UPDATED (photo and video) 7/18/09 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

I have never been an active poster on this site, but I am a big time lurker and found a lot of useful information. So now I am giving back! I hope that my review can help someone. Feel free to contact me for more info.

That being said, I can't figure out how to post pictures on here. I will put them in my album.

July 18th, 2009
Ceremony – Trinity Church, Wall Street
Reception – Bridgewaters
Photographer – Laura Ryan
Flowers – Flowers and Designs by Gina
Band – Ovation by Around Town
Dress – Robin, Designs on You
Video – Timeless Creations

Bridgewaters

We are very happy with our choice of Bridgewaters for the reception! The atmosphere was exactly what we wanted and the service the day of was excellent.

During the planning process, I would say our experience was average. Nothing really wrong with it, just nothing outstanding. There were some times when I had to resend emails before getting answers to questions (I was not at all a bothersome client), and there was some miscommunication about how large the tables could be (we found out 2 days before that we could have had larger tables - which would have made our seating arrangements easier) but there were no huge problems and it was overall fine.

However, the day of, everything really impressed us! The bridal attendant was super attentive (but not annoying) and everything ran smoothly. For the whole first week of our honeymoon, we kept saying how we couldn’t believe nothing went wrong. Since everything was ready, they let my guests in to start the cocktail hour early and the staff even moved around the guest book and gift tables mid reception when they didn’t think the layout was working.

The two main compliments (and two things we were very happy with!) we have been getting from guests are the location and the food. We got so many nice comments about how beautiful the reception hall was! Before my wedding, I had not really seen the space at night and when I did it really had a dramatic, romantic effect especially with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. The other thing we keep hearing about it the food! I didn’t try any of the stations food at the cocktail hour, but people tell me they were great. Our entree choices were Striped Bass and Filet Mignon, both of which were very good. The wedding cake was delicious and they also made us a groom’s cake (shaped like a UT football field) that came very nice. People kept telling me they had never had such a good meal at a wedding!

Flowers- Flowers and Designs by Gina

Gina was my favorite vendor! At the beginning of my planning, flowers were not a priority for me at all. I even considered doing all candles. I went to Gina with a small budget and she was very enthusiastic to work with me. I didn’t think high centerpieces were an option, but she suggested them herself and made it work. They came out beautiful! They brought the whole room together and looked stunning against the glass windows and candles. Gina was very attentive throughout the planning and covered small details I didn’t even think of.

Another part I was extremely happy with was the bouquets. When Gina showed up to my hotel room with them on the morning of the wedding, I got so excited. For me it is kind of hard to visualize an end result and I was just thrilled at how they came out. It was also the first real element of the wedding that I got to see that day, so it just put me in a good mood. My bridesmaids were getting compliments from total strangers on them all day, right up to the after party.

I am 100% satisfied with Gina. Please look at my pictures; they do better justice than me describing the flowers here!

Ovation by Around Town

We went to hear Around Town perform at a restaurant/bar on the upper west side and liked them right away. They were the first band that we heard and we wanted to wait a little before booking them. We had spoken to Adam (MC) about how interested we were and that we would be getting back to him shortly. We did call him later that week but he had already booked our date with someone else. We were really disappointed that he did not tell us someone else was interested in our date especially since we told him how interested we were. I guess this was our own fault. He offered us his other band, Ovation by Around Town, instead. We were really uncomfortable since we had not heard Ovation live, but we booked them anyway and it turned out well.

I liked having a live band at the wedding, and overall I think they did a good job. Our first dance song (Maybe I’m Amazed by Paul McCartney) was great! They played most (but not all) of our “must play” songs but they repeated our first dance song for the cake cutting instead of the one we choose. I honestly wasn’t bothered by it and only really noticed it on the video. We were a little disappointed that there were a couple of points during the night when the dance floor kind of cleared out and people wandered outside on the patio and over to the bar. I wish they had not let it go on quite as long as it did, our best man finally requested a fun song to start it up again. Overall though, it looked like everyone had a good time and we are happy.

Designs on You

Robin was one of my best finds during the planning process. I tried on a bunch of expensive dresses and found one I really liked at Kleinfelds, but was not willing to spend that much money. My mother’s friend told me about Robin and that was it. She runs a small home studio and gets new business entirely from word of mouth. I brought her pictures of dresses I liked and she sketched out a design on my first visit. The dress came out beautiful and I felt was very special and unique since I got to make suggestions and changes along the way. The dress was done very quickly and ended up costing me less than 1/3 of the cost of the dresses I designed it by!

Laura Ryan Photography

Laura was awesome to work with! I had limited contact with her in the time leading up to the wedding (I didn’t really have any questions for her so I just stalked her blog) but the day of she showed up right on time and was great to work with the whole day. She was very easy going and open to all the stupid ideas we had along the way. Once the reception began, I really didn’t notice her presence much at all aside from a few posed shots.

It took a while before we got any photos back, a very anxious 3 months. But now that I have them, I can see why! Laura took a lot of time and care in editing our photos and they look fantastic and unique. I really love her style and I think she is extremely talented.

Another thing I like is that I don’t have to buy prints from her. I have a CD with all the images (over 1000!) and I can print them myself. I actually have no idea if that is common or not, but I have some friends who have had bad experiences with this, so it was a good bonus for me.

I am adding some favorites to my album. Hope you enjoy!

Timeless Creations (New Jersey vendor)

Video was something that we only decided on the week before the wedding. I did not do much research on videographers and was honestly not expecting much in return for my efforts. I was pleasantly surprised! David was great to work with; he was very professional and responsive to us and his price was very reasonable. He made it a point to include our preferences in the editing and make sure the video reflected our style. The video was ready not long after we returned from our honeymoon and David even met me in person on my commute home to hand deliver the DVDs. When he emailed us later to follow up, we were honest about one part of the video that were a little disappointed with. He was very concerned and re-edited it until we were totally happy. I was not expecting that at all and we are very happy with the finished product!

Re: 7/18/08 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

Great review aand pics...Where did you get your MOB dress I like that for my mom.

Re: 7/18/08 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

Congratulations!!! You looked beautiful!

Re: 7/18/08 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

The MOB dress is from Bridal Reflections in Carle Place and the designer is YSA Makino. I am pretty sure she bought it on sale.

Re: 7/18/09 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

Thanks for the review! I have a question... Right now I am looking at flowers for the reception.. How much did you pay for each centerpiece? I am thinking of doing something similar to what you had.

Re: 7/18/09 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

Great review!!! I am happy that you had a nice day. I am so excited to be using Flowers and Designs by Gina for my wedding as well!!!!!

Re: 7/18/09 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

great review and lovely pictures! CONgrats

Re: 7/18/09 - Bridgewaters, Flowers and Designs by Gina, Laura Ryan Photography, Ovation by Around Town, Timeless Creations, Designs on You

I was actually looking into booking Laura Ryan... I'm glad to hear you have good review... and I stalk her site ALL THE TIME! haha