My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Jason and I met through one of my best guy friends from high school who happened to be Jason's college roommate. He dragged us both out to a bar after we graduated from college since we didn't live *that* far apart and so set a spark and the rest is history. We dated for a year and a half before getting engaged and then were engaged for almost two and a half years before getting married. You would think that meant I had all the time in the world to plan a wedding, but with both of us in grad school, it basically was down to the last 8 months before the wedding that just about everything got done.

Let me preface my review by saying - the day of my wedding just about nothing bothered me a few timing things, but all in all the things that went wrong I let roll right off my back and didn't let them bother me - and if you knew me that is saying something!

I don't have very many pictures online, but I have a small album of proofs and a small album of non-professional pictures

Invitations: Rexcraft.com A
I was looking for a budget invitation that was still nice. This was the one thing we started doing soon after we were engaged since we could. Just ordered tons of catalogues and started requesting samples. I was going to order from exclusivelyweddings, settled on an invitation and all then I saw a catalogue from Rexcraft and found this invitation and fell in love with it. Unfortunately the weight of the paper wasn't what I wanted, but I loved the look of it, so I ordered and weight or not, I still like it. The invitations came so fast in the mail I was amazed..I ordered them so early thinking they would take forever. Pleasantly surprised

Wedding Rings: Major Jewelers
Not sure if I have a rating for them. It's the place my husband bought my engagement ring, so it's the place we went for our wedding rings. I love my husband's ring, mine...I'm not sure. I wish I got an eternity band. Oh well. I wish they tried to sell me on a better ring than just try to get a sale out of me. My husband keeps telling me he's going to get me an upgrade ring when we can afford it...I'm not sure how I feel about that though since it wasn't the one I was married with. Does that make sense?

Wedding Gown, MOH, BM & FG dresses: David's Bridal: C for service, A for gowns
Well, everyone's read the bad reviews on David's...Service is something to be desired. I love my gown and I loved my girls gowns. The price was fair, and if you going during their sales you can really save a lot of money. I recommended to my girls to get their alterations done elsewhere if they could and if not just keep a watchful eye at David's with their alterations sine I heard some horror stories. Oh and apparently the FG dresses do well when you use a tidepen to get CHOCOLATE out of the top of the dress. My niece found some chocolate at my parents house before we started taking pictures and got chocolate all over the top of her dress. Somehow it didn't bother me, I calmly found the tidepen I packed in my bag and my MOH got the stain out. Also - my 15 yr old cousin's dress was still too big on her the morning of the wedding - my MOH had to adjust the hook and latch on the inside strap so it would stay closed. Thank God she's so handy!

Seamstress: Phyllis, Bridal Elegance - A
She did a great job with my bussel....was more perfect than I could imagine. My hem was a little uneven when it was first done so I had to have it redone 2 days before the wedding, but when everything was all said and done it was fantastic. She gave me a perfect undergarment and even altered it to fit me better. Overall...very expensive, but a much better job than David's Bridal ever would've done.

Veil: theweddingoutlet.com A+
I originally ordered my veil from an ebay account in attempt to save money, but they sent me one in offwhite with no pearls after I ordered one in white with pearls, so I sought out other means, still trying to save money. theweddingoutlet.com had some nice veils for decent prices and I loved it more than the one I orginially ordered.

Slip: hand-me-down A+ for being convienient and free!
David's orginally sold me a slip, but it turns out that my cousin had a couple of slips for me to borrow so I was able to get my money back for the slip and put it towards the FG dress to help my cousin out since she had two kids in my BP...and she gave me my something borrowed.

My jewelry: Zales & Major Jewelers curtisey of my parents and my husband A+
I got my wedding day earings from my parents the birthday before my wedding from Zales and my necklace from my husband the Christmas before the wedding from Major Jewelers. The necklace cost way too much, but I love it.

MOB dress: Lord & Taylors A+
My mother actually bought it for another wedding that we were going to a couple of years ago and never wore it because it was too dressy. I didn't want my mother to waste money on another dress since she already had this dress that she looked fantastic in so I asked her to wear it. She originally didn't want to because it was black, but I said it was elegant and so long as she didn't walk around telling people she was in mouring it'd be fine.

Tuxedos: Men's Wearhouse B (my husband rated this one.)
You'd think they'd be able to spell a person's name right when you correct them twice. The name they had on file for my husband wasn't even remotely close to how you spell his last name so his groomsmen had a hard time getting the right account at first. In the end all the men's tuxes worked out alright from what I know, I think one or two of them had to have a jacket size switched when they picked it up and some of the guys were missing the button covers etc. They also forgot to give my husband his tux for free- they charged him full price. When he came home and told me he put the tux on the credit card I almost killed him. If you ordered a certain amount of tuxes the groom's was free and they completely ignored it so I made him go back and get the money refunded the next day. I'm also disappointed that they charge full price for a 6 year old's tux though. You would think since it was significantly less material it wouldn't cost nearly as much. I felt so bad for his mom having to pay that much..and even worse that I didn't realize that it would be that much. I should've just told her to look at a department store, probably would've been cheaper. I mean, if you charge more for people who are overweight, then in the same theory, why not charge less for children?

Groomsmen Gifts: ThingsRemembered - A
We got assorted gifts for our guys, each gift to match their personality - keychains, business card holders, mugs etc all engraved with their initals. Pricefor the items was decent, but for engraving per word can get expensive if you want to put more than just a name or initials though.

BM gifts: ThingsRemembered - A
For my girls we got them their jewelry that came in an engraved box with their name on it. The jewelery looked fantastic and the boxes are adorable. The necklace you can see on my MOH in the album, it's Swarovski crystal and glass tear drops and dangling earings.

FG jewelry: gift-world-collection.com - A
We got the girls pewter heart pendants with their first initials engraved on the front and the back with C&J 3/31/07. I wanted to get something for them that would be wearable for a considerable amount of time and that they would remember us by. Price was reasonable and the quality was nice.

My Shoes: Colorifics Eclipse A+
I honestly don't remember where I ordered them from, where ever I found the cheapest price online at the time. I anticipated my feet hurting so I bought little slippers, but I never had time to think about my feet..so I guess that they were comfortable enough that I didn't have to think of them!

My headpiece: Weddingtiarasonline.com
Selection - A+, Service - A+, Price - B+
I was one of those girls dead against wearing a tiara until I started trying on wedding dresses and my mother put a tiara on me, then it all changed. I had the hardest time finding one I actually liked. I ordered at least 3 different ones before my mother decided to get me a headpiece from A.C. Moore, as cute as it was, it felt too cheap for me. (the tiara in my first two trial pictures) So I found a tiara that perfectly matched my dress at weddingtiarasonline.com, but unfortunately it was sold out. They emailed me after I ordered it and suggested another one that was $16 more, but she gave it to me for the same price and express shipping. I was upset that the one I wanted wasn't available, but everyone loved the one I got.

Hair & Makeup: Kacey of Khlouloud's Beauty A+++
Many of you might remember my fiasco with the hair/make up. My originally person cancelled on me less than two weeks before the wedding (my mother's co-worker who was a professional hair stylist for her second job). So I emailed people like crazy trying to find someone available for my date. Finally Kacey emailed me. I met with her that Thursday for a trial and she did better than I could ever hope for. My hair was exactly what I wanted and my make up was like it wasn't even there. She used air-brushing without charging extra and made my make up look completely natural and not overdone. She was a godsend for me during my last two weeks of madness. She also did my mother's hair and make up, which everyone loved, but I wish my mother did a trial because I would've liked her hair done a different way and I wasn't around to say so the morning of the wedding. I definitely recommend Kacey though - she has the patience of a saint - she spent 3 hours on my hair then did my make up and then my mother!

Flowers: Oberle Florist A
Pricewise they are a bit expensive, but I went here under recommendation from my mother since her company uses them for all their professional stuff. I met with many different florists not knowing what I wanted, but at Oberle they helped me figure it out the best. In the end my flowers looked AMAZING. Even the girl in the shop that was helping me was surprised at how well it turned out since I was asking for an odd combination in my boquet. (orchids and mini calas).

Photo: Martone Brothers A+
We went with this photographer because my cousin used them a couple of years ago and I loved how they worked watching them at her wedding then seeing her proofs. Granted she is a perfect looking girl and would've been hard for them to make her look bad, all her pictures were perfect. Overall I really enjoyed working with them since they are a family owned business and everything is done on premises. Alfonso, our photographer, was young and joked with us a bunch while we were taking pictures. He was completely laid back and never in the way. I hate photographers that are always visable. There are pictures I wished I asked him to take that completely slipped my mind and I didn't have the benefit of a photographer that had been to the locations that we used before since they are located in the Bronx, but all in all, I can't complain. I love majority of my proofs and am having a terrible time picking ones to put in an album. They are not cheap, but the quality is great.

Weather: A
Two weeks before my wedding we were digging cars out from under an icestorm, so I guess I can't complain that it was in the 50s! March is crazy with weather, so I was lucky!

Limo: Sir Oliver Limo - B-
Because of the ceremony starting we were charged overtime which was not expected so we were squandering for extra cash at the reception to pay them. The wedding car was supposed to be redone before our wedding day, but it wasn't. It was kinda dirty and dingy on the inside. The driver was really nice, but before you book an old fashioned car, be warned that they drive really slow! The stretch we had, I didn't hear any complaints from my BP and I never saw the inside but apparently they drove exceedingly slow as well making all of us quite late to my reception (like they had to extend the cocktail hour late..more on that later)....little infuriated.


Church: St. Rose of Lima
pre ceremony B+, day of - B-
Officiant - Father John O'Neill
We happened to get Father Al as the person we were dealing with for our wedding, and as nice as he is, he is horrible at getting back to you when you call. We played phone tag for months - and that makes things very difficult when you are trying to make sure everything goes through for a visiting priest to marry you and you also get dispensation from the Bishop to marry out of faith (husband is Methodist). Pre-cana was fine...little kooky. Our rehearsal was a mess because traffic was bad for everyone getting to the church, so the volunteers were a little impatient with us. The day of - well if you read Tara's (GettinHutched) review, we basically had the same thing happen. When the guys got to the church the previous wedding was still going on. So much so that my guests who got to the church thought they were missing my wedding! I have no idea what time I actually walked down the aisle, but it screwed everything up after. We couldn't take pictures in the church after because people were already there for Saturday evening mass, and outside we were rushed so we could take pictures at the Vanderbilt - we couldn't skip this because we paid a lot to be able to take pictures there.


Programs: Myself
I bought program paper at Staples and used templates from previous weddings I'd been at and changed them to suit my needs. All in all, everyone loved them....I just wish I wasn't still printing the last of them out and folding them the morning of the wedding.

Unity Candle: Findafavor.com A+++++
We ordered our unity candle from this company for like $30 and it was beautiful and smelled great, but when it came the tapers got damaged in shipping. My husband called the company asking them to send us new tapers and instead they sent us a whole new candle set! We ended up with two unity candles and stands with one set with broken tapers and the others fine. It worked out well because my cousin got married a few months later and she took the unity candle and bought a couple of tapers to go with it. We were so amazed they didn't ask for the first unity candle back, but greatful that everything worked out and it came within a matter of days of us calling.

Pictures: Vanderbilt Museum, Centerport
Expensive, but great scenery. You pay one price to use outside and $100 more to use the inside rooms as well. I love the pictures I have from here...I just know how much time it cost me from seeing my cocktail hour since it was 40 minutes from the church and apparently since the limo drivers were so slow an hour from the hall.

Menus: myself
Another DIY project that I was working on 2 nights before the wedding. I got heavy stock construction paper from the art teacher at work (a friend of mine) and she even cut it to size for me after I showed her what I was planning on doing. I bought parchment paper to print my programs on, made a monogramed L for the top and spray mounted the parchment onto the construction paper. Of course this drove my mother insane getting spray mount on her kitchen floor since I couldn't do it outside being cold and all. My cutting wasn't as straight as it could have been on some of the parchment, but my parents swore you couldn't tell (and yes I used a paper cutter - i'm just horrible at those things). Everyone thought the hall provided the menus and were in complete shock when they found out I made them myself - quite the compliment!

Favors:
Mini Personalized Hersheys: A+ weddingchannelstore.com great price and looked fantastic. My husband wanted every person to have a sweet at their plate for when they sat down and were waiting for us to walk in. weddingchannelstore you can always get a discount if you subscribe to them, they send coupons every few weeks. They delivered them quite efficiently and sealed in a weatherproof bag.

Heart letter opener: Ebay (triandlinlp) A+
I found the favor I wanted in a wedding catalogue and went on ebay typed it in and found the best price for the number of openers I wanted. I wanted something useful for my guests.


Cake: Rolling Pin Bakery - A
The cake looked very nice and everyone thought so, even if it wasn't entirely what I had in mind. I was a little disappointed, but I can't argue when my family keeps telling me how nice it looked. I couldn't tell you how it tasted because the only taste I got was when we fed each other and I honestly don't remember the taste at all. I didn't dislike it, I think I would remember that. lol.

Cake Topper: Lenox Swept Away
I registered for this cake topper and my uncle got it for us for our wedding gift. We actually ended up with the smaller version of the First Dance under a lattice as well for a shower gift, so I had one on my cake table and one on the dais, which was nice.


First Dance: 'When You Say You Love Me' by Josh Groban. I couldn't use the ever popular 'You Raise Me Up' because it is a song used at my students graduation each year, but I really liked Josh Groban so I started listening to his songs to pick one...this one was just perfect for us.

Bouquet Toss: I can't remember what song was played and all my wedding stuff is in my parents house so I can't look it up, but funny story. My 15 year old cousin caught the boquet - quietest and prettiest 'little' girl. She didn't exactly catch it so much as it was pretty much hurrled at her face, but not on purpose....so we move forward to the garter toss and I look at my husband and tell him no one else can catch it except his 15 year old brother (her partner) because otherwise my uncle is going to pretty much kill any guy who tries to put the garter on her. Worked out quite well because all our single guy friends got up and pretty much hung back to let his brother catch the garter with the exception of his cousin's boyfriend (who is in his late 20s...and sketchy looking). This guy is in the front all ready to catch the garter, but fortunately his brother got it. The poor girl sits in the chair and looks at me saying she has no idea what to do, so I tell her cross your leg, and he won't go past your knee...the poor boy on the other hand also nervous put the garter on her leg so fast that the DJ made him do it again on the other leg....I thought the two of them were going to die. Very cute though.

Garter Removal: Maybe I'm the only dork in the world who doesn't know this, but I had no idea which garter my husband was supposed to take off, so I had to run and find my cousin who was just married to help me out on this one. We did it nice and classy because I had a lot of elderly family in the audience.

DJ: Spin Around Sound - A+
If you want someone who is very discrete and stays true to their word, this guy is great. Tom White helped make our wedding extremely classy. We were very specific as to certain types of music that were not to be played and if there were any requests to pop them by us first. Just about everyone loved our music selection and he wasn't out in front and showy trying to promote himself, it was all about us. Slightly more expensive that we could've gotten, but I like to think we got what we paid for.


Out of Town Guest Hotel: Hyatt Wind Watch A+
We got a great rate for a block of rooms including rooms for us and my parents and discounted rates. The rooms were extremely comfortable and my father had a mini afterparty in his suite that apparently lasted until 4:30 am (not that I was there - we were in our room for a quick change, relax and whathaveyou then we were on our way to the airport!)

Reception: The Meadow Club A++
I can say in the end they did right by us. My husband used to work for TMC a few years back so therefore we expected them to pull out all the stops for us. They gave us a discount, but not as much as I would have liked, but at the same time we were also given a bunch of extras. We had the chaircovers for free and they gave us a lower minimum not that we needed it in the end. The best part of what they did for us we had no way of knowing would work out this way. As I mentioned earlier our timing got messed up with the church starting so late then the slow limos getting us to and from the pictures. We didn't get to the reception hall until about 7:45 or so. The cocktail hour was at 6:30, so the ower went to my father and asked if he would like for them to extend the cocktail hour until we arrived and were ready to be presented so this way there was still the magic of getting there before people were in the main room. I would've liked some time to relax between everything, but it is what it is. The food was more than fantastic, and I hear the Vienese was to die for, not that I got to see that - we were too busy making our rounds, saying hi to people and whatnot. The whole thing went so incredibly fast that I only remember glimpses of the whole thing. Which is kinda upsetting, but I know is how everyone basically feels. I remember how amazed I was that it was already time for the cake cutting and upset I was because I knew it meant it was nearing an end. Everyone who we've spoke to since the wedding has told us it was the best wedding they've ever been to, so btwn all our hard work and TMC something went right!


After we went up to our room to change so we could make a quick appearance in my parents room and my husband could give his tux to his parents to return, I stood in the room for a few moments staring because I knew it was the last time I was going to wear my wedding dress, it's surprising how upset you get. The realization that it's all over - all the worrying and planning and it's done. Such a feeling of relief mixed with some sadness. So if you are reading this and not yet married - treasure every second because it goes SO very fast!

Sorry this was incredibly long! I think my husband is going to kill me since this took forever to write!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

YEEAAA Christine! Awesome review. I'm sorry the same thing happened to you with St. Rose....but otherwise your day sounded perfect. And you looked AMAZING! I'm so happy for you!!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Thank you for the great review! Sounds like you had a great day! Congrats!!!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

you looked beautiful!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Thanks Tara!! It took me all night - Jason couldn't believe how much I had to write!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

thanks for the detailed review!!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Great review! You looked beautiful!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Thanks for sharing your review! I am so glad to hear positive reviews for Tom & Spin Around Sound, they are our DJ!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

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Posted by PreshusSmurf

Thanks for sharing your review! I am so glad to hear positive reviews for Tom & Spin Around Sound, they are our DJ!

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He is great - so very patient. I was so indecisive at first and he basically walked us through what he thought we wanted. I gotta say, his spiel sold me when I read it online.

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Congratulations!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

Congrats!!

Re: My review 3.31.07: Meadow Club, Spin Around Sound, David's Bridal and more!

you look so beautiful...I love your hair!!!! Congrats