The Brides' Review - Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review - Added pics from Indian wedding

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:12 AM

Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review - Added pics from Indian wedding

I'm not a frequent poster here but since I've always loved reading other brides' reviews, I thought I'd leave one too.

We had a great wedding at the Westbury Manor!! The weather was *amazing* - they were forecasting rain since a week before, and throughout Friday night it was pouring. It was supposed to stop raining in late afternoon, but since my ceremony starts at 12:30 I was beginning to tell myself that it was no big deal...although I had loved the idea of an outdoor ceremony at the Manor. Well, I'm so happy the forecast is always wrong - it stopped raining while I was getting ready, and just as I stepped outside for pictures around 9:30, the sun came out!!! And we had a wonderful sunny day for the rest of our wedding!

Anyway... here are the reviews ---

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:13 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< Venue > Westbury Manor: A
CONS
The management (incl. chef) change chaos last year did scare us a bit, and an explanation would have been nice at least to us brides who had booked them already.
We did see the guests to other weddings taking place at the same time - they had maybe 3 weddings at once including ours? Some guests later told us they were directed to a different wedding.
They didn't have our cake until 11am, so our florist who came at 9am couldn't decorate it - it was after John (florist) had warned us about it and we had specifically asked the Manor to have it ready early. WM afternoon brides, you should take this into account. Luckily we had a friend who was good at stuff like that, and she decorated the cake beautifully with the flowers our florist left on the cake table.

PROS
We had such a great time that all those things mentioned above didn't bother us at all!!! Jason, our Maitre'D, seemed a little off when we first met him, but he did a great job getting people together and keeping the wedding going as planned. And I loved my bridal attendant Carrie - she was amazing! I had prepared the 'bride's emergency kit' as suggested on this board, but she already had everything and I didn't even touch mine. She brought food and drinks to us, held my dress, cleaned its hem, fixed our ring bearer's tux, etc., etc...

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:14 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

The food was good too, and the cake wasn't dry like someone had said before. The drinks kept coming, and the service over all was excellent. Our guests were very happy.
The manor was decorated beautifully - flowers were everywhere.

< Photographer > Lina Jang: A+++++ (http://www.jangweddingphotography.com)
Lina and her secondary photographer O.B. are absolutely wonderful!!! Extremely talented and very devoted to their work. We had an engagement photo session last year too (at different locations in Manhattan) and those pictures came out great, so we had no worries. We actually became good friends so we felt very comfortable with them around on the wedding day. We saw other photographers before meeting with them, and the difference in their professionalism and pride in their work were so obvious. They recommended our videographer (whom we're very happy about as well), and since they know each other very well, they worked together perfectly.
I will share some of Lina's pictures with you after we get the proofs!

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:15 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< Videographer > Bliss Productions NY: A+++ (http://www.blissproductionsny.com)
They were recommended by our photographer and we can't thank them more. Jerry is such a nice person and we immediately liked him....and their work! Their samples were absolutely amazing as some of you probably have seen. He and his assistant were great on the day of the wedding as well. We can't wait to see the video!

< Officiant > Reverend Michael Callahan: A
He is a wonderful man, and immediately understood what kind of ceremony we wanted - non-religious but spiritual, and very warm and personal. He also has a great voice. The only problem was that he was very late. Ceremony was supposed to start at 12:30 and he came around 12:50, so the Maitre'D already had a backup officiant for us just in case. Guests had to wait in the sun so I felt bad about that also. It wasn't 100% his fault, he had another wedding before ours and it was delayed because the bride wasn't ready. Either way, I think he should have scheduled his day better. Oh well, but in the end he did a beautiful ceremony for us, therefore I give him an A.

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:16 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< Florist > Flower Michele: A+
As everyone says, John is very talented and knowledgeable. I wanted elegant, classy, and simple deep red flowers, and that was what I got. He worked within our budget, and was always pleasant. For some reason I always had trouble getting responses from him to my emails, but other than that, absolutely no problem at all. He also warned us about the Westbury Manor not having the cake ready before 11am. If he hadn't, we wouldn't have had been ready for it and ended up having no flowers on the cake like another bride did.

< DJ > Bravo Sound International: A
We had Charlie (MC) and Alfonso (DJ). They got all our special songs right, and the dance floor was never empty! We liked how Charlie (MC) was mature, intelligent, and energetic at the same time. Our reception was a bit different (no garter/bouquet toss, but did a slide show and also showed a DVD from our wedding ceremony in India. I also changed into an Indian dress and then changed back to the white gown before the cake cutting!), but they handled it very well (except for a little glitch in the slideshow.

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:17 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< Limo > Alexis Limousine: A+
Our limo was on time, clean, the driver was excellent. He even picked a wonderful spot for us to see each other for the first time (we were initially going to do it at the Fox Hollow Inn lobby with lots of people around), and made sure nobody else came. He even stayed a little longer.

< Gown > Kleinfelds: A+
My seamstress was Stella - wonderful lady. I also had my veil altered and they did a good job with it also. It's always a complete chaos there but they definitely know what they are doing. I got my Stephen Yaerick gown at the trunk show (it was my first day dress shopping, and the 2nd dress I tried on) along with the veil by the same designer. Absolutely loved them.

< Corset > Orchard Corset Discount: A+ (http://www.newyorkmetro.com/pages/details/938.htm)
I wanted a very sheer lace corset. The first one the owner handed to me was exactly what I was looking for - for half the price I was expecting to spend!

< Makeup/hair > Reiko Utsugi: A
She did the makeup and hair for me, mom and sister (MOH). Very nice and patient, highly recommended for other Asian brides.

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:17 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< shoes / tiara / hair pins / bracelet / purse / flower girl baskets / ring pillow / unity candle holder / program basket / favor tags> eBay: A+++++ (except for favor tags)
eBay is the best. I got my beautiful lace Manolo Blahnik shoes for $130 incl. shipping. Everything else was also all very reasonable. Just one warning - I had a very bad experience with sunvalgifts (got favor tags from them).

< Jordan Almonds > Gretian Imports: A+ (http://www.grecianimports.com)
I looked everywhere (overseas websites too) for Jordan Almonds, but was very happy with their almonds' quality and the price. They import from Greece.

< Favor bags (organza) > Paper Mart: A+ (http://www.papermart.com/)
Great selection of bags, wrapping material etc. Cheapest I found, and the quality is good.

< Invitations > Kate's Paperie: A+
Very good service and advices. We got William Arthur invitations through them, and they gave us different ideas to personalize the otherwise boring cards. They have a huge collection of papers from different countries, so we used a beautiful Japanese one as the tissue paper to go with the invitations.

yuri219 Posted: Jun 28, 2005 01:18 AM

Re: Westbury Manor 6/04/05 Review

< Program paper > Paper and More: A+ (http://www.paperandmore.com/)
Great quality, great selection, and it's even cheap. Service is excellent also. We got the vellum paper and linen paper for our programs. Came out beautifully.

< Program ribbons > BB Crafts: A+ (http://www.bbcrafts.com)
Best place for ribbons. Great selection and price.

< Dance lessons > Wedding Day Dance: A+ (http://www.weddingdaydance.com/)
Our instructor Anne-Marie was excellent - very patient. We only took 3 lessons but felt confident (we had no ballroom dancing experience before) and relaxed on our wedding day.

Wow, I didn't think I would write such a long review!

Here are some non-professional pictures taken by our friends. I will share some of the professional ones once we get them back!