My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club) and Now With Proofs!!

Rehearsal Dinner: Pfiff Restaurant in NYC: A+
We picked this restaurant to have our rehearsal dinner because it is where Rob proposed. The owner, Patricia, was so accommodating to Rob during the months he spent planning the proposal, that we both felt it would be the perfect choice. Patricia worked with us to create a fun and relaxing atmosphere for our guests. We had about 50 people at our rehearsal dinner since we also chose to invite all of our out of town guests. We rented out the entire restaurant and Patricia allowed us to take 10 8x10 framed pictures (both from the night we got engaged and our formal engagement pictures) and put them around the restaurant. We chose our own music and created our own menu. Everybody raved about the food and watermelon martinis!!

Wedding Coordinator: Jodilynn from Simplicity Planning: A+
Jodilynn was incredible! We didn’t decide to use a wedding coordinator until a few weeks before our wedding and boy am I glad we did! Jodi stepped right in to both planning the wedding and rehearsal dinner. She was there when we had our “music crisis” when we had to hire another ceremony musician last minute, made sure all of our out of town guests were in the right place and worked with ALL of our vendors. I can’t say enough about how much she helped us. I highly recommend!!

Ceremony Musicians: Ensemble Champlain: A+
We had a trio; violin, cello and flute originally booked. Harry was great to work with! A few days before our wedding, we found out that the organist could not play the song we wanted so Jodi called Harry to see if he could get us a trumpet in addition to the trio. He had somebody for us within hours. Walking into the church to the Trumpet Tune, it was so beautiful. I highly recommend them!

Reception: North Ritz Club: A++++
After originally booking somewhere else, I changed my mind once I saw the North Ritz. DH and I had a bunch of special requests, from having German food at our cocktail hour to Missouri wine on each guests table. They were more than willing to accommodate everything. DH’s family has a vineyard and the wine was a very big deal to us. Each waiter poured the wine, asking each guest and explained the significance. It really put the personal touch on our wedding. My father in law had people coming up to him all night wanting to order the wine.
They brought our cappuccinos on trays to each table at the end! The sorbet came out served in martini glasses. It was unreal. The service was outstanding. George, the Maitre D was very attentive, my bridal attendant Monica bustled my dress, made sure everything was okay all night. I was blown away by the service, both prior and the day of. We shipped tons of things to them the week before and they made sure everything was exactly the way we wanted.

Gown: Diamond Bridal from Lillettes: A
I worked with Karen and if it wasn't for her, I never would have found my dress. She suggested it to me and I fell in love. Lillettes is also where I ordered my After Six BM dresses. I was able to add a BM dress to my order late and they were very accommodating. My dress came in early. All of my fittings went very smoothly, I didn’t have that many alterations. The DAY before my wedding, my mother and sister went to pick up my dress and Lillettes lost my veil. I was a little upset but they quickly made me another one within the hour. It looked even better than the one I originally had.

Tuxes: Stallone’s (in St. Louis): A
Stallone’s was great. We had 3 OOT groomsmen, they allowed us to pick up the tuxes a week early and overnight them to New York. No problems at all.

Invitations, Programs, Menus and Save The Dates: Spin Design: A+
Spin Design is owned by my sister in law and I am so glad we were able to get her to design everything for us in a short amount of time. She custom designed everything, from our unique luggage tag Save The Dates to our one of a kind invites. Everything matched with 'our logo' for our vineyard theme. We got so many complements and I highly recommend her!

Florist: Flower Michele: A+
John worked with us and our schedules while we were planning from out of town. After seeing 5 florists, I was positive John would be able to make our vision come true. I was amazed when I saw the bouquets arrive at the hotel. The flowers matched perfectly, and my bouquet was absolutely beautiful! Our centerpieces were so gorgeous. All of our guests wanted the flowers and they took home the top of the centerpieces. He incorporated the hanging grapes and ivy from our theme. He was the ONLY florist I saw that was willing to even attempt it. He also decorated our cake, which I also loved. The DAY before the wedding, when our butterfly mishap occurred (see below), I called Flower Michele and asked for rose petals. They were able to get me two baskets for the church hours before the wedding and really relieved my anxiety. I highly highly recommend.

Photographer: Mark Kauffman: A+ (for the day of, I have not received my proofs yet)
We had Mark Kauffman himself, his assistant and Drew as our Fine Art photographer. All I can say is WOW. They really exceeded our expectations and Drew was great! Completely accommodating. They were all over the place but barely noticeable. I can’t wait to get our proofs. I saw quite a few photographers in my search and his studio’s work was consistently the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Edited to Add: I received my proofs, all 1300+ of them. I am very happy. They completely capture the day. Now I still have work on my album!

Videographer: Wild Rose: A+++
I love Bill and Marie. They arrived early and got all of the getting ready shots. I got to do the “Wild Rose turn” and because I chose the documentary style video they interviewed me, DH, and our families. We were extremely impressed with their professionalism both prior and the day of the wedding.
Our wedding video turned out to be absolutely breathtaking. Wild Rose did a phenomental job! I highly recommend them!!!

Band: Hot Pursuit: A+++
They MADE the entire night. We literally had guests book them that night for their daughter’s wedding. They learned both of our parents dances for us. Our first dance was amazing (they even let us sneak into the room to practice with them during cocktail hour). I can’t say enough about them. Our dance floor was PACKED all night, from the moment we walked into the room. We booked Hot Pursuit through Faze4 although they are also through Franklin Wayne as well. 4 unbelievable singers.

Hair: Tarale: A+
I love her. I had another hair trial with somebody else but decided I wanted another look. After my original stylist cancelled due to personal reasons, I didn’t have time to have a hair trial with Tarale b/c I don’t live in New York. I was fully confident she would be able to pull it off and she did. I loved my hair. It stayed all night and was perfect.

Make-up: Jacqueline Nicole: A+
What can be said about her that hasn’t already. She is amazing. She arrived early and had 10 people to do. She made both my mother and grandmother look so beautiful! I had airbrushing and it lasted all night. AMAZING.

Limos: All Star Limos: A
We had a H2 Hummer limo for the BP, a 10 passenger for our parents and a 6 passenger bridal coach. The drivers helped with everything from the runner to making sure the bus driver knew where he was going. Debbie was GREAT to work with; we had rented vans from them two nights prior to take our BP to and from the rehearsal dinner. NO problems at all. I love using them. Their cars were clean, new and impeccable.

Bus: H&J Bus: F
They were almost two hours late picking up my guests from NYC. The driver (Earl) gave us all kinds of excuses from a flat tire, traffic, and a parade. To this day we still do not know what really happened, honesty would have been nice. Their extreme tardiness caused scheduled stops to be eliminated so my guests had to walk blocks to consolidate at one meeting place. Their aerobic activity was not over yet H&J added another block of walking to meet the bus because he passed up the hotel and did not want to go around the block. The guests arrived at the church AFTER I did forcing me to duck back into the limo. After the reception, the driver was rushing people out threatening that if they did not get on the bus in 5 minutes they would be left behind (this was at 11:10 and our pickup on the contract said 11:30). After the bus was loaded with our guests the driver decided to “shake down” guests for additional funding or they would not be dropped off. The drop offs were all discussed and assured by H&J and we were running ahead of schedule. Some guests gave him money. Our best man took the tip money for the driver and paid the guests back. The ironic thing is he would have received more money from the tip had he not extorted money from our guests. When my husband called the next day to complain to the owner, he said “roll with the punches” and he was not going to get the extorted money back. H&J was rude and had horrible customer service concerning problems. They refused to recognize the efforts put into making this day special and in my opinion treated my guests like cattle. I would NOT recommend.

Butterflies: Swallow Tail Farms: ???
We paid $ to have 5 dozen butterflies to release after the ceremony. They were supposed to arrive on Saturday. They never did. They claim it was FedEx that did not deliver. We contacted Fed Ex directly and they claimed that Swallow Tail Farms had a Monday delivery scheduled, realized their mistake and recalled the order. Nevertheless, we couldn’t get them delivered in time because they do not have a carrier authorized to deliver live butterflies on a Sunday and they refunded our money. I was a little disappointed but it was alright in the end. We didn’t have to worry about coordinating anything.

Hotels: Wingate Inn, The Paramount, Best Western President: B+
I got ready at the Wingate Inn in their bridal suite, they were great! DH and family got ready at The Paramount (which is also were we spent our wedding night) and we also blocked rooms at the Best Western President. Jodi delivered all of our OOT bags. We had a few last minute people to book hotel rooms, which was harder to convince the hotels to honor the rate but in the end it worked out.

Honeymoon: San Francisco (Clift Hotel) and Napa Valley (1801 Inn): A+
We stayed at the famous Clift Hotel, sister to The Paramount in NYC. Once we arrived, the concierge Philippe greeted us with champagne and we were upgraded from the suite to their “Private Apartment” (which we are convinced is bigger than our house, it took up a greater part of the 14th floor). The view was amazing, the room was amazing, the service outstanding. We left to go shopping the first day to come back and find the bedroom trailed with rose petals, on the bed, bathroom, candles, and hersey kisses. A knock on the door a few minutes later, was a bottle of red wine, fruits, cheeses, etc.
We later found out it was because my FMIL had arranged for the rose petals at The Paramount for our wedding night and it never happened. Lo and behold, they went over and beyond to make it up to us.
DH rented a Porsche Boxster (who ever thought to rent a manual transmission with those hills!) but we had fun driving around Chinatown, Sausalito, Coit Tower, Haight Ashbury, etc.
After a few days in San Francisco, we went to Napa Valley. We stayed at a very cool B&B (caviar for breakfast!), toured the wineries, had a couples massage, and just relaxed. It was perfect!!


My wedding pictures (posted from Newlywed Board)

My Proofs

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congratulations on a beautiful day! As you can see in my review (4/4/04 wedding) I also had a miserable time with H+J. Happy to complain with you to anyone!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congrats!!! So glad to hear about your day!! How did you like your cake???!!!! All the NRC brides are dying to know!!!!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congratulations! You looked stunning and it sounds like you had a wonderful day!!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Great review!!! Congrats!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congrats on such a wonderful day! Thanks for the great review!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

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Posted by Barakabella

Congratulations on a beautiful day! As you can see in my review (4/4/04 wedding) I also had a miserable time with H+J. Happy to complain with you to anyone!

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Thanks! It is funny because I booked them solely based on a great review from somebody on this board. I wish I would have listened to Debbie at All Star and went with her suggestion. I didn't find most of this out until days after the wedding.
At least the guests got to the wedding and back at the end of the night.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

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Posted by groovypeg

Congrats!!! So glad to hear about your day!! How did you like your cake???!!!! All the NRC brides are dying to know!!!!

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The cake tasted incredible. I got white cake with choc/banana filling. So many people told me they had more than one slice
I am glad I didn't get it stacked. It looked better being partly tiered. Flower Michele did such a great job decorating it. I one picture I have doesn't do it justice, I will post more once I get my proofs.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congratulations!! Sounds like you had a beautiful day! Glad to hear your that almost everything went perfectly! You look beautiful. Can't wait to see your proofs!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Thanks! It is funny because I booked them solely based on a great review from somebody on this board. I wish I would have listened to Debbie at All Star and went with her suggestion. I didn't find most of this out until days after the wedding.
At least the guests got to the wedding and back at the end of the night.

Funny -- I got them from a rave on the boards too!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congrats Jen!!!!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

YEAH I'm glad that it sounds like basically everything went smoothly! I am SO sorry that we were not able to be there. I can't wait to see your photos I am positive that they will be perfect!!!

that is interesting about the bright light with wild rose - did you think that ours was as bright - none of us noticed the light that wild rose had - in fact a few people said it was nice not to have the bright lights. Maybe our room wasn't as dark?

BTW did you get the thing I sent? I was concerned that with the problems with the addy that it never arrived

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

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Posted by Rob-luvs-me

YEAH I'm glad that it sounds like basically everything went smoothly! I am SO sorry that we were not able to be there. I can't wait to see your photos I am positive that they will be perfect!!!

that is interesting about the bright light with wild rose - did you think that ours was as bright - none of us noticed the light that wild rose had - in fact a few people said it was nice not to have the bright lights. Maybe our room wasn't as dark?

BTW did you get the thing I sent? I was concerned that with the problems with the addy that it never arrived

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actually it was at your wedding that Rob noticed it first. I have to admit I didn't notice it until he pointed it out. It did not bother me AT ALL. he is just really sensitive to it because he is not a video person. He LOVED Wild Rose and had a really great time with Bill and was overall happy he got a video.

yes, we got it, THANK YOU. Absolutely beautiful!!! I kept meaning to mention it

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

LOL that is funny I showed Rob the review and he says he never noticed it and I didn't either - I guess I was used to going to weddings where there are bright spotlights that I just didn't notice it (or I was just in my own world that night ) anyway you look AMAZING in the photos and I am anxiously awaiting those proofs!

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Thank you for the incredibly detailed review. I booked H&J on the basis of good reviews posted on the website. In addition I checked them out with the Better Business Bureau and they had a satisfactory report. I'm so shocked by the lack of service that they provided, not just one bride but two brides. I'm so sorry to hear about your terrible experience and I really thank you for sharing. I don't know if I have time to consider another bus service, but I will definitely keep an eye on their service and how they treat our guests.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

we used H & J and thought they were great. the driver got a little lost getting to the hall but the guests go him back on track. our driver shuttled us till 3am in the morning. im sorry you hada bad experience. we found that they were worth every penny and we did not have to have our guests give money.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

From my review:
'
H+J Transportation F (sorry there is not a lower grade)
--To make life easier on our guests, we wanted to negate the need for them to rent cars. We tried to simplify logistics by having all the key events in one place (Fox Hollow) and by arranging a shuttle to transport folks from hotel/train station to Coindre. They seemed nice enough when I spoke to them over the phone. I had been annoyed by previous transport vendors who had a mandatory gratuity as part of reserving them. I do not go for that. We are very generous tippers but do so as they are earned. So we were happy to find H+J. (Turns out most folks drove in and were carpooling so the shuttle was barely going to be necessary but still we thought we would have it.) Sent in deposit and 2 weeks before wedding the lady calls me to say “We are not coming because you have not paid the balance.” I told her we planned to pay in cash at the wedding and she nastily said “No, you did not send it and it must be paid in full before the wedding.” So I said “Sorry, I will send a check”—we told her we did not think that we needed a shuttle as things turned out but she said we cannot have deposit back (we thought this was fair and decided to just send the check.) Sent out that day. She said we are OK and told the planner two days later when they confirmed that we were all set. Friday, 3PM! before the wedding, while I am driving with FI on the MASS PIKE to NY when the woman from H+J calls to say “we never got your check and we are not coming!” I indicated surprise and that I was particularly surprised that this was when they were going to call me (3PM Fri before wedding – I mean were they unaware of this problem two days before when I could have done something about it?) and that she bluntly called me a liar who had not sent in a check. They demanded I send someone from my family (who live in Nassau) IMMEDIATELY with cash or they would not come. Since I had no way of checking what was the status of the check I had sent out this was a rather disturbing proposition in addition to the fact that it was just so darn nervy. My FI was not happy at this moment as he heard this horrible woman trashing me on phone and suggested I get our wonderful planner, Elaine DeLuca involved. She spoke to them and arranged for us to pay them cash at the wedding.
Well, wedding day comes and we designate a friend to deliver the money at pickup. Driver does not show. 1PM, 2PM, 3PM (wedding called for 3PM) nothing. Then at 3:30 we get a phone call – driver does not know where Fox Hollow is. I guess they never heard of the uh, phone book? Turned out not to be a big thing – the five folks just took a cab but so much hassle from H+J for nothing. Plus we had to fight them to get our money back which they delayed and delayed sending. Note, they also sent back the check that “I never sent”. BBB will be hearing from me on this vendor. Avoid them like the plague.'

I would strongly advise people to beware H+J--they were unresponsive to complaints and took endless trouble on the part of our planner to get our money back. I am glad that Corrine had a great experience and I think I got their name from your review, but boy, I sure had a different experience. I would say there are so many other companies that I would at least check into alternate options.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Jen! Congratulations! You looked Stunning!

I'm glad you had mostly a wonderful day.

ETA: I'm interested in hearing more on the Wingate - why did you give the hotels a B+? What lowered the grade?

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

You looked like a princess!! Congratulations! Sorry about the few mishaps along the way but it seems like you still had a wonderful day despite them.

Re: My fabulous May 16th wedding (North Ritz Club)

Congratulations!!! It sounds like your day was perfect! I love reading another good review for the NRC!!!

Your pics are beautiful! I can't wait to see your proofs!!!