10/12/13 Reviews - Clifton/Montclair area + etsy vendors (reception at the Manor)

SewInLoveWithDMB

We did a lot research when booking our vendors. The overall plan of our wedding was based off of a painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georgese Seurat.  Wanted everything to feel like an afternoon in the park. Tiffany blue was the color of the bridesmaids' dresses, with pink and white flowers.  

Dress: Jaehee Bridal, Englewood, NJ 

(Marielle by Rivini)

Bojana was my assistant and she had great taste – she pulled many dresses for me that fit a basic description of what I liked, and had many thoughtful ideas for changes or personal touches –belts, hairpieces, veils, etc. We ultimately found my dress – Marielle by Rivini. Dress arrived when they said it would, fittings were easy (and it turns out I didn’t need any alterations at all except the addition of a bustle.) I ordered my shoes and fascinator through Jaehee as well. It was nice to try them all on together at the same time. 

Shoes: Jaehee Bridal, Englewood, NJ

I tried them on while trying on my dress and liked them. Easy decision! They were comfortable and pretty.

Bridesmaid Dresses: Pearl’s Place

http://www.pearlsplace.com/

I visited a local store, and found a dress I liked after viewing it online. (Bill Levkoff 676). I contacted Pearl’s Place – they had the gown available for a little more than 20% less than the local stores, so this seemed like a no brainer. I emailed all of my bridesmaids (7 of them) and gave them the information on the dress (style number, color, size chart) as well as 3 stores that sold it and let them decide. 6 ordered from Pearl’s Place, while the other 1 was trying to get pregnant and did not know what size she would ultimately need, so she ordered it local.

After ordering, they arrived in the time they said they would (about 3 months) and my bridesmaids were very happy to have been given the choice of where to buy and the discount. Before ordering dresses, I would suggest giving Pearl’s Place a call and seeing if they sell the dress that you like – they are very helpful.

Flower Girl Dresses: PinkPrincess.com

Another very positive experience. Dresses are great quality at an affordable price (I think they were $45, plus free shipping both ways) They also have social media coupons and codes, so be sure to check that out as well before ordering.  Dresses are adorable: embroidered taffeta with faux flowers at the waist and a sash. Very happy with this choice! Had 5 flower girls and they all looked adorable. Dresses were available in a wide range of sizes – youngest was 8 months, oldest was 9.

Invitations: TheAmericanWedding.com

I fell in love with the concept of a high end, letterpress invite and searched for styles that I liked and could afford. I found the letterpress section on TheAmericanWedding.com to be exactly what I liked! Our invites were on heavy Crane 100% cotton paper with turquoise ink. Simple, classic and very pretty.

Photographer: North Island Photography, Setauket, NY

http://www.niphotoinc.com/

https://www.facebook.com/NorthIslandPhoto

Michael Rosengard of North Island Photography is a photographer I always knew I wanted to hire – my sister and husband’s sister have both used him for photographing their children.  They are located on Long Island and not NJ, so they  had to travel.  The package we purchased includes all rights and full quality files to all photos (approximately 1500+), 100 thank you cards, album for us, 2 parent albums, 1000 art-quality prints, 5 5x8 and 5 8x10 art quality prints. Engagement session was also included.

Our engagement session was so much fun and the pictures were beautiful. They are very artistic, with a slightly vintage feel. Beyond being artistic, they are just examples of GOOD photographer- the lighting in every shot is great (there are no shadows across faces and bad lighting, which I have seen in the work of so many other photographers), the poses look relaxed and he is really attentive to details (the way your hands are placed, how feet look, etc.) He really just has a great eye and gets really nice shots.

Our wedding photos are just as gorgeous.  Within 2 days, there were 200 images on his facebook page for us to view.  We got our high-res CD of every image and all of our proofs 2 weeks after our wedding.  Really impressive turnaround time with beautiful, high-quality images.

Videographer: John Jae Videography

http://www.johnjaevideography.com/

I found John Jae Videography (Daniel) through the Knot bulletin boards.  After seeing his work and reading many good reviews, I booked him (without meeting him – after a few emails back and forth I could tell he would be easy to work with and was happy to just book him) Also, added in all raw footage for a reasonable price, which was important to me.

He arrived on time, was very pleasant to work with, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing our video.

Florist: Beverly Swisher, The Garden Party, Clifton NJ

973-365-0295

Beverly has been our family’s florist for over a decade, so it was no surprise I would be using her for our wedding. Reasonably priced, beautiful arrangements. All of her arrangements were attractive and reasonably priced. Our flowers were hydrangeas, gerbera daisies, and roses with others mixed in (don’t know the names.)  Under $2000 for my bouquet, 2 MOH bouquets, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, groom bout, 7 GM bouts, 2 ring bearer bouts, 5 corsages for family members, flower girl flowers, altar large arrangement, head table arrangement, 20 table centerpieces,  dozen red roses for anniversary dance couple who was married the longest, toss bouquet (ended up not doing a toss, but still had the flowers out), and pew bows (large church).  I think that is everything. All bouquets were large and full – so her prices were really good for the quality and fullness/size of each piece. Included delivery and set up of both church and reception venue. Very highly recommend her for future work.

Cocktail Hour Musician: Dan Kleinrock

http://www.dkunplugged.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dankleinrock?fref=ts

Dan is an acoustic guitarist and is really talented. He played our cocktail hour and we received a lot of compliments about him. Really nice guy as well. He was awesome!

Reception DJ: Jim McBride, JAM

We attended a wedding in July 2012 where Jim was the DJ, and my family really liked his style. He was not obnoxious, in your face, or too loud – played great songs that you can dance to and has a great personality. He is affordable and was easy to get in contact with leading up to the event. (ETA: Dance floor was always packed. This was NOT important to me in planning - I know some brides want a packed dance floor as a goal, but it just so happened he played great songs to keep people dancing. Awesome!)

Photo Booth: Thom McCartney, Local NJ Photo Booths

http://localnjphotobooths.com/

I did a lot of research on photo booth companies in the northern NJ area, and found this was the best price with high quality photos. Thom is very responsive to emails and inquiries (and I had a lot – I asked about printing multiple copies of the same photo, props, booth size, etc) I viewed many albums on their facebook page of photo booth pictures, and I felt all were “centered” well and nice. Affordable as well. Transferred all photos taken from the booth throughout our event on our thumbdrive at the end, which was awesome. We also had a custom guest book with a custom photo cover, where guests placed their photos along with messages. Many guests raved about it, and the pictures were really cool.

Event Artist: Joan Zylkin, The Event Painter

http://www.theeventpainter.com/

I had learned about event painters a few years back, and Joan was honestly one of the first vendors I hired as soon as a date was chosen.  This is not an inexpensive touch, but the quality of her work and the resulting canvas is worth every penny. She is responsive to all emails and very friendly.

We met at the venue the day before the wedding to discuss the angles of the rooms in the painting as well as who should be featured.  The painting itself is amazing. You can exactly tell who is who and the quality of her work is stunning. She works in oils, and we now have a custom painting in our home.

Church: Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair

I am a member of the Presbyterian Church of Upper Montclair in Montclair, NJ, so this was an obvious choice. I believe only members can be married, but it is a beautiful church and I have been imagining getting married here since I was a child. Pastor Horn is an amazing person as well, all around. I don’t have enough nice things to say about this church and the church family.

Our meetings leading up to the wedding with Pastor Horn were fun and informative. His message was very kind and thoughtful, and our entire planning process with the church was nice.  Great congregation as well.

SewInLoveWithDMB

Ceremony Musician: Ardis Cavin (harp, organ, piano)

http://cavinharpstudio.com/

Ardis is a family friend for over 20 years and amazingly talented.  Beautiful music. She played the harp before the ceremony, as well as our processional, recessional, and a song sung by my MOH best friend in the middle of the ceremony.  Absolutely wonderful.

Reception Venue: The Manor, West Orange, NJ

The Manor was able to give us one of the best deals for everything included, and the style of the venue fit in with our style. There were others that were less expensive, but we considered proximity to church, what was included in the package and overall style of the building. It is more “historical” with décor such as wood walls and stained glass rather than marble and crystal – can be described as “Old world charm.” My FI chose the Imperial room due to the large cocktail hour space with exposed brick and high ceilings, with the stained glass dividing door into the dining room.  The dining room can hold 200. The minimum was waived for us, since we chose a Saturday afternoon reception.

We did our meetings and bookings with Jim Levinsky and he is cordial and friendly, as well as very accommodating.

Food was very good, having the reception in the daytime made the grounds viewable and attractive, and everyone was very accommodating. Couldn’t have chosen a better location for our reception.

Bridal Party Gifts: Tiffany & Co, Riverside Square Mall

I chose sterling silver monogrammed initial necklaces for my 7 bridesmaids/maids of honor and they are great for everyday as well as special occasions.

Mother of the Bride Dress: Park Ave Bridals

My mother found a chiffon dress by Ursula of Switzerland that was not a “typical long skirt and beaded top” Mother of the Bride gown. It was tea length, with a long sleeve wrap/jacket and an interesting tiered asymmetrical skirt and bodice.  The sample was the SAME color as my bridesmaid’s, and Park Ave didn’t have a color swatch for some of the colors that the dress could be. One (periwinkle) she thought she might like, but it turned out the company stopped production in that color. They had some in the warehouse, and Park Ave had it in their store within 7 days! It was a size smaller than my mother had originally ordered, but it fit PERFECTLY with no alterations, and the periwinkle color was exactly what we had been hoping for. What could have been a bit of a hassle worked out beautifully. Park Ave was friendly, called back when they said they would (they were working to get some more color swatches, etc) and within a week, my mom had the dress in her possession, steamed and ready to wear.

My wedding band: Lacki’s Jewelry, Clifton, NJ

Greg Lacki is very helpful and extremely knowledgeable. We were very happy to support a local business. My ring is about .6 carats of channel set diamonds and was less expensive than rings with lesser carat weight on BlueNile.com.

SewInLoveWithDMB

Cake baker: Cinderellie’s Sweets, Flemington, NJ

http://www.cinderelliessweets.com/

Ellie is actually my cousin. The Manor would have provided a cake with our package, but I was able to negotiate a switch for carving stations at the cocktail hour in place of cake. We visited her for a family party, and at that time, the cake for that event was part of our “tasting” as well as other cake flavors and filling options that she had ready for us. I showed her examples on pinterest and she was excited and happy to work with any of my ideas.

The finished cake was beautiful. She took my ideas from pinterest and made a cake that was beyond what I had imagined. It had fondant lace decorations, an ombre of ruffles from dark to light, and decorative flowers. 

Bridal shower invite printing: CatPrint.com

Great little online business! Affordable printing options, can order any amount and has a wide variety of paper/cardstock options. If you are doing your own printing for anything, I would suggest looking into this business. Also, I received 13% off from a social media promotion – I believe they do this sort of thing often. Their prices without the discount were already better than others I sourced (Vistaprint, for example) and the product looked great.

Our wedding menus were also printed from CatPrint.com, and again, I was able to find a coupon code and the quality was very nice.

Travel Agent: Heather Coursen

https://www.facebook.com/HeatherCoursenPersonalVacationPlanner?fref=ts

We have booked trips with Heather in the past as well, and she has always been knowledgeable and helpful. There are no fees to her services and she will respond to your requests quickly with trip information, sights to see, etc.

Candy Buffet Candy – CandyWarehouse.com

We ordered color coordinated candy. Spent about $200 on approximately 35 lbs of candy for 200 people.  Most candy was gone by the end of the night.  Big hit – saw people walking around with bags of candy throughout the entire event (did not just put it out after dinner.)  Candy arrived quickly and was packaged well.

Etsy Shops:

Flapperdoodle

Kate of Flapperdoodle designs bridesmaid cards with custom bridesmaids (hair color, hair style, dress color, etc). I chose a style with all 7 bridesmaids on the front and a printed custom message on the inside. I also ordered Flower girl thank you cards from her as well.

Asimplestart

Jenni from asimplestart designs custom cake toppers that are personalized to look like the bride and groom. My FI proposed while we were on a boat fishing, so I chose a couple on a dock, with the groom holding a fishing rod, with our dogs by our sides. You send Jenni pictures of the couple, photos of the dress, color scheme, etc. Very good during communication emails. Cake topper was amazingly adorable. Jenni sent a photo of the finished topper before shipping, and it was packaged for shipping beautifully so that nothing would get damaged.

SunshineCeramics

Tracy of SunshineCeramics is a etsy seller I frequently visit. She creates ceramic ornaments with custom names, dates, etc for various life events. For our wedding, I ordered an engagement ornament with our names, date, ring, etc. Can’t say enough great things about her! I also ordered ornaments for the children in the bridal party that included a figure of a flower girl (or ring bearer) and their names and the date in our colors. They are super cute!

EventDesignShop

Ordered hanging chalk board signs for wedding photo options. Nice quality, quick shipping. They worked really well in our engagement photo shoot as well.

LimeTreeGifts

Bought an engraved money clip for my father as a wedding gift. Affordable and nice quality.

Susan ‘n Nanette - Garter

I purchased two garters, knowing I was not going to do a garter toss, but I just loved the style of these garters. I had been looking for a lace garter with some element of blue, and fabric flowers with a bit of bling. She sent some free gifts as well and was good at communicating prior to shipment. Great little etsy store!

BeeAndDaisy – Shower invite design

$12 for a graphic (which was then print at CatPrint.com) Product was great, emails were a bit curt. As you can see, I am wordy, and although I was really happy with the design, I sometimes felt like I got one word answers. The listing also said they would provide places to have them print, and when I asked, I wasn’t given a lot of assistance. (I then googled A LOT and found CatPrint.com). Also, when ordering, the option should be to include a white border (non bleed), otherwise the size is skewed. I happened to notice this, but didn’t see it very clearly in the listing. As I say, design (and resulting printing job) were perfect, but I didn’t feel that the seller was “warm and fuzzy.”

Suppliesoplenty – organza bags

This was the best price I could find on those little organza bags (and I searched at craft stores, G & G Distributors, Oriental Trading, ebay, etc). Ordered 150 and stuffed them with dried lavender for our “post ceremony toss.” Easy to work with, created a custom listing for me, and shipped quickly. Nice!

JulryPartZ – wedding menu design

Custom printable wedding menu. Easy to work with, send us the .pdf file very quickly. Pretty designs as well!

HoneyBunnyStuff – flower girl flower crowns

Ordered 4 flower girl flower headband crowns. It took a little longer than expected for them to arrive, but I had ordered rather early, so there was no issue. (It happens.)  Nice quality, attractive crowns that looked great on all of the little girls.

WiregrassWeddings – wedding programs

Ordered 100 vintage style half-fold wedding programs with ribbon. Was $134.95 with shipping.  Beautifully designed, sent to me for any revisions, and arrived quickly. Was another custom touch that really pulled our theme/colors together.

GreenDoxieEvents – favors (birdseed hearts)

We wanted to have a natural favor that would be used and not something that would sit around a house. My husband’s father is deceased, and was an avid bird watcher.  The birdseed patties were perfect.  Ordered 215, and they had custom name/date tags as well as a ribbon hanger in our color (robin’s egg blue.)

RazzleDazzleDigitals – cellophane bags for favors

We ended up packaging the birdseed hearts ourselves (along with a little tag saying a donation had been made to a charity associated with my husband’s father).

PartySupplyCorner – candy buffet favor bags

Ordered chevron candy favor bags in pink and aqua.  They looked great on the candy buffet table! Arrived quickly. Very pretty.

ILovePaperkits – bouquet charm kits

I ordered 5 charm kits for my bouquet for deceased relatives. The kits came with blank charms as well as the gloss medium for sealing the pictures. Easy to make and they were nice to have on my bouquet.

Ebay Shops:

LifeIsSublime

Purchased dried lavender for toss while walking out of church. Arrived quickly, good quality lavender. Best price I could find, and free shipping. Outside of church smelled nice as people tossed it!  

Edited to add:

Cigars - J & R cigars, Paramus, NJ

My husband was in charge of buying these, and I don't smoke cigars...but I believe they were J & R brand as a "montecristo alternative" (I hope that is correct.) They were a hit. We had a few boxes of cigars (with our custom label) on display at the bar throughout the event (again, not just after dinner) and guests were able to take them as they pleased.  

Cigar Labels - LabelsOnTheFly.com

Was able to customize cigar labels. Each element of the label had a custom color (it was pretty fun) with our names and the date. Another fun touch!