Well I figured I might as well start my review....I have so much to say! The day was great - the weather was perfect! I could not have asked for anything else!!!!
I'll start with the beginning I guess!
Bourbon Street - rehearsal dinner - B
The food was great and the service was wonderful, but he room was set up a little weird. It is a long room so there were two long tables next to each other and one long table near that. His family sat at one, mine at another and the bridal party at a different one. i kind of wanted everyone to mingle a little more, but the room didn't allow much movement. The food was great, for all of you looking for a place to hold a rehearsal dinner on a medium budget ($30 a person including alcohol) this is a great place to look.
St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church - A - Our ceremony was beautiful, the church was recently renovated and it looks wonderful. The priest was great, so laid back, and so easy to talk to. We were allowed to throw whatever we wanted, throw petals in the church, no limitations. It was great!
Hair - Salon De Ja Vu - A - This is the salon I go to so I figured they would be the best for my wedding and the were! We practically took this place over the morning of my wedding. My girls had their makeup done and we all had our hair done. Vicky spent hours on my hair and it looked great. They did a great job on everything.
My makeup - My friend! - A - We went to MAC and had them do my makeup, bought all the stuff and my friend did my makeup for me. She did a great job - Thanks Denise!!!
Dress: Kleinfeld's - A - Kleinfeld's was great! I only tried on 6 dresses and fell in love with mine immediately. The service was great from my dress associate to the seamstress. Everything was done well. I bought my dress during a trunk sale and I met the designer. I was able to have some minor changes made to the dress by the designer himself - WONDERFUL!!!!!
Tuxes - C - Men's Warehouse in Bayside - The service was okay, they have a great selection and the guys looked great in their tuxes but several buttons fell off their tuxes! One groomsman had to sew on a button the morning befire the ceremony and lost two more buttons during the night, another lost 2 buttons off his vest!
Bridesmaid Dresses - Here Comes the Bridesmaid (Great Neck) - A - The service here was great. They give a discunt since they don't do alterations and carry a good selection of dresses. The owner convinced me to look at dresses I never would have thought of and I ended up selecting one of them!! Even when I added a BM over the summer, the dresses still will part of the same dyelot and came in at the same time. The girls looked great!
Flowers - Burton's - B+ - The flowers looked great and their prices are unbelievable. They get a B+ because they never contacted me before the wedding it was up to me to schedule all the appointments, additionally they were a few minutes late (20 minutes) delivering the flowers.
Band - The Elite Club - B - The band was great!! They played a great variety of music and played everything very well. We got a ton of compliments on the band. I do have a few complaints though. We requested no particpation dances and they played one, they were supposed to sing Happy Birthday to my niece and cousin and didn't, the owner called me the morning of the wedding to tell me that the band would not be playing our first dance song and woud play a CD instead, we requested a number of songs to be peformed that were not. All in all they were very good though, I would use them again.
Veil - A - Affordable Bride website - I wanted a cathedral veil made of english netting trimmed in lace to match my dress. Everywhere up here wanted to charge me almost $500 or $600 sometimes more. My veil cost $190 including shipping and the lace matched perfectly!
Hairpins - Thomas Knoell - A - I ordered 6 hairpins, they were beautiful!!! He made them for me in less than a month! Everyone should go check out his store in Manhasset - he makes wonderful stuff!
Shoes - Hazel's in Bayside - A - I walked in found my shoes and bought them. They were soooooooooo comfortable. They have a great selection.
Photographer - Twelfth Night - A - Geraldine and Dominic were great they dealt with my family and the zillion pictures my Mom wanted very well. I can't wait to see my proofs!!!
UPDATED!!! The proofs are in and they are GREAT!!!!!!! So worth the wait! I would love to share but I am having problems resizing (see below) resizing tips would be great!
Video - Tom Mulligan - Looking Glass Video - A - Tom was great! He is very low key and unobtrusive which is exactly what we asked him to do. I would highly recommend him!!! I found him on NSgraham's website! I can't wait to see the video!
Pumpkins - Keil Brothers - A- We ordered 200 pumpkins to use as placecard holders. They were all perfect and to the specifications we requested.
NRC - A++++++++++++++++++++!!! The NRC was perfect. This was the first hall we looked at and nothing else compared. We had a large wedding (222 people) so this hall was ideal. The food was amazing!! The hall looked wonderful and the service was impeccable. Everything I requested came through. George and Ida were wonderful as were the bartenders, waitresses, etc. They sent us home with all the extra food, which was great since we didn't eat much during the wedding - TOO busy! The cake was beautiful and soooo great. We received tons of compliments on everything!
UPDATED!!!!
I forgot to add my limo company, probably because I was so disappointed.
Royalty Limos - F
When we booked the man told us we could bring in beer the week of the wedding and they would put it in the car for us. The week of the wedding comes my DH drives out there and they say 'sorry we don't do that'. A little frustrating, but no big deal, we put the beer in the car the day of the wedding in our own cooler (very classy - I know
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I printed out very detailed and explicit directions for the driver with a map because he needed to pick up my FH drop him off at the park, pick up me and the girls drop us off at the park and then take all of us to the church and then to the hall. He got lost every time we got in the car. We had to give hm directions the whole time!!!
But that isn't the worst of it. When we got to the church our parents and all the guys got out. Myself and my BM's stayed in the limo while the driver went to set things up in the church. 15 minutes go by at the driver isn't back and no one can find him!!!! We climb out of the limo ourselves (it was an Exoedition and very high) which made for some interesting pictures and start heading to the church, at which time we find out the driver has been in the bathroom for the whole time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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He finally comes out and decides to put the runner down and of course it doesn't cover the whole aisle!!!! I told them before my aisle was very long and that we needed a long runner, but they didn't send one. So what did the driver want to do? He wanted to pick up the rug we were standing on and put it on the runner because he forgot tape and it wouldn't stay down!!!!!!
Needless to say - Royalty was not that great!
Feel free to email me with questions!!!
