Revoew of the Philly wedding I went to

So the invitations came. They were very simple and elegant, on VERY heavy cardstock, with real hand calligraphy on the envelope. It said 'Black tie optional' It was at teh Hyatt Regency, all signs pointed to a very elegant, upscale affair.

We drove down to Philly and got there late because FH's dad gave us abd directions F to Fh's dad for that and F- to FH for leaving the invitation home in the first place so we couldn;t use THOSE directions.

The hotel (Hyatt Regency Penn's Landing) had a very nice lobby, and the staff was very nice when we got there. We were in a hurry, and the person at the desk tried to hurry and ended up mixing up our reservation with another. She fixed it.

She gave us our CUTE OOT bags. Green shopping bag with the couple's names on it Inside:
tissues
2 mini bottles of water
ohiladelphia eagles potato chips
hershey chocolates
pretzels
tastycake
a nice letter from the bride and groom
maps of local attractions and my personal favorite, a philly coloring book and crayons!

We had about 10 minutes to get dressed and go down to the ceremony. I don't know how I made it, it was an absolute miracle.

Before they lket us into the ceremony room we were in sort of a holding area that didn't fit ANYONE and was SO crowded you couldn't breathe at all. I hated it and was so relieved to come into the ceremony area.

We waited half an hour for the ceremony to start, and that was really annoying. There were no ushers to seat you or greet you or tell you where to go. There were rgular reception chairs all in rows with the program on them. The chairs were narrow and right next to each other and I was sitting on the end, but I had to move my chair b/c I felt like I was practically sitting ON FH, I can't imagine how that much have been for people who were in middle or next to people we didn't know.

The had a clarinet or soprano sax (I actually forget which) and a keyboardist playing elevator music. When the ceremony finally started, there was no change in the music when the BP came in, and FH had to tap me to tell me they were coming in. Maybe people kept talking.

They played Canon in D for the bride's entrance, but it sounded cheesy on the keyboard and soprano sax (WHAT made them choose those instruments). No one stood for the bride, which I thought was odd (is this common of jewish weddings? this was my first one)

The ceremony was very beautiful, everything was explained, but not everything was repeated in english. It was still very beautiful. Tehir huppah was made of this beautiful ivory broacade. It was fabulous. I think it belonged to the hotel.

After the ceremony, and this is where the fun begins. Remember the cramped and calsutrophiobic holding area I told you about? Well this was the site of the cocktail hour! There was ONE table with 5 chairs and a couch, for over 200 guests, the room was about the size of my apartment. there were many elderly people, and myself, a disabled person, with nowhere to sit. There were only 2 bars for 200 people which led to long lines.

The food? Well if you could find it among all of the people, was sparse. The ony really food thing was the sushi station, which features roles and sashimi. IT RAN OUT quite quickly.

The other stuff included chafing dishes of 3 differentpastas. One had shrimp in it, one had chicken and the other was plain. They tasted pretty good, but.... and then there was a large tray of grilled vegetables. That was the ENTIRE cocktail hour. We were really disappointed and I was annoyed and in a REALLY bad mood from having to stand on my feet for over an hour in heels (I wore them bacause I figured I could sit most of the time).

Then they started calling us into the ballroom (where the ceremony had been) and people started dancing right awya. the band was pretty good and really had people on teh dancefloor the WHOLE time. The only problem was that thre practically WAS no dance floor. The room was big enough for 130 TOPS and there were over 200. REALLY consider this when booking your hall. it may look like a big room, but we were crammed in like SARDINES.

On the tables when we got there was champagne, a small palte of rbead that Iddin't even see until we were leaving a plate at eash setting with 2 little balls of butter next to each other (almost looked obscene) and the table ahd 2 martini glasses filled with mixed nuts. I was like WHAT? That's bizairre, really.

Then the salad came out. it had mixed greens raddichio, a piece of gorgonzola cheese and dried cranberries. Everyone around me took the cheese off, bu the salad was pretty good. The only problem was that there was literally a 20 minute gap between when they brought the salad and when they came along with the dressing. It was REALLY annoying.

this is no reflection on anyone but FH's drunken cousins, but during the hora they dropped the bride twice, and then sropped her mother! I was horrified!

There was no course except for the salad and entree. We had chosen out entrees in advance. I choe the vegetarian option and FH chose filet mignon. He was pretty happy with his dinner, mine was gross. By the time it was servedto me, it was quite gold. it was a phyllo filled with oddly spiced lentils sefved on a bed of cold shredded carrots. the only good thing about it were the few asparagus spears. There was no table drink service, and the bars were in the OTHER room, so that became really annoying. there was wine at the tables.

I was really disappointed that there were no intermediate courses. I guess we expect certain things coming from NY. I mean especially with such a sprase cocktail hour!

After dinner they had the mezinkah and the cake cutting. The place was SO crowded that you couldn't see ANYTHING going on on the dancefloor, so we gave up trying. half an hour lter they served the cake, which was ok. The cake itslef was really ugly, and very sort of non aesthetically plesing..it was top heavy and awkward. It tasted ok. I really didn't eat it.

The wedding finally wound down at about 12:40 and as you were leaving in that first cocktail hour room there were bags that you ould fill with different kinds of candy, like jelly belly and swedish fish and M&M's. i guess that was the favor. Creative, and cute and people loved it, but I wouldn't do it as the ONLY favor. A LOT of people were sititng out here on the coush or had brought their chairs out to sit in this area b/c it was closer to the abr and not as noisy. The band's volume was really high and you coudlnt hear the person next to you speaking, and you coulsn;t even really hear the band either b/c of the vibrations.

The ballroom itself (the columbus ballroom) was beautiful in that it ahd and enitre wall of windows that overlooked the delware river. It was a very pretty view, but again, it was so crowded, you couldnlt really stand by the window and look out unless your chair was right near it, which didn't apply to many peope since the band was right up agaisnt that wall.

So, all in all I was REALLY disappointed. not because the wedding was cheap but because the invitation had made the wedding seem like a really expensive, fancy big to do, and I went to a lot fo trouble to get my hair and naisl done (and a lot of $$ too) and wear this fabulous ballgown, and the bride and bridesmaids didn't get their dresses altered, they were SO ill fitting. the bbride actuall looked terrible in her dress, and half of the rbidesmiads didn't even get their hair done. One of them just had like, a head full of frizz, you know, like my hair every day. HArdly anyone, not even the immediate family was in black tie and that really annoyed me that they would put it o the invitation if they didn't plan to do it. GRRRR...

Anyway, SO many people came to us saying 'you should take notes, this is one of the best weddings I've ever been to.' The wedding was OK, but we took notes on a lot of things NOT to do. We didn't see anything we wanted to emulate at our wedding other than the happiness of the families and the mezinkah dance, which we'd never seen before.

Anothe thing I ddin't liek was the fact that there was another wedding just across the way, and they had chairs at theri cocktial hour, and you could CONSTANTLY see the other wedding when you were in the cocktial hour or outside the main ballroom for any reason, and we had a lot of peopl fomr the other wedding come to this one and thenr ealize it was the wrong one. Yuck.

THE HYATT:

Our room was a corner room with 2 double beds on the 9th floor. It had an immediate view of the parking lot, but beyond that was nice view of the river and the ben frnaklin bridge, which was lit up purple at night and very pretty.

That was where the niceness ENDS. I expected a LOT more from HYATT. The furniture was all veneer and it was cracked and worn in a lot of places. the headboards had a fabric covering, which had STAINS on it. EWWWWW. The carpet had more stains in more colors than I can count. The bathroom mirror fram was all cracked and it almost looked like it ahd cigarette burns, even thought it was a non smoking room. AND they needed a MR. Clean Magic Eraser on their doors and walls. EW.

The grossest part? You know hwo you go toa hotel, or even when you clena your own sheets and towels, they smell CLEAN? The sheets and towels did NOT smell clean. They smelled like they weren't cleaned with enoughsoap or hot enough water to get other people's sweat and skin oils out of them. I really wanted to puke.
The shower had other people's hair in it. I definitely could have vomited.

The day after the wedding they held an OOT brunch. This one was in the grand ballroom, which was SO much nicer. They used the centerpiueces from the night before. The centerpieces were nice, very low and they had a lot of cheaper flowrs hrown in with about 4 roses, and some eucalyptus and beerry, which were very nice. Appropriate for a brunch, NOT what I'd expect from a 'black tie' evening wedding.

The brunch was SOOO good. They had eggs and potatos and various forms of meat. bagels and all kinds of cream cheese and (ew) lox. They had croissants and al kinds of apstries, 4 different kinds of juice, coffee and tea. LOVED IT. I was nicer than the wedding. NO complaints.


Perhaps the MOSTnnoying thing happenned when we tried to leave. We had valet parked our car (we just wanted to get in ther fastot get ready) so we called 15 minutes ahead for our car. We watied another 20 minutes and we watched many other cars come. The valet puled the car right upt to the front, the bell captail held the door open for the people to get in adn then closed it. When OUR car finally came (it's a 1988 Buick, a little beat up), they put it at the whole OTHER end of the circle in fornt of the hotel, and the valet just jumped out and LEFT it there. We kind of gave the bell captin this 'what the f--k?' look, and we were holding a lot of crap, so finally we just went to the car. THEN, the keys weren't even in the car, so FH had to go track down the guy with the keys. FH complained, no apologies, no nothing. I was SO pissed off. You know what, we may not have the nicest car, but we payed the same $20 as everyone else for valet parking and we paid the same $$ as everyone else to stay in their crap hotel and we deserved to be treated the same way as everyone else. Needless to say, NO ONE got a tip and FH is in phone tag right now complaining to the manager. Do you think we should complain about the other stuff at the hotel?

OK, so a lot fo stuff was really annoying to me, but most of the people at the wedding ha da great time, and I did have fun despite all of that, so I guess the answer is, yes, you cna leave that out at your wedding and people will still think it's the best wedding since Di and charles.