Here are the reviews from my 9/6/08 wedding - Ceremony/Reception: Knoll Country Club West – Grade A+ All in all, we had the greatest experience having our wedding at Knoll and working with Kyp. There was so much food – everyone loved it and raved about it. Most people said they hadn’t seen anything like the dessert/Viennese presentation before! There were minor bumps – because of all the rain on our wedding day, there were a few leaks in the “living room” and one in the ballroom, which caused our cocktail hour to run long by 15 minutes. Because of that, our Viennese display was 15 minutes shorter, so I really didn’t get to have dessert. But all in all, Knoll did a great job – highly recommended! OOT Hotel: Hanover Marriott – Grade A+ We had such a wonderful experience with the Marriott and with our sales manager Robyn. She was very accommodating and helpful with any request we had. Since we booked so many rooms at the hotel, we got 3 round-trip 29 passenger shuttles (they work with mylimo.com), which were on-time. My only issue with the shuttle was the last shuttle of the night got lost getting back to the hotel – I had to help the driver with directions. Photo/Video: Figtree Productions – Broken down into 2 categories: - Leading up to the wedding: B- We booked Figtree for photo and video b/c their work/pictures are amazing. The video they showed us was the most impressive of all videographers we met with. We had a good first meeting with Joel, but felt that throughout the planning process that any questions we had were answered in a very short manner. MH and I are both very thorough and have never booked a photographer for anything before, and had a lot of questions, and felt we were met with resistance when we were looking for guidance. Leading up to our wedding, a more cooperative attitude would have been welcome. - Wedding day: no grade yet, pending receipt of pictures/video. Day of, we enjoyed working with Doris, Jessica, and Danielle, who took the majority of the pictures. We could’ve used a little more guidance on which direction to look in during the posed pics (there were 3 photogs taking pics). Videographer Tim seemed to do a good job. Florist: Kim Auriemma Design – Grade A+ Kim is so easy to work with, so flexible, I cannot say enough about her and her team. Our bouquets arrived at the hotel and I was floored – they were so gorgeous, more than I had imagined. She also worked her magic in our ballroom on our chuppah and our centerpieces. I also met with 2 other florists that are very popular on the boards, and I paid less by working with Kim. Officiant: Rabbi Joshua Goldstein – Grade A- We enjoyed our meetings with Rabbi Goldstein and were happy with our wedding ceremony. He remembered our names (which is key!) and made our families feel comfortable and relaxed. Our only complaint – he quoted us his fee at our first meeting, then charged us $50 more (inexplicably) when we paid him. Hair: Michelle LoConte – Grade A+ Michelle is a hair whiz, she did such a great job on my hair as well as my BP’s. She and her asst. Alana were on-time, and were very patient and professional. They even came to Knoll and stayed thru the ceremony and CH for touch-ups, which was great with all the rain/wind/humidity that day! Make-up: Cristina (Resciniti) Pignataro – Grade A+ Cristina is such a great make-up artist – she made us all look so great! I did airbrush makeup and everyone else got traditional and it held up really well. Her prices are very reasonable, highly recommended! DJ: Spin Around Sound – Grade A SAS is based on Long Island – we saw them at a friend’s wedding and they did a great job, so we booked them too. Tom (owner and our emcee) did a great job with keeping the party moving and played most of our requests (I think there were a few “must plays” that were missed). He’s a great emcee and gave the right amount of song/event segues (not too much/too little chatter between songs and events). Ceremony Ensemble: Ambrosia Ensembles – Grade A+ We had a string trio for our ceremony and they were perfect! Jennifer was so easy to work with and really helped with my song choices – definitely recommended! Favors: Mike’s Wife’s Cookies – Grade A+ I really wanted to do a wedding-shaped cookie favor. Through working with Caren, she made us a wedding cake sugar cookie in ivory frosting topped with our last initial. The cookies were delicious – we’re still getting raves about them. She even delivered the cookies to my home – highly recommend! Rehearsal Dinner: Panevino – Grade A+ We looked at a bunch of restaurants on/around Route 10 for our RD, but we were floored by the food at Panevino – it’s so delicious! Mary and Bernadette were great to work with, their menus are so flexible (we made our dinner a buffet) and the service was top-notch! Invitations/Paper Goods: Elle Ette Designs – Grade A+ Shelley & Bernadette were some of my favorite vendors to work with. I emailed some of the “popular” invite designers (JOI, Limor, Invitations by Dawn, etc) but they were all booked. I found Elle Ette on the knot, set up a meeting and we hit it off instantly. They’re so creative and accommodating – I made additions right and left and their work is flawless! All in all, they made my: invitations, programs, menus, table numbers, OOT bag stickers, and placecards (ribbon tags that hung from a tree). They understood all of my visions – these ladies are GREAT!!! Dress: Kleinfeld’s – Grade A I have no complaints about K-felds. I found my dress there, and initially didn’t want to spend so much on it. I also found it in another store in FLA, and ended up pitting both stores against each other, on who would give me a better price. Kleinfeld’s came in lower (took off 15%). At Kleinfeld’s, I worked with Audrey and Joan, who are super helpful. Dress by Judd Waddell. Bridal Alterations: Ally Bridal – Grade A Ally has a great little bridal shop in Hoboken. I had read some mixed reviews about the store, but had no issues at all. Ally did a wonderful job altering my dress in a timely manner. I paid a little more than I expected to but my dress was perfect. Alterations were minimal – I had the bodice taken in slightly, cups built in, and she added the bustle. Bridesmaid Dresses: Nonchalance – Grade B Things started off well with Nonchalance, order was placed in April, was told we’d receive the dresses by early Aug. at the latest (dresses by B2). Got a 25% discount since we ordered “bulk” (2 or more of the same dress = bulk for B2 orders). Long story short, the dresses didn’t come in until mid-August for a 9/6 wedding. I was calling them every other day for updates and they kept telling me it would be in the next order they received. This happened for about 2 weeks. Tux Rental: Men’s Wearhouse – Grade B+ We had an OK experience with MW. There were only a few fitting issues from what I’ve heard, and they almost forgot to include cuff links. All in all, ordering from MW made things easier since all the guy’s were spread out around the world. HM Travel Agent – Travel Dreams (Irene) Grade A+ We spent our honeymoon in Hawaii, Oahu & Maui. Irene is great and really helpful – she helped us get the best deals for the hotels we chose, and even helped/guided us through the selection process. Both hotels we stayed in knew we were honeymooners, so we got little gifts at each place. Definitely recommended! If you have any questions, feel free to email me - rlw2217 at hotmail dot com