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Rhode Island

5/4 Vendor Reviews

Sorry it's taken me so long to write these out, hopefully it'll help some bride to be's out!  It's a long one!!!

Venue/Caterer: Belle Mer - A+
I couldn't have been happier with my service from start to finish with Belle Mer.  From when we visited and signed our contract (got a free bottle of wine) to the wedding day they were extrodinary.  At first I had a bit of trouble contacting my coordinator, she left and I was assigned Emily who was phenomenal.  She responded to emails quickly, checked on codes in the Newport area, when things weren't approved she would send me ideas and pictures to help me think of other things that would be ok.  She emailed at 10 PM at night, always had a positive, bubbly attitude and never made me feel like I was bothering her (even though I know I was a brat at times!).  2 days before the wedding I was called and they offered to move the reception from the smaller Island House to the larger Water Salon for no cost.  She sent me the new layouts asap and we were able to move the entire reception to the other room and it made all the difference.  It's the fact that she went above and beyond and offered the bigger room and worked hard to make sure that I had the best event that really blew me away.  The night of the wedding went off w/o a hitch, I had 2 assistants who were next to me the whole night, but not in a creepy way.  My champagne glass was always filled, they walked around with food for us, helped me with my bustle when it came down.  There just isn't enough good things I can say about the food/staff there.  Everything was perfect.

Florist: Seekonk Floral Design - A
Debbie is the owner and she was wonderful to work with.  She's not as creative as other florists that I had met with, but at that point I knew what I wanted and she was able to duplicate it perfectly.  She was extremely budget friendly and even gave me a website where I bought my own vases that really cut the cost down for me.  The bouquets, corsages and bouts were perfect and the flowers lasted over a week after the wedding.  She also had some cool ideas about lights in the cocktail hour vases that was cool.

Photo/Video: Memories RI - A-
Chris and Amanda Beck were the bomb! haha, they were super amped up for the e-pics and the wedding day, they made us laugh and there were minimal corny pictures.  They have a fun and unique style of photography which is what we were looking for and they were much less than some of the other people who shoot like them.  We had 4 photo/video people (each camera could take pictures and video so it was like having 4 of each).  They got our photos back to us w/in a month and we were very happy with the pictures.  My only let down was that there were not a ton of detail shots.  They never got a picture of our candy bar set up or the table set up as a whole, just 1 place setting.  They did get all the pictures of me and my accessories.  Otherwise I was really happy with my photos and can't wait for the video to be received.  We got our teaser a week after the wedding and the video should be sent shortly (it was promised w/in 8-10 weeks of the wedding).

Hair/Makeup: Simply Beautiful by Kristin Greene - A+
Kristin was SO AMAZING!!  There are not enough words for how good this woman is!!!  First off, she rebooked my hair/make-up trial during a time when she was doing free hair trials with make-up trial.  So instead of paying $75 for both, I paid $35 for both.  She was wonderful to work with/talk to/laugh with.  I wear make-up so we were able to talk about what type of look I was going for and she was always so positive and upbeat.  I was a little concerned about the amount of time she was planning and when I told her, she rearraged her timeline just to appease me.  She had 2 helpers (Gianna and Courtney) who were very nice and helpful to the girls who were not getting hair/make-up done.  There was a bit of a problem with my mom's hair that she didn't like and Kristin stepped up and redid my mom's hair and really difussed the situation.  Krisitin made up goody bags for all the girls and gave me a little note.  She really made the morning of the wedding very fun and relaxing.  I knew I was in good hands.  My hair/make-up was flawless and lasted 2 days :)

Photobooth: SeeMonkey Photobooth - A+
SeeMonkey was great to work with.  They have a flat fee of $650, but it's for the whole night, a scrapbook and CD of all the pictures.  They were fun, helpful and I got my scrapbook at the end of the night.  The CD of pictures came about 3 weeks later.  Nothing to complain about and it was a huge hit with the guests.

Transportation: Rockstar Limo - A+
Rockstar was great, our driver was on time, she helped one of the GM sew up his jacket (had a hole in it), she was always prepared, giving us bobby pins, altoids, tissues, napkins.  She helped me in/out of the limo and was always smiling.  There were no issues with the service, before or after booking.  They were prompt and reminded me to give an alternative email in case they couldn't get in touch.  They had a bottle of champagne for us and allowed us to bring other food/drinks on the bus as well.

Dress: Wishing Well - F
I had posted about this before so I'll try to keep my rant brief :)  I went shopping at a few different places for my dress and found it at Wishing Well, which was the cheapest.  Their customer service wasn't the best, but since I knew what I wanted, it wasn't an issue in the beginning for me.  I was measured and the dress was ordered.  When it came in 3 months before the wedding, I realized it was too short (about 5 inches).  When I brought this to their attention, they told me it was my fault that I didn't request extra length.  I told them that they should have realized that when they measured me.  The owner's daughters (who run the place) had no sympathy, told me to google flat wedding shoes and when I started to cry they walked away.  I was DEVASTATED!  The dress couldn't be reordered and I really didn't want a dress that showed my ankles.  Luckily their seamstress Phyllis is a true angel.  She came over to me as I was crying and told me that they had my exact dress in the store and she would rebuild it for me.  The only problem was that the dress in the store was a size 24 and I needed a 10.  Phyllis made it amazing, remade the dress and it fit great.  It was a lace/beaded dress and she didn't lose any of the detail for me.  She made the experience much better, but I still warn anyone who goes there to confirm the measurements and length before having the order put in.

Accessories: Alfred Angelo - C
I went there for my accessories and they ordered the wrong ones.  But since my mom picked them up and didn't realize, they would not allow us to return them, but gave us a discount when we had to order the new ones.  I was pretty disappointed, but their customer service allowed me to raise their rating because they were accomodating after they screwed up.

Rehearsal Dinner: 1149 East (1149 Bar and Grille) - C
I was really excited to have my RD here as we have always had really good service, but the day of the RD was not so.  We have 24 people at the RD and had a private room.  I was told a week before that I had to get everyone's food options so that it wouldn't take too long for the food to be prepared.  So I had to chase everyone down and get their food orders that day and call 1149 back with them.  The night we get there, the room hadn't been set up yet.  We only had 1 waitress that was awful at getting drinks (we made frequent trips to the bar) and it took 2 hours for our food to come.  We made 3 complaints in the 4 hours we were there about how long things were taking and how hungry people were.  I was really disappointed because I was told they needed the food count, but it did nothing to speed up our service on that day.  Since our RD was at 7:30, it really messed me up as I wanted to be out of there at a reasonable time the night before my wedding.  However the food was good.

Band: Steve Anthony and the Persuasion - A+
Steve Antony did my brother's wedding and had everyone up dancing.  No exception at my wedding.  He was fun, personable, learned 3 songs for the wedding (first dance, father/daughter, mother/son).  They really got the party going, people were up dancing before the salad course even came out and kept people dancing all night.  They came down and had people singing into the mic and my FIL got up and sang a song with the band.  They were amazing to watch and listen to and even played 3 songs after their last set because people were chanting for more songs.  They do a really nice job on their cover songs with Black Eyed Peas and other pop/rap artists like Cee Lo Green.  We had a bit of an older crowd, but they still had our young friends up dancing and the older people loved getting on the stage and dancing to the music they liked.  They really made the night an experience and we just had so much fun.

Hotel: Hyatt on Goat Island - A+
They Hyatt people were just so incredibly accomodating.  They have a very strict quiet hours policy after 9 PM, but we rented a suite for the after party.  After about 20 minutes security was there to tell us we had to break it up, but seeing that we had about 50-60 people in the room, they offered to let us continue the party in their ballroom.  They allowed us to bring all the food and drinks we had down to the ballroom and we stayed there another 2 hours!!  They were very friendly with me and just sat and talked to our guests.  They gave us a few tables for brunch the next day as well.  I was shocked at how nice they were about such a big party of people.  I will continue to do business with them.

I think that's all my vendors, please feel free to ask me about anyone else if I forgot someone!
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Re: 5/4 Vendor Reviews

  • these reviews are great and very helpful! I am so sorry to hear about your experience at Wishing Well. My mom wanted to look there for her dress and my grandma as well and I talked them both out of it after reading horrible posts, from not only you but others.
    I am not surprised at all about your experience a 1149. in my opinion, both locations are terrible. I have eaten at the EG locations a handful of times and every time they have gotten my order wrong and taken forever! we went as a family to their seekonk location for easter- big mistake! we waited 45 mins - even though we had a reservation and then we had to wind through all of these tables to a table in the back of the room with my 86 year old grandma. NOT fun. haha. I continue to hear nothing but great things about the hyatt and belle mer. i wanted to use rockstar but they were not in my budget and i am using seemonkey too. very excited :) congratulations!!!
  • Thanks!  It was a great day, no real issues, so I can't honestly complain about anything, it's more just let downs then disasters.  You only have a few months left - so exciting!!!!!
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  • iyeah i hear you with the letdowns - i try to not think about it but i am just really excited for the moment when i wakeup on that day because its like well, it's just gonna take its course now - if things go wrong - i don't know how much i will be able to do about them! and most stuff if it goes wrong, only i will know! 
    it's coming up really fast.
    i feel like i should be busier!! but i am trying to just keep organized.
    i am going with my MOH to get her dress and my 2 other BM dresses on wednesday night.
    things are coming together. it will be here and over before I know it! :)
  • Thanks so much for all your reviews! So sorry to hear about your dress. I'm sure that was extremely frustrating :(. I'm glad everything worked out for you!!! Post pics!! I'm also getting married at Belle Mer - 9.14.12. I have been working with Emily too! She's absolutely great! So responsive and always offer great advice. I couldn't be happier. Did you have your ceremony there as well? What time did everything start/end? We are working on our timeline and I'm wondering if our day is too long. Debating about ending at 11:30pm or midnight. We start at 4:30pm at Belle Mer with our ceremony. Also did you get ready at the Hyatt or Belle Mer? Debating on this too! We reserved a suite as well. Sorry so many questions!
  • Your reviews were very helpful. Im sorry to hear about your dress experience :( I also am using Kristin makeup and memories ri for photography. Ill be sure to ask for some detail pics of setup. Did you have a review for Wishes Under Wrap-Scroll?
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  • TCLopes:

    We did not get married there, we had our ceremony at a Church in Providence at 2:30, then had the cocktail start at 6, reception at 7-11, but by the time the band ended and we cleaned up it was about 11:20-30.

    I got ready at my mom's house in Seekonk, but we did go upstairs and freshen up at the Salon and took pictures upstairs in the Island House because it's so much more beautiful up there.

    Let me know if you have any more questions, I'd be happy to shed some light!

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  • Eyejewel - yes Wishes Under Wrap scroll was WONDERFUL!!  I'm so glad I did it, we got so many compliments on it and it's a nice keepsake.  It was ready 3 days before the wedding, it was an easy set up and they have everything packaged for us.  They even included wall mounts for the scroll afterwards.  They were able to get the perfect lime green color for the background as well.  I was very pleased with it.
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  • Ooooh I never thought of having them change the background color. We sent them a photoshop pic and palm pic i drew so see if either of them work for design images. Hopefully I get the proof emailed soon. Nice to see things starting to come together.
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  • So glad you had a good experience with see monkey! I booked them for my upcoming August wedding, but was a little leery that there were no reviews anywhere for them. I met James at an expo and they were so reasonably priced!
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