Vendor Reviews

Nevenag

Hi all,
I got married almost a month ago, and I am finally finding some free time to write my vendor reviews. We had a great time and a wonderful wedding, everything went without a glitch, and there was no stress that day.

Venue: The Garrison - A+++ http://www.thegarrison.com/  
We had both the ceremony and the reception at The Garrison, and everything was great.  The location, the views, this place is amazingly beautiful. The food was great, the staff was good. And Michael Elbe our coordinator was wonderful to work with. We got everything we wanted and more. We wanted to use the main ceremony space and they gave it to us.  (we had a small wedding and we were supposed to use the smaller deck). The staff brought out some h'ordeuvres before we took off to take photos, and that was great because we missed the entire cocktail hour.  And considering all the other places we've seen, The Garrison  prices were quite reasonable. I would like to mention that we didn't get to have a food tasting or see a set up table before the event, but that didn't matter because it was all perfect the day off.  I wasn't crazy about some of the regular restaurant staff, but that's more of tripadvisor review rather than wedding.

Officiant : Joan Clauss - A+++ (845) 265-3611  
Joan is a town clerk at Cold Spring, she was also very easy to work with. She let me personalize the ceremony, and the end gave me the booklet she used to read it from. And not that it matters but Joan was dressed in judges robe and looks great in the photos!

Photographer: Scott Clark A+++  http://scottclarkphoto.wordpress.com/
Scott is an amazing photographer. We already got our photos back from him and they are all wonderful. I absolutely love, love my photos. He is not exclusively wedding photographer, so his style is quite interesting. We gave him a list of the photos we wanted and he made sure he got most of them. I realized that without a second photographer is pretty hard to do all of it. And I loved the photos that came out of his recommendations.

Flowers: Emily Rose Wood A+  http://emilyrosewood.com/
 She did an excellent job with my bouquet and centerpieces.  And she was very easy to work with. I had a tiny little budget for flowers, and she definitely worked with me on that. My flowers were exactly what I showed her I liked from magazine photos. She is an independent florist, her day job is designing fabric for Martha Stewart, so you know she has taste. I told her that I didn't really need or can afford ceremony flowers but she did something out of her own accord anyways, which was nice.  My husband did not like his boutonniere, and I thought the corsages were kind of heavy, but they both look great on the photos. Also her website is not really good; if anyone wants to see the flowers she did for me, let me know I will email you photos.

DRESS: RK BRIDAL – A for dress B for alterations
Their selection is huge and their prices are great , but you have to go there during the weekdays, to avoid the craziness. My consultant Olga was awesome and helpful and not pushy at all. The Alterations department, however I hated. They are rude and not nice, and I know I got a little crazy with the dress but I am sure they've seen their fair share of crazy. So my advice is get the dress there and get someone else to alter it.

Suit: Bloomingdales (Hugo Boss) A
Nothing much to say here. It was a great suit, easy to get, alterations were done in a week, staff was helpful.

Make Up: Anne from the Garrison Spa A+++  email annie@thegarrison.com
I loved, loved Anne, she was great and my make up was perfect. She was extremely pleasant to be around as well. She was absolutely awesome.

Hair: The Garrison Spa --- can't remember her name but B+++
My hair was not exactly what I wanted, but it was pretty close, and it looked great on photos. I think the lady was a bit cranky she could have loosen up a bit.  She annoyed me because my florist called to say she arrived and asked where to meet me up. At the same time the hairdresser kept asking me if I like my hair and would not wait for me to just tell Emily where to go. It’s not a big deal but it annoyed me.

Well, this is already pretty long, so I will cut it off here.
Happy planning!!!

CrysMarie12

Thanks for the reviews...I think I'm going to look into using your officiant. : ) Glad your day went so well. Which hotel did you and your guests use?

Nevenag

Oh, I forgot to write those up. 
Hotel Sierra in Fishkill-  The Sierra staff was great and helpful. They let me have a room  block, even though I needed just a few rooms. I actually needed to book an extra room the day before the wedding and they still honored my reduced rate. Also, my friends who stayed there said that the breakfast in the morning was great. 
The Hudson House - I was told that the food at the restaurant was good, the staff was great, but the rooms were dated and not very comfy. Plus, the price was almost double than Sierra. I wasn't able to have a room block there, because it's a small place and if you reserve say 5 rooms, you have to prepay. Their cancellation policy is very stict and they did not offer reduced rates even if I booked few rooms ahead of time. However the location is great, so if you want your guests to really feel the charm of the area, Cold Spring is so much better than Fishkill. (at least as far as hotels go)
Pig Hill Inn-Same info about the room block and rates. No block, no reduced rates, have to pre-pay if reserving several rooms. But the guests that stayed there liked the place a lot, I got more positive feedback from that place than the Hudson House. I think the rooms were much nicer at the Pig Hill Inn. And of course the location, right on Main street in Cold Spring
The Garrison-The Inn has only four rooms, we stayed there because the wedding was there.The rooms were great and comfy and in the mornings and at night it feels like you have the whole place to yourself. I liked it a lot. It is expensive and you have to prepay, but it is totally worth it. I think we reserved the rooms 3 or 4 months in advance, so my MIL managed to have them charge her for half ahead and the other half at check in, but it was a hassle.

Little Spitfire

Thanks for these reviews!  I am getting married at the Garrison is just over 2 weeks and using the Hotel Sierra.  These are very helpful!

Thanks

lep9977

I would LOVE to see pics of your flowers.  I was talking with a floral designer in NYC & gave him a budget.  When he came back he was $1100 OVER what I had originally given him so I am looking!