We got married in June, our vendors seemed to be hit or miss. I found vendor reviews incredibly helpful during our planning process so figured I should disclose our experiences. VIP Country Club: B+They did a wonderful job. They really blew us all away with the food. Yes it's a pricey joint but you get what you pay for- the service was great, I didn't have to think about one thing at the wedding, it all just came together. They were super accommodating and easy to work with and very thorough in making sure you get what you want. They are very professional and really put my mind at ease leading up to the wedding. The wedding day went smoothly. The only hiccup here was that my ceremony was supposed to be outside at the venue but due to rain it was pulled inside. The setup inside was weird, they placed a fairly large round table in the front of our room, so my husband and I were standing on either side of the table with the table between us, and there was nothing placed on the table, not candles no flowers, it was just sort of awkward because we were standing so far apart and had to walk in front of table to exchange rings. Also, (and I was told this afterwords so didn't know this happened) but when my guests were seated inside for the ceremony, there was loud hip hop music playing coming from another room from a radio that the servers were listening to, a guest had to run down the hall to have it shut off. Westchester Floral Decorators: AI worked with Vito and have a wonderful experience here as well. He really wanted to know what kind of vision I had for the centerpieces, bouquets, and boutonnieres and helped me figure out how to achieve it within budget. He had wonderful suggestions and was responsive to phone calls and emails. This place was really well organized and did great work Photographer/ Videographer- Regency Studios: C-I'm torn on this one. The quality of the photos and video that came out of the wedding was good, very dry and traditional, but good... none of the cool photojournalist images you see at the other places, just super posed photos. The video effects were a bit dated but the footage was very nice. I liked the guys that worked the wedding just fine, but I had a difficult time with the woman that you deal with when coordinating the whole thing, she is the woman you directly speak to when you call about the contract, who you have all the meetings with, basically she is your only contact at the place. I found Margaret was patronizing and I felt as though I was being talked down to and laughed at for my questions. I received my prints and video in a timely manor. As for the website, she sent me a shoebox full of all of the 800 prints (the actual printed pictures) she told me to pick 130-150 for the website, I asked her if she could just choose them for me as they are the professionals. No luck. Here's the thing, each picture has a long 6 digit number printed on the back of it. She made me mail her a list of the numbers of the pictures I wanted on the website. My most important detail when checking out photographers was to make sure I had digital images of all my photos on disc without watermarks. When negotiating the contract she told me she didn't usually do this but she would therefore my contract included discs of the digital images of the pictures. Upon receiving the prints with no discs, I asked her to them since it would be easier to go through the pictures that way, but she would not give me the discs. (Keep in mind, they have been already paid IN FULL). I said there must be an easier way to do this on the computer. Nope I had found myself in a sea of loose photos piles that began to all look the same trying to pick 150 for the website, AND THEN record the 6 digit number onto a list and send it to her. I had to recruit some friends for this in was a nightmare. AND she still got some of them wrong on the website she posted some pictures twice to the website and some not at all.After asking about my discs repeatedly, as my mother in law was dying to see ALL the pictures not just the ones on the website, I asked again for my discs of images several times. After a lot of non-replies to this question I finally called and asked... she said I will receive them "upon completion" as that is what is in my contract. I explained I didn't understand what this meant, the wedding is over, I have the pictures, the website, the video, and she has been paid, as far as we are concerned we are complete. She said I will not receive the discs until I receive my photo album. I still have to have a meeting with her to select the photos THEN it takes months to be produced. When I receive the finished album only THEN will I receive my discs. I don't know why she is holding my discs hostage. I find this very sneaky and frustrating. I just had my appointment with her to pick out pictures for the actual album included in our package. Our package included 60 images in our book. For every single image above 60, they charged $20/picture. Makeup: Color Makeup Studio: AChristine was so sweet and really good. She did my makeup and my bridesmaid, she brought an assistant and they did a beautiful job. I found her reasonably priced and really responsive to my emails and phone calls. I could not have asked for more. My makeup lasted the whole night. Band: John Bates Band: A+This was the most important part of the wedding to us. We searched high and low for the perfect band and we found it! The sound was incredible, if I could see them live, I would go to their shows. Jon was the absolute nicest and easiest vendor I hired. I would invite them all to Thanksgiving if I could I loved them that much- as a vendor, super professional and organized, as people just the nicest you could find. They learned songs that they didn't already know and they had everyone dancing the whole night. Jon was really interested to find out exactly what kind of music we wanted and they delivered! Hair: Hair on the Hudson in Tarrytown: F-This place was a disaster from beginning to end. I should have known from the beginning to go somewhere else as every single communication with them was awful, but I am out of town and didn't have the luxury to shop around and try out different places. I had BM's and the moms hair done here along with myself. They couldn't get the schedule straight, they couldn't give me prices, everytime I called I got different answers. There is no email and impossible to get this vendor organized. The hair came out bad and we were all charged a fortune. All of my BM's were charged $100 for just a blow out and some loose waves. They insisted that I pay for the whole thing on one credit card and then they over charged my credit card an extra $50. After being told that I would receive a check in the mail for the over charge, and not receiving it, I was told they would not reimburse my money, and that it was an error at the desk, that I was quoted the wrong amount and the charge will stay as is. My dad went down there to talk to the owner and get my money back. Angela the girl that did my hair was straight up mean. I had to give a deposit before the day, which is fine, but never got anything in writing, there is no contract, nothing. Customer service was clearly awful, this is not a business you want to deal with, especially as a stressed out bride, not to mention the end product was poor. My bm's had to do my hair over when we left the salon. Hotel: Rye Brook Hilton- FWe had a large block of rooms booked, guests made reservations on time, and when they arrived were told there were no rooms available. They were sent to another hotel. Their rooms were comped at the other hotel but this created a HUGE problem as my guests from out of town that don't know the area were scattered about. Some missed my ceremony because of the confusion which took a long time to sort out. Also I hired shuttles to take guests to/from hotel to venue, and now the guests were at another hotel. The rooms were clean and nice, but this error really screwed up the day for many people. Especially since they spent the day traveling to NY and now they were totally stressed, confused, and late. This killed the wedding for many people. Photobooth- Magestic Photobooth: BI don't know much about photobooths, they seemed comparable in prices to the others, and they did a good job. They were slow on responding to emails, but all in all no major complaints. Tuxes- Men's Warehouse: C-The boys' tuxes didn't fit well, even the grooms was big and baggy. Some said they went to pick it up and had to come back because the suit looked like it had been in a ball on the floor.
Spray Tanning: B+
Patti Glass did my spray tan and was super sweet. The tan looked great and not artificial. She traveles to you and makes sure the tan is even. The price was reasonable considering she travels to you.