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March 10, 2007 wedding review CLM, Brentwood fire department, helens bridal, the party ride, cmj entertainment, makeup by sandra, flower michele, Right Angle Studios, black forest bakery

Original post by MrsC2b

Thread views: 10,408

LIWEDDINGS.COM : A+A+
First I would love to thank LIweddings.com for having such an amazing site.. for having a place where we can all share our feelings, thoughts, joys, sorrows, frustrations, anxiety’s, excitements, disappointments etc… for having a place to vent where we know others are probably going thru the same frustration at the time.. for having a place that gave us all an opportunity to learn and grow from others, for having a place where some of us have been able to meet extraordinary people and become friends with .. so for that and many other things I thank LIweddings… its been a tremendous help as I am the first of 3 girls to get married ..

BRENTWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: A+A+A+
Words will never be able to express how grateful I am that they were able to be apart of our special day. At first DH was hesitant to ask them to please set up apparatus at our wedding because he was still going to be a probe until April 1, 2007, needless to say I continued to push him on the issue and well he submitted the letter requesting the rig and sure enough they said once your in your family probe or not. So they came to the church all dressed in uniform they opened the doors when it was time for me and dad to walk out, then when we were ready to walk out of the church they were all lined up outside making a walk way for us to walk under and onto the lift the brought us up about 20 feet. That was amazing and since DH’s family was unable to make it to the wedding except for his dad and sister, The Brentwood Fire Department was his family that day and for that I will be forever grateful, they have no idea how much that truly ment to DH for them to do this for us.

MY DRESS and BM DRESSES
HELENS BRIDAL – (631)543-6300 : A+A+
What can I say, they are simply amazing… being a plus size bride I was not all that excited to rush in to bridal salons and try on dress, but I must say I walked into Helens bridal and was greeted by “Liz”. She was simply amazing when I was not to sure of a dress she would say “oh honey just try it on you never know” and sure enough she was right the dress I did not want to originally try on was the dress that I ended up buying because I loved it. Between Liz and Tula … my experience with them was amazing always answering any questions I had and always on top of everything.

I ended up getting my dress made my “Private Label By G”… what can I say I simply loved it, I felt like a princess. My girls worn Bill Levkloff dress style 966

TUXEDOS – (also at Helens bridal) : A+A+
We worked closely with Vito and he did an amazing job. He made Luis feel right at home letting him try on what ever he wanted, he let him walk around with the top hat on, he basically let Luis’s imagination run wild as to the different possibilities that were available. Sure enough I let Luis pick out the tuxedos since he had already fallen in love with the black and white pin stripe suit with top hat and cane. Vito and the girls were always available to answer our questions and to deal with all the groomsmen. Trust me they had a hand full with all our groomsmen, there in the fire department and always joking around when went in for measurements or what ever else.. But we were truly satisfied with the services that Vito and the girls provided, my guys looked sharp and the prices were great.

PARTY BUS – “The Party Ride” (631)434-8300: B
My parent got us a 45 passenger party bus that was amazingly big and a lot of fun we had the bus from 2:30p.m – 7:00 p.m. then return service from 12:45 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. after the reception. My only problem with them was that:
1) they did not pull up to the front of CLM and drop me off at the door the dropped me off at the side door;
2) My sister left some stuff on the bus because she did not think they were going to leave we were told they would stay parked outside until it was time to leave, so they gave her major attitude when they had to come back; and
3) When it was time to leave once again they did not pull up in front they made me and my family walk in the rain across the street to get on the bus needless to say my feet were soaked and so was my dress, I guess they thought the bus could not fit under the over pass but it could have.

Flower girl dresses: A
We brought these dresses at Atias flea market for $50.00 and the little white coats for $25.00 the girls loved the dresses.

Wedding bands: A+
Ko jewelers at Atias flea market

Tiara: A
Brought it somewhere in Manhattan only paid $20.00 for it not bad right

Veil: A
Tri County Flea market … what can I say cant beat the price at $25.00

Makeup A+A+
Makeup was done by “Makeup by Sandra”.. she truly did an amazing job she made me look just as I wanted.. done.. but not over done … but just right

Table Menu’s: A
I was going to have them done but I was quoted $175.00 for them and you all know how tight money can get so I played with the menu on my computer printed it out then went to staples and photo copied them on card stock .. all for just $27.00

Centerpieces: A+A+
We brought them from bedbath and beyond, the were originally black we spray painted them gold and added some flowers each center piece final product cost me $11.00

Souvenirs: A+A+
Well I was not sure what to give out. I did not want to do the traditional salt and pepper shakers or wine bottle stoppers or bottle openers so while we were in North Carolina visiting DH family we went to “ABS Store” that is the traditional liquor store and purchased 130 little bottles of “Hypnotic” we decorated the bottles a little and that was a souvenir. Granted each bottle was $3.00 or so .. but it was worth it because I new that people would definitely drink it and its not money that would be wasted and trust me people were happy to see that as our souvenir some even drank it that night and everyone commented on how that was such a good idea.

Invitations: A+
Party City, Bay Shore, is the place to go I believe for 125 invitations, with inner and outer envelops, and rsvp cards and rsvp envelope with return addressed printed I paid $200.00 and they were ready in like 3 days and everyone loved them .. they said they were simple yet elegant .. just the look I was going for.

Our Cake from Black Forest Bakery: A
Ok so I saw the picture in the book and was like ok its nice better then the other options I guess I will take it by no means did I think it was going to be as big as it really was.. it was huge and when I saw it I fell in love with it like you could not imagine. The flowers on the cake are edible flowers brought from Colombia by my grandmother a few days before the wedding …. I think they complimented my cake just right .. it went with my entire theme of elegance and simplicity

Flower Michele: C
What can I say at first I wasn’t sure who to book with, I went and met with John from flower Michele the price was right and what I thought I was getting seemed good, as I kept reading other reviews I was hearing that people were disappointed with Flower Michele that what they were presented with at first and what they received the day of was not what they thought it would be and well in my opinion it happened to me, when the flowers arrived to my house I was so disappointed you should have seen my reaction my aunt was like honey its ok breath ill take care of this -- what went wrong.. well he told me my bouquet would have hot pink little roses to give it that burst of color.. well they were just a tad bit darker in pink then the other roses.. it did nothing for the bouquet it didn’t not give it the pop I wanted.. the hot pink he had at his store was nothing compared to what I got, then my BM flowers seemed to “BLA” so lifeless, the edges on some of them were burned.. my throw away bouquet was suppose to be all white.. and it wasn’t it was the same color as the BM flowers .. 2 weeks before the wedding I went in to finalize everything and to change my order well I canceled a total of about $60.00 worth of flowers for his family that was not going to be here and so there was no point ordering there flowers etc so we agreed that he would make me bouquets for the 2 flowers girls and my throw away bouquet .. now if you look at the flower girl bouquets are they work $60.00 freaking dollars .. sorry but I do not think so .. so my experience was bad… I am so disappointed with them … others may think differently but this is my review and its my opinion of my experience..

Chateau La Mer: A
Well I have a story behind CLM, Dh and I have been engaged for just about 5 years and naturally like any other recently engaged girl I started to look for places like the day after we got engaged and I remember clearly seeing CLM on the internet but in my head I said I will never be able to afford CLM it looks to nice and to expensive for me so I never looked into it any further. I remember DH and I visiting the Brentwood Country Club, Mariott, Huntington Hilton, Hyatt, Captain Bills but none of those place caught my eye … I wanted a place with big windows and on the water and Captain Bills was the only one that came close but it was expensive for my pocket.. lol.. well time went on about 4 years and I basically told DH were doing this before we hit the 5 year mark or else … so sure enough I remembered CLM told DH about it , we went to look, liked what we saw and the price was comfortable for us, went for a food tasting then originally booked the hall for March 31, 2007 DH birthday but we had booked the upstairs room.. well that night I could not sleep because I really liked the downstairs room and well I told DH if we are going to do this once only we gotta do it right so the next day I went back and was told I would have to guarantee 150 people and I said no problem I will find people .. then he said but March 31, 2007 is booked so all I have left is March 10, 2007 and so we decided on that date..

At first we met with Lou who was great and as time got closer we met with Nick who was also great, the day of the wedding we had Matt as our Marti D he was on point and if I asked for anything with 1 minute I had it.. I remember I went up to check on my flower girl and saw she had no dinner Matt saw me and was like whats wrong Ivette and I was like my flower girl needs her chicken fingers and fries he got on his radio and said I need Chk & ff asap table 2 and within a minute it was there.

We originally planned on going to a little bit of our cocktail hour but changed our minds last minute and did not go.. now I wish we did because everyone is raving about the food, that there was so much and it was so good, CLM had a party upstairs that day and they had the shrimp boat so matt told us since there was so much left over they were going to leave it for my cocktail hour.

Dinner: well everyone was so content with this part as well … we had about 50 firemen at the wedding and well they all loved all the food and drinks

The only iffy part was my bridal attendant I believe her name was Sharon, she was not to ontop of things.. plenty of times me and DH found ourselves going to the bar to get something to drink.. and when we left she didn’t offer to help carry things out etc.. but oh well we had fun anway.. (I guess next time we should wait to everything is in the limo before giving the tip) and the only other thing my mom asked for some cake to take home and was told that they threw out the left overs because know one told them we wanted to keep it.. hello.. don’t you ask first..

DJ – CMJ ENTERTAINMENT (631)645-6655 A+A+
Words cant do them justice, Martin my MC was unbelievable he told me that he was going to play a mix of stuff for the first hour and see what my guest reacted to and would take it from there and sure enough that is what he did, my dance floor was packed the entire time, everyone is still raving about how good my MC and Dj were …

VIDEO by Right Angle Studios:
To be determined upon receipt of video

Photographer Right Angle Studio: A++
What can I say George is amazing, he was referred to us by a friend who used him for her wedding, so I dragged DH with me to go meet with him, now keep in mind that DH is not all that smiley go chipper guy, can be kinda anti social type of person so before we walked in I was like please don’t be anti social, please do talk and ask question.. well that was the wrong thing to say because once he met George I could not shut Luis up. George made us feel so comfortable and relaxed, so relaxed that I was sitting on the floor looking at albums he had made prior. We originally thought we were going meet with someone who was going to be pushy and wanted us to book with them ASAP, but George was far from that he told us right off the bat “I’m not going to be pushy and force you to hurry up and make a decision, take your time price around and compare” so right from that point I think DH and I felt at ease with George. He explained everything to us detail by detail showed us a video, many albums and was always asking us if we had any questions etc. Well after our first meeting with George on the way home DH and I both wanted to book with George but as discussed prior we would shop around first and so we did but always comparing everyone else to George and no one could compared (at least for us). I remember we went to go see another photographer and from the moment we walked in I was like babe I want George, baby I want to book George and he was like relax we have to at least meet this other photographer we are already here. So we did meet this other photographer and his presentation consisted of a piece of well here are albums take a look and then he handed us a paper with the prices and said any questions, I just jabbed Luis on the side and was like “no not right now thank you for your time we will let you know our decision” and as soon as we got in the car I was like dam its to late to call George but you better believe the next day I called him and scheduled to meet with him that week.
And so we did.

George was always available to us via phone, email or in person and if we did not hear from him we would hear from Connie his wife – she is so good always on top of things as well. After we booked with George we scheduled engagement shoot once again George was more then helpful with that offering different places where we could go, we ended up going to a college to take the pictures .. now mind you DH does not like to smile in pictures but I guess George has that touch cause he was able to get Luis to smile so much.. Luis had so much fun at the engagement shoot that its not even funny. As far as payments go, George knows that some of us pay for these weddings ourselves now a days so for instance in our case we told him we would have a deposit for a certain date but unfortunately due life’s unexpected things we didn’t have it, George was more then understanding and allowed us to make other arrangements.

The day of the wedding ******
George was on time, he was a early I think I’m not sure I lost track of time, I introduced him to my parents and sisters and then picture taking began. George was taking candid and posed shots half the time I didn’t even realize he was taking pictures, everyone at my house loved George, they all said he was very nice and gentle when he was having us take our posed shots its not like he would grab your head and mush it to the side, he treated you like a delicate flower…

He took some great shots all day, when luis and I looked at our proofs we were like where was George .. when did he take that picture I don’t even remember seeing him around .. but he was there..

The only thing I can say is that George was able to capture moments by taking a picture and these are moments that words will never be able to fully describe our emotions yet a simple picture has captured the moment and will say it all…

And the best part is that we only waited 2 weeks for our proofs and we got like 800 of them, so girls you cant go wrong with George.. we plan on using him again once we start our family… (wink wink)