My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

Although I haven't posted much I have used liweddings frequently over the course of my planning. My planning would have been near impossible without the site. I hope all you brides out there find my review (though somewhat long) as helpful as all the reviews that I relied on during my planning!!

My wedding day went so smoothly and my husband and I had the time of our lives.

Wedding Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses - Arlene's Bridal ( A+++++) - Arlene's was amazing. Debbie and Jaimie the mother/daughter team that own/run the store know their stuff. I had tried on a couple of Maggie Sottero dresses and kept going back to one on the website that was never in any of the stores. I emailed the website to locate it. The good news - they located the dress for me, the bad news - it was in Bloomfield NJ. Luckily, the store was a couple of blocks from the NJ transit train and since I live in NYC I took a ride out one afternoon to check it out. Debbie was so great to work with during my first visit. My bridesmaids came back with me a a couple of weeks later and I ended up ordering the maggie dress and their dresses as well that same day. It would have been much easier for me to order my dress from a NY store, but I just had a great vibe at Arlene's that I didn't get from any other bridal store I had visited. Debbie and Jaime were just a pleasure to work with. My dress was in early and the fittings went so smoothly. Debbie spent close to an hour working with me and the seamstress to create the bustle out of my lace train. The material was not easy to work with and Debbie kept adjusting until we got it right. It took only 2 fittings and the dress was perfect on my wedding day.
I was in a friends wedding as soon as I got back from my honeymoon and Debbie was willing to do the fitting for that dress too even though I didn't buy it at Arlene's. ( I disliked the staff at the store my friend was using and didn't want to give them any additional business for the alterations). There are not enough good things to day about Arlene's Bridal. They are a quick drive out of Manhattan and well worth the trip.

Tuxedos - Tuxedo Park ( B- ) - After the rave reviews about Tuxedo Park in Carle place I really thought they were going to be great. The tuxedos we got were very nice, but there were some issues that were frustrating. My father only needed a shirt, vest and tie since he has a tuxedo. When he came in for his fitting they gave him a price for a full tux rental. My mother corrected them, and I also called to follow up after his fitting to confirm that he did not need a tux. Sure enough when I picked everything up before the wedding he had a full tux and the wrong tie. They had no note of the tie he was supposed to get so I had to find the tie myself in the store. (It was a slightly varied pattern from the groomsmen tie). Then my husbands shirt and jacket did not fit correctly at all. If I had not pointed it out they would have let him leave the store as is. These tuxes were not cheap. We went there because we thought there would be better service. For what we paid, I don't think they are worth it at all.

Invitations - Florisan ( A ) - Lynn did both my flowers and my invitations. She had great prices and helped me with proofing. I don't remember how long it took for the invitations to come in, but I remember being shocked at how fast it was. I don't think it was more than a week or two.

Church - St. Mary's Manhasset ( A ) - St. Mary's was great to work with. Living in Manhattan I could not keep running back and forth to long island for numerous meetings with the church like another parish wanted. The church is beautiful, and they were very organized.

Limo - Alexis Limo ( A ) - They were on time, and Mike our driver was on top of everything. I just sat back with my bridal party and relaxed. Mike needed no direction. The limos were cleaned and stocked for us upon arrival.

DJ - Victory Entertainment ( A ) - I had seen a few DJ's and wasn't too impressed so I took my mothers advice to meet with Victor from Victory Entertainment. My mother plans events at a college and Victory had done a few events for her and she always had good experiences with them. Our first meeting went well and based on my mothers experiences I decided to book them. This was one of the best decisions I made for my wedding.
It is 3 weeks post wedding and people are still telling me how great our dj was. Other than the first dance, father/daughter, mother/son and cake cutting songs which I gave to Victor the week of the wedding, I was a complete slacker about picking out any 'must play' music. I put together a very haphazard list of songs a couple of days before the wedding. I gave Victor this list 20 minutes before the cocktail hour to use as a guide of the type of music that I like. Not much lead time I know, but it didn't matter....Victor and his team were great. The music played was fantastic and got everyone on the dancefloor. There was the perfect amount of MC'ing, and people of all ages were dancing all night long. Everybody keeps telling me how great they were and how much fun they had dancing at my wedding.

Shuttle Bus Alert Coach ( A ) - My husband is from the midwest so we had many out of town guests. Not to mention all of our friends who live all over the tri state area. We decided a shuttle bus would be a good idea. After calling many companies Alert not only had the best prices, they had the largest bus with a 55 person capacity and I had the bus for 12 hours. Due to the distance between the hall and the hotel I could only do one run and needed the large bus. Because I only did the on run to the hall, I was able to use the bus to bring guests back and forth between the church and hotel as well without any extra charge. The bus arrived on time, and though I did not ride it my friends tell me the bus was clean and there were no problems. Our guests were very grateful that we had the bus, especially all the guests that flew in who didn't need to rent cars and didn't need to worry about directions at all during the day.

Reception George Washington Manor ( A-/B+) - GWM was the 3rd hall I looked at. As soon as I saw it I was ready to book. For a 100 guest wedding the Mount Vernon room was perfect. I would not recommend going higher than 110 or 115 in this room. The food was fantastic, the room was beautiful, and overall my dealings with them were fine. Even though I would recommend the hall to anyone, there were a few items that could have been improved that would have made the night a little more perfect. By mentioning them here I hope it helps other brides perfect their days since these items are all easily fixable.(1)The GWM has white cushions on the chairs. When I saw the room months before the wedding many of these were stained. I was reassured they would all be clean for the wedding. When I got to the hall the day of the wedding an hour before cocktail, some of the cushions were still stained, and I had to ask for them to be replaced. Even though many were replaced, there were still some stained cushions. I should have included something about the cushions in my contract since it was so important to me. (2) I surprised my husband with a cigar roller at the reception and made it very clear to Jeanine the week of the wedding that this was a surprise. There were 2 incidents the day of the wedding that almost blew the surprise which was frustrating, luckily I caught them both before my surprise was ruined. If I had to do it again I would have made sure certain things were communicated to multiple people. (3) The bar used during the reception gets rolled into the room...that was fine as it was dark wood and matched the decor. When I saw the 2 igloo coolers on the floor next to the bar very visible to my guests I was none too pleased. I took it with a grain of salt, and didn't make an issue of it. Everything about the GWM is very elegant and the room has such an ambiance. I was in shock that they didn't do a better job camouflaging (sp?) the red and blue coolers. Putting them behind the bar, or even draping them would have been fine. I plan on mentioning this too them this week.

Other than these minor issues the hall was great. I was able to change my headcount 2 days before the wedding. All my guests loved the fact that it was not your typical hall. It really has a uniqueness to it. I would recommend it highly.

Photography Duet - ( A+ ) - I love Duet. I haven't gotten my wedding photos back, but I have very high expectations. My engagement shoot yielded over 50 amazing photos. We had Jay's team and all my guests raved about them after the wedding. They were all saying how although they were everywhere covering everything they were very much out of the way. They were not obtrusive at all. Anytime friends were taking group photos during the course of the evening I have been advised that one of the photographers would pop up and take the same picture they were taking. They were also very firm (in a very nice way) of getting all my must takes done at the church and during cocktail hour so that I didn't have to be bothered with them during my reception. I would highly recommend them to anyone!! At one point a piece of my hair fell out and I was looking for a hair pin. Jay had one for me. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does!!!

Flowers Florisan - ( B+ )- Lynn from Florisan did my flowers. All I needed was 3 bouquets, corsages and bouteniers. Lynn was so patient with me as I changed my mind multiple times about the flowers I wanted for my bouquet. I even went to the flower district to pick out the exact flower I wanted for my bouquet. She made me a gorgeous bouquet. I loved the wiring she used to put it together which was one of the reasons I hired her. I think the wiring and water source gave my bouquet longevity. Unfortunately time constraints kept her from wiring the bridesmaid bouquets which was disappointing. I loved the colors of my bridesmaid bouquets which I had left up to Lynn, but the roses were completely opening before we even got to the church which changed the look of the bouquets. I have been in other summer weddings where the roses held up much better in the heat.

Hotel Marriott Uniondale ( C ) - Choosing the Uniondale Marriott as the hotel for my guests was a bit of a regret. The only good thing about the hotel was that the rooms were nice. The customer service was lacking during my planning and wedding weekend. The issues started when I had to argue to get my block of rooms increased. You can only block 10 at a time. 18 of my 20 rooms were booked and I hadn't even sent out invitations. It was a bit of a battle to get the additional 15 rooms I needed blocked.

The day before the wedding when I arrived at the hotel I was never greeted by the event coordinator. Then my OOT bags weren't given out to the first few guests that checked in. When I mentioned this to the front desk they said they would start handing them out and bring them to the rooms that didn't get them. I then watched my bridesmaid check in 20 minutes later and they didn't give her one. When she said she was supposed to get one they gave her one from another wedding. More guests didn't get bags and they again had to be reminded at the desk by my husband. Turns out there were a bunch of trainees at the desk. My bags had all the shuttle information in it and a brunch invitation so it was not just about my guests getting candy bars and water.
The night before the wedding I put the hang tag for breakfast on my door well before the cutoff time. That morning we were very patient waiting for breakfast before headingout to get our hair done. I opened my door and realized the breakfast order was still hanging on my door. When I called room service they tried to get it up to us fast, but it was not fun scarfing down breakfast so I would have something in my stomach in the last minutes before we were heading out. I knew how important it was for me to have breakfast that morning.
One other thing that I was surprised about was the lack of a bottle of champagne for my room. Everyone of our hotels during our honeymoon sent champagne to our room. The Marriott knew it was my wedding, and after booking 30 rooms at the hotel, I thought it would have been a nice thing to do. But I guess this is really not a fault of the hotel since it is not a requirement, but it is just a testament to their customer service.

Overall I had a fantastic day. Though there were some minor items that I would have done differently, I didn't sweat the small stuff and really enjoyed the day with my family and friends. Everyone keeps telling me what a great time they had and I think part of that is because they saw my husband and I really enjoying ourselves.

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

Congratulations! Glad to hear you had such a wonderful day.-I would have been peeved about the cushions too. Pics?

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

I really wanted to get the review out there....will follow up with pics soon.

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

I was married to at the GWM that day.....



I did not have any issues at all. Although I would understand about the chair covers. Honestly, I did not even looked at mine.

I would highly recommend it.

Did you use the chapel?

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

Congrats! great review!

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

Congratulations! I also had issues with Tuxedo Park... glad to know that I am not the only one.

Enjoy married life!

Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

I saw the chapel and wanted to use it, but our families really wanted us to get married in a church so we finally gave in

Here are a few other vendors that I didn't review above.

Cigar Roller - La Rosa Cubana - ( A ) -

I wanted to surprise my husband with the cigar roller, but didn't want to spend too much. Someone recommended a vendor from a wedding she had been to, but they were very pricey. Per the recommendation of a couple of brides on LIweddings I checked out La Rosa Cubana. I stopped by the store since it is only a couple of blocks from my office. Frank was easy to work with,the cigars were good, and the prices were fantastic. If you are not in NY, I am sure all dealings with Frank can be over the phone. Everyone loved the cigar roller, especially my husband. The layout of GWM was great for the cigars since my guests were able to go outside where my cocktail hour was so smoke them. For any brides thinking of getting a cigar roller, I recommend doing this after cake cutting since it would have been a pain to get everyone together after they were all off smoking. For the price, it was something nice to do that people will remember from my wedding.

Matches - www.njsweddingshop.com (A) - I really wanted to get boxes of matches instead of books, but all the boxes were just so expensive. After a bit of internet surfing I found the njsweddingshop site. The boxes were very reasonably priced and even offered colored printing on them for no additional cost. The matches came quickly and they looked great.


Wine Labels - myownlabels.com (A) - I had small bottles of wine as part of my favor and got my labels from My Own Labels. I was somewhat nervous about the color since you can never really tell online, but was pleasantly surprised when I got the labels. The color and quality were great and they came very quickly. Luckily I was able to get labels that were 12 on a sheet which made them very affordable. If I had needed the larger ones, it would have been a bit pricey.

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Re: My 8/19 Wedding Review!!!

great review...congrats!