FYI Merion Brides

mariantheb · September 2010

Hey girls. Cathy called me this afternoon to let me know their in house baker is back so we do not have to go to Isgro's Sunday for our cake testing, we can go to the Merion instead. just an fyi

LisaPharm, your wedding is coming up! Mine is right after yours! Any other Merion brides this month?

misschristinec · October 2010

thank you for the update!

jayme707 · October 2010

Wow! Our wedding was two weeks ago and we weren't happy with our cake from Isgro's.... I wonder if that had anything to do with it as Cathy was my coordinator. The cake was good but Isgro's charged us extra for an "elaborate" design (which it really wasn't) and then the cake wasn't even right... I wish the Merion had made this change before our wedding!

ev4149 · October 2010

Good to know. Anyone know anything about the in house baker? (what flavors they offer, what designs we can do...?)

LisaLPharmD · October 2010

Thanks for the update! Stephanie hasn't contacted me yet about it. I was supposed to have my meeting at Isgro's on Oct 9.

I can't believe how soon our weddings are MariantheB! I'm starting to get stressed, especially with my work sending me out of town for a week on the 10th.

Tell us more about the cake meeting!

CHarley2B · October 2010

Wow. This is great to know! I'm not this month but I am going for my tasting next week. My wedding is in December.
Jayme707 - How was your wedding??? Did I miss your reviews? How did everything go.

jayme707 · October 2010

CHarley, you didn't miss my reviews, I just haven't really had a chance to write everything out yet

the wedding was awesome! I'm so sad that it's over already, and of course the Merion was amazing and everyone was so impressed by everything they offer.

I do have three suggestions in case they pertain to anyone: (Sorry if this is a little long)

anything that needs to happen at the end of the night, make sure you speak with your maitre'd and let him/her know...we bought cake boxes to send the cake home with our guests (because there are just sooo many desserts, who needs cake, right?) and we mentioned multiple times to our coordinator that we wanted the boxes passed out to each place setting... I'm not sure if they forgot or the message was never passed on to our maitre'd, but they just stacked the boxes at the door, and by the time cake was being served, our coordinator was gone so there was no one there to make sure it was done. We went home with so much leftover cake and about 75 empty boxes that the cake was never put in... we only had one box for every guest plus maybe 5 extra, so A LOT of people left without cake and we wasted a lot of boxes

if you're doing your own centerpieces, make sure you talk to someone beforehand about when you need to be there to pick everything up after the wedding. Someone told my mom during the wedding that all of our centerpieces had to be out that night. None of us had our cars there AND we were drinking all night... there was no way we could take centerpieces that night! Not to mention, it was not a conversation that should have been had during the reception! In the end, our maitre'd allowed us to come back the next morning to pick everything up and it was fine, but I still feel like that was the last thing we should have been worrying about during our wedding!

If anyone is doing a photobooth, I strongly suggest keeping the booth in the ballroom. I know the Merion kind of discourages it at the risk of it being an eye sore in the room BUT I really feel like it kept a lot of people outside of the ballroom and off the dance floor because there was a constant line at the booth. If there's one thing I could go back and change about my wedding, it would be this!! I guess the same goes for having the bar outside the room... I know some people were talking about having an ice bar inside the ballroom, such a good idea! I totally would have looked into that I had heard about it sooner!

campergrlsugar · October 2010

ohhh thank you jaime..im not a merion bride but I do have a photo booth....you just reaffirmed my decsion to have it in the ballroom!! Sounds like for the most part you had a great day!!

mariantheb · October 2010

Thanks Jaymee...where did you get your cake boxes from?

All in all though the food, drink, and everything else went smoothly...did you see a lot of other brides or was it not too bad? I think you said you were in the skylight right? That is where I am...yeah we are doing the bar inside the room because I went to a wedding there like when the Merion first re-opened and it was so awesome except most of the men hung out at the bar...I was on the dance floor all night though! I am also nervous that it will be tight seating...it seems more people are rsvp'ing yes than I thought so I think we will definitely have 250 so hopefully it won't be tight...

Glad everything else went well!

Sorry for so many questions!

mariantheb · October 2010

Oh and Jaymee, what happened is that their in-house baker took some time off when she had a baby but came back sooner than she or the Merion thought she would...or at least that is what Christos told me? Has anybody spoken to him? What a nice guy!

jayme707 · October 2010

Marianthe, ask me anything, I'm happy to answer!

I really am so sad that my wedding is over so I'll live vicariously through you girls!

I ordered my cake boxes from Nashvillewraps.com. They were actually candy boxes but we chose them because they were large enough to fit a slice of cake and any extra desserts guests might want to take home, but they never got the chance

AND Cathy made it very clear that she was not at all thrilled with having to put the cake in boxes... not sure what that was all about

For the most part though, everything went perfectly! I can't really complain since this is the first wedding I've ever planned lol.

We were in the skylight room too, I just love that room! We only had 130 guests though, so space definitely wasn't an issue for us. I think you will be fine with 250 though... the only place that might be tight would be the room for cocktail hour if you're using the room that's attached. It seemed really tight in there with 130, I can't imagine having double the amount of people!

I didn't actually run into the other bride that was there that day, HOWEVER we had planned to take our staircase pics, hallway pics, etc during her ceremony time so there wouldn't be any interference, but she was in the hallway for 20 minutes waiting to go outside to her wedding (20 minutes after her wedding was supposed to start) and the Merion staff had me wait upstairs until she was gone. I totally understand that they want to keep the brides separated and I appreciate that, but someone really needed to just get her moving or have her wait in another location! I stood upstairs just waiting for her to leave the hallway and we ended up only getting a few minutes on the staircase because our guests started to arrive and I didn't want everyone to see me before the ceremony. Other than that, I didn't even know there was another wedding going on!

I'm so bummed that the in-house baker didn't come back 2 weeks ago! I could have done without Isgro's... they were not very apologetic when we complained that our cake wasn't right and they certainly weren't going to give us our money back... they're also some of the most unpleasant people I've ever spoken to on the phone, even when you're just making an appointment! Count your blessings that you don't have to deal with them!

jayme707 · October 2010

wow! sorry that my responses are 8 pages long!

mariantheb · October 2010

No they are soooo helpful! Thanks so much! Yeah, I am going to try not to be too nervous about the room space. The owners said they would keep the doors all the way open so we could have the whole top floor and they could set up a food station or two in the hallway; did you have that too or was everything in the room?

Yeah, that stinks about the cake! They do seem pretty rude and a bit rough over the phone at Isgro's...I have no idea what kind of cake I want so I better start looking! I am a bit surprised they didn't give you some kind of credit or refund when you weren't happy with the cake!

I am glad everything else went smoothly and you had a great day!

Rangergirl · October 2010

So ironically enough, I had not heard the greatest of things about Isgro's and traveling to Philly from SI was not going to be the easiest. Every time I tried to schedule a tasting they were closed and my design would have cost a minimum of an extra $700!!! So we finally decided to just go with a bakery on Staten Island to make the cake. I have my final menu meeting on Saturday and I'm going to see if they can do anything to make up for the money that would have went towards the cake. I hope this doesn't end up biting me in the butt.

I have a question about that ice bar option.... do you know a round about idea of how much that went for? I like the idea of keeping everyone in the ballroom but I don't know if I can afford to throw anything else into this budget at this point.

I had never thought of the cake box idea but I love that!! Did they have any problem with people taking extra desserts to fill the boxes? (Those that got them I should say I guess.) I'm sorry that didn't turn out so well for you But I guess in the grand scheme of what things could go wrong on your wedding day, better that than something much worse!!

jayme707 · October 2010

Rangergirl, I totally agree! There def could have been worse things to go wrong! But it was just a little frustrating that we had asked about this numerous times and had so many wasted boxes in the end. And I think dessert was over by the time people were taking the cake on their way out, so I don't think anyone had an opportunity to add anything else... but there is just so much dessert, I can't imagne the Merion would mind people taking some home. They must throw out so much food at the end of the night! They did offer to box up a bunch of the desserts for us to take home (which was the only way I got to even try anything!) and we also asked them to box up some food from cocktail hour and our dinner. I ate more from our wedding the next day than I did that night

aprovencher21 · October 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_south-new-jersey_fyi-merion-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:128Discussion:d17927bd-8e04-413e-bb1c-4f44fe9aa4c4Post:940f6443-66e4-4705-b6e1-82e003a65614">Re: FYI Merion Brides</a>:
[QUOTE]So ironically enough, I had not heard the greatest of things about Isgro's and traveling to Philly from SI was not going to be the easiest. Every time I tried to schedule a tasting they were closed and my design would have cost a minimum of an extra $700!!! So we finally decided to just go with a bakery on Staten Island to make the cake. I have my final menu meeting on Saturday and I'm going to see if they can do anything to make up for the money that would have went towards the cake. I hope this doesn't end up biting me in the butt. I have a question about that ice bar option.... do you know a round about idea of how much that went for? I like the idea of keeping everyone in the ballroom but I don't know if I can afford to throw anything else into this budget at this point. I had never thought of the cake box idea but I love that!! Did they have any problem with people taking extra desserts to fill the boxes? (Those that got them I should say I guess.) I'm sorry that didn't turn out so well for you :( But I guess in the grand scheme of what things could go wrong on your wedding day, better that than something much worse!!
Posted by Rangergirl[/QUOTE]

Cathy quoted the ice bar at $2500. I actually talked to a bartender friend of me about the ice bar and she's not a fan of them because they get dirty really easily and can get scuzzy. They don't wipe down like a normal bar so spills kinda stay put, hair, crumbs, etc. Ick that grosses me out. I also thought that was just not worth that price. I'm working with a Philadelphia company to possibly have an ice fountain made or some other unique thing to add to my wedding.

I've been in contact with the inhouse baker, Diane, and so far she's been awesome. I found the people at Isgros to be rude. They kept trying to talk me out of what I wanted. For heaven's sake I was willing to pay extra stop arguing with me! Also, they wanted me to buy the extra supplies and give the supplies to them. Talk about laziness.....I'm sure as a bakery they could get the supplies (edible crystals and banding) cheaper then me.

I'm going to get the cake boxes as well and tell the Cathy and maitre d'. I feel like I'm paying enough money that I should be able to have the cake boxes done the way I'd like.

Rangergirl · October 2010

Thanks for letting me know that, definitely out of my budget for something that may not turn out so well in the end.

If Isgro's was giving you that difficult of a time over something that seems to be pretty standard in today's world of wedding cakes I can't imagine what they would have said for our design! I had been worried from the begining they were not going to be able to do it, not that thy just wouldn't want to. I am sorry you had such difficulty with them

I don't understand a company in the wedding business telling a bride no unless she's looking for something utterly ridiculous.

aprovencher21 · October 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_south-new-jersey_fyi-merion-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:128Discussion:d17927bd-8e04-413e-bb1c-4f44fe9aa4c4Post:98cd37f8-86af-45db-907a-93751504fa50">Re: FYI Merion Brides</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for letting me know that, definitely out of my budget for something that may not turn out so well in the end. If Isgro's was giving you that difficult of a time over something that seems to be pretty standard in today's world of wedding cakes I can't imagine what they would have said for our design! I had been worried from the begining they were not going to be able to do it, not that thy just wouldn't want to. I am sorry you had such difficulty with them :( I don't understand a company in the wedding business telling a bride no unless she's looking for something utterly ridiculous.
Posted by Rangergirl[/QUOTE]

Yeah I wasn't asking for much. I'm really liking the in house baker. I'd call and talk to Cliff about your cake issues and having gone with another baker due to issues with Isgros (they were like closed for all of August!). What is your cake going to look like? Pictures? I have the combination of the photos of what I want in my bio.

Rangergirl · October 2010

Yeah we tried going four times in August and every single time they were closed either on the day we could go or the day we tried to call them. It was extremely frustrating. It worried me because if they close for that much time during August, what are they chances they're open often during January when I'm getting married which is probably one of the slowest months of the year?

I don't have any exact pictures of what our cake will look like but here is a picture of the base of our idea:

So basically the bottom layer and third layer will look just like that. The second layer is going to be a gift box with a wrapping paper look to it with snowflakes (our theme) in blue. The top layer is also going to be a gift box but the top is going to be "off" the box and tilted behind it... there's going to be a blue bow trailing down the back of the cake from the box top. Popping up out of the box will be our wedding song sheet music (The Gift by Jim Brickman). At alternating corners of each layer she's making snow dusted pine cones out of chocolate and sugar and she's making white pointsetta flowers with a silver center to it. I am SO excited for the cake, it's probably what I am looking forward to most that day after the ceremony hehe.

aprovencher21 · October 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_south-new-jersey_fyi-merion-brides?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:128Discussion:d17927bd-8e04-413e-bb1c-4f44fe9aa4c4Post:569c2624-8758-4ce6-97a9-7d338eedc155">Re: FYI Merion Brides</a>:
[QUOTE]Yeah we tried going four times in August and every single time they were closed either on the day we could go or the day we tried to call them. It was extremely frustrating. It worried me because if they close for that much time during August, what are they chances they're open often during January when I'm getting married which is probably one of the slowest months of the year? I don't have any exact pictures of what our cake will look like but here is a picture of the base of our idea: So basically the bottom layer and third layer will look just like that. The second layer is going to be a gift box with a wrapping paper look to it with snowflakes (our theme) in blue. The top layer is also going to be a gift box but the top is going to be "off" the box and tilted behind it... there's going to be a blue bow trailing down the back of the cake from the box top. Popping up out of the box will be our wedding song sheet music (The Gift by Jim Brickman). At alternating corners of each layer she's making snow dusted pine cones out of chocolate and sugar and she's making white pointsetta flowers with a silver center to it. I am SO excited for the cake, it's probably what I am looking forward to most that day after the ceremony hehe.
Posted by Rangergirl[/QUOTE]

Aw that sounds lovely. Our wedding theme is snowflakes and crystals. Thats why we want crystals all over the cake. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that perhaps the inhouse baker can do sugar work. I'd love some pulled sugar snowflakes around the cake.

The more I attempted to talk with Isgro's about what I wanted the more they argued with me and told me I was being silly. I want a big cake, like 5-6 tiers. I know thats more cake then I need so I said what about doing a faux layer or two. They basically said that was just silly and a waste of time. I wanted to scream. We were also getting to the point of going to look for another baker and seeing what I could negotiate with the Merion. FI keeps pushing for heading up to Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. He's insane.

jayme707 · October 2010

Aprovencher, before our wedding, I was talking with someone who had just had her wedding at the Merion and she told me to make sure they put the cake boxes at everyone's place setting to make sure they get cake because when they put it at the door, no one takes it... so that's what we did and it still didn't happen! So frustrating! We even mentioned it to Cathy again the night before at the rehearsal and it still didn't get done! Definitely make sure your maitre'd is aware!!! Have you told her that you're doing cake boxes? Because she made it perfectly clear that she was not happy about them, as if she was personally putting the cake the boxes! And I totally agree, we paid enough money that putting some cake in box and passing it out should not have been a problem!!

PS: I'm so jealous that that you girls don't have to deal with Isgro!! If only Diane had come back a few weeks sooner!

Rangergirl · October 2010

Oh my Lord, my fiance keeps saying Carlo's also... I told him he's crazy, our cake would end up costing over $2500 there!!! I'd serve cupcakes before I spent that much money on a wedding cake!

Our top layer is actually going to be a faux layer - the rest of the cake will be more than enough for 125 people, especially considering the rest of the desserts. I feel terrible that both of you had so many problems!! This whole process is stressful enough without someone trying to ruin it for no reason.

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