I got a burst of energy and got it done! Thank you for sharing your wedding details with me and now its my turn:-) Enjoy! Hi Girls, I have been very discreet on the boards because of what I do for a living. I am a freelance make-up artist and the majority of my clients are celebrities. I would have loved to have gone to the GTG’s and be more active on the boards but I never wanted to come off as a vendor if you know what I mean. So now I can come out of the closet LOL. I am going to make this review as thorough as possible to help you out in any way that I can. If you have any questions, please feel free to page me on the boards or email me at batterybride@hotmail.com There is a link to my wedding slideshow at the bottom of the page and if you want any specific pics let me know. Ceremony & Reception Battery Gardens-A (believe or not after reading the review lol!) Okay Girls I’m going to be very honest here. Battery Gardens was recommended to me by one of my celebrity clients. Unfortunately, it was not exactly smooth sailing throughout the entire process. I never mentioned to BG who recommended me to them because I don’t like to name drop. We originally booked our date and time with Yvette. To make a long story short, she really dropped the ball and caused us a lot of stress. When we first met with her and booked, I have to admit that I was uncomfortable. She seemed distracted and during the meeting she would talk to her staff and she had booked another coupe during our apt time. It was very strange, but I let it go because I loved the space so much. She was ok in the beginning. I don’t want to get into a lot of the specifics on here but during conversations, she was rude, condescending, booked a wedding before ours that would have ended an hour before mine was to start. Oh the list goes on and on! She would often not to respond to emails, and even when she did she would not answer all of my questions. Eventually the situation got so bad that I asked my wedding planner to switch our Event Manager because I felt so uncomfortable working with Yvette. One of the reasons why I wanted to have the wedding at BG was because I thought the sunset during the ceremony would be awesome, well because of Yvette’s booking the other wedding, I had to change my ceremony start time to 6:30pm to give my vendors time to set up. I was beside myself! I cried for days, especially because I had emails confirming with her the earlier start time and also confirming hat my vendors could come in ay time after 12pm to set up. It was a nightmare! I eventually got over it, ordered my invites and switched my event manager to Alex. We first met Alex at our tasting In January. I had been on the road a lot for work because of awards season and flying all over the place. I didn’t have any time to speak with Alex before hand and let him know about all of the problems. Alex didn’t know any of the background of what transpired between us and Yvette and so I spent my tasting very upset and filling him in. Come to find out during the meeting, Yvette’s previous event that she booked before us canceled, meaning I could have had the ceremony begin at 5 or 5:30 and she never told us. My invites went out at the end of December so there was nothing I could do. I can’t even begin to describe to you what was feeling inside. I actually spit my food out of my mouth. My fiancé and my wedding planners had to do the tasting for me. Ok yes, there is some good news☺ From that moment on, Alex was absolutely AMAZING. He took control of the situation and handled everything properly and professionally. Alex and his staff went over and beyond to give us an event that was truly magical and was the best night of our lives. Everything was awesome! As for logistics we, extended our cocktail hour to 1 ½ hours. This was great because we were done with pics within 20-25 minutes and we got to enjoy most of our cocktail hour. We also didn’t have a receiving line after the ceremony, so this was a nice way to go around and spend quality time with each guest. When I first walked into the BG Ballroom, I could not understand why they did the dancing in the back. I always pictured dancing facing the water when I saw the space. I asked Alex if I could play around with the set-up and he gave me carte blanche. So what I did was created more of a dance floor in the center of the room feel by putting tables along the windows and sides and leaving the middle empty. You will see in my pics. It worked out great and everyone could see us. The pics are beautiful and the set-up looked magnificent! It was a very stressful road at times with BG but like I said Alex did everything he could to remedy the situation. Also Paul, the owner was wonderful to us. The food was outstanding! Nothing but raves from all guests!! In the end all was FANTASTIC! Floral Design-A++++++HOME RUN!!!!OUT OF THE PARK! Flowers by Diane –Hoboken I found Diane after meeting with several, more well known floral designers in the city and NJ. I was just walking down the street one day in Hoboken, saw her shop, went in and booked an appointment with her. I really believe it was fate lol. I had a client call me last minute the day of our first meeting so my fiancé, well husband now, went in my place. My husband was texting me from the meeting saying that he knew I would like her. I met with Diane the next day and sure enough, I loved her. Diane is very cool. Its funny because her shop is small and she is a teleflorist, but she does some major events! The theme for my wedding was winter white/ivory. I didn’t want any color lol! I even joked that I didn’t want to see the stems of anything. I wanted the branches, the bling, etc. My dress was ivory, my BM’s wore ivory and so did the FG’s. Diane was very enthusiastic about my theme and she really got me as a person. I am not frilly. I wanted my look very modern and clean but romantic and she nailed it. She was always very welcoming to me and invited me to come in to the shop as often as I needed to. Now, Diane is not the kind of florist who is into showing you sample centerpieces, which I was at first concerned about but I grew to trust her so much I didn’t care. However if that is not your personality just tell her you MUST see a sample and she will happily oblige. I was always finding ideas in magazines giving hem to her. As the months went by and especially by our final meeting I could tell Diane was almost more excited than me. The day of the wedding we were blown away by everything she had done. My wedding was a sight to behold! White branches everywhere covered in lights and sparkling. I loved my bouquet. It weighed 20lbs but I didn’t care it was so fierce! We were just in awe of her work. And she is works with any budget you have, and doesn’t make you feel bad if you can’t send a gazillion dollars on flowers☺ She is a wonderful person and extremely talented! Photgrapher Ryan Brenizer A+++Just Unreal! Speechless!!! I don’t even know where to begin. I found Ryan on a wedding photojournalist website. Because of what I do for a living, I wanted a very cool, editorial look to my wedding pictures. I emailed 20 photographers one night and Ryan was one of the first to respond. After a few exchanges, I set up a meeting. We liked Ryan immediately and booked him on the spot. Ryan has an impressive resume and a strong background in photojournalism. There is no real formula to how he works and he is the kind of photographer that you feel totally comfortable around, almost like he could be your cousin or younger brother. I am very outgoing so I gave Ryan no limits on what he could photograph, except nudity lol. Ryan sent us a few pics and a slideshow while we were away on our honeymoon and by the time we got back we had the full set. I have barely been able to sleep because all I want to do is stare at my photos! They are absolutely breathtaking! I am in awe of how he captured our day. My friends and family are now obsessed with Ryan and his blog and I have been getting calls nonstop about the pictures. He didn’t miss anything…. Videographer Steven Wayne- We are still waiting on our video, but Steven is a very pleasant person and was great on the wedding day. We wanted a basic video of everything that happened on our day. His price was very reasonable. Day of Coordinator Sassy Swanky Affairs-Christine MacPherson A+++++ What a lucky couple we were to find Christine and her assistants, Jen & Marisa. We had a small wedding (105) people, but we had some very complicated logistics to handle such as 9 kids in the wedding, shuttle buses, bride & groom staying in same hotel and not seeing each other, etc. Christine and her staff are really wonderful at what they do. My husband and I booked all of our vendors ourselves and knew that because of our work schedules we needed to hire someone to handle the day of coordination. Especially with the craziness of the BG situation, I don’t know what we would have done without them. Christine understood from the beginning that I have a very hectic work schedule, and my husband does too. Christine was a God-send. I am so thankful to her and her staff. Throughout the entire time, Christine I always felt that Christine was always available to me, she even emailed me back when she was away on vacation! If you want a stress free day and to be treated like a Queen, call Christine MacPherson…Now lol! Ceremony Music-Art Strings A+ Outstanding! We hired a trio from Art Strings consisting of a violin, Cello and piano. The music was just phenomenal . They played a mixture of classical and contemporary and everyone loved it! Cocktail and Reception Music DJ-John Sinclair of Aria Melody Hoboken,NJ A+ Great Job! John has a wonderful personality. We wanted a DJ who was classy and professional, but could read the crowd and play awesome music and he delivered! John is a cool, young guy and very easygoing, so professional and well put together. Officiant Reverend Phil Passantino- of
www.amazingceremonies.com A++++! Rev. Phil was incredible! He created a beautiful personalized ceremony that truly captured the essence of my husband and I. My husband and I are both Catholic but didn’t want a church wedding. However, we did want to incorporate our religion into the ceremony. Rev. Phil gave us a ceremony that people are still commenting on. We invited him to stay for the reception and he did a blessing before the meal. I highly recommend him if you want a personalized ceremony regardless of your religion, race etc.. Belly Dancer-Daniela Kocal A+++Got the party Started! I found Daniela on Gigmasters.com My husband is American, but of Lebanese and Syrian descent. We knew early on that we wanted to hire belly dancers as a surprise for the guests. After emailing and speaking with Daniela, I felt that she had a great personality and I hired her and 2 of her dancers to perform at the wedding. She was very responsive to emails and phone calls throughout the process. Even when I wanted to make a change in the music a week before the wedding, she was cool! Their performance was outstanding! They all looked gorgeous and the crowd LOVED them! They performed for 20 minutes and Daniela did a sword dance that was out of this world. I actually went to the Middle East for work back in December and saw many veil and sword dances and Daniela was right on point. Excellent! Hair & Make-Up- This was actually really hard for me because it is what I do for a living lol! So I was very particular about who I would hire. My Hair was one by my regular stylist, Tawana Allsion of Lavar Hair Designs and my make-up was done by my BFF Jason, who is the principle make-up artist for Shu Uemura. Hair for Bridemaids ,In-laws, FG’s, etc was done by Michelle Lo Conte and her assistant. Michelle has a great personality and is fun to be around. She did an excellent job on the hair for the bridal party. Make-Up for BM’s,in-laws, etc was done by Niquay Fa-Wise. Niquay and I know each other through a mutual friend. She is very talented and loves weddings! She was great at doing 8 people by herself. She was a joy to have around and I am happy to now call her a friend. Hotel-Millenium Hilton Financial District C Leading up to the wedding, the room blocking was great no issues. However once we checked in, their customer service was just disappointing. However the rates were great ($159 per night ) and I had a one bedroom suite on the 51st floor which was amazing so I was fine. We checked in on Thursday, which was great because we had a nice night before the wedding madness began. Rehearsal Dinner-Trinity Place A++++ We worked with Shannon. She was great, made booking easy, no problems. Trinity place is very cool and if you want to treat your guests to a fun NYC place, I would highly recommended it. TP is a renovated old bank vault and they have an awesome private room that can hold about 60 people. Everyone loved it and the food was great! My Gown Kleinfeld’s-Dress made by Pnina Tornai A+++ I loved everything about my Kleinfeld’s experience. My sales consultant Pauline was awesome and helped me find my dream gown! Ellie, my fitter was incredible and gave my dress so much care and love during the alterations process. I love my gown and I had so much fun wearing it! My Tiara and Earrings-Made by Christina Garcia, Purchased at Kleinfeld’s Cake-Palermo’s Bakery NJ A++++++ WOW! Our cake turned out to be better than I imagined! It was gorgeous and tasted fantastic. We chose vanilla cake with canoli filling. I actually defrosted a piece and ate some yesterday and 2 weeks later its still amazing lol! We worked with JoAnne and she was so wonderful to us and helped us get the cake of our dreams. I bought the broach for the cake in the garment district. Tuexedo’s-Balwins Formals NYC- A+ Tuxedos were awesome and looked great! Free delivery and pick-up in Manhattan. We worked with Lew. The staff there was great. Bridesmaids Gown-Bill Levkoff purchased from Pearls Place A+- The dresses were priced great and I had a wonderful experience with Pearls Place. I also ordered the Flower Girl dresses there, they were made by Dessy. All the dresses came a few weeks ahead of scheduled delivery date. PICS homepage.mac.com/ryanbrenizer/timoria_bob/