Our Long 9/30/06 Wedding Review w/ MORE PRO PICS: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty and more

Thank goodness I found this site, because it helped me focus and get over that overwhelmed feeling I had at the thought of planning a wedding. With the help of this site I didn’t feel like I was in it alone, so thank you, liweddings.

My wedding day was the best day of my life, but it was a blur. The morning seemed to drag by, but once the photographer got to my house someone hit the fast forward button and before I knew it we were in the limo heading to our hotel. I was by my husband’s side the entire night and the look of joy and love on his face was all that mattered and all I needed to experience on my wedding day. Everything below is my opinion of how the night went based on what I observed and I was told by others.




All photos are the work of Anthony Vazquez from Perceptions Photography, unless otherwise noted

Weather
During the ten days before my wedding the forecast changed daily and sometimes, to my surprise and frustration, twice a day. The morning was sunny, but by the time we got to the church, the sky was filled with clouds and it was cold. It remained cloudy for the rest of the day, but it never rained and that’s all I could ask for. Surprisingly, it warmed up a bit as it got later into the evening and a lot of people were outside on the balconies. Our guests were so great during the cocktail hour and the reception about going outside when it was colder than average. They were troopers! My two little cousins even wet their feet in the ocean during the cocktail hour.

Invitations and Save the Dates
You’re Invited Too
I met Tara at a bridal showcase at the Woodlands. I liked that she was a young woman running her own business (she was an ‘06 bride herself) and she wasn’t at all pushy. So, she was the first person I called when it came time to order save the dates and invitations. She comes to your house with a car load full of invitation books and you can look through them at your pace and in the comfort of your own home. She was very helpful and was quick to point out the differences in many invitations as supposed to trying to sell me on everything. She is a former wedding planner and she gave us little tips about planning a wedding. The one problem we had was that the save the dates were a mix of dark silver and white and when they went through the mail the dark silver ink bled onto the white parts. When I notified Tara, she contacted the manufacturer and got us a discount. I loved my invitations and they weren’t like any invitation I had seen before. When they arrived, we were missing some envelopes, but when I contacted Tara she had them sent to us right away and she even had them throw in some tissue paper that we hadn’t ordered, but my mother decided later we had to have.

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Bridal Gown and Veil
The Wedding Salon of Manhasset
Vera Wang
This was the first and only place I went to look for a wedding dress and in hindsight it was a little foolish to not experience trying on as many dresses as possible, but the second I tried on my dress I was smitten. We weren’t even ready to start dress shopping, but my aunt and grandmother were in town and we wanted them to experience seeing me try on wedding dresses. So, we went to the Wedding Salon on a whim with the intention of just seeing what was out there. We went there on a Saturday and it was so busy and a bit overwhelming. I would recommend that you go on a weekday, because whenever I went back during the week there was always one bride who had the entire place and all those gorgeous dresses to herself. I saw my dress on another bride and the minute I saw it I told the sales attendant I had to try it on. I tried it on and fell in love with how glamorous it made me feel. I am a huge red carpet fan, and I felt like I was on the red carpet when I tried the dress on. I tried on two more dresses, but I always came back to my dress. The sales attendant had really great taste and she selected a small tiara that looked perfect with my dress, and we selected a longer cathedral veil.
The dress they ordered for me didn’t fit like the sample, but I was fine with it because I believed it would be altered to fit my body. In the end they made the alterations, although they did have to slightly alter the design of the dress for it to fit like I wanted and I got a lot of resistance to my alteration requests. Just some advice, if you order a dress that isn’t a traditional bridal gown keep in mind that you may need a lot of alterations and your seamstress may not be used to making those types of alterations.
The original sales attendant I worked with ordered the wrong veil for me and thank goodness I ordered it with enough time for them to correct it. I ordered a simple single layer cathedral with a blusher and crystals on the cathedral layer. The veil that originally came in had flowers and trim on it, but they did reorder me the right veil. You have to make an appointment to pick up your dress before the wedding, but when I went the dress wasn’t ready and it seemed to me that they had just started pressing the dress when I arrived and they were rushing. Before I left with the dress I inspected it and there was a visible stain and a stich that should’ve been removed by the seamstress. They removed the stain and the stich, but it bothered me that they were going to let me leave with the dress looking like that and they were rushing me through the inspection. They did give me a gift certificate to get my gown cleaned and preserved, which I thought was a nice touch. Also, my dress started falling apart during the reception. The dress had a side zipper with buttons covering it and by the end of the night I was holding some of the buttons in my hand and there was a small rip in a seam. However, I was running on the beach and climbing on a lifeguard stand for pictures and I don’t think most dresses would hold up.
I saw so many beautiful dresses on this site and along the way I began to have second doubts on my dress. I am so glad I stuck with my original idea on how I wanted to look on my wedding day, because I felt really good in my dress that day and they really did make the dress look beautiful.

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Bridesmaid Dresses:
The Wedding Salon of Manhasset
Vera Wang

When I ordered my dress, the sales attendant brought me next door to show me a bridesmaid dress she thought would look perfect with my dress. I hadn’t even started to think about bridesmaid dresses, but I figured it wasn’t too early to start looking since I had just chosen my wedding dress. She explained that because I did not have a traditional wedding dress a traditional bridesmaid dress would look out of place and I agreed. I also wanted to pick a dress the girls could wear again. I loved the dress she picked out and more importantly my girls loved it to. I picked a dark steel color, to go with the appliqués on the dress and so my dress would stand out against the BM dresses in pictures. They gave each girl 20% off since I had ordered my dress from them and each girl got the dress altered in their hometown, since I was told they no longer do BM alterations. The dresses came in on time and they were in great condition.

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Mother of Bride Dress A+
Macy’s Bridal Salon in Manhasset
My mother loved her dress and she looked gorgeous in the dress. When I was 16 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and I wasn’t even sure if she would be with us on my wedding day. This year she celebrated her tenth year of being cancer free and it was her party as much as mine. Macy’s gave her a discount on the dress and the dress came in early and they did a great job with the alterations.






Tuxes
Tuxedo Park
I went with my husband to pick out his tux and honestly I really didn’t have to. Once I told their representative, Bob, the look we were going for, he dressed my husband up in several types of tuxedos and found a nice classy look for him without any needed input from me. All I did was approve the final look. He wore a black Ralph Lauren tuxedo with a white vest, tie and shirt. Once we settled on his look, I gave Bob our colors and he dressed my husband up as a groomsmen. The groomsmen wore the same tuxedo and shirt, but they had a black vest and a black and silver striped tie. Their customer service was great and we never had any problems.






My Shoes and BM Shoes
My Glass Slipper
I ordered the BM shoes and my shoes from their online store. I found my shoes on their sale page. They were white satin Touchup’s and they were so comfortable. My feet never hurt once throughout the entire night. I had purchased another pair of shoes that hurt my feet, but had some cute shoe bling on the toe strap, so I decided to combine the two shoes. I cut off the shoe bling from the first shoe and used fabric glue to attach them to the pair I ended up using. The BM shoes were also Touchup’s and the girls said they were very comfortable. I also ordered a pair of their bridal 3 inch platform flip flops for taking pictures on the beach which were great because my dress wouldn’t drag if I wore them, but I never wore them until the honeymoon because my shoes were so comfortable and I just went barefoot for the pictures on the beach.

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

My Earrings
Bridal Couture
I didn’t want to wear a lot of jewelry, because I don’t usually wear a lot and I thought the dress design was too busy for a lot of jewelry. So, we just bought a pair of tear drop crystal earrings from Bridal Couture and they were enough.







Bridesmaid Jewelry
Banana Republic Online
During the holiday season, Banana Republic has some really great party jewelry. I ordered the girls sterling silver drop earrings and matching drop pendant necklaces. The girls loved them and they can wear them again.







BM Tote Bags
Pursesnitcity.com
I ordered each BM a black and silver tote bag with their name engraved on the front. It was large enough for me to fit a shoebox, a pair of flip flops and their jewelry for the wedding day. One of the lining on the bags started falling apart right before the rehearsal dinner, but they all loved their totes.

GM Gifts
Coach Outlet Riverhead, NY and American Express Gift Cards
I had no idea what to get the guys for a gift. They are the type that if they want something they buy it. So, I decided to find something they would never buy for themselves. I went to the Coach outlet in Riverhead and bought them all nice wallets, because I knew they would never buy themselves expensive wallets. They were a lot cheaper than the price on their website and the guys loved them. I have seen each of them using their wallet. I also got them personalized gift cards from American Express as a tie in to the wallet. Each gift card looks like an real credit card and had their name on it. The gift cards never arrived by the date they were supposed to come in and I had to contact customer service several times to find out where the cards were and to ask them to resend the cards as the rehearsal date was right around the corner.

Rehearsal Dinner
Sans Souci of Sea Cliff
I had originally booked Sans Souci for my wedding, but along someone started a huge construction project right next to Sans Souci. They allow you to apply your deposit to another event and they had no problem allowing us to have our rehearsal dinner there on a Thursday night. We had a little over forty guests and had the entire place to ourselves. The food was good and everyone had a great time.

Hair
Darren from Darren’s Hair Salon
Darren is my regular hair stylist and I wanted to go to him for my wedding. I knew I wanted to wear my hair up, but I couldn’t decide how it should look. So, Darren just created something for me. It held up all night and never budged. Darren and his assistant did my mother, my moh, my aunt and my grandmother. We went to his salon the morning of the wedding and he had mimosas and bagels for us. It was a really relaxing atmosphere, since there were a few other customers there and we could just chit chat without thinking about the wedding. My only complaint was that I found out after we left that my moh asked for something sleek and low and he ended up giving her a high beehive. I guess he got a little too creative, but the hairstyle came out gorgeous in the pictures and my moh eventually warmed up to it.


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)








Makeup
Anne DeMarco Cosmetics
I found Anne while looking through some local vendors on ModernBride.com and she jumped out at me, because she was located close to my home and we were trying to keep everything as local as possible. I liked my trial, but she did my makeup for the wedding even better. She came to my home the morning of the wedding and she made me, my mother and my moh look so beautiful. She airbrushed my face and any skin that showed through the dress and she selected the colors perfectly. During the receiving line after the ceremony, my husband’s grandmother locked me in the only bear hug for about two minutes. She is a lot taller than me so my face ended up in her shoulder and that was the end of my perfect makeup. I really should’ve bought power from Anne, and I would suggest it because a lot of people don’t know not to hug the bride so much with all that makeup on. My mother and moh got regular makeup and everything lasted all night. Anne is such a sweet person and it was a pleasure having her with us for those few hours before the wedding. She was by far one of my favorite vendors and I would totally recommend her to anyone.



(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)













(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

Florist
Flower Michele
Before my wedding day, they were by far my favorite wedding vendor. I loved going to their showroom to chat with John. His enthusiasm about wedding flowers is contagious and it was really nice to find a wedding vendor who was excited about your wedding day as you were. During our last meeting about two weeks before the wedding, I made some changes to my bok and the girls bok. I added orchids to the calla lilies to give the bok more texture. I was loved the boks, but I wasn’t impressed with the guys flowers. I thought the boutonnieres looked small and the satin wraps on the boutonnieres looked messy and should’ve been tapered more at the bottom. I didn’t have flowers at my church, because they set up the wrong room on the church’s property, but they did give me a refund of the money for the church flowers. I missed out on a picture of our guests throwing rose petals and the church flowers were supposed to be moved to the Crescent, but they never were. The centerpieces and the dais arrangement they made were gorgeous, but there were some unopened flowers in the centerpieces. We decided to do floating rose bowls for the cocktail hour after seeing them at another wedding at the Crescent, but the bowls Flower Michele did were really small and hard to see. I was disappointed with their performance on my wedding day.




















(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

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Limos
Royalty Limousine
Limos were the last major vendor I booked. They weren’t a priority for us. All we wanted was some sort of vehicle to get us from point a to point b. I met with Manny and he was very accommodating and his prices are reasonable. I needed to transport 14 people from the church to the reception, but their fourteen passengers were all booked, so he gave us two eight person passengers for the price of a 14 passenger limo.
The drivers were all on time and they knew where they were going. The only issue I had was at the end of our reception the driver came in to the ballroom while we were saying goodbye to guests and said we had to leave with him now or he was leaving us, because he had to make another pickup that night. So, we had to rush out of the reception before saying some of our goodbyes.
































DVD Montage
Get in Tune Productions
About a week before the wedding, we decided to add a DVD montage of pictures of us growing up and pictures of us together. When we booked the Crescent we were told we should decorate the hospitality room of the Crescent with pictures in frames. I thought a montage would be nicer and a lot easier than buying a lot of picture frames to decorate that large room. We worked with Glen and his team put together a great montage in less than a week. It had about 50 pictures and was set to music of our choice. We had two 50 inch plasma screen TV’s on either side of the cocktail room entrance, so guests could take a look while they were getting their place cards, waiting for the cocktail hour to start or entering the cocktail room. I didn’t want the montage to be the focus of the party, where everyone has to stop what they are doing and watch. It was meant to be something they can stop and look at as they walk by if they wanted to. It was a big hit, and I know our families enjoyed seeing the old pictures. We received a dvd and a vhs copy of the montage and I love that I have pictures of John and I growing up on DVD, because old pictures can be hard to keep track of.

Ceremony
Saint Patrick’s Church Glen Cove, NY
This was not my home parish, but it is such a beautiful church that we knew we wanted to get married there. Saint Patrick’s has some gorgeous locations for pictures and we took full advantage. The priest marrying you doesn’t do the church rehearsal and I found out at the rehearsal that the priest I had been communicating with would not be performing our marriage ceremony. So, at the wedding I met the priest who was to marry us for this first time, but it was fine because he was so great and you could tell he really enjoyed doing wedding ceremonies. Without us having to say a word he sensed that many of the people in attendance were Spanish speaking and he did a portion of the ceremony in Spanish and he had a really great sense of humor.

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)











(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)




























(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Menus, Place cards, Church Programs and Table Number cards
These were all done by a work colleague of my husband’s who does this as a hobby. Everything she did was absolutely beautiful! She was also our third photographer as she took the non-pro pictures I posted awhile back.












(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

Donation Favors
I Do Foundation and Vistaprint
Since, my mother is a breast cancer survivor we really wanted to make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. While reading through a wedding magazine, I came across an article about the I Do Foundation. They have a website where you select a charity and they process the donation for you. They allow you to donate a set amount or an amount per guest and you can order donation cards from them. You can also set up a charity registry if you want your guests to donate instead of buying you traditional wedding gifts. Instead of ordering their donation cards, we ordered tented invitations from vistaprint.com to put on each table notifying out guests of the donation. We were able to design the outside of the card and on the inside put information about the history and work of the foundation.


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


Candle Favors
Cudge.net and Myweddinglabels.com
We also wanted the guests to have something small to take home with them, because some of the family members might like to have a memento of the day. So, we ordered square votive candles from Cudge.net along with their votive candles and we placed personalized labels on each one and tied a ribbon around them. I don’t know if a lot of guests took them, but there were very few packed up in our things after the reception.

Cocktail Hour Band
Coral Sea Entertainment – Steel Drum Duo
I found them on a website called gigmasters.com, after being shocked at what most steel drum bands charge for an hour’s performance. They were half the price of the lowest quote I received, but I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t have half the talent. They arrived early and started playing even before the cocktail hour began, so it was nice to hear the music while we were taking pictures on the beach and they played for longer than the time we booked them for. Their manager, Dex, was always quick to return my calls and he is very friendly. They sounded so great and some guests said they were better than the reception band.

Reception Band
Milestone Music
I originally booked Milestone, because they had a lead singer who could do Latin music, but they could do everything else as well. This was really important to me, since a lot of my husband’s family is from Puerto Rico and only speak Spanish, and my mother’s family loves Latin music. After I booked them, this lead singer left the band, but Dotty, the band leader, assured me they could still perform the latin songs I requested. They did perform some Latin music at the wedding, but the sets were a lot shorter than I would’ve liked. I think they were playing into the crowd, and there weren’t as many people on the dance floor when the Latin music was played, but those who were on the floor were really into it and felt the music stopped right when they started to get going. The dance floor was always packed and they played a nice mix of music, but I felt like they took a lot of breaks. There was always some sort of live music being played, but during the dinner it was mostly a piano man and I was under the impression they would’ve had a lead singer doing some Nora Jones or other easy listening music. They learned a song for my father and I to dance to, but another song I requested them to learn for my mother wasn’t played and when a groomsmen requested it they said they didn’t know it. All in all, a lot of people danced at my wedding who don’t dance at all and loved the band. These are just my impressions of how the night went, but my guests had a totally different impression of the band and that is really what matters.

Crescent Beach Club
When I first started thinking about where we would like to get married I envisioned a beach wedding. We love going to the beach and we got engaged in the Bahamas, so we really wanted a reception location near or on the beach. When we saw the Crescent for the first time our mouths dropped and we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. However, when we asked about their guarantee for a Sat. night in September we knew we couldn’t make it and we said to ourselves that maybe one day our daughter would get married there instead. So, we booked another reception location, but in March of this year something happened and we knew we had to change our location. So I started calling places to see if they still had our date available since vendors had been booked and invitations had been ordered. When I called the Crescent, Sept. 30 was only date in September they still had available and their guarantee was a lot less than we thought. Well, we jumped on it and the rest is history.
I worked with Denise during the planning stages. She really knows her stuff and at times it can be a bit intimidating, because she gets to the point, but I guess this is what comes with experience. Every time we met with Denise throughout the planning process, the Crescent treated us like royalty and Denise always had great solutions to our questions. Denise and her staff know how to throw a great party.
Anthony called Denise when we were taking pictures at the church b and I had a chance to speak with her for a few seconds. She was so sweet and excited about my wedding day. When we pulled up to the Crescent she greeted us at the limo and ushered everyone into the bridal suite for some refreshments and cheese and crackers before the cocktail hour food started. A lot of our guests went to the Crescent right after church and arrived there at 5pm for a 6:30 cocktail hour. We were busy taking pictures on the beach, but the Crescent circulates complimentary champagne for the early guests and they even started the cocktail hour half an hour early at no charge to us because we had so many guests there early. Everyone loved the cocktail hour and said that it was the longest and best cocktail hour they had ever been too and that the food just kept on coming for an hour and a half. We were allowed to select 8 passed hor’dourves (sp?) and Denise through in a 9th one at the menu planning and we had about five stations.
By the time we finished taking pictures on the beach, I was exhausted, hungry and I have to admit getting a little cranky. So, Stacey, our bridal attendant closed off the bridal suite and brought us in a sampling of the cocktail hour food. My husband and I had the opportunity to eat alone for a few minutes, but in hindsight I wished I had just sucked it up and skipped the food to experience more of the cocktail hour, since by the time we finished our family pictures we had unexpectedly missed half of the cocktail hour. We went into the cocktail hour to greet our guests for the last half hour, but we never made it outside onto the deck, which was something I really wanted to do. After we said hello to a few guests inside, our maitre d, Kathy, brought us up to the ballroom before the guests entered to show us what it looked like all set up and everything looked liked we had hoped. Then it was time to line up and both Kathy and Stacey were great at making sure everyone was lined up and the girls had their bok’s for the bridal party introductions.
During dinner service, Stacey always served us first and she gave my husband each entrée to taste. The guests said the food was great, but I could tell that many of them were stuffed from the cocktail hour food. There were a few guests who thought the cocktail hour food was the dinner. I was really nervous about what my cake would taste like, because we wanted the filling of the cake to be coconut and pineapple because it’s our favorite flavor ice cream. I was so surprised that the cake tasted amazing. It was a vanilla cake with coconut cream filling and fresh pieces of pineapple. Everyone loved the cake and the Crescent completely executed our vision for the cake. The whole night was orchestrated so well and everything went off without a hitch. I don’t have many details to give, because everything was great and the reception went by so fast. When I was going to each table to say hello, my uncle told me his wife had something to say to me. She is very quiet and shy and English is not her first language, but she whispered to me that this was the best wedding she had ever been to. I felt really good, and not in a competitive sense, but good to get positive feedback where as planning had all be done in our heads through visualization of what the day would be like for our guests. I can’t thank the Crescent staff enough for the wonderful job they did with our wedding.








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Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)


(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

(not the work of Anthony Vazquez)

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Photographer and Videographer
Anthony Vazquez from Perceptions Photography
I love my pictures and Anthony has such a great and releaxing demeanor. The enitre staff was so great to work with.

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

Wedding Night Hotel
Glen Cove Mansion
I didn’t block any rooms, but they had another program where they would give you a discounted rate, but not guarantee that there would be rooms available. This was fine with me since I wasn’t sure how many people would need rooms. The rooms were large and well kept and they have a nice bar in the hotel with pool tables, poker tables and other bar games. I booked a suite for my husband and me to stay in the night before the wedding and the night of the wedding. It was so big, which was great because the groomsmen were getting dressed there. The suite had two bathrooms and two TV’s and the main bathroom had a large bathtub, so I was able to take a relaxing bath the night before the wedding and the morning of the wedding. The room rate included breakfast and the breakfast was amazing. There was an omelette station, bacon and sausage, fresh fruit and all kinds of pastries and breads. So, we were able to have an informal brunch the day after the wedding. The only problem we encountered was that my moh had ordered champagne and strawberries and requested they decorate our hotel room with rose petals for our wedding night, but they never did, and tried to bill her for it anyway. They did refund her money, but it really upset her because she wanted to make our wedding night special.

Sandals Dunn’s River Villagio
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Ship to Shore Travel
We didn’t book our honeymoon until the last minute in August. We had planned on using a family member’s timeshare in Hawaii due to budget restrictions, but I had always wanted to do an all inclusive, because I couldn’t picture myself going to the grocery and cooking on my honeymoon. Well, the timeshare fell through in August, so we started looking at some all inclusives and Sandals stood out to us. I am so glad we chose them!
We chose Dunn’s River because our travel agent, Christina from Ship to Shore Travel, told us they had recently undergone renovations and the property was beautiful. She was right, the grounds were gorgeous, the food was great and the service was wonderful. She even gave us a $25 gift certificate to their spa, which pretty much paid for a manicure. We were there for 11 days and had the time of our life. There were a lot of honeymooners there who had gotten married the same weekend as us and it was so nice that it was couples only. We went horseback riding and tubing down a natural mountain river. They had nightly activities such as a beach buffet, a live musical act, party games, a casino night, an island fashion show and so much more. They also have photographers on staff taking pictures of you throughout your vacation, which is really nice because we been on many vacations where we come home with mostly pictures of us separately. The pictures are expensive to order, but they will sell them to you on a CD to print out at home. They had four restaurants on the property that served a four course sit down dinner. One of the restaurants cooked Japanese food Benihana (sp?) style and my husband had lobster at another restaurant two nights in a row. Their breakfasts were amazing and we had mimosas every morning. My husband got used to the idea of walking away from a restaurant without having to reach for the wallet. The only draw back for this resort is that they were a two hour drive from the airport, but Sandals has plenty of properties all over Jamaica and the drive was well worth in since Ocho Rios seemed to be a gem hidden from the more touristy areas. I totally recommend a Sandals vacation. They treated us like royalty and they provide you with everything you need to have a great honeymoon.


(these honeymoon pictures are not the work of Anthony Vazquez, obviously )

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

You looked amazing on your day!!! Thank you for all of the feedback on the Crescent..... I sometimes get nervous about the hall (just because it's a lot of $$) but your review put me at ease!! Thanks again!

Re: Our 9/30/06 Wedding w/ Pro Pics: The Crescent Beach Club, Perceptions Photography, Anne Demarco Cosmetics, Royalty, Milestone Music and more

GREAT REVIEW! I, too, love to see reviews on Crescent (because they're so hard to come by!) You were a beautiful bride, and you looked like you had a great day.... and everything was absolutely gorgeous!