JoRo's husband's take on Wedding (review)
Dear LIW posters:
Before the wedding, I thought there was no way that it could be worth the stress and money, BUT IT WAS! You guys helped us find many of the great people that we worked with and each of whom made our wedding so good. In thanks, I will try to give you my review of the vendor's and maybe a little understood perspective from the FH.
Here is a short summary of vendors and locations:
Stoney Brook Yacht Club (for Rehearsal dinner) -- A. It is not for everyone, but it was great for us. The big room was nicely decorated (and we added lots of Mardi Gras stuff -- I am from South Louisiana), the buffet food was very good and well prepared, and the big picture windows look out west and we got a spectacular sunset. It was a nice casual contrast to our formal wedding. Everyone really enjoyed it. (Also note to get the sundae bar added, they used Hagen Daz ice cream and lots of toppings, very nice touch).
Note, my bachelor party consisted of a big poker game with all of my best friends. We yelled and laughed and kept all of the 'club' money amongst ourselves rather than non-clad women, who you pay to be nice to you. The game was fun. Of course, it was rumored that we would get a langerie (sp?) show and we got it. My 60 pound male standard poodle came strolling through the card game clad only in thong underwear, a bra and a garter. Who said bridesmaids can't be funny.
Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling/Loven Oven -- A+: I am going to have to write about them later because I don't have time to go over all of the things they did to make our wedding absolutely great! Just know that Caroline and all of the staff was great and THE FOOD was stupendous!
Music by Michael -- A: I know I am giving out a lot of A's and that is not my style, but these folks were just great. Michael is low key, calm and professional, but he plays what you want and accentuates it with similar songs AND he is great at keeping the party going subtly and non-intrusively. I mean he kept people dancing from before the appetizers to the last song and never once did he get noisy having to 'herd the cattle' or beat the bush. He just kept attentive and moved with excellent timing to play the right song or gently say something to get people out. He also was great at signaling the next thing, always unobtrusively. If you want an obnoxious loud DC, I would look elsewhere (but who would!). I feel like I am not doing him justice with how well he handled everything. I should also mention how organized he is and that you can pick songs on his website -- so helpful. Did I mention what a nice guy he is. Go see him, you won't be sorry. I wanted live music, but he was much better and did not detract from the elegance of the reception. He also got us a wonderful acoustical guitar player for the wedding ceremony. He blew people away with how good he was and was the perfect sound for the Vanderbilt courtyard.
Imagine Studios -- A: They might get an A+ (or it could go the other way) once we see our pictures, which will be soon (they are fast). They were an absolute A+ in how hard they worked from the bride getting ready to 3 hours of shooting with the party before the wedding, during the ceremony, after, and through the entire reception. Nelson and Leha are just great. They would come and get us for the sunset and such things and do it very politely and unobtrusively (if you can believe that). Also, I am looking forward to the pics because their work was by far the most artistic and excellent of the photographers we interviewed. Beautiful stuff. Also, they had fun with the 1965 corvette that I rented (which Caroline of the Mansion let us drive onto the back lawn ).
L.A. Productions -- B minus minus (a 'C' might have been too hard, so I am changing it). However, JoRo has been overly nice. Her work is beautiful, but there were some very annoying glitches. I don't mean to bash her or I would give her an F. As above, when I give an A, that means it went off without a hitch and all of the little things were handles excellently. Three complaints and each can be remedied if you give her time and do extra proof. I would recommend her highly for artistic ability. Beautiful invitations and uniquely done. However, here are the knocks: (1) she misspelled my last name on the return address on all of the invitations (and it was not wrong on the proofs); (2) despite our emailing her all of the addresses correct, she (or her assistant) mislabeled 5-6 invitations, which we eventually got returned to us; and (3) She misspelled my best man's last name, who is my brother and has my last name, in the wedding program -- HOWEVER, I should say that she came and pick the programs and pasted over it with a correct name. We received no refund or rebate. Of course, I didn't even ask because that was not compensatory.
I am sure that there is more, but let me leave it at that for now. I didn't give the FH take on the process too much, but I will try to post again and add some info that might help some. By the way, the rental of the vette for the pictures was great and I feel added some spice to our wedding photo sets. It was $700 to spice up over $5,000 in photo and video work. Not as unreasonable given that purpose. Chris.
Before the wedding, I thought there was no way that it could be worth the stress and money, BUT IT WAS! You guys helped us find many of the great people that we worked with and each of whom made our wedding so good. In thanks, I will try to give you my review of the vendor's and maybe a little understood perspective from the FH.
Here is a short summary of vendors and locations:
Stoney Brook Yacht Club (for Rehearsal dinner) -- A. It is not for everyone, but it was great for us. The big room was nicely decorated (and we added lots of Mardi Gras stuff -- I am from South Louisiana), the buffet food was very good and well prepared, and the big picture windows look out west and we got a spectacular sunset. It was a nice casual contrast to our formal wedding. Everyone really enjoyed it. (Also note to get the sundae bar added, they used Hagen Daz ice cream and lots of toppings, very nice touch).
Note, my bachelor party consisted of a big poker game with all of my best friends. We yelled and laughed and kept all of the 'club' money amongst ourselves rather than non-clad women, who you pay to be nice to you. The game was fun. Of course, it was rumored that we would get a langerie (sp?) show and we got it. My 60 pound male standard poodle came strolling through the card game clad only in thong underwear, a bra and a garter. Who said bridesmaids can't be funny.
Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling/Loven Oven -- A+: I am going to have to write about them later because I don't have time to go over all of the things they did to make our wedding absolutely great! Just know that Caroline and all of the staff was great and THE FOOD was stupendous!
Music by Michael -- A: I know I am giving out a lot of A's and that is not my style, but these folks were just great. Michael is low key, calm and professional, but he plays what you want and accentuates it with similar songs AND he is great at keeping the party going subtly and non-intrusively. I mean he kept people dancing from before the appetizers to the last song and never once did he get noisy having to 'herd the cattle' or beat the bush. He just kept attentive and moved with excellent timing to play the right song or gently say something to get people out. He also was great at signaling the next thing, always unobtrusively. If you want an obnoxious loud DC, I would look elsewhere (but who would!). I feel like I am not doing him justice with how well he handled everything. I should also mention how organized he is and that you can pick songs on his website -- so helpful. Did I mention what a nice guy he is. Go see him, you won't be sorry. I wanted live music, but he was much better and did not detract from the elegance of the reception. He also got us a wonderful acoustical guitar player for the wedding ceremony. He blew people away with how good he was and was the perfect sound for the Vanderbilt courtyard.
Imagine Studios -- A: They might get an A+ (or it could go the other way) once we see our pictures, which will be soon (they are fast). They were an absolute A+ in how hard they worked from the bride getting ready to 3 hours of shooting with the party before the wedding, during the ceremony, after, and through the entire reception. Nelson and Leha are just great. They would come and get us for the sunset and such things and do it very politely and unobtrusively (if you can believe that). Also, I am looking forward to the pics because their work was by far the most artistic and excellent of the photographers we interviewed. Beautiful stuff. Also, they had fun with the 1965 corvette that I rented (which Caroline of the Mansion let us drive onto the back lawn ).
L.A. Productions -- B minus minus (a 'C' might have been too hard, so I am changing it). However, JoRo has been overly nice. Her work is beautiful, but there were some very annoying glitches. I don't mean to bash her or I would give her an F. As above, when I give an A, that means it went off without a hitch and all of the little things were handles excellently. Three complaints and each can be remedied if you give her time and do extra proof. I would recommend her highly for artistic ability. Beautiful invitations and uniquely done. However, here are the knocks: (1) she misspelled my last name on the return address on all of the invitations (and it was not wrong on the proofs); (2) despite our emailing her all of the addresses correct, she (or her assistant) mislabeled 5-6 invitations, which we eventually got returned to us; and (3) She misspelled my best man's last name, who is my brother and has my last name, in the wedding program -- HOWEVER, I should say that she came and pick the programs and pasted over it with a correct name. We received no refund or rebate. Of course, I didn't even ask because that was not compensatory.
I am sure that there is more, but let me leave it at that for now. I didn't give the FH take on the process too much, but I will try to post again and add some info that might help some. By the way, the rental of the vette for the pictures was great and I feel added some spice to our wedding photo sets. It was $700 to spice up over $5,000 in photo and video work. Not as unreasonable given that purpose. Chris.
