name once the entire evening, and the only time he ever got excited was when the light changed in a particular way. That said, I wanted someone who loved photography, and takes beautiful pictures, and that is definitely him. So another high recommendation.

Video by Wedding Reels
Grade ?
This was my cheap, last-minute choice, and I'm infintely glad we got the video despite my misgivings. The day goes by so fast, and it is all such a blur to me now. I NEED to see what happened! Without ever meeting with the videographer, we hired WR to shoot by-the-hour. We're going to edit the video ourselves.

Since I haven't seen the video yet, all I can say is that they showed up on time, and their guy was unobtrusive. Well, as unobtrusive as a video camera with a spotlight can be, but that's a necessary evil of any videographer.

Make-up and Hair by Bouchelle
Grade: A
Everyone on this board has said it many times. She's lovely to be around, she does wonderful work, and she listens to what you want. Everything you want in a stylist. I'll be honest, I have no idea if my make-up and hair stayed in place or not. Once I went down the aisle, I never had a chance to look in a mirror for the rest of the evening. But I felt beautiful, so hopefully that was reflected in my appearance.

Ceremony and Reception: Oheka Castle
Grade A++++++++
This place is majorly expensive, I won't lie, and there were times when we had to skimp on some of the other budget items when I wondered if we made a mistake not going to a less expensive spot, but they completely give you your money's worth. No regrets at all. Every single aspect of the wedding day was *Wow* thanks to them.

The estate is beautiful, the staff are consummate professionals, the food was four star restaurant worthy, and the drinks kept coming. I had dreamed of getting married in an old historic mansion, and this place surpassed all expectations. No one ever waited on a line. They had six cocktail hour stations, excellent dinner, and then a dessert buffet that included cheesecakes, hot apple streudel, mousse, pies, cake stations (mmmm, the dulce de leche and the german chocolate cake!), crepe suzette flambe, ice cream and then, and only then, the wedding cake! Incredible. The topper was the gorgeous jazz hour in the old library, with the jazz quartet, waiters handing out cigars, and cordials of brandy and port. That was truly my favorite part of the evening, because it was nice to have a place to lounge for a while with friends after the dance floor closed.

The bridal suite is a mammoth, four room extravaganza with three baths and a full kitchen. We arrived at 11 am, and were served lunch while we leisurely got dressed. Then pictures in the beautiful gardens by the reflecting pools at 3:30 or so. At 6 pm the guests arrived, and were escorted to the back lawn with views of the sound where they were served wine, champagne and lemonade. At 6:30 they were seated for the ceremony, which again went off without a hitch thanks to the professionals at the site.