Venue: The Imperia – Somerset, NJ – A-
We had both our ceremony and reception at The Imperia. Our ceremony was held on the back patio and it was simply beautiful with the waterfalls and nice vegetation they have planted all around. While we did get drizzled on a little during the ceremony everything else was perfect. Fortunately they had large umbrella opened for the guests (originally to provide shade) which allowed some of the older guests and my 8 month old nephew to get under cover with his dad. Unfortunately due to the rain the cocktail hour was set up inside instead of on the patio, but everyone enjoyed it tremendously, the food was fantastic - or so our guests have told us, we were taking pictures!
The reception was great, everyone is still raving about the food and the room and just the overall look and feel of the venue. We tried to get a few bites of each course at least, and everything was delicious. The Viennese hour was a huge hit as was the cake from Palermo’s Bakery which was included in our package.
The only reason they’re not getting an A+ from me is: 1) Our ice sculpture didn’t actually have our initials carved in ice, it was some black letters frozen in the sculpture 2) We asked them to make one of the sides of green beans available without nuts due to guests to allergies and all of them were made without nuts due to a mix up in the kitchen 4) The clams for our seafood bar were never put out and 4) The fire alarm went off due to the wedding upstairs using a smoke machine and the lights were up for like 20 minutes until they got an all clear from the fire department – but to make up for all these items they extended our reception for 30 minutes at no charge. I would rank them lower because of these little missteps but the maitre d Brenda and our bridal attendant Lindsay (who looked about 16 I swear) were AMAZING - they got nice tips at the end of the night for sure. Also after taking to the general manager the money to pay our DJ for the additional 30 minutes plus ½ the cost of our seafood bar is being refunded to my parents, so they made up for anything that went awry.
Officiant: Fr. Matthew Bailey from St. Joseph of Arimathea church in New Haven, CT (Chancellor of The American Catholic Church). – A++
Thanks to the lovely Peaches, we found this amazing Priest. My wife being raised Roman Catholic it was important to her to have our union blessed by a priest. The Roman Catholic Church does not perform same sex unions so Peaches suggested I contact Bishop George Lucey from St. Francis of Assisi in Glen Ridge. Unfortunately Bishop Lucey was already engaged for the evening of our wedding so he searched within this community and low and behold Fr. Bailey traveled from New Haven to officiate. His ceremony was absolutely lovely and he presented us with a certificate of marriage from the American Catholic Church afterwards and said some kind words to us about how NJ may not recognize our union as equal but that it is in the eyes of God.
DJ: DJ MC Entertainment, Belleville, NJ DJ: Ralph – A+
From our very first meeting with the owner Mike until the end of the wedding these guys were fantastic. So easy to work with, had no issues playing 4 separate songs for our reception entrance of parents, bridal party and brides, even cued up songs to our rather exact specifications. Ralph hardly spoke on the mic all night, only when we needed to get people to places. He let the music draw them to the dance floor, J & I hate MCs that have a mic in hand all night and won’t shut up. The dance floor was packed and everyone had an awesome time. And to top it all off their prices are really reasonable compared to other places we looked into.
Florist: Anderson’s Florist – Iselin, NJ – B
This is the florist The Imperia uses. They include centerpieces in your package (which are boring like roses and baby’s breath or something) so we use ½ of those, added some orchids and then put submerged orchid tripdicts with floating candles and LEDs on the other ½ of the tables. He also did our bouquets and ceremony flowers (an arch and bows on the chairs w/ roses). Several missteps here 1) He didn’t tape down the aisle runner and it was blowing all over the place. 2) The orchids for our cake were supposed to be dark blue dendros (which are purple in color), instead we got DYED blue dendros (which are actually BLUE). 3) The freshness of some of the flowers wasn’t the best, my mom wasn’t happy about it at all, I honestly didn’t even notice. 4) Only 1 flower was put on each chair bow, you can’t even see them in photos. On the plus side he was very affordable, and I thought the bouquets were amazing looking. The arch was a little sparse on flowers, I would have liked to see more, but no big deal.
Baker: Palermo’s Ridgefield Park, NJ – A+
Seriously the best wedding cake I’ve ever eaten. Being that our cake was included in our package I expected to go there and have to spend money to upgrade to the kind of cake we wanted – nope! The girl talked me out of sugar flowers as the cost to make those was very high and said I should just get fresh flowers from the florist which are cheaper and will look nicer. I gave them a picture of the square tiered offset cake I wanted and they made it exactly the way it looked in the photo. It wasn’t anything crazy, but because it was so simple I actually think it would be easier to screw up. Any imperfections would have been glaring as there was no decoration to cover it up, just clean lines and the cake looked awesome – and it was delicious!
Photography (B) /Videography (B+): Abella Studios Fairfield, NJ – B/B+
This is tentative as I haven’t seen the photos or video yet (photos should be up this week!). But just from working with them I have to say they have great customizable packages at relatively affordable prices and the quality of their work I have seen is wonderful. Our photographer was Steve and he was really nice. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication between the studio and him and our failure to reiterate the plans for the day and he left just after 11pm (per the time stamp on his photos, I don’t really know when he left b/c he never said goodbye which I think is really weird still) So photos of us in the surprise 1965 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce were only captured by a friend, we had communicated via email to the studio he was to stay until we left the venue, but that info wasn’t passed along to him I guess. I feel our photography before the reception was stellar. But after I feel we all sort of dropped the ball. J & I were too busy socializing and forgot all about the other posed photos we wanted to take. We stupidly never gave our list to someone else to keep track of, and the photographer never reminded us to grab our aunts/uncles whatever and snap a photo. We talked to the manager at the studio and to make up for the miscommunication and missed photos he is giving us additional “extras” items and more money towards our portrait credit to make up for it. We’ll see once I get the photos and video of the grade changes. The videographer was good, mostly unobtrusive, though he had a large tripod for the special dances at the reception. We’ll see how the rest goes we still have to have design sessions for the album/video etc.
Hair/Make-up: Pink Comb Salon – Nutley,NJ – A+
Michelle was already booked for our date but we had her sister Marena as hair lead and Megan assisting and Angela for make-up and these ladies were AWESOME! Everyone was finished early or on time and looked amazing. Due to my body shape and having much wider hips than I do a waist I had to have my strapless stress fitted to my waist, so I couldn’t step into it. So it had to be put over my head after hair and makeup was finished – and not a hair on my head moved! Marena was a joy to work with as my primary contact point. They did 9 heads of hair and 6 faces of make up within a few short hours right at the hotel nearby the venue and all had such a sweet and relaxing demeanor that it helped J and I stay calm that morning/afternoon getting ready. Everyone looked absolutely stunning. I know people recommend Michelle like mad around here and I’m sure she’s fantastic, but her staff is too - Marena and Angela were stellar!
Bridal Gowns: Park Ave Bridal – B+
Now if I were to be review this based solely on MY experience I’d give them an A. But my wife got her gown there too. First off let me say Patty and Amanda who were our sales women were amazing. We went shopping at the same time, but didn’t want to see each other’s dresses. They ran interference which I’m sure was something new and semi-stressful for them. They have a huge selection of dresses there to try on, even a lot of dresses in plus sizes which I really appreciated. We both found our dresses there after just one visit. Mine was under $1000 and was an Alfred Angelo gown. I have no idea what designer my wife’s was, but I know it was more around the $2000 mark. We both had our alterations done there. I think they charge a lot for alterations ($225 flat fee, plus $95 for bustles, and $135 for beaded straps etc), but my dress was a steal so I didn’t mind and I didn’t get straps, my wife minded lol. Here’s where it gets hairy. Our dresses come in, within a week of each other. All our fittings were attended separately for ours and the shops sanity. Mine were perfectly. One fitting, one round of alterations and my dress was done, fit great, I was happy and bringing it to my parents house to be kept there until the wedding. J’s experience was not so good. One fitting, comes back and it looks like all they did was hem the dress, didn’t do any of the alterations need to the bodice at all (which was quite a bit b/c she’s busty and they had to order a huge size to fit her bust and then take it in at the waist). The seamstress claims “the pins must of fallen out” – really?? Ok. Another pinning and she goes back a week later, the top STILL isn’t completely done. Another pinning and she comes a few days later – now it’s all types of crazy looking in the bodice and the fabric looks overworked. They say to come back tomorrow, J’s mom said “No, take your time, we’ll be back in 3 days, get it done right”. Finally it was right and just needed another pressing and could be taken home – just a week before the wedding. It was kind of stressful!
Bridesmaid Dress/Tuxes – Arlene’s Bridal/Starlight Tuxedo – Bloomfield, NJ – A+
I kind of wish we had gone to Arlene’s for our dresses after how wonderful they and Starlight were will our wedding party attire. We ordered everything at the 11thhour, it all came in with ample time for alterations, they price matched another shop for the bridesmaid dresses, kept track of the two different dress styles for the 6 girls and did the alterations at a fair price for several of the ladies. Al at Starlight was awesome. After a horrifying experience at Men’s Warehouse where you cannot even have the guys try anything on and where the sales people don’t know a damn thing about tuxes, we ended up there, got beautiful tuxes for the Best Men, Ring Bearer and Dads for less than MWs quoted. And since there were 5 rentals they gave us a freebee which we gave to the Ring Bearer, all his parents had to do was put down a deposit and rent shoes. All the ladies and gents looked amazing!
Limo – D&G Limo Colonia, NJ. – A+
Friendly, on time, car was absolutely gorgeous (1965 Rolls) and he even went back to the venue and drove a few more guest back to the hotel since we had to pay for X number of hours anyway which was their minimum.
Bonus: Jeweler for engagement rings/wedding bands: Mahtani Jewelers (locations in Woodbridge & Paramus Park malls) – A+
We dealt directly with the owner Mike and he was awesome. He make all 4 rings for us, gave us great prices and his craftsmanship is superb. I’ve received so many compliments on my engagement ring and now on my wedding band too. He really is a wonderful jeweler and has earned our business for life.
Ok this was monstrous, if you read all that kudos to you! I think that covers everything and then some. Peaches feel free to put this on the vendor review site.
Edited for formatting
ETA: I forgot one - Ceremony Music: Agitato Strings -A-
They would have gotten an A+ since they arranged Alicia Keys' "No One" into a string trio music but despite the ceremony always being referred to as a "civil union ceremony" in our communication and despite being provided w/ a copy of our program prior to the ceremony they though it was a bride & groom and stop playing the processional after I walked down the aisle. Arlene from The Imperia had to tell them to start playing again as the other bride hadn't entered. They starting playing another song, and then had to start playing Pacabel's Canon again, it was a bit of a mess. But other than that they played beautifully and were professional - that's what happens when you never actually meet a vendor face to face I guess!