Re: John Anthony's brides

Thanks so much for all the info. Denise I'm sorry you had that problems. Verdila my wedding is a night and you've made me so anxious for it!!!!!!!!! Do you guys know if they provide something (basket) for the bathroom or do we bring it? Did you contact the other bride having a wedding the same day as you to discuss it? Also did you cover the bride/groom table? I don't love that dark wood and glass and I saw on the website it is covered.

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My video came out great! They did a real nice job capturing everything! Rest assured about that! :-)

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And no,they didnt use to much animation. Jeff said they are starting to do away with that!

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Betty, I don't remember if they provided a basket for the bathroom although Iam sure they do. I was the only wedding the day I got married in May no less. There was just a confirmation going on in the downstairs room, so I was not able to consult wtih any other bride. No, we didnt cover the dark wood table!

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We never consulted with the other wedding but there was an arrangement both in the bathroom and in the lobby so I dont know if JA's provided it or the other wedding....I know we did not.

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Also for our chairs at the bride/groom table we had those nice high backed wooden/fabric chairs not those tacky wicker ones you see in one of the pics....not sure where those were maybe the downstairs room ?

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Please don't think I mean, I generally don't insult people. But IMO, she didn't really try to hard to look professional, is all. I wasn't saying she was ugly, but she could have pulled herself together better. Just please don't think I am mean. I really liked her, just was surprised. By the way, I am no beauty queen myself! :-)

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I dont think youre mean, and of course youre entitled to your opinion! Of course, I am a beauty queen, just kidding! I understand youre feeling about a maitre D being professional.....and honestly, I am not being sexist but I would have preferred a man as the maitre D-! But, she did a good job at our affair.

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And I'm glad she did because we tipped her alot. They suggested we give her b/w 300-500, and we gave her the full 500 plus we tipped Lorraine the bridal attendant......

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Verdila - they 'suggested' you give her $300-400 tip? My contract flatly states that there is a $500 maitre'd fee. Does she get anything over and above that? Because I can tell you right now that FH was NOT happy about that fee to begin with....

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I'm sorry they told us we had to give a tip, and 'suggested' b/w 300-500 which I wasn't thrilled about either but I dont know, at that point another 500 didnt seem that much. Don't worry, you'll should get plenty of good service in return. Try to negotiate at your menu planning if you havent already at your signing. Our banquet mgr threw in the cookies/pastries/fruit platters for free (16 a table I think) as well as negotiated a lower price per bushel for the shrimp & clam bar (an add on at the cocktail hr.)

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I just got married in May. The contract said Maitre'd $300 - $500. I took that to mean a range of $300 to $500 is appropriate, so I was fine with that. Well, lo and behold, the week before the wedding, Patty adds on $300 to my bill for the maitre'd. So I go, well I thought the $300 tip gets paid the day of, after I see the service I get. She goes no, the $200 gets paid the day off. I am like what $200. She goes you pay $300 now and the other $200 the day of, totally $500. So I go, WHAT? but who said I want to give $500, I only had 100 people for a day wedding. I thought that was range the way it was presented $300-$500. She goes no that means $300 now, $500 altogether. IMO, its very decieving. So I told Patty we really couldn't afford to give her $500, we planned on $300 though (which is what we paid Patty that night), so Patty goes well you don't have to pay her the $200, we won't come after you for it, but you really should. Well I didn't, after all was said and done, I wouldn't have given the extra if I did have it. So at least as far as I know in May they didnt' demand the extra $200. But they do take the $300 from you before your day. Maybe things changed, but I don't think so. Don't pay it if you don't want to, they should not tell you what to tip! A range is fine, but not say, you have to pay her or him $500!!! WRONG!

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Wow, I had no idea, I thought it was a range too I just figured if we paid them the 500 we'd get better service and extras which we did. That is deceiving......interesting.

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When you say 'That is what we paid Patty that night' you mean you GAVE Patty the maitre'd fee or you tipped Patty too?!?!?! So confused...

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I mean we gave Patty the $300 for the maitre'd included in our final payment. NO, Patty gets no tip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you understnad what I meant about the $300-$500. Please don't let them take advantage of you. Only give the extra $200 if you want to, its not required, but unless you point-blank ask them, they make it confusing so you think it is required. See I came right out and asked what if I don't? Meaning, will you sue me for it??? She was like oh well you don't have to, blah blah blah, but if i didnt ask like that they would want me to believe i had to.

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'Paiz' you have forum mail

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In our contract it flatly says $500 maitr'd fee. Doesn't that mean I HAVE to pay that if it states it in the contract?

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Patty is a banquet manager - they do NOT get a tip.

On our contract it read 300-500 tip for Maitre D (a different person than the banquet mgr. they run the affair that nite), we also tipped the bridal attendant which was not required. I signed July 2001 so perhaps they changed the contract but on mine it was required and said 300-500 maitre D tip.

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Verdila, Thanks. Unfortunately mine outright says $500

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I've been away from the boards for a couple of days so I'm kind of jumping in late but..

We just got married at JA's on 9/21. We absolutely loved the place. I had the same concerns before hand too. The Maitre'd fee is $300-$500. When you make final payment the tack on $300 for the Maitre'd. Patty also told me that $200 was due the day of. I told her that I thought it was a tip and if it was it's my judgement how much she should get. She agreed, but seemed very set on $200. I think (selective memory) we tipped her the $200 because she was really great, and we also tipped the attendant $100. She was also a huge help and was very attentive.

I was in a BP at a wedding at Flowerfield and before the reception was over all our stuff from the bridal suite was thrown in the general coat room. When we booked our wedding I was sure to bring this up a number of times. If they needed our bridal suite before the end of our reception, they were going to move our stuff to the conference room which would be locked. In the end, we were the only wedding there all day, so we essentially had both bridal suites to ourselves the whole time.

I would suggest bringing it up to the manager when booking and make sure it ends up in writing somewhere.

I dealt wih Patty the majority of the time. She has so much energy, she kind of stressed me out. OUr last meeting was with Phyllis and was sorry I hadn't dealt with her all along. Very calm, and 'we can do that' attitude.

Hope this helps the JA brides out there!
You'll love the place, and won't be disappointed.

JenC