Venue – Gran Centurions in Clark A+
We worked with Gary through the whole planning process and he was amazing! He answered every single call and email right away (even if I emailed him at night). He was very accommodating as we had a lot of DIY stuff we wanted to get in the day before to decorate and he let us in the day before to decorate the ceremony, cocktail and reception room. I loved that we had 3 separate rooms for each part of the wedding. The room with the cocktail hour had a nice patio that over looked the pool which was great for all our guest to also be able to mingle outside and also for smokers. They also have some uplighting already in the colonnade room so we didn’t have to go out and spend more money on that. The food was AMAZING! We couldn’t decide what we wanted at the tatsing so we did a buffet with everything and had the salad and soups served. This let us have food for every single guest-vegetarians, gluten free and everyone else who eats everything. I did not eat during the whole reception and they wrapped up my plates and any leftover food in trays and we got to have the left overs the next night which was great. They have a huge selection of table linens (napkins and cloths) and chair covers that were also included so we matched our theme perfectly. Everything on the venues part was perfect and they worked really hard to accommodate us with our requests-like the number of standing and sitting tables at cocktail hour, number of rows for the ceremony, putting extra tables with cloths in the bathroom for our baskets. They gave us a floor plan for each space and we worked on it together.
Day of Coordination – Every Last Detail A+
Laura was great! Very quick turn around on emails which was my biggest pet peeve during the planning process. Our meeting prior to the wedding was great and I just knew that it would all flow smoothly. Especially at the rehearsal dinner since our priest does not attend rehearsals. She ran the whole thing flawlessly and arrived 30minutes early. She was there the morning I got ready and even headed to the venue to foresee my vendor set up-this was great when we decided to change the location of the photobooth. She even went to get my veil back at the hotel when i realized that I did not have it 20minutes prior to ceremony. She also called our priest when it was close to ceremony time and he still was not there. She also reminded me to eat several times throughout the reception which was good! Of all the DOC I contacted during my search for , I liked her the best just based off our emails and initial phone conversation! Very professional, organized without being so uptight! She also got great pics of some of our little details which was so great to have the next day! I would rec her to a friend without hesitation, she was a totally reasonable investment/insurance to make sure our day went smooth. Took all the pressure off me and our parents!
DJ for Ceremony/Cocktail hour and Reception – Elite Entertainment A+
We honestly cannot say enough about Jay. Our first contact with him was about a month before our wedding-we talked about 30minutes-he never once rushed me off the phone. Then my fiance and I went to meet him in person and go through the the whole wedding from pre ceremony through reception with him. He was amazing! Very energetic and interactive. We had some spanish songs and a french song we wanted to play for our families and he looked them up right there and added them. He called again a week of the wedding to confirm some changes I had emailed him about and really the whole meeting with him put my mind at ease with the music. Were were very particular with our music from ceremony music (some songs we wanted the whole thing, others just the chorus) as well as what we wanted during dinner and to what we wanted for tha party. My biggest worry was having a DJ that didnt work with us on this. there were so many reviews on the knot of people who loved their Djs but they wished he played more of their list! I did not choose any DJ that had a review like this. We worked hard on our list, with our family and friends because we wanted them to all enjoy themselves so A+++ on that.
Also the fact he used an ipad for the ceremony and reception to organize everything was phemonimal. I have been to weddings where the DJ has all these messy papers and joke how he cant read his own writing Both Jay and I cannot remember his partner for the day were very very professional. Our best man decided he wanted to do his speech at the end fo the night and Jay came and found me prior to the ceremony to see if that was ok. Any requests he also got approval from us too.
Give aways were good. I am not such a big fan of the plastic leis because they get itchy but everyone loved them and the maracas and glasses were a hit too. We also bought more lies and glow sticks which they also handed it for us-we wanted to make sure everyone had a few things. Over all the props were great!
I would use Elite again and recommend them, Jay is the bestest! He got the crowd going without being that loud obnoxious DJ that is yelling the whole time saying I wanna see everybody on the dancefloor. He had fun with out guest and they all loved him-he played a napkin game with them and the few that werent dancing, it got them up and out of their seats!
Cake – Vaccaros Bakery in Clark A+
The cake was a part of our package with the venue an they gave us a few bakery options. After having a tasting from a bridal show we went with vaccaros. We met with Eileen to have a private tasting and design the cake. We had several pictures of what we wanted the cake to look like and she tried to incorporate all the ideas. We were so surprised to see if on our wedding day because it looked amazing!!!!!! So elegant and modern and 100% edible. Our guests loved the taste of the cake and so did we!
Hotel – Crown Plaza Clark (now Holiday Inn) A+
We went with this hotel because they shuttled to the venue for free with a room blocking. It was in transition of becoming a holiday inn when we booked it and they explained that the main lobby would be moving as well as the rooms would be getting makeovers. We were fine with it because it was also the closet hotel to the venue and to our rehearsal dinner space. They were more than accommodating. I stayed at the hotel the night prior to the wedding with a few out of town guests. We were mostly on the same floor. We had hotel bags that we wanted given out and they were all given out accordingly-one per bed in the room-since we had several guests with double beds who were sharing rooms to save $. The hotel bar staff was so nice and friendly to all our guests that came back to the hotel after the wedding. They also gave us the presidential suite at no extra cost and we were so surprised with that during check in. This was awesome because me and my entire bridal party got our hair and make up done there the morning of and we had sooo much room. Even had little kitchen area to set up breakfast in the morning and a fridge to store the food we got from the venue after the wedding.
Photobooth – Fox Photo Lounge A+
Jim was our contact-again very quick on the email response. We went with them because of a deal that was available through theknot.com and it was the only way we would have had one! Adam was our attendant. He was very polite and would ask black and white or colored pics before guests entered the booth and would have all the props there on the table. The booth was such a blast!!!!!!!!!!! He made our photoalbum with all the pics in it that night and gave it to us when the night was over. He also gave us a flashdrive with all the pics so we were able to upload them on facebook which was a blast. We looked at the album the next morning with our hotel guests at breakfast and it was a special moment! The album is on our coffee table so our friends can still laugh about it when they come over.
Photographer – Harvey Video & Photography D
Communication with him was great in the beginning-met him at a bridal show but got worse as we got closer. We were originally going to get ready at the venue but then two weeks before I decided to get ready at the hotel to make it less stressful. He said our package didn’t include a second location so all of our getting ready pics were done by my girls and our day of coordinator. And the hotel was literally 1.8miles from the venue. Me and the groom did not see each other before the wedding so all of our pics were done during cocktail hour. He also does a green screen which sounded cool and we used but the pics in front of it ccame out looking all scratchy and he said when they printed it in the album it would be fixed but I ddint want to pay for an album if I didn’t like the pics so we didn’t even get one! We will be taking pics over again just me and my husband with a different photographer in September so that we can have an album and pics printed for all the frames we got at our engagement party.
Honeymoon – Occidental Grand Aruba B
We could not decide where to go on our HM but after a lot of recs for Aruba we chose it. It was not a bad flight in terms of distance and wasn’t too expensive. We did not want to break the bank on our honeymoon because we were also in the process of buying a house. Aruba was fun, very romantic and relaxing as we did a sunset sail, horseback riding on the beach, windsailing and kayaking both included in the hotel. We also did an 8 hour jeep tour that took us around the whole island –including lunch at a local resturant. The location of the occidental is perfect! Really clean beach and they have the nice chairs on the beach-the canvas ones not the ones with all the straps like some of the others had. The chair situtation on the beach in a little competitive because everyone goes out early to reserve chairs so U will have to do this but this seemed to be the case when we spoke to people staying at other hotels too. Our room was clean-the staff was nice. They do seem to cater a littler more to the time shre owners as they wear a diffeent colored bracelet than the hotel guest. The specialty a la caret restaurants were very good and there is Italian, Mexican, Hibachi and carribbean. You need to make a reservation to eat at the specialty places and it fills up fast which was a little of a pain. They did also try to accommodate us because it was oru honeymoon. There activities going on at the resort all day like bingo and pool parties and there is a show there every night. The pool is really nice and there are cabanas all around it and there are also cabanas on the beach. Directly across the street from the hotel are all the shops and resturants. You can do lunch for cheap as some of the restaurants on the islands do deals but it can be pricey if you don’t do all inclsive resorts. We met a few families that were spending $300 to $400 a day on food alone from staying at a non inclusive resort. Occidental includes all the alcoholic beverages too which is nice because there are bars all over-the lobby, inside the pool and on the beach. I give it a B because there were major issues with dinner reservations (not for us but every night people were complaining to the host or hottest at any restaurant) and also the beach chair issues-they need to come up with a better system for it.
Father John Michael O’Sullivan A+
Both DH and I are Catholic but neither of us go to church so we did have uses getting married in the church. In the end we decided to get married at the venue and it worked out perfectly because every single guest was at the ceremony. Father John was really nice and friendly and funny during the planning process and during the ceremony. He worked with us to really customize our ceremony to fit our personalities and relationship. There were a whole lot of tear during the ceremony especially as we did our vows and he would remind us to take a deep breath. It was exactly the ceremony we wanted!
Wedding Gown and Tuxes – Russels Bridal and Tuxedos in Linden A+/B
Theresa was my consultant and she was the best! So very patient and had fun with the appointment. Tried on a lot of dresses and their prices really are great with all the designers I wanted to try on. I bought my dress and the 5 girls in my bridal party dresses there. If the girls get their dresss there then the brides alterations are free! And if the guys get their tuxes there then the girls dress alterations are free!!!!! So my girls were delighted that they only had to pay for their dresses. I wore a private label by G dress which was exactly how I pictures myself! The girls all got to choose their own dress but I limited it to one designer as eggplant for one designer is different then another designers. We went with Bill levkoff and it was easy for the girls to shop because Russels has the wedding party dresses arranged by designer so they all shopped the same rack. It was a lot of fun. All the staff that works there is great-Theresa even came in on her day off for one of my fittings-she is so awesome!
We also got the tuxes there and the experience wasn’t as great as the girl side because the guy we had was not friendly. He was just in a bad mood as it was a busy Saturday when we went. The tux selection was great and the guys got exactly what they wanted-it was easy to match the guys ties to the girls dresses as they just walked right over and Theresa pulled a bridesmaids dress. If the guy we had wasn’t in such a bad mood I would have given them an A too. One of the younger guys that worked there noticed we were not meshing well with this guy and he helped us when he was done with his own appointment so this helped things go better.
I would use every single vendor again and recommend them except for the photographer. Goodluck girls with all your planning! I hope this helps because I know it helped me when I was planning, sorry it took sooooooooo long to post everythign was crazy with house hunting but we finally close on Thursday so l wanted to post the reviews before we move since now all the painting begins!