Sorry, very long.
I was married July 17 in Brooklawn with my reception at Shannon’s Country House in Atco.
Flowers-Erin’s Secret Garden in Gloucester City, NJ, A++
LOVED my flowers. Dee (the owner) did a beautiful job. It was so hot that day, she did a hidden water source on all the bouquets. She did the bouquets, bouts, and corsages and all were beautiful…and it was so reasonably priced.
Hair and Makeup-Kristine from the Little Touches. A +++++++++
Kristine and Barbara came to do hair and airbrush makeup for 6 people total. It took way less time that we budgeted, everyone looked beautiful. My hair and makeup (and my BMs and mother’s) stayed on perfectly. It was like 99 degrees and the makeup stayed put for outside pics. She even added false eyelashes on me, the individual ones, so they looked natural. I can’t recommend The Little Touches enough…she came to our house and was way less money than anywhere else I looked.
Limo-Legg’s Limos A +
Our driver was excellent, fluffing my train, helping me get in and out, they were even early picking everyone up, but were happy to wait if we needed more time.
DJ-Mike P. from DJs Available. A+
He had everyone on the dance floor all night, played what we wanted and threw in a couple songs to get people moving when needed. Great job, I would recommend him to anyone. We met with him before hand to pick all our music and everything was great!
Alterations..Yeon from Fashion Stitch. A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Go to Yeon Go to Yeon Go to Yeon. My dress my very puffy, and asymmetrical hem, many layers and I’m very short. My dress fit perfectly and she had to do some serious physics and engineering to get my bustle perfect, because the dress was long and complicated. My dress was very heavy and the bustle stayed put all night, also the way she did it, it was very easy for my BM to understand how to bustle it, She even made the bustle lower down on the dress so I would not be carrying the weight of the dress on my body but towards the floor. I also felt undercharged for the work she did.
Reception, Shannon’s Country House C
I am torn on this one.
They were great leading up the event and the food was great and our maitre d fantastic.
However, due to a gap (which was unavoidable, I’ll explain below) my guests arrived about 30-40 minutes early. My Guests told my parents and I the next day that the staff at Shannon’s were very rude to them, almost didn’t let them wait inside (99 degree weather) and would not even serve anyone water or soda.
I had a candy buffet, I brought everything packed and wrapped very very well on Tuesday. We checked all the candy containers before we left the house. At the reception, I was told that one of the glasses arrived broken. NO WAY DID IT ARRIVE BROKEN. But it was my reception and I waved it off.
It was very hot in the reception room, we asked about this and they said they had the AC up as high as possible. My mother over heard a server saying the SC was broken.
Last thing that really annoyed me is that one of my friends called me the next day to tell me she left her gift (a silver bag and card) on the table she was sitting at and wanted to make sure I got it. I didn’t, and had my mom call on Monday because I was on my honeymoon. They were rude to my mom, told her they didn’t have it and that a “guest” must have stolen it. I don’t care about the gift, it’s the fact my friend picked out something for me, it’s lost, and I’m really mad they are accusing a guest.
Honeymoon-Excellence Playa Mujres in Mexico. A+++
Loved it here! Beautiful beach, pools, rooms had a hotub, great service. I could go on and on but this is already long!
A final word: to those of you brides who get really stressed or nuts about things like that your sides have to be even or your BM shoes don’t match, here is my story to keep things in perspective
My grandfather has been very sick and on hospice. We knew he could not attend the wedding, but I planned to stop in and see him after the ceremony and take a picture with him so he could see me. He was doing very well on Thursday and Friday. Wedding day comes and my mom at the last minute says we should not stop to see him, he is sleeping a lot today.
Fast forward to the reception, about halfway through, I see all my Mom’s brothers and sisters leave. I start to get upset, but put it aside. I knew something was wrong but my grandfather up until Friday insisted that I have a nice wedding and not to worry about him.
I go home, wake up the next day and find out my grandfather passed away at 12:20 am on my wedding night. One of the worst possible things that could have happened, did happen. I survived and still had a wonderful wedding and am married to a wonderful man. I am sad and miss my grandfather very much, but more than anything he wanted me to have a beautiful happy wedding day, and I did.