8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Our wedding couldn’t have been more perfect! I prayed everyday to my dad to make sure he sent me good weather the day of and he did! I knew my dad was there in spirit looking down and being the proud father of the bride every dad is…..
I must have been the most calm bride anyone has ever met. The girls who did my hair and makeup were nervous because I was so calm. My bridesmaids were a nervous wreck and I was calming them down. Only glitch the whole day was that my moms tooth chipped and she almost cried but I calmed her down, called my dentist explained what happened and he took her right after her hair and makeup was done. He took a half hour to fix her tooth and even fixed her hair lol….the office was in complete shock as to how calm and relaxed I was when I walked in to see how she was doing, everything worked out and we have the PERFECT WEDDING DAY

Liweddings.com
I don’t even know how to express how thankful I am for this website. If it wasn’t for here I wouldn’t have found a majority of my vendors or gotten so many great and expensive ideas! You girls are wonderful listeners! To be able to vent to someone or even share ideas with other women is very hard for me because I don’t get along to well with other girls. All of you made me feel so comfortable and welcome and I don’t even know any of you, and for that I thank you! I wish you all the best of luck in the future and a lifetime of happiness in all your marriages!

Rehearsal Dinner: AMAZING! Lol
The rehearsal dinner was a bbq at our house which turned out fabulous! I ordered a grooms cake from cakesalamoda.com Christina was wonderful to work with and affordable! She did AMAZING work and it tasted great, no one wanted me to cut the cake.




Riviera A+++++++++++++ infinity
I couldn’t have asked for a better rh. From the first step inside both me and dh knew that this was the place! My bm was AMAZING, she threw sooo much in for us and even tried her hardest to accommodate us with whatever we wanted. We thought we were going to have a problem when we couldn’t go in earlier than anticipated but it all worked out and we had no problems. The food was delicious; people are still talking about what a great time and how beautiful everything was! As I was getting ready it started to get a little breezy and iffy (rain wise) so Mary (our bm) called me to make sure I still wanted to do everything outside, I said yes and when I arrived everything was set up as I wanted it! My bridal attendant and maitre d were absolutely on point with everything. My button broke on my bustle and they got down there and sewed it up right away without me missing a beat. Not only did they serve me and dh first they gave us a big plate to share with each of our choices on it and sent us home with what we didn’t finish. The bartender made sure I was NEVER without a drink, at one point I think I had 4 drinks, bc I was trying to drink but kept getting pulled to talk to more people and would leave my drink on our table as soon as I would walk close to the bar he was calling me over with another drink made. The entire staff there made us feel at home from day one and made sure we were well taken care of the entire night. My florist had left before the cake arrived and my maitre d assembled the flowers on the cake exactly how I tried to explain it to him.




Judge William Corbett A++++++++++++++++++++++++
Such a sweet, sweet man! He answered all my emails within hours and made me feel very at ease with the ceremony. The day of the wedding he arrived about 45 minutes before the ceremony to go over the responsibilities with our best man and maid of honor and to explain to everyone how to walk and where to stand. I had written our “I dos” and our vows for him to read and he had no complaints and did exactly what I wanted. He would move out of the way every so often during the ceremony so the photographer could take photos without him in every single one. After the ceremony he had stayed awhile to enjoy cocktail hour and mingle with our guests which I thought was a very personal touch! Judge Corbett had such a soft voice but with personality, so our ceremony wasn’t monotone or boring it was sweet, sentimental, and personal.


Flowers by Gina - B
I’m not giving her a b bc of all the drama surrounding the last few weeks. I WAS in love with my flowers when they showed up however, they felt wilted by the time the limo got to my house (flowers arrived at 10am and limo came at 3:30pm) By the time my cake was served my flowers were dead. My centerpieces were not really what I envisioned for my day; yes they were the same flowers just not how I envisioned them presented. Because I am writing this after everything that has gone on I will leave out her actions and her attitude the day of my wedding so I don’t start any drama. She knew that I wanted my bouquet preserved bc it was my ‘dream’ bouquet but I guess that’s not happening since they went in the garbage that night. I also had knats in my house for days because of the flowers that I brought home.
bridesmaids bouquet

moh bouquet and flower girl bouquet

my bouquet

example of tall centerpiece


Photo Video Network A
They had me a little worried at first bc I didn’t know how my photographer and videographer were going to be. But the second I met them I was completely comfortable with them. I explained what shots I wanted and was told he already took them! And anytime throughout the night if I needed either of them, they were right there! Me and dh decided we wanted to go around from table to table during the salad portion and wanted to take “table shots” at that time. Both the photographer and videographer were right there no questions asked and without any hesitation. They were able to get all the shots we wanted and needed within the half hour time limit we had before the ceremony started. We wanted to enjoy cocktail hour with everyone so both walked around taking photos of us with all our guests. I realized after I saw my proofs that they could have taken less shots of my cake and cake topper and more of my guests having fun, thank god for family and friend photos otherwise I would never have seen how much fun we actually had

LI Sound A+++++++++++++++++++
Our dj/mc were great! They had my uncle who never dances, dancing. They even had me dancing and I have no rhythm it was funny bc our first dance I was dancing way to slow for dh even know it was a very slow song…(should’ve taken dance lessons) they worked with our photographer to get everyone on the dance floor, even know it didn’t really work for too long everyone was busy drinking our bar dry. But the two of them had such great personalities and played EVERYTHING I asked and kept to our do not play list.
We also had a steel drummer for our cocktail hour and he was GREAT! I wasn’t really paying attention to what songs he was playing but just to hear the music gave such an island/Caribbean vibe everyone thought that it was such a great touch to an outdoor cocktail hour, I would definitely recommend a steel drummer for any outdoor event!

LaRosa Cubana Cigars A++++++
The communication with them was excellent up until right before the wedding. I had emailed them to see when they needed final payment and no one got back to me, so we didn’t have the money for the final balance the day of the wedding. But it was not a problem, I emailed them the day after and they said not to worry about it they understood and were very happy to hear that the cigar roller was such a big hit. We hired him for the cocktail hour to go along with the steel drummer. And he rolled 100 cigars which was amazing for a half hours time. But he set up in the corner away from food (which was smart so no one smoked near the food) but no one knew he was there until me and dh went around to let everyone know. Even the women were taking cigars because they smelled so good. I hate smoking but love the smell of cigars so I was even pretend smoking! Lol …….For those that didn’t want to smoke the cigars there, he had bags to store the cigars in. At the end of cocktail hour he gave dh the remaining cigars that were left over which was awesome!

Black Forest Bakery A
I gave them an exact picture of what I wanted and they attempted to follow only it looked like instead of crisscrossing the ribbon like in the picture some of the ribbon was put in a v shape which sort of annoyed me but no one noticed and I wasn’t letting it bother me bc it was not a big deal. The cake was moist and tasted great, even though I only got two bites of cake lol. I was just a little upset that the cake was delivered after my florist left, so Gina wasn’t able to decorate the cake, thank god for maître d’s who are on point and listen!



Cake Topper: Justcaketoppers.com A
I wanted something fun yet different and nice. I was a little sketchy about buying this online bc I wanted it to be good quality. Well it was!, I wasn’t expecting it to be porcelain and heavy. We couldn’t put it on the cake bc it would have fallen through. Customer service was not existent but also not really necessary, I had emailed asking a question and never got a response but the topper was at my door within a week of ordering it.


Broward Limousine A++++++++++++++++++++
They were so nice to us and worked with our budget even though we waited till about 2 weeks before the wedding to book our limo. He told us exactly what type of limo we should get (I was looking for a limo bus, but didn’t need one)..and gave us a great price on the stretch escalade. Our driver came 10 minutes early, I wasn’t finished getting dressed when he arrived, but he was very patient with this. We wanted to stop at the park/beach down the block from the Riviera to take our formal pictures but he explained that he had another pick up at 5 and wouldn’t be able to pull both off, because he was so nice about it I completely understood and was fine with it. He actually gave my photographer an extra few min to take pictures of me coming out of the limo which was very nice of him. He handled the drive very nicely (no one got hurt on this ride….i had major issues with the limo on my bparty) and he got us there promptly even with traffic .



Makeup-Andrea-Lolalovesmakeup A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Andrea was soooo sweet and helpful, and very talented! I feel I’m pretty good at putting my own makeup on so when it came to wedding makeup I wanted it to look like something I wouldn’t have been able to do myself, and she accomplished that goal. It looked very natural yet elegant. We had a little time frame issue and she helped me work everything out and my concern was that being she was doing makeup at 8am and ceremony wasn’t until 5:30 pm our makeup would wear off. She assured me it wouldn’t and it didn’t. Also my moms allergic to a lot of stuff including certain makeup so she was going to go to Clinique, however her artist cancelled on her last minute (the night before) I explained everything to Andrea when she got to my house and had no problem applying my moms makeup (she had her own already purchased) and she came out beautiful!!! She did a better job than the Clinique lady had done at her trial. I actually want Andrea to do my makeup anytime I have somewhere to go!



Hair – Nikki – Technicolors in Rockville Center A++++++++++++++++++++++++
I normally go there to get my hair done, and knew I wanted them to do my hair the day of. I went for a trial and as much as I liked it I wasn’t sure what I wanted even the day of the wedding. I sat in the chair and told her I wasn’t sure what I wanted just to “wing” it. Well she did a great job! We were also running a little behind bc we added my mom to makeup at the last minute, she didn’t have a problem with it all she was able to push back her am appointments to accommodate us.



Tuxes – Menswarehouse, Oceanside A++
After reading the reviews about them I was a little iffy about using them. They were the most inexpensive place we went to though. When we placed the order they told us that the tuxes would arrive wed (the wedding was Friday) I was kind of unhappy about tuxes arriving two days before the wedding. They actually came in a week before the wedding Which made me very happy! Alterations were done by the next day. The day of the wedding everything was fine except towards the end of the ceremony dh’s tux was unhemming at the sleeve. No big deal he just stuck it up with a safety pin, problem solved. We had to return the tuxes the next day which was no problem we all accomplished that task. So I had NO problems with menswarehouse what so ever! THANK GOD!



Invitations – E v e n s t a r p a p e r i e – t e s s a A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Most of you know how amazing she is. So this review shouldn’t even need to be written! She got my vision at the first shot and everyone is still talking about how great they came out, no one wanted to mail back the rsvp card bc it completed the invitation and they didn’t want to “ruin” the elegance of the invitation. I was in the process of making programs and menus and couldn’t find the cardstock to match the green in the invitations. I emailed her and she mailed me the exact cardstock that she used so I can have everything match up!



Unity candle domestic divas fancy – etsy.com F-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I paid her the customer service was great! Well after ordering my candle in February and not receiving it until 1 week before my wedding and not having exactly what was stated in my invoice made me very angry….I had to email, text, and call this lady everyday for about 6 weeks just to get her to start my candle. She completed it in one night, never gave me tracking info even though she kept saying she was going to. When I received the candle I was very disappointed I wanted to cry. It looked like something I could have created. And Yes I had to “fix” it to make it look like what I had order. Which meant add new ribbon, rhinestones and glitter. So basically all she did was ‘tape’ vellum paper to a candle and wrap an ugly piece of ribbon around the candle. Well I called my credit card company and I ended up getting half my money back bc of the issues I had with this lady.

Earrings lulusplendor – etsy.com A+++++++++++++++++++
I wanted my earring to match my headband so I emailed her and she matched them perfectly! She answered all emails within a day and once I purchased my earrings I had them within 2 weeks. She has such beautiful pieces Id love to order from her again. I received sooo many compliments on how gorgeous they looked.



Headband and flower girl tiara barrons tri county A++
I didn’t need much help with this, most of you know of them and how great they are. All I did was walk over look in the case and when it caught my eye that was it I had to have it! Easy as that!

Gown – veil – shoes The white gown A++++++++++++
I found the white gown bc I knew exactly what dress I wanted and was searching all over for it and they were the only ones who carried that line. I was looking for a simple gown with an asymmetrical waist corset top sweetheart neckline and not too much beading. Ella Bridal gowns was the only designer that carried dresses like that. The girls there were so nice I made my appointment to try on a few dresses, when I got there they took me into a huge room that they had stocked with 5 dresses from the designer I was interested in. The second dress I tried on I knew was “the one” the attendant wanted me to try on a few others just to make sure and even she saw the glow in both my face and my moms face and even she knew that, that dress was the one! I really didn’t want a veil but it was important to my mom, the attendant picked out the perfect veil to match the dress and I was happy about it. I wanted to wear flip flops but since my mom once again insisted I wore shoes they picked out a shoe that appeased both of us. However the shoes were worn only during the ceremony. I wore flip flops for pictures and reception.


Bridemaids dresses/moh dress – Lynbrook bridal F---------------------------------
I went to them bc they were inexpensive…I should have known better………….I ordered the dresses early bc it was the dress everyone agreed on and I loved. They came in in October and I asked the owner if it was ok to store them there till April when we did alterations. I was told no problem…..I got a call 2 days before Christmas that the dresses needed to be paid for and out of the shop before Jan 2 when they were going out of business. Yes Im happy they called to let me know and didn’t just close up shop on me however, how do you do that to someone during xmas when NO ONE has ANY money???????
Whatever I handled it and never heard from them again.


Alterations – Nick the Tailor F----------------
I heard great things about this place so I took my moh dress there as well as some bridesmaids dresses. BIG mistake, my sister is a little heavy and her dress fit perfectly, well the neckline needed to be taken I a lot and the bust area a little bit. My grandmother picked up her dress and about a week before the wedding my sister tries it on and the lady NEVER took in the neckline and took too much in at the bust area. My other two bm’s that used her also had issues, she never pressed the dresses so they were wrinkled and smelled, they were never hemmed up and were taken in to much. And being that she closed for vacation until the middle of august I had to find a new tailor four days before my wedding to alter my moh’s dress with in two days.


Favors – A fresh Approach A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jeanne and her husband are such a great team and such a nice couple to work with. They favors came out AMAZING and Im glad I had a few extra so I can enjoy them! I ordered the wine glasses on my own and had them shipped to her, I wanted to fill with truffles but I ordered the wine glasses to big. She had a friend who owned a liquor store that had a bride who ordered mini wine bottles but cancelled the order last min and he was ‘stuck’ with them. This worked out perfect for us, I brought the wine from the guy gave them to Jeanne and she made an AMAZING wedding favor of a wine glass, bottle of wine, and three truffles. We ordered enough so that we were able to hand out one per person which cost us a fortune but everyone was very happy about it and were in LOVE with the favors!





Sashes – Table wear A
When I met with Donna she had my color already picked out, its like she read my mind as to what I wanted! I was hesitant in going forward because dh had said we didn’t need to spend the money and no one would notice. Well thank god I went through with it because I noticed the difference and they looked beautiful I don’t care if no one else noticed lol……she was a very sweet lady and she does wonderful work!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Very beautiful! I loved your review...congrats!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

love ur review :) u looked gorg and i LOVE your jewelry and invitations

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Great review! Thanks so much!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Great review!!!! I'm so glad everything went smoothly with the Riviera and LI Sound (i'm booked with them as well).

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Congrats and Great Review.

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

great review, thank you!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

You looked amazing!! great review!!!!!!
CONGRATS!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Awesome Review!!!! I loved your Hair makeup and gown!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Any pics of your favors? Great review!!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

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Posted by RFutureBegins2day

Any pics of your favors? Great review!!

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thank you all!!

I do have favor pics but i havent gotten my professional pics, they are in with those

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

I remember when you decided on those favors in the beginning of the year, I notebooked the thread! Your review is fabulous, and everything looked beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Great review, you looked beautiful! Thank you

Re: 8/6/2010 review: riviera, li sound, table wear, etc

Congrats