I recently got married on 9/19/09 in Stone Harbor. I wasn't a very active poster, but I did rely on other people's vendor reviews while planning my own wedding. Hope this helps someone- feel free to ask any questions!Dress- Adrian Pierce Couture- A: I didn't need them to do much, as I bought a sample, but the girls in the store were really helpful. My dress was Sposa by St. Pucchi.Alterations- Rose Lafferty- A: I found Rose to be extremely helpful. Was she hard to get in touch with? No more than I was, I felt. We did play phone tag at times, but this was due to our differences in schedules. She did a fabulous job with my dress- she put in cups, hemmed the bottom, repaired a tear, and my bustle, all for $75. She also steamed my veil. The only thing that I was a bit concerned about was that her house does smell like cigarette's a bit. I'll admit I am hyper sensitive to smoke, but my dress did come back to me with that faint smell. I didn't freak though, we just reoved it from the dress bag and allowed it to breathe. The smoke smell was gone before my wedding day (and it only had 3 days to "breathe").Flower Girl Dresses- Etsy Seller SweetPlume: A+. My flower girls wore the Ivory style dress, and I cannot tell you how many people raved about their dresses. Originally, I was going to get them dresses from the WaWa line, but I ran out of time. I found the seller myself, contacted her with measurements, and voila- she had the dresses to me in no time. I think I ordered them about 6 months ahead of time- perhaps less- and they sent them to me with extra time, in case I needed to send them back to them for alterations. Once I get my pictures back, I'll post them for anyone to see- if you'd like.Bouquets-Shelly's Floral Designs: A. Shelly previously owned a garden center and has been in the business for years. She now works out of her home in Smithville, which cuts out a lot of the overhead cost. Her prices just cannot be beat. I loved my bouquet! She was great throughout the planning process: I changed my mind plenty of times, and Shelly was always there to answer my questions. My girls carried all white bouquets, which were also goregous. We did have last minute phone calls, as certain flowers that I had wanted were suddenly unavailable. At that point, about a week before the wedding, I didn't really care. On the day of, Shelly made the delivery herself, and I was very happy with the way everything looked.Centerpieces- Wedding Hydrangea: A. We made my centerpieces ourselves, with a floral order from
www.weddinghydrange.com . I was nervous about this, but I decided to just go for it. The flowers were delivered on the Thursday before my Saturday wedding, and we followed their instructions to a "T". You have to allow time to trat the flowers and re-hydrate them. We did all fo that on Thursday, and on Friday, we put together the centerpieces. I was really proud of the way everything came out, and we received a lot of compliments. If you do your own flowers, I highly recommend ordering more flowers than you will need- inevitably some will not be usable, whether from a broken stem or something else.Hair- Salon Elite, Stone Harbor: C. This one is tough to write. I am grading the Salon with a C, for the fact that the owner was really difficult ot work with. She was always unpleasant, and even smacked my sister's hand down while doing her hair- and all my sister was doing was trying to explain to her that she didn't like what she was doing with the style. My technician- Monkia Gallagher- deserves an A+. She was fabulous at my trial- really understood what I wanted and executed the design quickly. On the day of, she really concentrated on me and pulled off the same look, plus took extra time to explain to one of my bridesmaid how to remove my veil without messing up my hair. I loved Monkia and would definitely have her do my hair regularly, but only if the salon changed ownership. If you use this salon for hair on your wedding day, just take the owner with a grain of salt. For the most part, they do a great job (although the owner was defintiely the least skilled).Make-Up- Jessica Ross, from MAC: A+. Jessica came to where I was getting ready on the day of my wedding and did seven of the girls, including my Mom. She really listens to what you want, and is completely willing to change anything that you do not like. She brought a director's chair for everyone to sit in while she does you make-up, and her spread of products took up an entire kitchen table. Everyone loved their make-up. She was also very helpful to me when I had problems with the hair salon. Jessica stayed back at the place where I got ready, while most of us went to the salon to get our hair done. She waited there for someone to return, to continue with her job, and she really didn't have to be so accomidating. I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone.Bridesmaid Dresses- BCBG from Moorestown Lord & Taylor: A+ (grade is for the store). My mother worked on ordering all of these dresses with one of the associates at Lord & Taylor. My sisters found the BCBG dress they wanted to wear, and the Associate located the dresses at various stores across the country. She made sure that we were not charged shipping, and she also checked in with my mom to ensure that all the dresses had arrived. When we encountered a problem, she dealt with the store to fix it. The customer service was oputstanding, and my girls were grateful to have a dress that was off the rack. No one required any crazy alterations, other than cups being sewn in. Ceremony location- 88th St. and the Beach, Stone Harbor: A+. I was worried about this location, under a pavillion, with only 3 benches. The city was easy to deal with, in terms of obtaining their permission to use the site. My guests stood for the ceremony, which lasted about 20 minutes. The view was incredible, and I cannot imagine having held our ceremony anywhere else. We utilized the benches foe those who could not stand, as well as for our parents.Ceremony Music- Castle Dangerous: A+. Michael was great throughout the planning process, even sending me sound clips of a non-pipe song that I had considered using for my procession. In the end, I used his suggestions for every part of my ceremony. People really loved seeing him with the full get up, kilt and all. I was happy we decided to go with him.
www.castledangerous.com Reception- Yacht Club of Stone Harbor- B-. Communication with the Club was very difficult. When you are holding a reception at their site, you have to deal with both the Coordinator, and the Chef. Normally, I'd have no problem with this, but it became clear that their communication leaves a lot to be desired. After months of telling the Chef something, and then having him forget, or ask me the same questions over and over again, we had to say something to the General Manager. We held several additional meetings to go over all of our specific details that were in question. Around that time, we learned that the club's Restaurant Manager would actually be assisting us on our wedding day, instead of the Event Corrdinator, as she had another committment. The Restaurant Manager, Nancy, was extremely knowledgeable and I felt very confident that we were in good hands with her. Our actual wedding day went just about perfectly. Between the Coordinator going over all of our details with the General Manager and the Restaurant Manager; we were in very good hands. Even though I was less than pleased with all of the communication problems we experienced, I still could not imagine having had our reception anywhere else. Just be sure to stay on top of them and hold them accountable if things begin to go in a direction you are uncomfortable with. DJ- Troy Sarro: A+. I knew Troy personally from my many summers working at the Sea Shell in LBI. When it came time to hire a DJ, I really wanted to use him, but wasn't sure if he would travel to Stone Harbor. After looking around and not liking my options, I called him and spoke to him about what kind of DJ I was looking for. He was super easy to work with, always extremely responsive to my phone calls and emails, and executed my day beautifully. I provided him with a list of a billion songs, so that he would know what our likes and dislikes were. Among the dislikes, we listed any/all line dances. On our actual wedding day, he refused to play those line dances and also asked my permission re: any requests that he wasn;t sure fit our likes. When we weren't ready to leave at the conclusion of our reception, he was very cool about extending his services. I'm really glad we went with him- his prices were more than fair. DJTroyS@aol.com (609) 713-9191.Photographer- Kathryn Croskey: A+ day of, final grade pending receipt of my photos- I loved working with Kathryn. She did engagement photos for us, as well as our photos on our actual wedding day, with an assistant. I loved her style and the photos from our engagement session were fantastic. The day before my wedding, I started panic about our timeline, but she was quick to respond to me (via texting, no less!). She eased my worries and re-worked my timeline to fit my specifications. She showed up early on the day of and was a really positive and fun throughout. I cannot wait to see our photos! Her prices were fabulous as well.
www.KathrynCroskey.com Videographer: Jack Otepka, A+ day of, final grade pending receipt of my video. Jack previously worked for Martin's and recently started his own business. His prices cannot be beat (and I searched around everywhere). He was extremely thorough during the planning process, and I felt more than comfortable having him capture our day. He showed up early on my wedding day, in order to get shots of me getting ready and getting into my dress. I hardly noticed him after that; he was not intrusive at all. I'm so glad I found him, as I was debating whether or not to hire a videographer at all, due to budgetary constraints. The day goes by so incredibly fast though, and I am so happy that I will have this video to re-live it.
www.JackOtepka.com Wedding Cake(s)- Holiday Snack Bar, LBI: A+. If you've ever been to LBI, chances are you've gone to the Snack Bar. Their food is delish, but their desserts are their claim to fame. I didn't want a large wedding cake (chalk that up to years of having to cut wedding cakes while working at the Sea Shell). The Sanck Bar was such a part of my summers growing up, that I knew I needed to have their cakes at my wedding. The prices are reasonable, and the owner, Glen, was extremely accomidating. My guests raved about the cakes- everyone loved having different flavor choices. I heard a lot of "that was the best wedding cake" type comments. It was the perfect decision.
www.holidaysnackbar.com Transportation- Ac Jitney: A-. My mom handled arranging the transportation. She worked with Manny. I think she felt he was a little disorganized, but she kept on top of him, and everything went well. The driver showed up on time, and, barring a small issue with directions (that, and I think he may have been a little hard of hearing), we had no issues. We kept the jitney for the entire duration of the reception, as well as an hour afterwards. He transported the groom and groomsmen, as well and me and my bridal party to the ceremony, plus all hotel guests to and from the receptions. I'm really glad we went with them, I would just say it's important to be organized and stay on top of them (keep your emails that you send them back and forth, record conversations, etc.) Also, my mom was able to negotiate with them on their price.Travel Agent- Jennifer, VIP Vacations- B-. I don't think I'd use her again. She did recommend a good place to stay, but other than that, I don't think she really did much for us. Plus, when we had an issue while on our honeymoon, we could not reach them, since they had mis-printed their on-call phone numbers within our itinerary. She wasn't really that pleasant during our conversations either- she started out really nice and sweet, but that dissipated. Cake Topper- Etsy Seller Lynn's Little Creations- A+. Someone had posted about Lynn's cake toppers on this site. I loved the idea- little topper made of clay, to look like you anr your fiance- and contacted her to create something very specific for me. My husband and I are big Philadelphia sports fans, and the food at our wedding reflected our love for both the Philly area, as well as the Jersey shore. I wanted our cake topper to be the two of us, in Phillies jersey shirts, with bathing suits bottoms. The result was hysterical. I love the topper and we now have it displyed in our house. Our guests could not stop talking about it and taking pictures of it. I'll try and post a link to it:
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=17695818 Hopefully that'll work, she did an excellent job!I think that's it! Please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck to those still in the planning process! I didn't think that I'd have that "this was one of the best days of my life" type feelings abuot my wedding day (since all along, I'd told myself that it was only one day) but I really felt that way. It was perfect, and I was so happy that I'd worked so hard on all the little details. People noticed!!! Good luck and have fun!