Edited w/ duet video clips & pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Well the wedding is over and I’m finally married! Here is my review to help the future brides!

Giorgio’s at Fox Hill—A+
Giorgio’s did an amazing job with our wedding. Our Maitre D’ and Bridal Attendant were so attentive and made everything run smoothly. They brought us drinks and any food we wanted from cocktail hour up to the bridal suite so we could spend some private time together in the suite before our reception. I keep getting so many compliments on the food at Giorgio’s and especially the cocktail hour. It was absolutely incredible, and we used the piano in the cocktail hour with a pianist for music. Giorgio’s set everything up so elegantly. All of our guests were impressed and we keep hearing how everyone wants to use Giorgio’s after they see what a great wedding they put on!

Wading River Congregational Church-A+
Pastor Peter Vilbert was so down to earth and easy to work with. We had a nice short but sweet ceremony around 30 minutes long. The church is so adorable!

Baiting Hollow Vineyard-A+
We went here for pictures in between the church and reception for about an hour & half. They were so accommodating. They put us up in the Bridal suite upstairs which had a balcony over-looking the vineyard for pictures. They served finger foods and wine to our bridal party. The price was negotiable and we made a donation to the Horse Rescue. Our bridal party is still raving about what a great time they had during this time, because while we were taking pictures they were able to eat & drink and have fun.

Holiday Inn Express—Riverhead – A
We blocked off rooms here and I got the Bridal suite to get ready here. They were great with all of our requests. We asked for a karaoke after party from 12am-4am and they set us up in a private room and we hired a karaoke guy for the after party. We arranged for a large hero and 2 salads as well as the bar to stay open late. Everything turned out great and guests were grateful for the late night food too! The bridal suite was nice and large enough to get ready and take pictures there prior to the ceremony. We also had a breakfast the next morning, and everything in the planning process went well and smooth. Shuttle transportation to & from Giorgio’s for guests was on time and there was enough room.

Duet Photography-A+++
This is probably my favorite vendor. I have not received all the pictures back, but Jay & Alberto were great to work with and got all the pictures I asked for and the teasers they put on their website are absolutely gorgeous! We also had videography and I am anxiously awaiting this and our final pictures! Our engagement shots from Jay were so georgous, I displayed them in frames around Giorgio’s and got so many compliments on them.

Here are some video clips that I love!
Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws9QcSlyB14

Getting ready:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ads-9FGHtPA

After the Ceremony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhs8OwYTUF4&feature=related

Burton--A+
The flowers were so fresh and large! I continue to get so many compliments on the flowers. The beautiful pew bows w/ roses and the alter arrangements just made the church breathtaking. My bouquet was perfect!! It was a bouquet of white roses & stephanotis w/ pearls in the center. My girl’s bouquets were red vendella roses & I used the extra material from their dresses from the alterations to wrap the bottom in. Burton’s is reliable and I was very satisfied w/ the flowers & the fair price.

DJ—Cast Entertainment –C-
I would never recommend this company. If you want more information you can FM me and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

Originally when we booked with them, they were recommended by a cousin who used them and we had seen them do great work at previous weddings. They had Nick as their MC, and we also requested Nick when we went there as well. The owner said no problem, that we could have whoever we wanted. We really didn’t need to have any contact with them until the final meeting about 3 weeks before the wedding (where they collected the final payment). The owner stated at the final meeting that Nick could not be our MC, but that he had Kevin available and reassured us that Kevin was just as good as Nick and to make us feel better he (Mike) would also be there at our wedding as the DJ while Kevin MC’s it.

We were not happy with this, but we reluctantly agreed because at that point we really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. So at the final appointment, we go over all the music we want played (first dance song, cake cutting song, and a few line dances, and told the owner to accept 1 request each from the bridal party & mom's as long as they were reasonable).

A day before the wedding, my mom had a couple issues with the photo montage to be played at dinner, and the owner took her phone call on his cell phone told her she had to buy some extra connector thing at Radio Shack. They were able to fix the problems, but mom felt that they were not eager to help kept saying “You should have used me to make your wedding montage”, which didn’t really help the situation at that point.

Our wedding day arrives, and everything is so hectic, that I didn’t even realize that the owner was not even there! He didn’t call me to let me know he would not be coming. He also did not mention it to my mom when they spoke on the phone the day before (My mom says he said “don’t worry the DJ will handle it tomorrow”), however she didn’t realize that he was the DJ! (He later explained that he had a family emergency...which is understandable but I wish he would have let me know ahead of time)

Kevin introduced himself to us prior to our entrance and asked us how to pronounce our names. So our grand entrance---the DJ ended up pronouncing our names wrong even though we had gone over it several times at the final meeting with Mike & then again right before the entrance. Then.....he started our first dance song while the applause was still very loud and we were still parading around the dance floor. We had communicated with the owner at our final meeting and by several emails the importance of our first dance song since we had spent so much money on dance lessons and had a choreographed first dance. So we were standing in the middle of the dance floor, and my husband goes to me… “did he start our music already??? Yeah he did…we are like 30 sec into our song already!” My husband turns around to the DJ and tells them to re-start the song. That was totally awkward and annoying!

Then, we noticed there was only one tv and looked really small in that huge room at Giorgios. He said there was no specific amount of TV’s written on my contract (I went home and checked later and it just says “Plasma w/ zap shots”.) However, we both remember asking for 2 tv’s and were under the impression there would be. The DJ said they were at least 47 inches, but they did look small in that big room at Giorgio’s (I wish we would have been told they would appear so small for the amt of guestss we had, then we would have opted for much large tvs).

Then....During the best man and maid of honor speeches the microphones kept cutting in and out.
During dinner there seemed like there was nothing happening for a long time. Nobody was in charge of the DJ station...and one guest told me she saw the DJ in the lobby texting on his cellphone instead of DJing my wedding. We asked our Maitre D’ what was going on w/ the DJ. Apparantly the DJ was eating (for at maybe an hour or longer?), and eventually he came over and told us “don’t worry we will play your montage soon.” Everyone was finished with dinner by the time the montage played, and we really just wanted the party to get started at that point. The music they played was kinda strange at times.

We also paid a lot of extra money for zap shots. We saw the zap shot guy taking lots of pics, however nothing was being displayed on the plasma screen until the last 45 minutes of the wedding. I've been to wedding before, and usually the start displaying the zap shots as early as dinner. We also did not receive our zap shots until 2 1/2 weeks later after the wedding, when normally many people get to take them home with them at the reception.

Also, Many guests complained about the amplitude of the sound, and even the Giorgio's staff commented that they had never heard a DJ company play the music this loud before.

They never played any line dances and my MIL and mom were disappointed because I promised them at least a couple would be played for them (as was discussed at the final meeting). The center pieces were never given away (as was discussed at the final meeting they were supposed to have a game to give them away). All the beautiful centerpieces were left at the reception.
The DJ did do a good job in running the Garter and bouquet toss. This included playing a trick on the person who caught the Garter (My husbands younger brother and co-best man) in where he blindfolded him and had him place it on my husbands leg. The crowd got a kick out of this and it was cute.
Overall the party eventually did get going and we all did have a lot of fun. However, things did run less than smoothly and their attention to details or lack there of was disappointing.

After all of that…I did e-mail the owner to ask him where he was and to let him know everything that happened and my disappointment. He made several arguments in defense such as “its just human error” to pronounce our names wrong to “the DJ tells me he did take several requests from your guests.” He did apologize saying something like “I’m sorry you were disappointed in a company that does weddings every weekend.” He also offered us a free DJ party in the future to make things right.

Kleinfelds—A+
My dress was a pnina, it was gorgeous. Kleinfelds alterations department was great to work with and even had late night appointments to work with my schedule.

Limos—Elegant Limousine—A+
They were great, on time, nice, & attentive. I used them for my bachelorette party & for airport transportation for the honeymoon. They were always arrived 5-10 min early. I highly recommend them.

DOC—Ryan from Above & Beyond w/ assistant Leane
Ryan was awesome to work with. Since I booked with her she was responsive to all my e-mail questions whenever anything came up. The day of the wedding, I hired her assistant to go to the boy’s and help them w/ their tux’s and anything else that could come up. Ryan came to me at 12:30 just as the flowers arrived. She handled all my final payments to vendors & tips. She was there to keep us running on schedule and made sure everything ran perfectly. Even at point when our bridal party was getting out of control she handled everything and kept bringing them water and limit their alcohol quantity for a brief period of time at the cocktail hour. She assisted w/ dress malfunctions w/ bridesmaids, and helped when my headpiece came loose a little bit. She check in with me throughout the reception to make sure everything was ok (but not too much!). If I needed her she was always within eye distance. She was great and highly recommend her just for piece of mind because everything is so hectic on your wedding day it was nice to have someone to handle all the details and put you at ease.

Karaoke After Party--Russ from the brickhouse
Every Thursday at the Brickhouse in Patchogue, we asked him to do our after party. He was great and the price was negotiable and fair.

Dance Lessons—John at Ballroom Dance LI
John was so great to work with. He is very flexible and has a few different locations from Nassau county to Suffolk county and he worked with our hectic schedules. Sometimes we even had lessons at 9pm. His prices were the VERY fair compared to any of the large companies (like Arthur murray or Fred Estaire). He only gives private lessons, which was great for us because those group lessons at Arthur Murray are a waste of time & money. He taught us a beautiful dance and guests are still talking about it. We surprised everyone because nobody knew we were taking lessons, and especially my mom was shocked! He even came out to Giorgio’s the day before the wedding to give us a lesson there.

Here's a video clip of our first dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4m9eKl-yWg

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Re: Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, *******, etc

More pics!

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Re: Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, *******, etc

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Posted by pjrocky

http://s1036.photobucket.com/albums/a450/jglemonade/?action=view¤t=4ad5fc9e.pbw&evt=user_media_share

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Link doesn't work. But thanks for the great review! I'm using Jay from Duet, also!

Re: Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, *******, etc

We'll see if this link works. Its Duet's website under wedding Teaser's (there are only 14 pics, and I can't wait for the rest!)http://www.duetwedding.com/gallery/customer/6/2326#80543

Re: Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, *******, etc

Thanks for the review. I always love to hear about Giorgios!

Would you mind FM'ing me details on Baiting Hollow Vineyard. I would LOVE to go their after the church for photos!!

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Do all Duet photos come with their name stamped on them?!

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

These are just the 'teasers' they posted on their website. I haven't gotten my official proofs yet. The real pics won't have that on them.

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Thank you! PS I looveeeeeeeeee your review! CONGRATS!!!!

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

LOVE your pics!

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

My FM and I love reading reviews on Giogio's.
love ur pics!

Re: Edited w/ pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

The link worked! I love your pics! You look absolutely stunning! And I love your cake!! Jay and Alberto would be like my DREAM TEAM! Here's hoping I get both!

New Duet Video clips--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Posted a clip on youtube of our wedding video we just got back! Duet did an awesome job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws9QcSlyB14&feature=channel

Also here is a clip of our dance, we took lessons from John Ballroom Dance LI and he was so great to work with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4m9eKl-yWg&feature=channel

Re: Edited w/ duet video clips & pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Congrats!!!!

Re: Edited w/ duet video clips & pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Very Beautiful!!!

Re: Edited w/ duet video clips & pics--3-6-10 Review of Giorgio's, Duet, Elegant, DOC Ryan, Cast Entertainment, Burton's, Kleinfelds.

Great review.... YOu look Beautiful!!!