Westmount Country Club: A++++++++++
It’s really hard to put into words what an amazing job these guys do…… they really knocked it out of the park for our wedding. We were in the Continental Room, which is beautiful to begin with and such an elegant setting for the reception. People were blown away just by the look of the rooms and the garden area. Then there is the food – AMAZING! The cocktail hour was huge and although we didn’t get to each much (we were constantly talking to our guests), what we had was delicious. And everyone kept raving to us how about how much variety there was and how good everything tasted. My family is from Portugal and they were even able to work in a Portuguese station for us at the CH, which was a really nice touch. My DH’s family from Upstate NY actually thought that the CH food was the meal – lol. At dinner time, they DH and I on of each entrée choice, and all were delicious (we choose the Prime Rib, Chicken Voldastano, and the Seafood Bake). I was a little iffy about choosing the Prime Rib, but in the end it was perfectly cooked – no need to spend the extra $$$ for chateaubriand. Everyone also really loved the bar – and the variety of drinks and cocktails that they offered. We had a cigar roller show up at the end of the night, and WCC put a cognac bar outside to go with the cigars – which was a big hit with the boys. Service wise, Westmount was excellent. We worked with Fred and he was fantastic. Our Matre' D Max took great care of DH and I and also really catered to our parents, which I think was a nice touch. At one point during the night my bustle broke, and they were right on top of the situation, having one of the attendants sew the bustle back in place. Our only complaint is that we wish we could go back and experience it all as guests because there is so much we missed. I need to talk someone else into having their reception here so we can go back!
Abbey Creative Photography: A++++++
These guys were such a pleasure to deal with on the day of our wedding – great personalities! They kept the day running smoothly and were able to work with our crazy picture schedule. I loved that they put up a digital picture frame on our sweetheart table with pics from earlier in the day (this was after dinner), which was ours to take home and gave us a little brag book to bring on our honeymoon. They also gave our parents and bridal party a few picture momentos to bring home with them that day too. They also put together a little photo montage on Facebook for us to share with our family and friends, which a lot of my overseas relatives really appreciated seeing. The pictures that we’ve seen so far have been great! I received a call that our binder of proofs is ready to be picked up already, so looking forward to seeing the rest of our pics J I would absolutely recommend these photographers for your wedding.
Atlas Florists: A+
Matt is a bit eccentric, and definitely expensive, but extremely talented. Plus, since their offices are right in the Westmount, we knew that we would be taken care of in case anything went wrong. On the day of the wedding, our flowers were delivered to our houses early, which was great. The flowers and pew décor in the church was really great. But where these guys really really excel was at decorating the reception room at the Westmount – the flowers, branches, candles and crystals were breathtaking.
NJ Limo Bus: A+
We had one limo – a Cadillac Escalade. It wasn’t a newer version, but was super clean and seemed modern and spacious enough four our big group of people (we weren’t picky about limos). The driver was excellent – showed up early at our house – and although we left a little late, made up time on the way to our first spot. He helped organize everyone line up at the church and even fluffed my dress and veil for me – lol. We also had a shuttle bus service booked with these guys for our hotel guests, which I heard ran smoothly.
Craig Scott Entertainment: A
We worked with DJ Christian and he was great. We had a lot of dancers on the floor all night. My only complaint might be that I don’t recall many slow songs being played outside of our first dance and parent dances. That might just be an error in my recollection though – not sure.
Fume: A+
We used Fume of Montclair for our cigar roller. I can’t tell you how good the cigars were (since I don’t smoke them) but the guys really loved this and couldn’t stop raving about what a nice touch it was.
Invitations by Ajalon: A+
They did a beautiful job on our invitations. I fell in love with their simple black and ivory letterpress invitation set called “Leslie”. If you can, go with the two-ply paper, it makes a big difference in the effect of the letterpress. A bit pricey (although more reasonable than most letterpress), so I had to wait for a sale before ordering to bring down the cost a bit. Overall very happy with our invitation purchase J
Castle Couture: A-
I originally loved this store and working with the people here. Then came time for alterations. It took about 6 trips for them to get the dress right – and it still wasn’t perfect. The original lady I worked with for alterations was horrible and basically said I was being too picky (I had little folds around the hips of my dress after the first set of alterations). After my mother called to complain, we dealt directly with the manager Colleen who was actually very nice and saw the problem right away and helped us to work directly with the seamstress doing the work to fix everything. The dress issue gave me a lot of anxiety in the weeks before the wedding, which I could have done without. In the end it was fine, but it took a while for us to get there.