September 18th Wedding Review

General thoughts:

The morning of the big day my mother and I had a good cry (in separate rooms) as the rain came pouring down. My baby sis (MOH) kept me laughing as we got our hair done and mother nature decided to give us a bit of a break for the ceremony. In the end it did not matter. Yes I would have preferred sunshine (so would have my hair), but the day was just as magical even with some rain drops…

Given what we wanted to spend and what the final product turned out to be, I think we did a pretty good job. I could not have pulled it off without the help of my mother who made all the dresses and centerpieces. I took care of all the paper items – invites, programs, place cards, etc. It cut down costs and personalized the event. If I had allowed myself a larger budget, the only vendor I would have potentially changed is Louis XVI based on location and venue maintenance only. I would have also purchased the entire tux ensemble for the groomsmen as well (we bought the jacket and pants through DH’s dad, but rented all other accessories through the Men’s Warehouse). The dresses for the girls were custom made by my mother and a gift to them from her.

We honeymooned in Italy and hit Milan, Florence and Venice. I believe we could have saved some cash by booking directly, but we ran out of time due to poor planning and had to suck it up. Of the limited research we conducted, Dawn at Cruise One gave us the best rates and answered all the annoying little questions DH had along the way. We had a blast and enjoyed the alone time. Initially we were going to forgo the whole thing but are happy that we elected to get away for a bit…

The following vendors were fantastic and I would recommend to others:

Photographer – Tom Weis ( www.tomweisweddings.com)

I have yet to receive proofs, but I love his previous work and personality. Tom is flexible and non-intrusive. To me, his photos stood out from all the rest. I just hope DH and I are more photogenic than we think we are, and our photos are as fantastic as all the rest! DH’s eyes are constantly closed in pics I take and the only way to get him to smile is by saying things I did not want to repeat to my photographer. At one point I got so flustered I finally blurted to him a few select words that make FH laugh, I was mortified…

Band – Ron Sunshine Band ( www.ronsunshine.com)

They kept both young and old on the dance floor. Not your typical wedding band. I have seen them at various non wedding venues and they have always conducted themselves in a professional manner. The only “announcements” we had were introductions to the speeches. They followed exactly what we requested.

Florist – LA Blossom ( www.lablossom.com)

Laurie was consistently responsive with all questions and concerns, and delivered a beautiful final product. She helped acquire centerpiece materials for my mother at a great rate. Because she was so resourceful I knew I wanted to give her the responsibility of creating the bouquets and church decorations.

Reception - Louis XVI (www.louisxvi.org)

Fantastic food and service. They won’t hold your hand and blow sunshine up your behind, but they are good at what they do and I believe provide better than average service. The actual place could use some TLC however that gets overlooked after a few drinks and some grub.

Vendors who did not live up to my expectations:

Tux Accessories - Men’s Warehouse

PITA down to the wire. My advice to anyone who has booked through them is request to pick up the stuff 2-3 days in advance to pad time for screw ups. Make sure to catch anything that needs to be reordered and/or fixed by 6:00 pm as anything after that gets submitted the following day. They state that they can correct things within a 24-48 hour time frame, so keep that in mind. Mistakes happen, however what totally infuriated me about them was that they really didn't care and adopted the attitude 'well, we'll try but can't guarantee anything'.

Hotel - Wyndham Wind Watch (now the Hyatt Wind Watch)

A few of our guests got bumped and were forced to book with other hotels upon check in. The rooms were free and transportation was provided for them, however I found this to be totally unacceptable. One doesn’t reserve a year in advance only to hear “oops we overbooked”. Also, the night of our reception there was a high school reunion taking place in the Terrace Café area. One reason we booked the Wind Watch was because we felt the bar area would be a great place for everyone to grab a couple more drinks and unwind before retiring up to their rooms. The blasting DJ music was so obnoxiously loud that conversations could not be held. I gave up the bridal suite to my parents and their OOT friends for a bit so they could catch up. My drunken MOH adopted the “if you can’t beat em, join them” attitude and decided to crash the reunion with her friends and other inebriated guests…

We had a rehearsal dinner the night before and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food (we were expecting eh, it turned out to be okay). The service however, was abysmal. The post nuptial breakfast was good though although we underestimated the number of people who would attend and guests had to wait a bit before they could be seated.


I'M GLAD IT'S ALL OVER AND WE HAD A BLAST!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congratulations!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats again!!!!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congratulations!! I'm glad you didn't let the weather spoil your day. We went to Italy too...wasn't Venice the best?

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

congrats...!!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats! (We want photos!)

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congratulations!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats!!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats date buddy, I was thinking of you and the other brides. Somebody didn't do enough sunshine dance for us.



I'm glad that you had a beautiful day.

I will be doing my review shortly.

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats!! We want pics!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats on your wedding & marraige!! and thanks for the review.

Sounds like your day was wonderful, and that the honeymoon was terrific also.

Now the big question.......we need pics of the beautiful bride! Please???

All the best , now and always

Congratulations again!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats!!!!!! Pics please!!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congratulations! Sounds like a wonderful wedding and honeymoon! Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats!!!!!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

congratulations!!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congrats!

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

Congratulations! You were beautiful as was your dress...your mom did an amazing job.

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

I know it was 2 years ago but we are considering Louis XVI - any advice? Is the dance floor big enough for 140pp? Thank you.

Re: September 18th Wedding Review

congrats on your wedding.