My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Here is the review of my big day. It was the most fun I have ever had and its true on the big day don't sweat the small stuff.

Weather-A-
The only thing us brides cannot control, and yet this is the one thing that can make or break the day. It was sunny , then cloudy, then humid then sunny again. No rain which was good.

Hair By Diana-A+
Diana was amazing. She was early and by the time I arrived at the hotel to get ready she was done with my first bridesmaid. It only took me 15 minutes to get to the hotel. She did a great job on my mother and grandmother. She did a great job on my hair. I was getting compliments all night. Its also a plus that she is friendly and has a great personality. I would recommend her to everyone.

Jennifer Ann Cosmetics-A+
Jennifer did my make up , my mother's and my grandmother's. She was amazing. She was there early too. My mother and grandmother don't really wear make up. She did a fabulous job on both. They looked liked better versions of themselves. I loved my makeup too! It was natural with little touches to make me look my best. The photographer showed us photos and it looked gorgeous. She is also very nice and talkative. It helps when she is doing your make up, it makes the time fly by.

Flowers Michele-A
I loved my flowers. When they arrived all I could say was how gorgeous they were. I had spoken with a woman named Barbara at first. Then when I called a few months before, I found out she was not there anymore so I panicked. I met with John again to review everything and he was great. All the bouquets were gorgeous and held up for the entire night. I did have cones with flowers in them on the pews in the church and that is what the flower girls carried. The water was constantly dripping but the flowers needed the water so I was not that worried.

Ultimate Class Limo-A+
The limos were there early. Both drivers were great. They were very attentive. My driver was great and made sure I was comfortable. They evened stopped for a snack on the way to the reception hall. On the way home our drive was great, he also stopped at Walgreens for us. He also helped us being all the bags and packages up to the apartment. They were great and I definitely recommend them. Jennifer is in charge of all wedding reservations and she was great.

New York Unlimited Entertainment-A++++
Music was the most important to me. Rich was great. He took all my crazy requests and crazy no plays in stride. At the reception if we asked for something he played it right way. My grandparents wanted to leave and we had not cut the cake. I asked him if we could do the cake and it was done within 5 minutes. We also had grand entrance that he coordinated and it went off with out a hitch.

Crest Hollow-A+
I will have to say the Crest Hollow was great. I had Eric as my BM and I liked him. I know some people on the site have said he was like a car salesman but we were not surprised with any costs. Nor did we feel we were talked into anything. He coordinate my special cup cake cake beatufiully.The Maitre D and Bridal Attendant were great as well. We were never without food or drinks. They were great to us while we were in the bridal suite. We just kept getting food and drinks. They let me fiancé take the whole bottle of beer out with him to take pictures. They kept asking us if we need anything all night.
The Maitre D was also great in coordinating our entrances. He also helped us a lot at the end of the night too. He was very attentive but not overbearing.

Everyone loved the food. They loved their dinners, cocktail and desert. It was really good and they sent us home with full plates of all the dinner selections. Everyone told me the cocktail was amazing. I was able to make it there and was mostly schmoozing so I did not really eat any food at the cocktail hour. I had most of the what was up there in the bridal suite though. It was all really good.

Yes I did see other brides but me and my bridal party waved and toasted them as they walked by. I would have been silly to think I was the only bride there.
My mother is a tough critic and she was very happy

Invitations-Proper Papers Plainview C
I looked up a specific invitaion I saw online. This was the only vendor near me that had this specific brand of invitation. I went there , and they did not even know they had this brand until I found the book on the floor. The associate was great and was very helpful. When the invitations were sent , they were sent to the incorrect address. We still don't know if it was the vendors fault or Proper Papers. But we only knew because they person who received them called my parents. Somehow they found the address and phone number on the pacakge. When we called Proper Papers they asked us to speak to the man who received my invitations and have him send them to us on his own dime! At that point we just took it upon ourselves to get the invtations back because it was obvious they did not want to extend a helping hand.

Favors-Popcorn Store Chagrin Falls OH A ++++
I grew up in OH. This store named the Popcorn Store makes homemade fudge, ice cream etc. They make popcorn balls and that is what I decided I wanted as my favors. My mother called probably a year ago and spoke to them about it. She went through all the different sizes and options. She also wrapped them in clear celophane without their logo on it so we could put labels on them. They advised us not to ship them until about 2 weeks before the wedding. In August they get concerned about the heat and popcorn balls actually metling. They were great and very helpful the whole way.

Church Favors-Wedding Wands A +
I can't remember the name of the vendor I bought these from. I threw out all the receipts. But type in wedding wands in Google and a lot of sites will come up witht hem. I spent $50 for 50 of them. You can personalize the ribbon with any text you want. We were not allowed to throw anything and I did not want bubbles. I loved the wands, I think they look really cute in all the photos. Everyone thought they were a nice touch.

Fontana's Scarsdale NY-C
I got my dress and shoes at Fontana's. The shopping for the dress was great and the sales woman I had I liked. But after we bought the dress she was pretty much worthless. They gave me a date of the end of April when the dress would be in. So I called a week before the date they gave me and figured they'd have word it shipped. Nothing. Then I called the week the shipment was suppsoed to be due, nothing. They told me call back in two weeks. So I called back the week after that, and they told me the end of May. I went ballistic, it was a month from the original date they told me. We thought they might not have ordered it on time. I actually called the dress manufacturer and called them to see if I could track the order because I was getting so many different stories from Fontana's.
The alterations went well. I had to go back a lot because I had two custom pieces made. I had a lot of lace on my dress so everytime there was an adjustment I had to go back. I'd say I went back for a total of 5 fittings. I was not happy about it but it ended up fitting perfectly so it was all good.
Bridesmaids Dress Macys Manhasset-C
I went with my mother to look and pick out the dresses. I found a dress I loved that was relatively inexpensive, $119. It was perfect. The girls then ordered the dresses and they came in on time. But when my sister went to try hers on, it was two sizes two big. She had to pay a lot in alterations which I thought was a a little weird. The other girls did not seem to have as many alterations needed. They also had very weird hours for alterations , some of the girls had issues getting there. Sometimes there customer service was good other times it was not. Very hit or miss…

Rehersal Dinner Invites & Programs-My Friend/ Mountain Cow Stationary
I have a friend who is a graphic artist and she dseigned the rehersal dinner invites & the programs. She did an amazing job. I order the stationary from Mountaincow.com. They had every color of stationary you can imagine. Its pretty decently priced. I probably only spent $100 for all the stationary I ordered. They also have software where you can create your own invitations. If I did not find an invite I liked I would have probably bought the software and made it myself.

Spray on Tan-Beach Bum B
So I bought a package of the spray on tan. I am one of the palest people I know. I went to beach bum and did the California Sunless tan. It’s in the same brand as the Mystic but a little different. I definitely recommend going a couple times because it takes a few times to get it right. Also go 2-3 days before the wedding so it does not come off on your dress. It only came off on my undergarments. I went to the one in Plainview, and they made it was set at level one for me. Make sure you ask if they can set it for different levels. Be careful of your toes , I was wearing closed shoes so it did not matter to me. They were so dark.

Patken Photographer Lindenhurst -A++++++++++
My photographer was Vinny & my videographer was Andy. They were amazing. I met with Vinny to do an engagement session. It went very well and we have amazing photos from that.
The photos from the day are beautiful. They caught some amazing candids. Vinny showed up early, and was porbably waiting for 15 minutes because my mother was not even dressed yet. He was very patient. I was a little nervous but he was very patient with my in the photos we took before we left the church. Andy was at the church waiting for us when we arrived. They were amazing when we took our photos at Crest Hollow. They joked with us and made us feel very comfortable. They let us take some photos that we wanted to take as well.
When I met with Vinny before the wedding, I told him I wanted to try to get to my cocktail hour. I wanted to try and get to at least a half hour of it. They actually had us done with about 30 to spare before the cocktail hour. It was amazing. We had time to go back to the bridal suite eat some more and hang out. I definitely would recommend them.
Once I got back from my honeymoon the proofs were ready! I'll update the post with how fast they get me all the albums and photos I order.

St James RC Seaford NY- A +
This is the church my hubby made all his sacrements at, so we decided to use this church. It’s a beautiful alter. It has all plants in the background and is great for pics. I loved my Deacon who preformed my ceremony. I actually had to get confirmed, so they Deacon knew us pretty well by the time the wedding rolled around. All the couples we had for the precana class were great. They are very accomodating. The vocalist we had at my ceremony was actually in my precana class, her name is Lisa and she is wonderful.

Rehersal Dinner Portofino Restaurant Levittown NY-A+++++
This is our usual pizza place. So when there was a little bit of a budget issue we decided to go with this place for a sit down dinner. We ended up getting the least expensive package but there was plenty of food. The portions are so generous no one walked away hungry. They were very attentive to all of our details. We did not get a package that included any wine, and they let us bring in our own wine. They did not charge us a corking fee for bringing it in. They were great and everyone raved about the food!

I know I am forgetting some vendors but I wanted to get this up before I forgot. I posted some pics that friends took. Once I get a chance I'll post some of the professional photos.

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Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

yaaaay! Congrats. I'm a CHCC bride, too (plaza room as well). I love hearing good things.
Your dress is so pretty

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Thank you, everyone keeps saying it was a pretty dress. At least hearing it from an outside party makes me think it really was !

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

yeah! a good review for chcc!! you looked amazing!!!!!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Congratulations to you and your husband

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Congrats on your wedding!!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

congrats!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

you look gorgeous. Congrats and thanks for your review!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

i love the cupcakes cake

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Congratulations. You look beautiful. Your dress is absolutely gorgeous. Which dress is that? Also I was wondering about the cake...I noticed some Crest Hollow girls mentioning that they don't really get to choose their cake. Did you have to pay extra for your own design/idea or it was all included? I can't wait to see more pics.

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Thank you for the review!!! Beautiful dress! Congrats!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Thank you everyone about the dress. The dress was a Lazaro dress, from last falls collection. The sash was actually supposed to be a large bow , but i am not a bow kind of girl. So I had them just sew it flat to the dress.

Yes I did have to pay extra for the cake. It was something I had always dreamed of, so we decided to pay extra. They ended up charging us $3 per cupcake. We only had 120 cupcakes made , one per person, so in the end it came up to somewhere in the $400 range for the cake.We said if it was more then $500 no way, but it was just under and it has been something I have always wanted at my wedding. CC let me talk directly to the bakery to make sure everything was exactly what I wanted. It was a total hit at the wedding.

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Congratulations! Beautiful dress!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

great to hear that crest hollow was great to you!!!1i am finally relieved, chcc bride also!!!!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

More photos, I'll promise I'll have the proofs up soon. My mom has them to show people she works with. Once they come back from Westchester I'll scan some and post.

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Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

I LOVE love love your dress! and your hairstyle/accessory!!!!

thx for sharing this review

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

By the way, your tan looks so natural! I am definitely going to do it!!!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Thanks like I said be careful of the toes, backs of your ankles, elbows and kneews. Make sure you do it two full days before. My corest did have some of the tan come off on it.

If there are some mistakes you can use nail polish remover but if you are worried about that being to harsh you can also use a pumice stone. Both work with removing the tan really well.

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Thank you for sharing....everything looks beautiful!

Re: My 8/31/07 Wedding-Crest Hollow, Flower Michele, NY Unlimited Entertainment, etc...

Great review, you looked stunning on your day