9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Okay so I'm still a newbie here. I have logged on during my wedding planning to read the forums and ask some questions. Everyone has been so helpful and I feel that I should definitely relay my wonderful experiences as well as my worst experiences with you all. I hope this helps! I wish you all the best! :)

Let's start with my catering hall:

Woodbury Country Club: A+++++
I don't even know what to say about this place! I booked with them a little over a year ago.I had originally put a deposit down on another catering hall and had my party booked there. And after a few weeks I started re-thinking my decision. I found myself checking out the woodbury cc and I immediately fell in love.....
And as we all can see, I wound up sticking with this decision, which turned out to be one of the best ones I had made!

I worked with Dominic from the beginning....he assured me from the start that it was going to be beautiful. I was still a little worried because I had never attended a party there before. I was praying for 12 months that the food and everything else would be amazing.....it turned out to be so much more than I had expected! We had the cocktail hour outside, which was gorgeous! The food was delicious and there was so much of it! My guests could not get over how beautiful everything was. This is how I knew I had picked the perfect place.
On top of it all the service was totally amazing! Trust me when I say, you will not be dissapointed!!!

Patken Photography: A+ (so far)
Okay so I can't really give a final review of them because I haven't received my pictures as of yet. But I can say what I have experienced and have seen so far, is wonderful. Vinnie was my photographer and Tim was my videographer. They both are the coolest guys. They are so laid back and relaxed. They make you feel soo comfortable through the whole process. They did my photo montage which came out really cute. Also during my reception we had the monitors with the photo's we had taken earlier at Old Westbury Gardens. They looked pretty good from what I could see. My guest kept coming up to me saying 'Your pictures are going to be beautiful' so I take that as a good sign. I will let you all know the final results! :)

Bravura Entertainment: A+
AMAZING! When I was looking into booking my DJ, I knew what I wanted, I just had to find it. I did some research and I found Bravura. It also helped because they are a suggested vendor from Woodbury....so I got a good feeling about them. I had gone there and met with Paul, who is also AMAZING! I wound up booking right there on the spot without seeing any other DJ's. Risky? Maybe, but I felt so content with that decision. I had booked Paul and Island Mystic (their steel drum band) for my cocktail hour, the DJ and I also had booked for Paul to sing during the downtime (during dinner). On the day of my wedding, I couldn't have been happier with my decision, everything turned out WONDERFUL!! Paul has a beautiful voice and my guests were wowed with it all. My guests were dancing the whole night and everyone had a great time! You will not be disspointed with Bravura!

The Finishing Touch Linens: A+
So three weeks before my wedding I decide I want linens, chair covers, and napkins for my reception....yes I am a procrastinator! Again, I contacted finishing touch as they were a suggested vendor from Woodbury CC. I met with MaryAnne, who is wonderful! She didn't try to push us or sell us anything more than what we wanted or needed. She also suggested that we could save some money and get the table linens from our hall. She struck me as an honest person, not someone who was just trying to make a sale. That is why I decided to go with them. Some say it may have been a little excessive, but I think it totally set the room up beautifully. I LOVED the way my linens came out and I couldn't have been happier! MaryAnne is a doll to work with, she was even there the day of my wedding setting up the linens! I loved it all and I would never have changed my decision for that.


Cactus Salon-Syosset: A+
Overall my bridal party and I were happy with the way our hair and makeup came out. Zena did mine and my MOH’s hair. I’m horrible, but I cannot recall the other woman’s name that did my other two bridesmaid’s hair. Either way I don’t think you can go wrong with anyone in there. Like with any place, always go for a trial first.

We got our makeup done here as well. Laurie worked on my MOH and me. They brought in another girl from another Cactus Salon in the area. I believe her name was Crystal. They both were very good, and they both had two different styles. Crystal had a more dramatic technique which I loved because I wear a lot of makeup. She wound up working on my other two bridesmaids who never wear makeup! When they came out I was floored. They both looked amazing! She did such a great job on them. My MOH and I had Laurie. She was great as well. She is not the one to cake makeup allover your face and she will talk you through everything. She accommodated all of my requests. She starts out lighter and she will add more if you ask her to. This to me is a good quality because I’d rather go that way instead of having a heavy face of makeup that I don’t like. Either way I don’t think you can go wrong. But like I had said before, always go for a trial beforehand, this way you know what you’re working with!


Pastor April Gismondi: A+++++++++++++++++
I cannot say enough about her. She is such a sweet person and sooo easy to work with! When I was starting to plan my wedding I was doing research on officiants. I already knew that I was not going to have a traditional church wedding. I had come across Pastor April’s page and I bookmarked it. When it came down to booking, it turned out that she was also recommended through woodbury cc. Needless to say I went with her. Like I said, she was so easy to work with. We met once and discussed what we were looking for and what we wanted to do. We kept in touch via email over the months and we really started contacting eachother like a few weeks before the wedding. My husband and I wound up writing our own vows. I had requested that she read them because I knew myself; I would be laughing the whole time if I read them. She encouraged us to read them ourselves because she felt it would sound better. I still insisted that she read them. Up until 10 minutes before my ceremony, she asked me “are you sure you don’t want to read your own vows” and my answer was yeah I’m sure LOL. Just a side note, my whole bridal party was betting that I was going to cry, that was the reason why I didn’t want to read them. Now let me tell you that most of my bridal party was the ones crying, including my husband! Who was the one laughing hysterically? Me! My point here, is I am very rarely wrong LOL and also to go with your gut.
I can now understand Pastor April’s insistence on us to read our own vows, especially when my husband’s vows started with “Heather you are beautiful and bitchy” LOL. She didn’t want them to come off differently or lose the touch that we would get from reading them. It turns out that it worked out beautifully when she read them. All the people at my ceremony were cracking up. They definitely were not your traditional vows, and I can honestly say almost everyone came up to me at my wedding and had said that was one of the best ceremonies I have been to and your vows were so real. Not that we would have done it differently to suit anyone, but it was definitely great to hear. I loved it all!

Old Westbury Gardens: B+
Beautiful place and amazing grounds. The only reason they are getting a B+ is because the grounds were a little wet and muddy when we went. All the girls were sinking into the grass with our heels. My dress was filthy by the time I got out of there. And my shoes were caked in mud, and were officially brown.I wish someone had warned me. So I am warning all of you, if you do decide to take pictures there, bring a pair of slippers because you will be walking around allover! Second, even if it is a beautiful sunny day, still consider that the grounds will be damp if it rained anytime within those few days, that is what happened to me. Other than that, I cannot complain! :) I hope all the pictures will be worth it in the end.

M & V Limos: B
Not a bad place at all...they have some newbies working there who don't necessarily know all of the ropes yet....so I was a little weary when we booked..The kid we had wrote down the wrong wedding date. Good thing I caught the mistake or I would have been waiting until October for my limo!!! LOL We wound up using them because it was like 3 weeks before my wedding and I hadn't gotten a limo yet...yes I procrastinate!
Though the day of my wedding, my limos were there on time and they got us where we needed to go. They were clean and the drivers were pleasant. All in all....I can't complain =)



Dortoni Bakery:
Wedding Cake itself B+: Being from Brooklyn, I only know my bakeries. I know what I like and I know what I don't like. So I was a little weary about going with a bakery I had never dealt with before. Again, they were recommended through Woodbury so I went with it. We upgraded our wedding cake from the ones they have for woodbury. It was not that much more to do, and we were happy with the final product! The only reason they didn't receive an A+ is because unfortunately they mixed up the filling in our wedding cake. We had originally ordered a chocolate cake with layers of chocolate ganache and raspberry filling. What we got was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. I was at first a little sad because I was sooo looking forward to it, but it still tasted good and I don't think anyone cared either way LOL. I love the way our cake looked though so I'm not really that mad!

Grooms Cake:A+++++
I also ordered my Groom's cake from them as well as my favors which were personalized cookies with our pictures on them. They will receive a A+++++++++++++ for the grooms cake that they produced!!! It was so much more than I had expected! I worked with Candice on everything from the beginning and she made it soooo easy! I decided to go with the roulette wheel because obviously we both love roulette. The significance of the ball on the thirty is that my husband just turned 30 two weeks before our wedding. Also you will notice the star of life around the base of the cake. My husband is an EMT and he just graduated at the end of august from his Paramedic Program. I wanted to do something to incorporate all of his acheivements into one thing. Needless to say, He loved the cake! I think everybody did! :)

Cookie Favors: B
As far as the cookies, they came out cute. The picture was a little dark, but it was still a nice idea. And the cookies were yummy, so I can't really complain about that! :) Overall everything turned out good.

Alissa's Bridal-Brooklyn:D
It's hard to rate this place because I have mixed feelings. I had originally stumbled in there after I had tried on about 30 dresses in like 6 other stores ranging from Long Island to NYC...I figured hey let me give this place a try...
The woman I originally met with was a doll! She was so helpful and friendly. She wasn't pushy at all. I found one dress that I really liked. I decided to come back within the week after I thought it over. Well, after I thought about it I decided to go with that dress because I felt it was the
'one' and I felt very comfortable with the woman I was working with. So I ordered the dress sometime in February. I went back a month later and ordered my bridesmaids dresses and my mom's dress from there as well. June rolls around and my dresses come in. We went for our first fitting in July....I had noticed that my dress was a little odd looking in the front. Like there was a lot of extra material. It didn't look like the same pattern as the sample had. I mentioned this to the seamstress and she said not to worry it was supposed to look like that. I figured that this was the first fitting and they had to take it in, so I would wait to see what the second fitting brought.

Well the second fitting rolled around and it still looked the same. I brought it to her attention again and she said that it was supposed to look like that. She also tried to fix it. It looked crooked and I was not happy at all with it. My mother wasn't pleased either which lead to tempers flaring LOL...on top of that, after the first fitting 2 of my bridesmaids were told to get different bras to hold them up. When they went back for the second fitting they were asked why they brought different bra's with them? I was amazed! I couldn't believe what was going on!

Third fitting rolls around, and one of my bridesmaids dresses won't close. She had a six inch gap in the back of her dress. No, she didn't gain weight, they took toooo much fabric in. Their answers were we don't know what the other seamstress did, but we will fix it. Mind you this is 2 weeks before my wedding...okay so she goes back a few days later and she is able to get the dress closed....so now cut to the day of my wedding....

My dress turned out okay, once she took it up and moved stuff around it looked a lot better than it had started out, so I was content. My bridesmaid whose dress didn't fit, goes to put on her dress. It's still a little tight and we can't find the hook. The whole hook snapped off and there she was with an open back dress 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave for pictures! My mother had to sew her into the dress and pray that it didn't split open! They totally screwed up her dress!!! I was soo pissed off. I guess I should be thankful that we had our dresses? Needless to say I wasn't happy with my overall experience. Though my bridesmaids and my mom, as well as myself looked good in the dresses. This is the only reason they didn't get an F.

Bridal Styles-Brooklyn: A+
Wonderful experience! They have such beautiful stuff! I got my veil made here. Two tiered veil lined with sworvarski crystals. I loved it! They have the most amazing headpieces and jewelry as well! I also purchased my jewelry here. The only reason why I didn't get the headpiece from there is because I already had one. Trust me I was tempted! Overall they were great. One other note, the day before my wedding I noticed some of my crystals were seperating from the veil. I took it in and they sewed it right up and it was perfect. They did the right thing.

Shannon Florist-Brooklyn: A+++++++
Don't sleep on your local florists ladies! I went through Shannon Florist as a recommendation from my brother. He has used them for years. I did not want to play around with my flowers, I wanted them to be beautiful. I was not dissapointed!!! I met with Pete, who deals with the wedding stuff. He was so easy to work with! He understood what I wanted and he dealt with my Bridal OCD/Paranoia and he did it all with a smile on his face. Needless to say my boquets and my centerpieces came out more beautiful then I ever imagined them to be. I was floored when I walked into my reception room. That alone was worth it all!!!

Four Points Sheraton-Plainview: B+
Nice place, nice people, couldn't complain about that. The rooms smelt a little funny though. We had booked two suites and one regular room for the night before and the night of our wedding. We were getting ready there the next day. They did their best to accomodate us and they did it well. I just wasn't pleased with the funky smell in the suites. I don't know if it's always like that but we sprayed a little body spray and some sanitizer and we were good to go LOL. Oh and the beds were comfy too!

IL Gioiello-Brooklyn: A+++
We got our wedding bands from here. I was never dissapointed with this jeweler. My fiance had my engagment ring made here and they did such an amazing job, how could we not go back and get our wedding bands. It is family owned and operated. Great people. The owner remembered my fiance and my ring as soon as I walked in. Great place, high quality stuff....gotta love them!

Lion in the Sun-Brooklyn: A+
We got our invitations from here! LOVED THEM! They have a great selection, all different types, all different prices. We found the ones we loved! Couldn't have been happier with them! The women who work in there are great. Such a pleasant experience!

Honeymoon
RIU Palace-Aruba: B+
Okay, I cannot say enough nice things about the island of Aruba! It is just beautiful, and the weather was amazing. The RIU Palace wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't one of my favorites. We originally were going to stay at the Hyatt (should have gone with our instincts) but we saw that the RIU was new and I know a couple of people who have stayed at various RIU's in Cancun and DR and they all said that they were nice, so we went with it,
When we got there we went up to our room We couldn't open the door. It took 10 tries and finally we got in. Apparently they don't believe in comfortable bedding because the beds were harder than the floor! Through the week, we noticed that we had such a hard time opening and closing the door because of all the condensation, the door was swelling. We would wake up in the morning and there would be a puddle of water outside the door and the door itself would be wet. Their hallways are all open windows so as soon as you leave the room you hit such a hot hall...my husbands glasses kept fogging up LOL....
Other than that it was nice, the pool was beautiful and the food was okay. We had gone out a couple of nights for dinner...I would highly recommend the Flying Fishbone and the Screaming Eagle. Weird names but the places themselves and the food is AMAZING. At the fishbone you can have dinner literally on the beach with your legs in the water if you like. The Screaming Eagle you can sit outside as well, and they offered us dessert in bed, When you go inside they have a dining area set up, but on the other side they have a whole bunch of beds and a living room that you can have dessert and relax on....it was pretty cool. I will post those pics later! All in all...it was a good trip. Would definitely go back to Aruba, but I will be staying at the Hyatt LOL

This is it for now. I have so much more to add and so many more pics. I will update as I remember. Hope this helps you all! :)

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Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congrats!! I hope you had a great time!!!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congrats!!!!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congrats...thanks for the review!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

congrats cant wait to see more pic

thanks for posting your review

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Gorgeous!! Congrats. What a great review!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congratulations!!! I am also a WCC bride! I can't wait to see more pics! Loved your grooms cake too

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

congrats thank you so much for the review!!!!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Thanks guys! Here are some more pics!

First Dance

Memorial Table for my dad and my husbands aunt

Us :)

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Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

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Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Bridesmaid and Groomsman

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Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Maid of Honor and Best Man


My mother and I :)

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Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

love your cake, you look gorgeous

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congrats!!!!!!! Love the pictures, you looked stunning, you will have FM in a few

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Congrats from a fellow Woodbury bride! Glad everything was wonderful....love the pictures...and again congrats!!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

thank you for the great review!!! Congrats!!!

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Thanks for the review! Our reception is booked at woodbury for August 2, 2009, so I am so happy to see that the woodbury was a success!! Just out of curiosity, they don't include table linens? I just assumed...

Re: 9-14-08...Woodbury CC, Patken, Bravura, Finishing Touch and so many more!

Thank you for the brooklyn Review. YOur wedding was so beautiful congrats!