11-27-09 review, Milleridge Cottage, Sandra Baldini, Lana Rowe Photography, Lovin Oven etc etc

Just wanted to start by saying that while I haven’t been a frequent poster, I got so much info and great ideas from this site, so thank you!! As a Queens girl who was getting married on LI, you guys were the best with advice and suggestions, I basically planned our wedding with this site. The reviews always helped me too.
Weather: A
Listen, when you get married at the end of November in NY you are taking your chances! All I kept saying was I didn’t care how cold it was as long as it didn’t rain! ( didn’t want bad hair weather, humidity and I are not friends) Well I got my wish, although it POURED on LI that morning, it never once rained in Queens, it was cloudy but sun came out in time for church. It was freezing cold and I didn’t want to torture the whole bridal party so just the two of us made it down the block after church for beach pics so all in all it was good.

St. Camillus Rockaway- A
I hate the thought of ranking a church, but this was my parish, I went to grammar school here and had all of my sacraments here so of course I wanted to get married here. Great experience ( interesting priest!)
All in all very happy! Did Pre cana in queens at Resurrection-Ascension, was happy with that also.

Invitations - A - Elaine Schein 718-945-4909 Mrs. Schein came recommended by a few people, she does it out of her home so she really has no overhead. I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at invitations and getting samples and in the end her prices were fantastic. I was so happy with them ( I think the co. was embossed graphics?) With the money I saved I used www.BetterLetter.net to do the calligraphy in Bklyn, they were great, Elaine had my envelopes shipped directly to them and I emailed them my list and had sent me my envelopes in a week. ( they also can stuff them, stamp them, etc.) Postage was $1.05 to mail since they were so heavy.

Wedding Gown and Veil- Paloma Blanca A ( loved this designer)

Bridesmaid Dresses -Mori Lee B ( nice line, reasonably priced. Had a mix of sizes and the bonus was they don’t charge extra for plus sizes ( a lot of designers do which is nuts) and the shawl was included. To be honest, I have been a bridesmaid quite a few times, and I have had cheap and expensive dresses, and I have never done anything with any of them again. So I wanted something pretty of course but I didn’t want the girls to break the bank!)

Bridal Elegance, Phyllis: A + I had looked at dresses at Bridal Reflections and at Lilettes ( and I loved loved loved Gerri!) And I fell in love with this Paloma Blanca dress Lillettes had which was completely out of my budget. A friend at work told me to contact Phyllis and see if she could get it cheaper. She was able to order it and saved me $500! The dress came in with no problem and the alterations were fantastic. I lost a bunch of weight right before the wedding and Phyllis was great, I was very happy. She also ordered my veil which I LOVED LOVED LOVED from Paloma also.... I didn’t think I would wear it all night but I loved it so much I did! All in all it was a great experience.
We went back there for bridesmaid dresses b/c the price was so good, the designer was Mori Lee. Now, this particular dress had a lot of ruching on top and the girls had some trouble with their alterations b/c of it but the alterations were capped at $75 anyway. They all seemed ok with it and in the end they looked great.




Flower Girl dresses- Davids Bridal, Sashes from mygirldress.com A+
As much as I loved Phyllis the price of flower girl dresses (everywhere!) Seemed nuts to me! Since I had 3 nieces who lived here and one upstate, we used Davids so it would be easiest for everyone. Dresses were very pretty and came fast, no problem with anything. I did order sashes separately for all the girls to match the bridesmaids, loved mygirldress.com! Also ordered my 14 month old nephews tux there, the prices were great. All in all Davids was great, although I still recommend looking at marshalls, burlington, etc for dresses, if I didn’t have such a range of sizes I would have had better luck. I also saw a lot of cute dresses for real little ones at Tri county. We did get those faux fur shawls for the flowergirls at tricounty flea market at the last minute b/c it was so cold, they were $15 I think, which was the same price to rent them elsewhere.

My Shoes: A+ Davids Bridal I knew I wanted a closed toe for Nov. and I needed a fairly low heel and was having a hard time. I also couldn’t justify spending a fortune on shoes that I didn’t really love, and there aren’t a lot of low heeled stuff out there!. Was at David’s picking up flower girl dress and say shoes on sale for $40, they dyed them ivory for $3... perfect! They were so comfortable! Very happy!!!

Headpiece & DOJ- Barrons Tricounty A+ So I had ordered my veil from Paloma Blanca to have the lace match my dress and needed a headpiece. My dress was all lace, not a bead anywhere I didn’t want anything too much and also didn’t want to pay a fortune. Heard about Barrons on this site, went there and got perfect headpiece, pearls and crystals, loved it and it was only $45!! Can’t beat the prices, and they had gorgeous veils there too. I wore my grandmother’s pearls and my own earrings.


Makeup - Sandra Baldini www.sbmakeup.com A+++ Let me start off my saying, I am not a big makeup person, and was extremely picky about it for the day of. I wanted to still look like me. I went to Sandra for a trial and LOVED her, she was great. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted, and she did exactly that and more. After doing all the earthy colors I wanted, she asked if she could play a little, well it came out GORGEOUS!!! Loved all her choices and it looked beautiful! She was at my house early, and did me, my mom and all four bridesmaids, and stayed until I was walking out the door! She was unbelievable and the makeup lasted all night. I woke up on my wedding day with 103 temperature and she made me look beautiful even though I was sick as a dog! LOVED LOVED LOVED HER!!!!!

Hair— Anne from Hair Decor, Rego Park A++++ Anne has being doing my hair for years and I love her. She came to the house the morning of and did all of our hair.......she’s the best! It was insanely windy the day of the wedding ( and we went and took pics on the beach) and my hair looked great all night.
My mom and the girls looked gorgeous as well.

MOB Dress- En Toto Couture, Great Neck- B Let me start by saying my Mom is a young 62yr old who got married herself 4 years ago. She got a gorgeous suit for her wedding here, and my stepmother had gotten a gown for an event here before, so it was one of the first places we stopped at. The dress she picked was stunning, however, as of the beginning of October it was not ready, they cancelled an alterations appointment, etc. My mother had told them I was getting married at the beginning of November so when Columbus Day weekend rolled around and my mom did not have her dress I went a little insane. I will say that after much yelling and threats, the dress was ready in three days with no charge for alterations ( although I fought for that) All in all my Mother looked GORGEOUS and it all worked out in the end, although she didn’t need the aggravation ( neither did I) so close to the wedding!

SMOB Dress- St. John- A My stepmother and Dad were down in Florida when she found her gown, she bought it and I didn’t see it until she got back which had made me nervous but was absolutely lovely and she looked beautiful.


Tuxes- Howard Beach Tuxedos- A The guys always use this place, ten minutes from our house. They all looked great and DH was free ( I think my Dads was too? I don’t remember anymore)

Photography- Lana Rowe photography - A My best friend used Lana for her wedding and she was great. DH loved her when he met her and that was that! Her work is gorgeous. We met with her again about a month before the wedding to finalize things and she was great about going over everything. This was the one vendor I really didn’t think twice about.
She was great , she actually anticipated the bad weather unlike others!) and came early, due to a late vendor (see below) she had time to kill in the house, and I have some great pics from that morning. I was really sick on my wedding day, and my one regret is that I didn’t get certain shots that I would have liked to have. ( Lana and her assistant were fantastic and kept checking to see if we wanted any other pics and she was thorough about going over the must take list but by the reception I was done, my brain had shut down) I will suggest to future brides that if you don’t have a DOC (which I didn’t) give a copy of must take list or tell someone other than DH if the night before your wedding you think of something or someone you want to have a picture of. I don’t have some pics I would have liked to have through no fault but our own, I was just out of it! Anyway, I love our proofs and we are going to have a tough time ordering pics! She was great, we had 10 children in our wedding ( I know its insane!) and she got great pics of them all at the church since most of them weren’t going to be at the reception.

NY Video Group- Franklin Square- A? I haven’t seen our video yet but they are getting the A on just being really really super nice! I loved Joe! DH didn’t really care about a video, but I wanted one. I also knew I didn’t need a big deal, just a nice clean edited video of the night, that wouldn’t cost a fortune!
They were really reasonably priced ( Lana recommended them) and just terrific the day of! When we got out to take beach pictures in the crazy wind my veil blew right off! Joe caught it ! Just great guys and can’t wait to see the video, will update then.

Flowers- Lovin Oven - B
I looked at a few florists and went with Lovin Oven b/c they were the “in house” florist for the Milleridge Cottage and couldn’t beat the price. I also loved Keyth at our first meeting and liked his ideas. I really wanted low centerpieces for the cottage, and I loved the look of three centerpieces, one long oval container with smaller ones on either side separated by candles. I wanted to compliment the place without being too xmasy. I also knew I didn’t want the traditional white bouquet, I wanted reds....
At our meeting to see samples I was also very happy with Keyth, I loved it all. The reason I gave them a B is this: A month before the wedding they called to say they were no longer the in house florist ( although they did honor my contract with the discount) The day of delivery was over an hour late ( now I know there was bad weather on LI (although it never rained in Queens!) But considering they were delivering from Sayville instead of Jericho now I wish they had allotted more time to get there. Luckily we were happy with the bouquets b/c I couldn’t have done anything about it at that point, I had to grab them and go! Although it was stressful and we had to take a lot of pics without our flowers while we waited for them. The bridesmaid bouquets were not as lush as I had hoped but mine was lovely. Keyth did a great job, and I had sent them a photo charm of DH’s mom, and I cried when I saw how pretty it was attached. I loved the centerpieces at the reception, I was not crazy about the table card arrangement but as they were no longer on the premises there wasn’t much I could do about it at that point, I was beyond caring really. I had originally contracted for flowers on my cake, a month before the wedding I cancelled it after I picked my cake, when they brought out the cake it was covered with roses and looked gorgeous! Still don’t know how that happened? Would I recommend a Queens bride to use a suffolk florist if her ceremony is in Queens and her reception in Nassau? No! But if I was on LI I would use Keyth again definitely.


Transportation:

Big Bus- Apex Coach A-
www.apexcoach.com

We needed a 55 passenger bus for our guests from a local rest. down the block from our church to the reception and back to our neighborhood after the reception. Since we wouldn’t know exactly how many guest would be taking the bus until we received the response cards we needed to use a company that had an extra bus if we needed one, which is why we used two different companies for limos and buses, most places I contacted didn’t have another 55 passenger bus or didn’t have two available for our date. ( this was such a headache by the way)
We found apex coach in Bklyn, they were great, bus was beautiful, brand new and clean and was reasonably priced for the 8 hours we needed. If we added another bus (which we didn’t have to Thank GOD!) It would have been less than the first rental, they had the best prices of all the places I checked with, and I checked with EVERYONE. Believe me, EVERYONE.
The reason for the - is that the driver was a little difficult on the way home for our guests. We had the pickup at a bar/rest. right by our church, and on the return trip we arranged for two drop offs, the original pickup place, and another bar/rest. 20 blocks away that was down the street from our parents. Now I wasn’t on the bus going home obviously b/c we were at the hotel but I heard the driver gave a hard time for making two stops, which was in the contract to begin with. In the end, he made the stops and My Dad spoke to him but it would have been nice to avoid that for our guests.
Anyway if you need a bus or 2, this is so worth it, they were $450 cheaper than the cheapest place I contacted on LI.

Party Bus for bridal party & limo
A Class Limousines, Staten Island A++++++++

http://www.aclasslimousine.com/index.html

So we wanted a party bus for our bridal party, parents (3 sets) and us. Aclass was fantastic ( we dealt with Jay, loved him!) The party bus was fantastic and everyone loved it. We were originally going to take the bus also but I was kind of on the fence, thought we might like that car ride alone together... Jay gave us a great price for that also! ( thank god we did have our own car, I had a fever that day and when I got in the car after the church and passed out for the 40 min ride to the hall... very romantic I know!) I definitely recommend them, My brother in law is getting married in May and they already booked them. Drivers were great and fun, ( and I have seen some pics from the bp bus, almost wish I was on it!)


Solutions Valet: A ???
I heard no complaints about them so I am sure they were fine, but I have no idea really.....
I don't even remember seeing them b/c I was there before they were & I was gone after they were gone. None of my guests complained so I guess they were good! They were great to work with prior to the day of. I know we tipped them but I never went outside.
DJ- DJ Teddy Rauert- A+++++++++ what can I say, if you have ever heard Teddy you love him, he was fantastic and we had a great time , music was awesome and he played every single thing we wanted.


Reception Hall: Milleridge Cottage
85 North Broadway
Jericho, NY
www.milleridge.com
I gave the Milleridge an A-

This is hard because there were so many great things about the Milleridge but there were also a few things I was disappointed with. We had a beautiful and amazing wedding, so if you are booked there, don’t let it scare you, just sharing for future reference. We received so many compliments on the Milleridge.
We had looked at a few places, and went out to see the Milleridge on Black Friday of 2008. We had originally been thinking of an October wedding but when I saw the Cottage decorated for christmas I was in love! We have a lot of out of state relatives, but many of them are usually in NY for thanksgiving so for us it was a great weekend to get married. I was a little nervous getting married the day after thanksgiving, and worried about traffic and such but it turned out to be excellent and the best choice for us.
Let me start off by saying that I loved Debbie! She was great and so helpful in the planning process. She was great about answering questions, and when I thought my head would blow off from doing seating with my divorced parents she was fantastic when I changed things a million times. We were doing a candy buffet at the end of the night ( more on that later) and I brought out an insane amount of stuff to be put out and she was great.
To be fair, we got to the hall much earlier than we expected ( we had allotted extra time for black Friday shopping traffic and there was NONE) so they were of course not ready for us to barrel in and they were fantastic! Within 5 minutes everyone had a drink and something to eat, and they were extremely accommodating. They were still not done setting up, and now they have a ton of people milling around.(One of the things I loved about the cottage is that it doesn’t have one of those huge bridal suites were you are locked away from your own party, we knew we didn’t want that. I wanted to be at our cocktail hour and be able to talk to everyone. So it was great for us, although we were probably totally in their way

Pam was just great. I was a mess of course from feeling sick and she was so sweet, I told her I don’t want to miss my own wedding, so she got me a ton of coffee to perk me up! That and a gazillion advil ( and probably adrenaline) got me through and I danced the whole night.
I heard the food was amazing although I didn’t eat it. Pam was so nice and said they would wrap up a ton of food for us to take at the end of the night with our cake which they did, but unfortunately they did not put it in the car waiting for us but on the BIG BUS. ( which doesn’t make a lot of sense but whatever) Of course we didn’t realized it until we reached the hotel. In the end it was fine, by drunk brother in law got to eat filet mignon when he got home and my brilliant sister in law grabbed the top of our cake for us so it wasn’t just left on the bus! So DH and all our guests said food was fantastic, but I need to be invited to a wedding at the Cottage just so I can eat LOL.

First little problem, I had made gift bags filled with all sorts of treats and personalized coloring books for all the children at the kids table, I packed them in a box marked kids table #21 to be put out. About a 15 min. into the reception my niece ( flower girl) asked me where her special coloring book was. I grabbed Pam who looked into it and said the staff hadn’t know which table was the kids table so it wasn’t set up. Now it was marked but regardless, someone could have asked us earlier in the night what table it went to rather than just leaving it sitting there? Anyway not too big a problem they were brought out right away. I also had disposable cameras for the kids table only, there were 9 cameras for 9 kids and the staff could only find 6 in the box which was odd.
Now the BIG issue was, the staff poured champagne for the kids table and didn’t remove it even though they now knew it was a children’s table ( possibly by seeing the 9 CHILDREN SITTING THERE WITHOUT ADULTS), even after being asked to, so luckily the same smart little niece took a sniff before the toast and said “ I think I have booze! “ Grabbed Pam again and it was quickly replaced with apple cider as originally requested but could have been a total disaster with 9 sick kids. ( and some pissed off parents!) So not the greatest thing ever.
The other thing was this, we had brought out all the stuff for candy buffet and asked if we could pick it up the next day which they had no problem with. When we left hotel we went directly there, saw Debbie who showed us where all the stuff was and loaded up the car and left. Now Pam comes into work later on and says, oh wait there is more stuff here! ( leftover candy and stuff) So they email me instead of calling my cell so we don’t see it until Sunday when we are getting ready to leave on our honeymoon. I call immediately, Debbie is off but I get someone else who is EXTREMELY nasty that they are not a storage facility and we need to get someone out there ASAP. I explained that I was on my way to the airport and they should have called yesterday and I can go in a week and she says well if that’s the best you can do, than fine! AND HANGS UP!!!! So unfortunately left my experience with them on a sour note.
BTW, I was so annoyed with them, my husband asked his sister to go out there while we were away to pick up the stuff, so I didn’t get to address this in person. I did send Debbie an email when we got back saying how rude it was, and she apologized but said she didn’t know who it was.



Bridal party gifts:
Bridesmaids- I got the girls their day of jewelry, gold coach wristlets, and gold flipflops... ( at the last minute I also picked up gold pashminas when I heard the forecast, even though the dresses came with a chiffon shawl I was afraid they would freeze.
Jewelry: Tri County Flea Market- A+
I had never heard of Tri County until coming on this site. I bought the girls earrings and necklaces there, and earrings for all the flower girls there. It was reasonably priced and exactly what I was looking for! Also got the pashminas at a booth there. I bought my day of purse there for $20. Coach wristlets were from Tanger.
Groomsmen -I got engraved monogrammed cufflinks from Foreverwed.com, monogrammed handkerchiefs, and the groom paid for half of their tuxes as well.
Flower Girls and Ring Bearers:
Ok so we had ten children in the wedding ( yes I know, thats insane) in range from 15 months to 8yrs old. So its hard to get 10 gifts without spending a fortune or appearing cheesy.
Oriental Trading Co. AA++
I ordered duffel bags in blue and pin that said ringbearer or flowergirl and had them personalized with their name from Oriental Trading ( had the best prices by far and I went on every website there is!) gets and filled them. They were actually well made and held up and weren’t cheap looking thank goodness.I put a ringbearer or flowergirl Teddy bear ( again from OT) in each bag. I got them all books about being a ringbearer or flowergirl by age; got them all from Barnes and Noble with coupons. Older girls got little earings from TriCounty. I also made personalized wedding coloring books and put them in each bag with crayons and such. I think I also got some extra action hero stuff for boys bags. Since we gave the gifts at the rehearsal the kids were thrilled ( plus the copious amounts of sugar we gave them!)
Since I was having kids at the wedding I also ordered from OT there own prefilled wedding gift bags which I put on the kids table along with coloring books and stuff. Was really happy with them also, the kids had a great time! Wish I had a professional picture of any of that stuff.

Family Name Plaque: MySweetMemories.com- A++
I got this idea on this site, I can’t remember who?. I saw it in one of her pics and though it was something great for the reception but also something cool you could hang in your house after the wedding. Went on the website and she made me a couple of mock ups. Fantastic, ordered the one we liked and I got it about a week later. We had it on the Fireplace mantel at the hall and its hanging in our house now, one of my favorite things from the wedding.

Photo Sharing Cards, Accommodation Cards, Direction Cards- Vistaprint.com-A+
Vista print is always having a sale, so I got all of these cards for next to nothing! All I had to pay was shipping pretty much. The Milleridge gave free direction cards but they were bulky to me and I wanted a double sided card with directions to church on one side, and hall on the other so I had them printed.


DIYS
My sister in law did our unity candle( A++++) and it came out beautiful, she printed our names and date on velum paper we got in Michaels, glued it on and added some ribbon, it looked great.

She also did the church programs ( which had to be the worst printing all of them!) They came out awesome and we had an assembly line to tie the ribbons on them, they came out really pretty.

Personalized coloring books- I used a template I found online, personalized everything, printed them and tied them with ribbon. The kids loved them! Got crayons in the dollar store.

OOT Gift bags—I’m not going to rate them
I got the bags left over from a friend who had 15 of them left over from her wedding. They were perfect. I put in water bottles with personalized labels, advil, tums, some assorted snacks and a scented candle. I did not put any candy in since we were having a candy buffet at reception.

Bathroom Baskets—Not rating these either… but they were ransacked! People took EVERYTHING from them!!!! Bought all the stuff at duane reade , brush comb, bobby pins, advil tide to go sticks, tampons, liners, hand lotion, nail file, hairspray, deodorant, lint brush, tums, contact lense solution, etc. totally cleaned out, someone even took home cotton balls!!
Kind of amazing actually, I usually bring a small bag to weddings, I don’t know how people took bulky things with them!

Cards- Placecards.com A+++
I was going to do the placecards myself ( the Milleridge gives you blank ones, but they have that annoying line which would be impossible to print on) but I waited too long and then realized what a nightmare it would be at the last minute.
Found this website which was fantastic, they came out great, had them in two days and were cheap!!!


Candy Buffet A-
This was one of those great ideas I came across on this site and really wanted to do. While it was a HUGE hit and everyone loved it... it gets a minus for being a pain in the neck! I loved the idea of a sweet treat at the end of the night. ,( I am personally not a fan of viennese hour, I always feel like either no one eats it or it breaks up the party and no one is on the dance floor) We had a plated dessert along with cake so I thought that was plenty, and we were doing donations as a favor but this was still something to take home. ( at this point I still thought I would have 150 people at my wedding MOST)

Jars- I picked up mostly in Marshalls , I bought 3 with 8 scoops from a bride ( not from this site) for $30.
The candy- I found that a lot of the websites that have great prices kill you with the shipping, so majority of candy was purchased at BJ’s. Now I heard about brides who bought a lot on sale, well my problem was that I had no place to store a lot of candy for too long ( especially in the heat) so I really couldn’t start buying until October. We did get some discounted stuff after halloween but not much. I did order chocolate covered pretzels online.-
I ordered Chinese food containers from instawares.com. I ordered personalized stickers from Etsy (littlebeaneboutique) that also came with glassine bags, the bags came in handy for the cookies. the Sunday before we had to drop the stuff at the hall, my bridal party and I washed and labeled each jar ( martha stewart labels from Michaels, again my sister in law printed them and we attached with glue dots and ribbon) we put the personalized stickers on containers and packed it all up. Now Debbie had said they would set it up at the end of the night for guests to take as they left, well as they started to set up people attacked! So it was definitely a hit!
Oh and our finally headcount was 225 so now I need more candy than I thought I would, luckily I overbought. week before the wedding FH comes home with crazy coupon for Davids Cookies, so we also had mini chocolate chip cookies also.
Did it cost more than I thought it would originally? Sure!! Would I do it again? Probably if I had a smaller headcount.
( BTW All jars and scoops are for sale if anyone interested. Having trouble posting pics, will add to album tonight)


OOT GUESTS HOTEL—East Norwich Inn -A?
One of the hotels recommended by Milleridge. My stepmother actually picked this one out of the list Milleridge gives you. Maryann was who I booked with, we dropped off bags few days before. I didn’t hear any complaints from anyone so sure it was good.

.Wedding Night Garden City Hotel A+
Beautiful, great customer service and attention to detail. ( although I can’t imagine anyone not being nice to you when you stroll into the place in a wedding dress LOL) Room was beautiful. Felt truly special while we were there.

Honeymoon:
Aruba- Marriot Stellaris Resort and Casino- A+
Basically heaven!!! Loved every minute of the whole trip and didn’t want to come back at all. Aruba was exactly what everyone said it would be... so many great restaurants that I was glad we didn’t do all inclusive. ( although we aren’t big drinkers, if you are it might be worth it b/c drinks were not cheap, although I didn’t think it too terrible) Absolutely loved the Marriott it was gorgeous.


Forgot to mention... The flower girl baskets were included with the florist for the three girls. About two weeks before the wedding I realized that I did not have ring bearer pillows ( we had 6 boys in the wedding) Baskets and pillows are not cheap but I got a great deal on www.wrapwithus.com.... great site, got six pillows for $4.99 each. My mom had bought one of those here comes the bride banners so I actually have a extra pillow for sale. they were very pretty. Also, I had a 15 month old flower girl so the florist wasn't doing a basket for her.I went on www.balsacircle.com at the last minute for a kissing ball ( another thing I was going to make and just didn't have time) and got a burgundy rose kissing ball to match for 6.95. another great website to check out. Both of these had really great prices for pew bows and all that but we were lucky to have a family friend do all of that for us for free so I didn't need to purchase any of that.

Re: 11-27-09 review, Milleridge Cottage, Sandra Baldini, Lana Rowe Photography, Lovin Oven etc etc

Congrats! Everything sounds great. Post pictures :)

Re: 11-27-09 review, Milleridge Cottage, Sandra Baldini, Lana Rowe Photography, Lovin Oven etc etc

Thanks for the review. I would love to see some more pictures! The one on your profile is such a tease!