Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro pic

LIW A+++++++++++++

From the first moment that I found out about this site I have been addicted. So has my DH. We have received sooo many great ideas and were able to pick the best vendors to make our day the best.

Weather A

As with every bride, I was checking the weather for our big day for months. Our day was beautiful. There was a slight shower while at lands end but it only lasted about 10 seconds. We said that was our good luck rain.

Paradise Bridal-B+

Bridal Gown- Mary's Bridal- Jo Jo was the my bridal consultant. She was awsome. Any time I called or had a problem she was right there to help me. HIGHLY recommend if you go there to see her. I kinda knew what I wanted and knew that I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the dress and she stayed within my budget. We ordered it early and she said it could take up to 9 months to come in. Within 2 months it was in. They were able to hold for me until I needed to go for my first fitting. Alterations, the first woman, I wasn't a big fan of. As it turned out I didn't have the right bra so I had to come back. The second one that I had turned out to be great. She knew exactly was needed to be done and did a great job.

Flower Girls-

We ordered them in Nov for our May wedding because one of the dresses needed to be shipped to FL. As it turned out it was the best thing to do to order them early because when they came in, the totally came in with the wrong colors. I'll say some of it was my fault for not paying attention to the color they wrote down on the paper and the other part was their issue. But I have to say, they were awsome and reordered them in the different color and they still came in on time.

Brides Maid-

Just to give you a little back round I had three different designers for my girls. I had my Aunt Mary as my Matron of honor, my friend Jen as a bridesmaid and my niece Holly as my jr brides maid. Each person had a totally different body type and were a totally different age. So I had three different designers that I had to find pretty much the same color. To make things even more difficult, My MOH lives in CA, my niece lives in Westchester and my BM lives here on the island. So my MOH order her dress in CA my niece ordered it in Westchester and BM ordered from paradise.


Brides Maid-No problems here- ordered impressions separates and it was perfect. Her color was cloudy chiffon.

MOH-ordered it in CA- Alfred Angelo- color cornflower chiffon

Jr-bridesmaid-ordered it in Westchester-Eden Bridal-color cornflower chiffon

Needless to say since I really had no idea until the day of our wedding if everything was going to match and it did!!!

MOG and MOB dresses

We also ordered both of these gowns from them also. My mom was going in for surgery so we needed to get in and order her gown before it was too late. My mom is not a small woman. They were great with and we found a gown that came in her size and a color she wanted. As it turned out the next day we received a call saying that gown was no longer available so I looked around on line and found another dress by the same desinger. It was available in both the size and color she wanted. We ordered it and it came in, in only 2 weeks. It was unbelieveable. MOG dress, also no problems staff was great to work with.

Bra-Marys

Both MOG and I got our bras here. We went at two different times. I had no problems. Bra fit great and I was in and out. It wasn't too far from where I worked, so I called them one day and asked if they were busy...as it turned out they weren't. MOG had a different experience. Her bra was way too tight and just didn't fit right. She went back and after she was done it still didn't fit right and they charged her for fixing it.

Rehersal DInner- ZZ Grill-A++

The food was great and we had no problems. We had our own private room upstairs. It was a buffet and everyone had a wonderful time.



Grooms Cake-Aurdery's Bakery A+++++++++

As soon as I figure out how to post pictures I will.....This was the best looking cake ever. We gave him a picture of my DH fire truck and they did a FANTASIC job. All of the details were there. The cake itself was OUTSTANDING. We had a chocolate cake with oreos and cream filling. It was sooooo good.

Lands End-A+++++++++++

LE brides you have NOTHING to worry about. Everyone was fantasic. We were able to get there a little earlier than usual because they didn't have a function before ours. They had pleanty of food for the bridal party and family that was coming there for pics. My bridal attendant and MD were also great. They always made sure we had a drink and were well fed. When we first got there they asked Erik and I about what we wanted to eat. They gave us 1 of each of the meals for us to eat. Erik and I LOVE their blue cheese potatoes. When we told them that they made sure they gave us extra. Anytime we needed something the BA and MD were there. The grounds for picture taking was awsome. Everyone said they thought the food was excellent and so was the service.

Cake-Audry's

Once again the cake was delicous. We had rasberry and chocolate moose filling. YUMYUMYUM.

Sir Oliver Limos-A++++++++

Booking with them was not a problem at all. Speaking with the to confirm everything also went well. We also booked them to take us to and pick us up from the airport when we got home from our HM. They were early to on time for both Erik and I. Rachel was my driver and was awsome. She made sure all was fluffed when it needed to be. She was also awsome with me helping me getting in and getting out of the limo. She knew what needed to be done when. Going to the airport and picking us up no problems.......

Jen and Oksana-A+++++++

All I hear is good things about them, and they were all true. They came to us at the hotel and they were on time and ready to go. I loved the way everyones hair and makeup came out. Everyones hair stayed throughout the whole day. I don't usally wear a lot of makeup and when Oksana was done, I couldn't even feel that I had any on. My hair was also fantasic....loved it!!!

Spelman Studios- Video and Photo


Video- TBD
Photo -from proofs seen on line A+

We went to a couple of photographers and as soon as we saw her work we knew she was the one. She is very detailed and wants to capture everything that you want in the pictures. I'll be honest, there are probably other photographers out there that aren't as expensive and you could probably get more bang for your buck. But she takes really awsome pictures and was a pleasure to work with. We made sure we had pleanty of time to take pics. Since my mom wasn't able to get around all that well, Christine made sure that we were able to go to her to get any pics that we wanted. We had a small bridal party, but she made sure she knew everyones name and how they were related. At our final meeting before the wedding she made sure she wrote everything down, family tree, what specific pictures we wanted etc. I knew that she was going to get everything that we wanted. She was very responsive to e-mails and answered all of my questions.

UPDATE:
VIDEO: B. It was good. There were a couple of issues, but Christine was very responsive and corrected them immediately.

Album: I Loved the final product after I tweeked it. After viewing our digital album on line, I needed to make some changes. It wasn't that her staff did a bad job, it was just that there were several pages that we wanted to change. After we went to her office twice to make changes we were very happy with the final product.


LI Sounds-A++++

Chris was our MC and he was FANTASIC. We had a much older crowd at our wedding and we told him what kind of music we wanted and he nailed it. They weren't too loud and played great music. We also had a piano player from them he was also great. I faxed him several times with different changes and addtions, he got all of them and didn't miss a beat.(no pun intented)

We also ordered a lot of stuff off e-bay for gits for parents and bridal party. No problems at all with anyone that I used.

Hilton Garden Inn-C

As the hotel business goes, the person we dealt with last year is no longer there. Anything we had spoken about was not taken care of by the time our guests arrived. Most of our OOT guests flew in late one night. I would have thought everything would have been taken care of. The guests staying there should have received a card for breakfast the next morning saying that it was taken care of by the brides parents. They didn't have the cards. So I asked about the next morning, they had the cards but all of the dates for the whole week were on it!!!...So I told them it was only supposed to be for Monday and they corrected it. The floor that we were on was supposed to be a non smoking floor, but did it smell of smoke...yuck....The rooms themselves were nice, the lobby area for taking pics was all nice.

Rogers Tuxedos Smithtown A

No problems at all either. My father had just been discharged from the hospital for a leg and foot problem. They totally were able to work with him to make sure he was happy for that day.

Loven Oven Floral-A++++++++++++

OMG...I loved my flowers. Keyth from the begining was such a pleasure to work with. I told him exactly what I was looking for and he nailed it. Anytime I called him or had a question he was understanding and answered all of them.

St. Lucia-----A

We stayed at Sandals Grande for 10 days. We had a swim up lagoon room which was a suite concierge level room and loved every minute of it. When you are staying in a concierge room and you first arrive you will be taken privately to a room upstairs when someone explaines to you the lay of the land and all about what they do in the concierge room. They give you drinks and snaks with a cold towel. Highly recommend going on the tour of the hotel at 11am the next morning after you arrive. It was a big help to us.

In the morning if we ordered room service, we would go for a dip after eating. The pool for the most part was quite and private. Not many people used it that often, but if there were other people there, they respected your privacy. The only time it got a little noisy was in the morning when they cleaned the pool, the pump out side made it sound like it was raining. Other than that, no other complaints. The room itself was great too. It had a flat screen TV and the airconditioning was cool. The bed was the highest bed ever. If you are short, you are going to need a ladder or a running start to get into bed. The good thing about staying at a sandals was that you could go to the other 2 resorts to eat and play. The Halcyon was the smaller of the 3. The Regency had the same atmosphere as the grande. The one thing that I didn't care for anywhere was the drinks. They just didn't have the same taste as the ones at home. Because it was soo hot the ice melted really quickly and made the drink just taste watered down.

They also have about 20 different tours that you can go on. They avg 50-100ish pp. We only went on one tour that was on a catamaran. It was a lot of fun and we were glad to see the other part of the island.

Food info:
Halcyon-The pier-the best meal we had while staying in St. Lucia. Many different types of food to choose from and by far the best dessert selection.

Halcyon-Marios-Italian.
Their food was okay. Nothing to write home about. Not horrible either.

Regency-Armondos-Italian
Here we had the best Italian meal. Nice size portions and great tasting. Nice atmosphere and pleasant staff.

Regency-Kimonos-(kinda like gashos (sp?) in Hauppuage)
Here is where there are about 10 people to a table and they cook the food infront of you. You don't get to choose your main meal, they give you a little bit of each chichen,beef, and seafood. By little, I mean little. Portion sizes once again not that large. You get to choose your soup and app...once again small and okay tasting.

Regency-Arizona-
It was good, we had burgers there for lunch one day.

Grande- Toscanini's-Italian
Didn't like the meal at all. The lasgana was just not NY style at all. It had peas and carrots in it??? For dessert they said they had strawberry moose...I think it should have been call strawberry spam....didn't have much strawberry taste and really looked like it came out of a spam can.

Grande-Olde London Pub
We ate here several times. They have the best mozzarella sticks. But if you really like them, the app you only get 3 sticks...so if you are hungry make sure you order a double or triple order. The same with the crab cakes, I think you only get 1 or 2 little ones. Just order double the order. Pasta was good and bread was pretty good too. Buffet for dessert, not too bad either.

Grande-Beach Bistro-

This was a good place to eat lunch. It was fun to watch the birds come down and eat the people's food that already had left. All of our meals there were pretty good to. If it is the middle of the day and you are looking for some snaky type of food, they have a self serve part to it. They have pizza, nachos, and sausage rolls. Also self serve soda.

Grande-Bayside

Here is where we most of the time had breakfast. They have a huge buffet selection. Everything from cereal to french toast. You can have an egg omlet or pancakes with chocolate chips. YMM!!

We also had a few lunches there because that is where they have the icecream and shakes. YUMMY!!!...It felt so good to have some icecream in the middle of day.....

Just be careful of all the flying birds...at one of our meals there poor DH had a bird take a poop on him...I think that means good luck huh???..lol

Just a couple of tips

1) MAKE SURE YOU BRING A TON OF SUN BLOCK.....you have no idea how hot it is until it could be too late. We heard there was at least one person that had to be taken by ambulance to the local clinic because she had heat stroke and needed to be rehydrated.

2) Fly into the smaller airport if you can. We had a lay over in San Juan which wasn't bad at all. It is only about an avg of 30 min ride to the hotels from the smaller airport, from what I understand it is about a 2 hour ride from the larger airport.

3) Definately go to all 3 resorts. It can be a pain to get to the Regency, but it was well worth it.

Okay I am going to try and post some pics..if I think of anything else I will post it.

Liberty Travel-Lake Grove

I was a little dissapointed. We received the same discount as Sandals was offering. Nothing more or less. We booked over a year in advance, I would have thought we would have picked up a sale somehwere along the line...but nope.......

Good luck girls.

Non pro pics

pro pics

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Let me know what you think.

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

yaaay, great review and wedding!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

great review!
Congrats!!!!!!!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Congrats. Great review. You were a gorgeous bride. I love your dress.

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Congratulations ~ Great review ~ you looked beautiful!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Great review!!!!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Great review! Everything looked great& you were a beautiful bride! Congrats

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Thanks for review and Congrats!!!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

omg.....i was thinking of you on your beautiful day. so glad everything went great. i loved loved your review.

Spelman did an amazing job with your photos.

you look so happy. congrats to you and your hubby

Re: Our Wedding 5/20/07 ZZ Grill, Lands End, Sir Oliver Limo, Oksana and Jen, Paradise Bridal, Loven Oven Floral,LI Sound, Spelman, Rogers Tuxedo, Hilton Garden INN,St. Lucia and more w/pro & non pro

Great review, Heather!! You guys looked awesome! Congratulations!