The Brides' Review - Our March 8 Wedding Review Pics (I hope) fox hollow, PWP

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Our March 8 Wedding Review Pics (I hope) fox hollow, PWP

MrsG Posted: May 14, 2008 05:19 PM+

MrsG MEMBER SINCE: 9/07 TOTAL POSTS : 215 WEDDING DATE: Mar 08, 2008

Posted: May 14, 2008 05:19 PM

Our March 8 Wedding Review Pics (I hope) fox hollow, PWP

Here is my kinda long wedding review for my March 8 wedding. I hope the pictures come out: I usually have some trouble with that.

Bridal Suite of Bayshore: B. I was really happy with the service up until the day of my wedding. They didn’t want to take my AMEX card, but eventually they gave in. I got a gorgeous Mori Lee dress at a great price: see attached photos. I ordered my Alfred Angelo Bridesmaid’s gowns sight unseen, and was really happy with the color and quality. Unfortunately, my MOH’s hook-and-eye clasp was put on upside down, with the hook at the bottom and the eye at the top (it was a 2 piece dress) and one of my bridesmaid’s dresses WAS NOT TAILORED AT ALL! Granted, it was her fault for not trying it on before taking it home, but we were discouraged from doing that, lest we wrinkle it and they had to steam it again. They must have just forgotten about it and it was falling off. Despite the efforts of the PWP, she ended up having to take off the sagging dress half way through the reception, and put on a velour sweat-suit—and then proceeded to catch the bouquet, but that’s another story. The only bridesmaid’s dress that wasn’t sartorially screwed up was the one we sent to Florida to have tailored. I had to remind them to Velcro my cathedral veil to the shorter one, but that’s minor. My dress was flawless, tho’.

Francine’s Cosmetique: A (Sayville)
Francine is the woman. I bought all my accessories from her, and I got my shoes for free. Not the cheapest jewelry on the Island, but she throws one good deals. My Victorian boots were at least $200, but she gave them to me as long as I spent the equivalent in jewelry, which I did, and which she had fitted perfectly.

Eternal the Spa: (Babylon).
I love this place, though my credit card doesn’t. They transformed my skin in about one year of facials. I had problems with breakouts, which had started recently but was becoming a bit too much like acne for my liking. It cost me, but Tanya took me on and my skin is still glowing and clear. I also went there for my pre-wedding pampering, and the excitement of the staff was very nice. They convinced my to paint my nails to match my red flowers, and that was a big hit. Thanks especially to Tanya, Lisa and Raye.

Inn at Fox Hollow: A

Beautiful hotel, though they had some billing problems. I think my family partied a bit too much, and they were really gracious about it. The concierge staff was exceptional, and the rooms immaculate and roomy enough for all my make-up and hair people. I can’t say enough good stuff about the staff there. I practically moved in for the weekend, and they were really helpful. Kaleem rocks, especially! Some of our stuff was broken (Stove, DVD player) and the maintenance people had to keep coming up, but they were also really cool and gracious about that. Loved the soaking tub, and the breakfast.
I don’t have pictures of the bridal suite, which had really gorgeous linen and window treatments, but there is a picture of one of the guest rooms attached.

Bayport Flower Houses: A+++++.
This was the first thing to show up on my wedding day, and I was so excited! And everything was perfect. I got white tulips with red daisies and the girls had multicolor tulips. We gave Joann a hard time because we wanted the tulips to stay closed, but they naturally open up, so she couldn’t make any promises. Turned out, the tulips stayed closed and looked like little bowls of glass (see picture).

Lucy from Posh, in Babylon: A
Lucy’s gone from Posh, quite disappeared, but she did a great job. Posh was quite expensive and the staff a bit uppity, but I suppose that’s the role they’re playing. Anyway, they were totally willing to help me our when I thought I had a make-up crisis, and for that I am thankful. Lucy showed up at 8am to do my hair, and it came out even better than at the trial. She worked very well with my friend who was doing my make-up, and stayed until I was all dressed and ready to go.

ADA Studios: A+
Our photographer, Thomas, was great and got a ton of awesome shots of us getting ready. He helped out with our dress crises, and my proofs are gorgeous. Even though we took the economy package, we were still treated like royalty, and I wasn’t forced to spend my whole wedding in front of a camera. There were a couple of people we didn’t get pictures of, but that might have been our fault for not stressing it. Thomas got excellent shots of the party, and our portraits in the photo-studio were done very efficiently.

Perfect Wedding Planner: A+++++. Jessica and Liz—I would recommend them to anybody. We went in for wedding day coordination, and these ladies took all care from me. They were extremely helpful with invitation and thank-you note wording, and with keeping all of the vendors on track. The PWP office is a really cool environment, very relaxed. They have no problem spending a few hours with you, going over all the incidentals. I wouldn’t have had a lot of my special touches if I hadn’t visited there every few months. I wasn’t forced to buy their products or use their vendors. They were very knowledgeable about wedding vendors and boutiques in general.

Royalty Limousines: B-
Royalty was actually quite difficult at a few points, which was highly unexpected because our family works with them a lot, and we take a lot of limos. We were originally going to go with All Star, and maybe we should have. It was difficult to take care of anything over the phone with them, as we were put on hold and switched around to too many different people, getting different answers from everyone. We were not able to use our credit card to pay the balance one month before, even though we were told we could. At the wedding, one of our cars was not what we specified or paid for (that one was supposedly broken) and our specialty car broke down at the church. The mechanic who came to fix it came in another (not as nice, clean, nor stocked with alcohol) and he didn’t want to let us take that because “I just drove all the way here from Nassau to fix it”. Was this guy kidding me? My husband put his tools on the sidewalk and we got in the new car. I give them a B- because our driver was really nice, and did the whole wedding driver thing real well, talking to us about marriage and his wife. He was an older married guy, and it added a nice touch.

St. Joseph’s: A+ (Babylon)
This church is so gorgeous I cannot explain it. We did not decorate it at all because it was perfect. We went with the organ music, which was flawless. The only thing was that we could not have petals or birdseed, even if we cleaned them up. But it was raining anyway, so we did an indoor receiving line, and by the time we finished taking pictures, everyone had left for the party.

Stan Wiest Music: A+++++++
Stan, we love you. The other future brides at my wedding are all planning to book the Stan Wiest band. Those who already have, were really happy with their decision when they saw the performance. My husband and I are big Pink Floyd fans, and Stan found us a piano player to play Dark Side of the Moon, in its entirety, at the cocktail hour. At the last minute, literally the day of, we changed our introduction music from some kind of disco to “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. He timed it perfectly and it was awesome. We also wanted more Pink Floyd and the Doors, etc, at the reception, and Stan made it work. They were able to take all of our unusual requests and unify them with more traditional music. It kept everyone surprised and dancing the whole time, and, though we aren’t dancing or dance-music people, made our wedding music a reflection of our tastes. Every time we asked for something, Stan said “we can do that” and he made it better than expected. I really enjoyed my wedding, danced a lot and laughed a lot with everyone, and I believe Stan and his band deserve a lot of the credit for that. They played both records and live music. Anyone considering a band for her wedding bash should definitely call Stan. Though we had the small room at the FH, the band was never too loud and the whole party was relaxed and upbeat. Thanks Stan!

The Fox Hollow: A+++
Our cocktail hour was in the restaurant, which had a great lounge atmosphere. It got crowded, which I liked. They opened up a bit early to accommodate my guests who got there right after the ceremony. We got an amazing deal on our Saturday afternoon wedding, and they threw in extras, like the Viennese hour. The bar was never backed up, and all of the guests loved the food and the room. Our concierge and bridal attendants were right on top of every thing. I had thrown a party at the FH before, so I expected them to do a great job. The room was beautiful, and more than enough for our 135 guests. After the ceremony, they packed our room at the Inn with our dinners, which of course we didn’t eat, and a sampling of all the deserts and wine that they had served our guests. I strongly recommend requesting this service, for what it’s worth, cause one never eats her dinner at her wedding. The cake (strawberry shortcake) also got rave reviews.