My NEW AND IMPROVED10/13/07 REVIEW! With TONS of 12th NIGHT Pro Pics! FLOWER MICHELE, ROYALTY LIMOS, TWELFTH NIGHT, ALEGRIA DEEJAYS, ETC!

Engagement Announcements
Naptime Productions A+
They have wonderful engagement announcements. We had a engagement photo session in Central Park and wanted to use a photo from the session for our announcements.

The turn around time was very quick and the announcements came out wonderful. I would definitely use them again!




Invitations
Wedding Paper Divas: A+

I was looking for vintage inspired invitations that were brown and they were the only ones who had them for a price that wasn't out of this world. I ordered the sample and I was very satisfied with the heaviness of the cardstock and ordered my invites. They helped me make corrections to my




proof three times before I received my invites. Over a month later I finally decided to start stuffing my invites and noticed there was a tiny (the size of a pen tip) red mark on an invite. The next one had it too! I counted 8 in total! Now because I waited til the last minute to stuff these envelopes I HAD to have new invitations ASAP. They had to go out that week. I was also afraid since I ordered the invites a month ago, whether they’d replace them. Well I sent them an email at 2am (that was when I was stuffing the envelopes) and the next day at 12 noon I received an email from them saying they would replace the invites free of charge and they were being sent second day air to me! The replacement invites arrived and they not only gave me 10 invites instead of 8 but they also gave me 10 new direction cards, rsvp cards and reception cards! The actual invites were the only ones with the tiny red dot on it. So for their great customer service and great product they receive a great grade!



Makeup Artist
Safie Russell of Shades of Bella: A+
Safie is wonderful. She understood my ideas and recreated them perfectly. She is a very warm and

friendly person and made me laugh and forget the worries of the day. I felt like I had a friend and not just a vendor with me that morning.









Day of Jewelry
Liz Claiborne: A+
A wonderful necklace with vintage charm. It was just what I was looking for.






Wedding Dress
Iman Bridal Couture


Price: A
I purchased a Pronovias dress from Iman’s. She gave me a great price and when I found a shop that was offering me a lower price she matched it. Alterations are comparably priced.

Customer Service: B
Iman is very nice and Bessie (the receptionist) is great too. The only problem I had was that my dress didn’t arrive on time and it took them almost two weeks to find out what was going on with the manufacturer. Also, for my third fitting no work had been done on my dress and no one called me to tell me not to come in for my appointment so when I got there they apologized and asked if I could come back later in the day. I recommend ALWAYS CALLING THE BRIDAL SHOP BEFORE YOU COME DOWN.
Alterations:
Alterations Process: C
I had to go through five fittings. I had so many people working on my dress. The first was Sylvia. She was very nice and we went over what I wanted. For my second fitting some things were not done and Iman herself pinned my dress and we talked about what needed to be done. At the third fitting Teresa came to work on my dress but the things I had told Iman to do were not done. My fourth fitting they had taken in the dress to much. My fifth fitting, everything was perfect.

Final Product: A+
This Bridal Salon apparently works best under pressure. I say that because I told them my wedding was a month earlier than it actually was. My alterations were finished TWO DAYS before my “wedding”. Thank God I did this or I would be freaking out knowing I didn’t have my dress ready two days before my real wedding My dress came out wonderful though!. Advice: Tell the bridal shop (any shop you go to, not just this one) your wedding is a month before it actually is if you don’t want to worry about delays and you want your dress with plenty of time to spare.








Veil:
Veils By Lana: A+
I bought my 2 tier elbow length veil on eBay for a little over $20 bucks. A great save and the veil was very nice.



Flowers
Flower Michele
Wedding Process: A+
I made an appointment with John but at the last minute had to reschedule my appointment for later in the day. Because of that, I had to meet with Barbara instead. Barbara was very nice and even asked DH what he wanted for his boutonniere as well as the guys’ boutonnieres. None of the other florists even asked DH anything!




After getting a very good quote, we came in a week later to sign a contract. Barbara was not there. John signed the contract with us and told us he would be taking over our account. I was very happy because I had heard so many great things about John and he was the one I originally wanted to work with. We came in early September to see our centerpiece sample. It was wonderful! I was very excited to see the real ones at our reception! Two weeks before the wedding I wanted to change my bridesmaid flowers and even though John was double booked (according to the receptionist) he found time to see me in the afternoon. He was so great. I love how he remembers all the brides’ names and whatnot. Some vendors have trouble keeping track of all their brides.
Day of Wedding: A+
The flowers were perfect and everything was on time. The centerpieces looked just like the sample. It was wonderful!













Limo
Royalty Limos
Wedding Process: A+
Manny was awesome with us. He gave us a great deal and even gave us a week to cancel our contract in case we got a better deal elsewhere.
We made our final deposit 2 days before the wedding because we were out of town until the Monday before our wedding and then we got sooo busy. They were super cool with it which was a big plus since I was so stressed out that last week.

Day of Wedding: A+
The limos were on time. The driver of the vintage car was absolutely awesome! He helped me in and out of the car, he held my flowers for me, he was just great. DH and the best man had nothing but kind words for the other drivers. They were way cool. The only thing that went wrong was that the car for us at the end of the night was very late. But he did eventually get there.



Photography
Twelfth Night
Wedding Process: A+
Dominic is sooo awesome. You can tell he has a real passion for photography! We saw various photographer’s books and dvds at Twelfth Night and they were all fabulous. I have yet to see a bad picture come out of Twelfth Night’s studios! We immediately wanted to book with Twelfth Night.

Day of Wedding: A+
Jose was on time and a pleasure to work with. He was very helpful and made me feel at ease.



Photos:A+
We looooooved Jose's photos. It was just wonderful pic after wonderful pic! So awesome. A great guy and a great photographer!












Weather: A
It was a little windy, but other than that it was perfect!

Reception Site
Officer’s Club at Fort Totten in Bayside, Queens




Wedding Process: A-
I really wanted something different for my wedding and was determined not to have my wedding in a conventional hall. The Officer’s Club was it: a Gothic Revival style castle that was a museum on Fort Totten (which is now a park). Nancy was the coordinator there. Nancy was wonderful. Always getting back to us, super friendly, a dream to work with.

She let us visit numerous times to measure things and get a feel for the place. The bridal suite is a whole apartment on the top floor. It had a bathroom with a shower and bathtub, a bedroom with a bed and love seat and a lovely sitting room.

Since the Officer’s Club is a museum as well, the guests are encouraged to view the exhibits in the other rooms, which is nice.


About a month before our wedding Nancy stopped working at the Officer’s Club. Luckily she was staying on to handle our wedding. Basically I had to call her on her cell phone because she was only at the Officer’s Club when I needed her to be there. Not a big deal really because I felt very safe in Nancy’s hands. A day before the wedding the usually totally cool Nancy was in a VERY bad mood. I needed to have a list of all my guests for Fort security. She has said in the past that it was a mere formality, not a big deal. So the day before the wedding while I’m on my way to my rehearsal dinner, she calls me to say she doesn’t have the guest list. I tell her that I was trying to make it over to Fort Totten but since they close at 4 I wasn’t able to come by and that I thought I would just fax the list in the morning. The usually lax Nancy told me that she didn’t know if anyone was going to be there in the morning and therefore didn’t know how my guests were going to get in! In essence telling me I wouldn’t be able to have my wedding! I was driving and so out of it that I asked my mom to call her to work something out. I ended up emailing her the guest list via her personal e-mail. She received it the next day and told me everything would be okay and to have a wonderful day. So perhaps it was just an off day for her.



Day of Wedding: A
The building was lovely. Everything was set up just the way I asked. Beautiful!

Caterer
Dominick Bruccoleri (Papazzio Restaurant)
Grade: A
If you have your wedding at the Officer’s Club you have to get a caterer since you are just renting the space itself. Dominick owns Papazzio Restaurant on Bell Blvd and is on the board of the Bayside Historical Society (which has its headquarters in the Officer’s Club) so he seemed like a perfect fit. He has done so many weddings there and knows the place like the back of his hand. His restaurant caters the food and it is wonderful! You come down to his restaurant for the taste testing and the portions are out of control. We tasted everything and loved everything. DH is a foodie so when he is impressed by food, I know it is good. Dominick did everything for me, ordered my ballroom chairs, linens, china, etc. If I wanted something I would call him up on his cell phone and he would get it done in a timely manner. He set up my place cards, table numbers, favors, card box, gift table, etc. He was great to work with and very friendly.





Table Numbers: A+
Bought the frames from Ikea (2 for $2.99) and made the table numbers on Powerpoint. I love them!



Favors:
Old Fashioned Candy Cup Favors
Grade: A+
I got the idea for my favors from Martha Stewart Weddings. Of course the brioche cups that hold the candy were hard to find as was the candy. After searching on the net for about a month I finally found the old fashioned candy only to find that the only place that sells them, sells them for like $30 a pound! So I decided to do all white candies instead.

The ribbon came from save-on-crafts.com and the labels came from myweddinglabels.com.

Dance Lessons
Erin Bomboy of Start Dancing NYC: A+

Awesome teacher! Just wonderful! She comes to your place which is great and she breaks down the steps in a super easy way. Very friendly and very encouraging. So glad we decided to go for this.




Wedding Cake
Cascon Bakery
Wedding Process: A+
Andy and Brian were very cool guys. We sampled the cannolis since we wanted cannoli cream

filling in yellow cake. They were wonderful. Awesome bakery, awesome guys.





Day of Wedding: A+
We wanted a hexagon three tiered white cake with a vintage-esque design on it and we got just that. It was perfect! People loved the cake! So many people came up to us to tell us they had seconds on the cake! It was very good!




DJ
Alegria Deejays
Wedding Process: A+
I really didn’t want all the cheesiness that comes along with some DJs. No giveaways, no obnoxious jokes, etc. Lou and his wife Vanda work as a team and when we met with them, they seemed to be exactly what we wanted: A DJ team that specializes in elegant understated weddings. They were very thorough at our meetings. They asked us what kind of music we liked, didn’t like, if our parents got along, if everyone in the bridal party got along, lots of things to make sure the night went smoothly. Lou and Vanda were very cool through the whole wedding process. They were very open to my “different” ideas which was great as well.



Day of Wedding: A+++
I heart Vonda and Lou so much! At my cocktail hour my mother in law stepped on my dress and dragged it with her, breaking my bustle! We hadn’t even begun and my bustle was already broken! My mom forgot where she put my emergency kit and was frantically searching for it when Vonda came out of nowhere and with safety pins put my bustle back on! I was on the verge of tears when my bustle broke and in a matter of two minutes I was back to my good old self! I forgot to put my veil in the bridal suite upstairs and our first dance was up so Vanda quickly took it behind the DJ booth and of course when I forgot it was there at the end of the night, she remembered to give it back to me.


Lou played awesome music and managed to play everything on my must play list! People who I had never seen dance before were up dancing! Lou was everything I wanted in a DJ! I could not ask for more!


So many people complimented me on my great musical taste but a lot of it was Lou’s work. I would recommend these guys to any and everyone!

Hotel For Out Of Town Guests
Holiday Inn LaGuardia: F
The Holiday Inn LaGuardia had similar amenities to the Wingate so we thought we would check with them to see what kind of wedding rate they would give us. We had to call multiple times just to get an appointment. When we finally got an appointment and they called us a few hours before we were to arrive to cancel our appointment. They told us we had to meet with the restaurant manager first (we wanted to have our rehearsal dinner in the hotel restaurant). DH called the restaurant and asked to speak to the manager. The girl who answered said he was busy and he would call us back and hung up! DH called back and she said she already told him the manager was busy and would call back. DH questioned how the manager was going to do that when she didn’t even take down DH’s name or number! She then took down his number and we didn’t get a call until two days later. He arranges an appointment for us and when we arrive at the restaurant there is no hostess at the front. We stand there waiting for someone to greet us for fifteen minutes before we decide go to the front desk so we can at least view the rooms. We tell the person we are trying to block some rooms for our wedding he tells us we have to meet with the restaurant manager before we can see the rooms! We tell him we were waiting in the restaurant and there was no hostess there and no one addressed us for the 15 minutes we were standing there. Front Desk guy goes to get the manager. The manager then has the audacity to tell us we are late! I tell him
We were not late but that his hostess was M.I.A and we were standing at the hostess podium for 15 minutes. He apologizes. He shows us where we can have our rehearsal dinner. At a long table in the back of the room. Not a private room, not a corner of the room, but a long table where we will have people who are not at our dinner on either side of us. We politely said we would think about it and then went to see the rooms. As we got in the elevator to view a room, we got stuck in an elevator. After a few minutes we were able to get out. The room we were to view was locked and the key card wouldn’t open it. We went downstairs to get a new key. The elevator got stuck again. At this point I just wanted to leave. We went to the front desk and asked if they could just tell us what rate they could block the rooms for us. They said they didn’t know and they would get back to us! They never got back to us!

Wingate Inn and Suites LaGuardia East
Booking Process : B+
Met with the sales director there, she was very friendly and the hotel was the best in the area for our guests so we blocked 10 rooms. We told everyone the deadline for the blocked room rate was Monday Sept. 10th. Naturally we had a lot of ppl making reservations the weekend before the 10th. On Tuesday evening, we find out from our guests that they were being told the hotel had no idea about any special booked rate for our wedding. We had asked for a special code but none was provided. The sales director informed us that we should tell our guests to mention our last names to receive the special blocked rate. So of course none of these people were able to make reservations and then the deadline passes on Monday and now it doesn’t matter because the rates are now back up to normal! I call the hotel Wednesday morning to talk to the sales director to inform her about what happened over the weekend. Guess what? SHE NO LONGER WORKS THERE! There is a new sales director! So basically we have no idea when this new sales director took over but apparently between the new sales director and the old one our contract got lost in the mix. The new sales director did call us back Wednesday afternoon and said she would honor the blocked rate given to us by the old sales director. She also extended our deadline to accommodate the people who needed to call up again. Advice: Make sure to check in with your hotel periodically, even if it is just under the guise of wondering how many people have picked up your blocked rooms so far.

Photocube/Cardbox: A
This was a P.I.T.A to make and probably cost me like $35 to make. I really didn’t do any DIYs to save money. I did them because there was nothing out there that I liked. Anyway, I really liked the way it turned out.


Petal Cones: A+
I bought vintage looking scrapbook paper at AC Moore and made the petal cones out of them. I used glue dots to keep them in place. I bought pattern shaped scissors at Target to cut the tops and I bought a white basket at AC Moore to store the petal cones in.



Miscellaneous
Save-on-crafts.com: A+
Love them! Great wedding related stuff (tulle, aisle runners, etc) at great prices!


Shoes:
Zappos A
They were out of stock for three weeks on my first pick so I ended up going with my second pick. They offer free next day delivery so that was great!

Touch Ups: A+
I purchased Touch Ups (Shakira model) and they were sooooo comfortable! I had a pair of lower heels to change into if these shoes should start hurting. I wore the Shakira Touch Ups all night. They didn’t start bothering the balls of my feet til we were waiting for the car to arrive at the end of the night. 9 straight hours of wearing them pain free!

Congratulation!!!!
What a create review.

You look really amazing!!!

CONGRATS!! nice review! and lovely pics! you were a beautiful bride!!

Great review!!! Congrats to you and your newhusband! Beautiful wedding. You looked great!

Congratulations! I love your dress and hair.....beautiful

What a beautiful review!!

u looked absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! congrats! and great review

absolutely beautiful!
I love the feathers in the centerpieces!

absolutely beautiful!
I love the feathers in the centerpieces!