We got married this weekend and left for honeymoon last night. Just got to the hotel in Florence and DH passed out, so I thought I would take a moment to post some reviews for you Hudson Valley ladies.
First of all - My Photographer - Ryan Brenizer
A+++++++
He is super talented, priced right in the middle of it all, but for a top value! E-pics are included. He is super easy to work with, and has his own ideas for pictures that always come out great. I could not have made a better decision on a vendor. Ryan rocks, and his works speak for themselves.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=201551&id=6503288521&page=2
Bridal salon - Rana Bridal in Englewood Cliffs, NJ
A
Rana is a super sweet Asian lady, has amazing dresses and is very reliable. She was right with her estimate of when my dress would be there, and called me the moment it was ready. My dress did not require any alterations, and Rana included a bustle for free. She also helped with sewing in my bra, at no charge. The thing that made me choose her salon was the almosphere. The moment I walked into her salon, I knew I wanted to buy my dress there.
Bridesmaids Dresses - Sandreen's Bridal, Stony Brook, NJ
A
They had the best price in the area for the Aldred Angelo BM Dresses. Before them, I visited Livinia Bridal in Garnerville, NY and that lady wanted to charge me $25 more for a dress and her alterations were $20 more as well. She was not flexible at all and lost our business. Sandreen's were super nice, the dresses came in a month before we expected them and alterations were instantaneous. They even alow you to come in with your puppy if it's a hot day and you cannot leave him in the car. Awesome to work with.
Flowers - Bed of Roses, Yonkers, NY
A-
Here I have two feelings - one is - the flowers were amazing, the centerpieces were exactly what I expected them to be, the bouquets were fantastic, and the church flowers looked gorgeous. Definitely when it comes to the delivery and final product, BoR is the place to go with. Carl, the owner, will work with your price, and his prices are great to start with. He came in under budget with his first estimate. He gets the minus because when we came in for the trial, he acted a little rude. Did not offer to change the flowers around to make them look the way I want, and I had to pull at them and show him what I wanted myself. After I did that, he said - well, normally we let you sit down and we take the centerpiece in the back and do this for you. Well, you did not offer, so what the hell. He also insisted that he told me that the final payment is due at the trial. He did not. If there is one thing I was super organized with this wedding was the money. He did not tell me, and thank God there was an HSBC right next to him, so I could take money out. Other than that, he was OK to work with and his flowers turned out amazing so... A-
Hair - La Sorella Bridal - lasorellabridal.com - Mandy
A++++++++++
Mandy gets an A with million pluses. We all know how hectic the day of your wedding can be, but with Mandy in charge of the hair, you will find yourself on pace with everything beauty. Mandy came in on time, persuaded us to let her add a little of her own ideas to our hairstyles, and everythinig came out fantastic. She is such a talented hair artist. My mom cried when she saw her amazing hairstyle. My hair came out even nicer than at the trial. Mandy is fun to work with and chatty, but most of all on time and organized. All girls had their hair done before 12:45. I loved the peace working with her gave me. Definitely use her, she rocks!
Make up - Ilona from the Lancome counter at Lord & Taylor in Manhattan.
A++++
Ilona teaches my mom English in her spare time, and that's how I met her. She just knows make up. All of the girls wore different colors and all make ups looked so great on them. Check out my make up among the pictures Ryan posted. Ilona really saw each one of us and brought our individual beauties out.
Limos - Silver Star, Yonkers, NY
A
They get a lot of great reviews and rightfully so. Their cars are great, their servise super nice, and they make working with them stress free. On Tuesday before the wedding they called us and said that their 21 passenger Navigator did not sell, and offered us a free upgrade. Thanks to this upgrade SIL and BIL's families could jump in and not worry about not drinking, and the kids loved being in a limo.
Bus shuttle - JJ Luxury Transportation, NJ (can't find their exact name, will update)
A
Best price at the last minute. Their bus was on time and clean, and the driver was very nice. They even gave me the last minute for free. I booked them only a month before the wedding and they still had buses available.
DJ - Jimmy Dee Entertainment, White Plains, NY
A+
Similarly to Silver Star Limo, Jimmy Dee receive a lot of great reviews here. Our MC was Alex, and he kept us on the floor, and dancing till the end of the night. DH does not normally dance and he was on the floor with me each time the music started. He was really awesome to work with. I loved our Gobo, and I loved the lighting for the ballroom. They are really the pros in this business.
Reception - New York Country Club, New Hempstead, NY
A++
First of all - location, location, location! NYCC is located on an amazing golf course, with plenty of photo ops wherever your turn. If you want it all in one place, NYCC is great for that. We could steal some cocktail hour food, and run out on the golf course to take pictures. They came out to us with food, so no one was hungry.
Seth, their banquet manager, was great to work with and had a lot of patience for me. In the last two days before the wedding I had a huge work emergency, and was delayed with delivering my stuff to Seth. We ended up delivering everything on Friday before the wedding at 2pm. I sent DH with instructions and Seth followed everything I asked for. I was most happy about the sign that I made for outside the reception area. The sign was directing people to the reception. I was worried that it will be a pain to install it in the ground, and thought that they would not put it out there. When we approached with the limo, and I saw our sign, I almost cried. Everything was the way I wanted it, and everything was perfect. Seth was really great to work with and gave us a lot of good advice on food selections, as well as some other things that would cost us time, and would not end up to be a good idea.
Food was amazing! everyone kept telling us how much they loved everything we picked.
The cool thing about NYCC is that the cake is included in the price, as long as you buy it from Le Gateau Suisse in Orangeburg, NY. Review of baker follows
Baker - Le Gateau Suisse, Orangeburg, NY
A+++++
First of all, Roth, the owner, has the best accent and we loved speaking to him. Everything he says sounds so cool, you just want to hear him talk about cakes.
Second, he really knows the trade. I brought him the picture of our cake, and he made the exact copy. I loved it.
Most important - the cake is heavenly good. He always suggests skipping the various tastes, and doing his "house cake" which is white and milk chocolate and white cake. It was amazing! People kept telling us how delicious it was. Additionally, we got a free trial cake, and will get a free First Anniversary cake. Awesome!
Officiate - Mgr. O'Keefe, St. Margaret's Catholic Church, Pearl River, NY
C-
We wanted to get married at St. Margaret's because that's where Joe grew up, and his sister got married at the same church. Mgr O'Keefe is a little too conservative, and a little too disorganized. First of all, beeing that I am a foreigner, I needed some paper work processed and he totally forgot about it for over 6 months. I delivered him the papers in December and in June, when we came to meet for the final time, he realized that he has not done anything about the paperwork. He also gave me the look like it was my fault. He never was too clear about what was required and told me that as long as I deliver it to him early, he will take care of everything. For me that means, there are no more deliverables before things are taken care of... I was wrong and he was not nice about this.
Then, at the rehearsal he was hurrying us up because he promised the couple who got married before us that he would bless their food. I understand that he promised, but if you have a rehearsal scheduled, you should not be making promises. Again, we had language problems, and I needed to translate to my parents so that they would know what was going on. He did not like that, but he knew way ahead of time, that I needed to translate to my parents.
Moreover, he forced us to have a candle ceremony. I did not want it for two reasons - One is that we do not have it in Poland, so it had absolutely no meaning to me, and DH did not care. and Two - on the Catholic Board the ladies were saying that it was not originally a Catholic Tradition. I did not tell him that exactly but said that it was not a Polish Catholic tradition. He made us use it anyways. The candles he had were nasty and used before. He also made me look like an idiot in his homillie when he said: Ela came to me and said that she does not want it because it's not a catholic tradition. Who is she to tell me? What a douche!!! i did not want to fight him, but I was really not happy that he said that.
Finally, I know this may sound silly, but I really wanted to hear these words: You may kiss the bride. Everyone who works at St. Margaret's said that if I ask him, he will say it. At the rehearsal he said that he normallly doesn't say it because people know when to kiss. I still asked him if he could say it, because I really wanted to hear it, and they do say it in Poland and at most American weddings too. He made a face and said OK, he would say it... but he did not!!! Our best man was so pissed that when the priest introduced us and failed to say it, BM just said Joe kiss your bride. We laughed and it was great.
I think that's about it. I made a lot of stuff myself and will keep posting things online when I come back from HM.
I hope you all have wonderful time planning and wish you that your day is just the way you dreamed it to me.