I'm baaaaack and ready to review!!! (It's looooooong!)
We were thrilled with TCC! Despite some of the negative comments I've read along the way, Gayle was fabulous and I don't have a single complaint about her! We were running quite a bit late from the ceremony and pictures, which pushed the cocktail hour longer than our already scheduled hour and a half, but when we arrived, Gayle still made sure that we had some time to regroup and relax before the reception entrance. Everything was set up just as we had discussed. The food was good - not as good as our tasting, but still good - hence only one "+". We chose to have a beer and wine only bar, but I wanted to have a signature drink as an alternative. Gayle suggested going with a punch instead to avoid people questioning why they couldn't then have other types of liquor if a signature drink was available and I am so happy with our choice to go with the punch. I asked for it to be peach in color and flavor to coordinate with our colors and it was fabulous!!! Finally, the atmosphere was just perfect! So many of our guests were just in awe of the beauty of TCC, which is why we chose it. To see it all come together with our (my, lol) vision was incredible. We would definitely choose the same location again!
The First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh (A++)
What a beautiful church!!! If you are looking for a large, gothic-style stone church, this is fantastic! We used our own officiants, but Pastor Gary Denning from The First Baptist Church was there to help coordinate every step of the way. He was excellent with communicating leading up to the event and even sent an extremely detailed email with information about traffic detours/construction as a heads up. During the rehearsal, Pastor Denning took the lead in coordinating the bridal party in relation to the layout of the church. On the day of, light snacks were provided for the bridal party (although us ladies didn't arrive in time to enjoy it). And even though we were significantly late due to a bridesmaid wardrobe malfunction (a zipper completely ripped apart from the dress), Pastor Denning's assistant reminded us when we arrived that everything was okay and the wedding couldn't start without me - she was such a sweet lady! From the little bit that I remember hearing, the church's organist (also director of music at CMU) was fantastic and I loved how the pipe organ filled the church! It gave the dramatic entrance that I was looking for;)
Gobrail Photography (A++++)
I cannot say enough good things about Sam and Jen Gobrail! They are so incredibly personable and accommodating that even guests were commenting to us how much they liked them! Because of the entire schedule being thrown off from the late start to the ceremony, our 8 hours of photography were over before we got to some of the important reception events. Sam approached very professionally to ask if we would like for them stay longer for an extra fee without ever directly saying it. Since pictures are worth a million words, this was important to us and we didn't care the cost at this point, but trusted them enough to say we would just discuss it at a later date, which was our choice. They ended up staying until the end of the evening. We're still waiting to see pictures but I have no doubt that they will be amazing based on the outcome of our e-pics!
(PS - pics not yet available but PM if you would like a sneak peek at some)
Bucca di Beppo, Station Square (B)
We had our rehearsal dinner here and it was a nice atmosphere for a casual, relaxed dinner. The food was great, service was only okay - I never got a refill on my drink the entire evening but the staff was very friendly, but the room we had was very cramped. We barely had enough room to fit everyone and there was an extra table in the room that they were using to hold food, etc. I felt that the staff should have noticed the 6 adults squeezing into one booth and moved their things somewhere else. Several times, as my super-observant 4 year old niece heard people saying they needed more to drink, she took it upon herself to let the staff know, haha. As funny as it was, it shouldn't come down to a 4 y.o. needing to tell them.
Holliday Productions (A+)
Les Holliday created the party! From the time dinner started, the tone was set by Les. He asked DH and I if we preferred continuing to kiss when glasses were tapped or if we would like for him to make an announcement that the only way to get us to kiss is if an entire table would stand and sing a song with the word kiss in it. I wasn't so sure about this but left the decision up to DH and the fun began! Table after table had a blast singing, which also forced people to interact with others thay may not have known. Then the dance floor opened up and it was never empty and everyone had so much fun! Our only complaint is that Les expressed his irritation to us of the photographers when they took us away for a few pictures when he wanted us to do the first dance. I understand that he wanted to keep people interested, but the time was important for the photographers due to the sunset. In the end, he really made the event enjoyable for all, which was one of our main priorities!
Washington Square Flower Shop (A+++)
Two weeks before the wedding, I cancelled our florist and booked another. I won’t go into details of the first, so if you would like to know more, send a PM. As for Washington Square, they were phenomenal! My mom took care of setting everything up so I didn’t have much contact but they reassured her that they would have all of the flowers I wanted. Because of the late scheduling, they weren’t available to do delivery, but everything was ready to be picked up first thing in the morning. The flowers were absolutely beautiful and I saved a ton of money by switching!
Green Gears Pedicabs (A++)
I loved being taken away from the ceremony in a pedicab!!! I will say that I was a little frustrated with their communication after my initial contact. I first spoke with Eddie who said he booked us and would be emailing a contract. Several weeks went by and I never received anything, so I called to follow up. Again, I was told that Paul, the owner, would be sending it and there was a miscommunication between them. Another week passed and still nothing. At this point, I emailed and stressed my concerns that I would not have anything on the day of the wedding since I still didn’t have anything in writing so by that night, Paul responded apologizing and sent the contract. They asked for my wedding colors so they could decorate the pedicab accordingly, as well as music requests for the iPod speaker, which I forgot to do but there was still music. Paul was actually waiting outside of the church even before the ceremony began. He took us to the carousel for pictures and during this time, bought us each a bottle of water. Paul and Eddie were extremely pleasant and friendly people to work with and despite the slowness to get a contract in place, I would highly recommend them!
Holiday Inn University Center (D)
The Holiday Inn was like any other Holiday Inn, so it was what I expected. The concerns I had were 1) the two adjoining rooms that were booked for Friday night for the bridesmaids was supposed to be a room of two doubles and a king w/a pull out sofa. Unfortunately, there was no pull out sofa, only a king in the one room. It worked out, but I didn’t get the best night sleep because my 4 year old niece had to sleep in my bed when she was supposed to be on the pull out we should have had. 2) DH and I returned to the hotel after the reception and had yet to check in. I was surprised that the staff were expecting us and thought it was a good thing, only to find out that they had given our king suite to someone who wanted to book it for the entire weekend, not just one night, as I was told. Let me remind you that I had booked this room in DECEMBER! I found it extremely frustrating that it was more important for them to give it to someone who wanted to pay for it the entire weekend. To top it off, the only rooms they could then offer were queens and they tried to make up for it by putting us on the executive level, which didn’t give us anything extra other than a crappy hotel room turned lounge with a horrible breakfast buffet that we chose not to touch. In the end, we were justly comped the room without even asking, but I would have preferred a nice king suite on my wedding night!
Bridal Beginning (C-)
See previous review....
Garcia Jewelers (A++++++++++++)
Last but certainly not least...Garcia's. DH and I will never work with another jeweler as long as Garcia's is in business! They are a family owned business passed from parents to 4 or 5 siblings. We mainly communicate with the only sister of the group, Pilar, and have actually gotten to know them on a semi-personal basis. First, both my e-ring and wedding band are custom made and gorgeous! Exactly what I wanted! Then they shipped us 3 different styles of bands for DH to decide which he preferred since we didn't have time to make another trip back to Pgh. He picked one a week before but they were all too big, so that evening, they had already placed an order for a different size. On Thursday afternoon, 2 days before the big day, DH went to pick it up and it was too small. Garcia's actually had another one waiting for him by 11am on Friday! Again, on Thursday, I headed up to Robinson's Men's Wearhouse with my step-dad with the plan to head to the Clark Bldg at 1 to try on my ring but they called and said a diamond was discolored and they would have another by 3. Unfortunately, my schedule was jam packed so Pilar actually met me in Washington, my parents' town, to deliver the ring to me personally! I honestly don't know where else we could find this type of service!!!! And who doesn't love walking into a jewelry store and being greeted by name;)
Re: I'm baaaaack and ready to review!!! (It's looooooong!)
Anyway, so glad to hear the review. Are you back at work? This is my first day back, and I'm not going to lie, it kind of sucks.
Baby boy 7.10.13
I go back tomorrow. Fortunately today is a holiday for me so I get to lounge:) I'm definitely dreading tomorrow though:(
Baby boy 7.10.13
Congrats to the Newlyweds! And don't be a stranger on here!!!
ditto everything lindsay said
(Oh, and PM me on the bad florist too)
I'll post a review of Italy either later or within the next few days, but it was FABULOUS!!! Glad to be home though to have my closet and kitchen:)
Congrats! Your pictures look gorgeous!! I'm glad to see the great review on First Baptist Church - we're getting married there in June! I've been going back and forth on the idea of using a string quartet for the music, but your review is making me reconsider the organ :-) Congrats again!!