The Primavera Regency, Stirling, NJ - A++++++++ Theprimavera.com One word: Incredible. I cannot say one bad thing about the Primavera and their staff since we first met with them. They were very organized and were very easy to communicate with throughout the entire planning process. Steve, our maitre d was AMAZING. He catered to me and my husband the entire night, making us feel so special. Not one thing was left unturned. They really know how to run a wedding; everything was nicely paced and the staff was attentive to everyone. Our guests gave us such wonderful feedback about the entire wedding. My husbands family is 100% Italian, so impressing them with the food at the wedding was a must. They loved everything; the food was high quality (but we already knew this from the food tasting). After looking at many venues to have our reception, as soon as we walked into the Primavera, we were sold (we loved their outside gardens as well for our reception, which was something we weren’t finding at other venues). For the amount of perks that come with the wedding package; 6- hour event, the obscene amount of food, chair covers, personalized ice sculpture, centerpieces, uplighting, beautiful backdrops for pictures (many of these you have to pay extra for) and another big seller for us, the fact that they only do one wedding at a time, for the price, I believe is very reasonable. We knew we picked the perfect place to have our reception and yet we were still blown away by what a fabulous job they did. FYI – they are planning to add additional upgrades to the facility. Highly recommended for your reception location. Santos Florist, Newark, NJ - A I worked with Manny. He was great. I showed him pictures and he made some recommendations to get the perfect colors of roses for our flowers. Very easy to work with. The quality of the flowers were wonderful the day of. Very vibrant in color and they came out great in pictures. They delivered on time and were easy to get a hold of if needed. Prices were very reasonable as well. We went into the store two times and both times they had mock up center pieces on display. We did not have center pieces for our wedding, but from what I could see, the mock ups were beautiful! Made me a little jealous we didn’t have any (but our venue already came with center pieces). Elegant Ensembles, Closter, NJ – A- elegantensembles.com We worked with Sal, one of the booking managers who was wonderful to work with. We did not find him pushy at all, which is what I have heard other people say on here before. We chose DJ, as our DJ and Dave as our pianist. Dave played the grand piano during cocktail hour and while guests arrived if they were inside. He also played the keyboards for our outside ceremony. I was probably most nervous about the DJ because even though we gave him a list of songs we wanted to play and not play, it was out of my hands if he did what we asked or not. I have to say he played an amazing selection to start the party, during dinner and to rock the party all night long. He didn’t do the annoying DJ voice over the mic, he read the crowd and played a nice variety of music. I remember thinking half way through, “Oh my goodness, he is playing all the good songs early on”, but the good songs kept coming all night long and everyone had a blast. JF photography, Cranford, NJ – A Jfphotography.com Jamal was our main photographer. He had fun with my girls and I. Took a lot pictures, and he knew exactly how to direct us so it didn’t take too long to get in position. He was very professional. My husband and I wanted specific photo musts, and we gave him examples at our final meeting, and he and the other photographer, made sure we got all the photos we wanted. I feel like once the reception started, I barely even saw them, they blended in so well. We have not yet seen the pictures, should be ready to view next week. Rev. John Graf, Jr. – A theministerman.com Rev. Graf married a friend of mine two years earlier and we loved their ceremony, we didn’t have to look far when it came to finding someone to marry us, because we knew we wanted him. He is very personable and kind. He provided us with ceremony samples, if we wished to use them. My husband and I customized our entire ceremony, which I thought was so personalized and that was important to us. Added Attractions, Garwood, NJ - A Addedattractions.com I ordered my veil and headpiece through them. They allowed me to bring my dress to their store to try on so I could match a veil with my dress. They have a very big selection there, that can be easily overwhelming, but the girls were very helpful. I wound up choosing quite an expensive veil and I was going back and forth if I wanted to spend that much, but I loved it. They offered to take some $$ off the veil because I was going back and forth. Both pieces came in earlier than they said it would take. I brought the veil back three days before the wedding for them to steam it. Highly recommend them if you are having trouble finding a head piece or veil… just leave yourself a lot of time to be in the store because they are so many options. Russelles Bridal, Linden, NJ - A No problems with Russelles. My dress came in one month earlier than they said it would. They have a lot of options there and I found my dress at my second appointment with them. They were patient with me and were not pushy at all. I did not have alternations done through them because my mother-in-law is a seamstress and she did my alterations. We also ordered bridesmaids dresses through them. Came in on time – two of my bridesmaids had alterations there and had no complaints. Gem Limo, Woodbridge, NJ - A Gemlimo.com We hired Gem Limo to shuttle bus (42 passenger bus) the bridal party and our families in two trips from the hotel to the wedding, then asked them to pick up our hotel guests as well. They arrived early and the driver was courteous and a good driver. He went with the flow of when he had to pick the bridal party up- when we were running about 10 minutes behind. Our guests had no complaints regarding their trip. He came back at the end of the evening and shuttled everyone back to the hotel. It was difficult to predict how many trips we would need, and they worked with us on this. Courtyard by Marriott, Basking Ridge, NJ – A- Gary was on the site manager. He allowed us to look at the rooms, prior to booking our room block with them. I needed a suite (to all get ready in), and we requested a connecting room to the suite. No problems with specific requests. Gary was easy to work with, as was Anthony from the corporate office. I only communicated to him via email and he always got right back to me. The hotel was clean and the staff was great. Only one problem we had, when we were there to check in, my suite wasn't ready. They had a very large party from the night before, who all checked out late, therefore the turn over of rooms, was slower and they had our entire block on the same floor. We checked in 25 minutes later than we expected. This would have probably pissed a lot of people off, but it gave us time to say hi to all of our family and friends arriving at the hotel at the same time-so I didn’t mind. The food in the café for breakfast the day after the wedding was actually really yummy (breakfast was not included -my aunt paid for our guests to have a complimentary breakfast). Marilyn Bazrewsky, Calligraphy, Mantaloking, NJ – A+ Marilyn is a family friend, though a lot of girls on here have used her and recommended her. She is located in South Jersey, but girls will make the trip, because her work is just beautiful. I believe she is reasonable priced as well. I asked her to use a brown color ink, to match the ink of our invitations and she bought the brown ink. It looked beautiful and we got SO many compliments regarding the calligraphy. She can be reached by email, mrsbaz1@comcast.net. Dana- In style down the aisle – A+ Instyledowntheaisle.com Dana was just wonderful from the first moment I contacted her. Easy to communicate with, very professional – she did exactly what I wanted at my trial. She traveled to the hotel the morning of the wedding. She was very organized, showed up on time and my girls loved her. She did 5 different hairstyles for my girls, all of which were just beautiful. My girls LOVED their hair. My hair came out perfect. I left my veil in all night and it didn’t move. She did our hair from 9am to 1pm and the ceremony was at 6pm and we partied hard all night. All of our hair held all night long. Dana also cut my hair 2 weeks before the wedding, so I had a fresh cut, the cut was just great. I know that she has a business partner who does make up as well, however I did not use her because I had my friend (who does make up semi-professionally), do everyone’s make up. I plan to continue to use Dana for haircuts as well in the future. Sandals Grande St. Lucian – A- St. Lucia is a beautiful lush island. We are very happy we picked St. Lucia. The staff at the resort were very friendly. When we arrived, we were given hot towels and champagne. The manager showed us to our room. We stayed in a honeymoon beachfront room, which seemed to be the better choice, over the ocean front room – better views as long as you are on the 2nd floor or higher. We thought the food was decent – no real complaints. The hotel was clean and the beach was hands down the best of all three Sandal’s locations. The only complaint is the locals get onto the beach somehow and try to sell you jewelry, etc – which is a little annoying, though they aren’t too pushy. We thought they could have offered a little more to do in the evening, other than listen to live music. They always had some sort of food set up everyday between meals. We got a couples massage at night out on the pier – the best massage either of us ever had. I would say about 90% of the resort were honeymooners. You realize quickly everyone is floating on the same cloud you have been floating on from the wedding events. They did give us a bottle of champagne, breakfast in bed, rose petals scattered throughout the room, to celebrate us being on our honeymoon- which was nice. We only left the resort once for an excursion (Simon Says tours – highly recommended). We found that many couples staying at the other two Sandals resorts, came over to the Grande because their impression was that the Grande was the best of the three. Overall we had a really nice time.