Sonicstef's 10/5 Vendor Reviews (now with a few honeymoon photos!)

Let me start by saying that I now know a bride is the last person you want to listen to about vendor reviews. Everything seems too perfect but not good enough all at the same time. You are being pulled in a thousand different directions so you don’t get to pay as close attention as you want but you have the highest expectations just the same. So in with that notice, here are my vendor reviews….

Rehearsal Dinner: Carmines Restaurant
Awesome! Food was delicious and plentiful. Drinks kept coming. The restaurant was noisy but it added to a fun atmosphere. And the prices are some of the best deals in the city.

Dress: Bridal Reflections
Unfortunately, I have to give a bad review here. I loved, loved, loved my gown. I got a much better price by going through Bridal Reflections over Kleinfelds so that is a big positive. But there were several problems encountered while ordering and making appointments but more importantly – BOTH of the straps on my dress broke at some point during the night. The seamstress made an alteration to the straps on my final fitting which were obviously not sewn in strong enough. My other alterations were minimal but good – and of course I had to pay the full amount (up to the cap) for this. Thankfully my MOH is pretty good with a needle and thread!

BM Dresses: Netbride.com
Nothing but raves. Saved $100 each! Dresses arrived early.

Flowergirl Dress: Goldengiraffe.com
Very good price for a silk dress. Fit perfectly based on measurements.

Tuxedos: Barry’s Formalwear
Very good. Good selection and price. Barry’s came to our home to measure, drop off and pick up. There was one size that was too big and they came the next day to drop off a new tux.

Headpiece & Earrings: Naugi.com
Fast service, reasonable prices, beautiful products.

Hair & Makeup: Francine & Sue
Francine did a great job with my hair that day. I was a little worried because previous trials didn’t come out just right but it all worked out in the end. Her prices are reasonable and she is a sweet woman. I would recommend her to anyone who wanted a simple ‘do.
Sue did a beautiful job. My neck was all red that morning and she covered it up beautifully. I showed her a photo of the look I wanted – natural with a slightly dramatic eye and she did it perfectly. I NEVER wear makeup so for me to be comfortable with a full face on is a feat.

Transportation: Royalty Limos
I didn’t ride in the big limo (18 person Navigator) but I assume it was ok. Our car (’47 Caddy) was beautiful and comfortable. Drivers were early and friendly. Only complaint is that they seemed slightly less comfortable with driving in NYC traffic had me a bit worried with their assessments that we didn’t have enough time to stop at both Grand Central and Times Square.

Flowers: Spitz & Peck
Mixed review here. They were difficult to deal with in the beginning. Everything seemed to be one problem after the next – particularly since I didn’t want ANY white flowers (which seemed to be their strong suite) and I was not about to spend a lot more for what I wanted. After a few meetings, things got easier. My contact, Lizette, definitely seemed like she was trying to work with me and I got a lot more comfortable with the situation after that. My bouquets arrived that morning and were beautiful but I thought the stems were way too long so they took them out to the truck to cut them a bit. I would have preferred them even shorter but I figured it wasn’t a battle worth fighting. The florist brought me a bag of red rose petals (which they did not charge me for) and I was very happy with since I expected the free kind to be the mixed color kind. So far, so good. The pew bows were nicer than I expected or paid for – I had paid for hydrandrea and the florist had included a few roses as well – again, very nice. But the ceremony arrangements were a big disappointment. I had provided a photo of EXACTLY what I had wanted and their version was a far cry. I had specified no daisies and there were gerbera daisies in the arrangements, they did not use the containers I asked for and the right and left ones were slightly different. Ok, no big deal. Then I got to the reception. The very expensive arrangement for the placecard table was ALL wrong. Again, I had provided a photo and asked for a recreation of the photo with red flowers instead of the ones shown. The branches had leaves on them, the flowers were mixed with the dreaded white lilies in them and it was nothing as I had wanted it. I got to the reception site and told Lizette “this is not what I wanted” and she said “we are not finished yet, don’t worry”. The centerpieces were very pretty but missing the amaranthus that I wanted and had them write down.

So all in all – I think Spitz & Peck is great if you love the traditional white flower deal. I think they have lots of experience with that so probably do a wonderful job in those cases. I do think they were trying to please me but just didn’t understand that when I said “I don’t like white flowers” or “I want this exactly” – I really meant that. In my case, I was very disappointed with a few key things, which tainted some of the good things they did.

Ceremony: St Malachy’s Church
The priest, Father Erno, is sweet but a little disorganized. A few encounters had me very nervous about how the ceremony would turn out. Particularily when he called to tell me a few days before the rehearsal that he would not be joining us because he would be “out of town”.
But the ceremony was beautiful. Father Erno did exactly as we asked.
The music director was on the ball the entire time. She arranged for 2 beautiful vocalists to do a rendition of “Ave Maria” and “The Prayer”.

Reception: Yale Club
Nearly everything was perfect on our wedding day. If there were any major mishaps, I don’t know about it. The rooms were absolutely perfect for the party I wanted, and our # of guests. The suite we were given that night was huge and lovely. Our maitre d was very accommodating all around. My only complaint is that the catering manager, Kevin OBrien, was quite curt throughout the planning. He didn’t return my phone calls and was very unaccommodating when it came to my requests to bring my own candles. He had not even planned to be there on our wedding day but made sure that we knew it was expected of us to give him a “several hundred dollar” tip a week before the wedding.

Band: Timepiece
Honestly, I don’t remember much except that they didn’t do a great job with our first dance. Granted, we had a very unusual request of performing the song EXACTLY as the Nat King Cole version we provided but I was still a little upset about that. I remember hearing a few of the songs as we danced and thinking they were doing a great job with those. And I know they learned one of my favorite songs, “Get Here” and did a beautiful job with it. The band members were sweet and courteous and a pleasure to deal with. I really need to watch the raw footage of my video to give a full review here since so much is a blur – but lots of people said the band was great so that is a start.