Wedding was Friday, October 11 -
Ceremony @ Village Meeting House, Williamsville - This was a perfect location for our ceremony, we had a non-denominational civil ceremony but we were able to have the traditional church set up with this lovely building. It's rented out by the Village of Williamsville, and is extremely reasonable. Sarah Mischler is in charge of opening and closing the church and she is literally the sweetest woman ever to deal with.
Flowers from Maureen's Wholesale Market, Downtown Buffalo - My flowers were beautiful and Maureen was so accommodating with everything. Her prices were extremely reasonable and their service was a pleasure to work with. On the first meeting she even gave me a mini-bouquet of what the flowers would look like. I would definitely recommend Maureen's.
Salvatore's - We had our reception in the Venetian Room. Some people think it's too "gaudy" but I personally love the flair. The chandelier's and lighting make it such a pretty setting for dinner and party. We wanted a venue with a hotel option close by and something where the bar wasn't closed during dinner. The Garden Place offers a shuttle for guests to and from Salvatore's. We had a block of 25 rooms and my husband and I were comped a honey-moon suite for the night. We went with the Wedding of Your Dreams package, which was well worth it. Dinner included, appetizers, soup, salad, pasta, choice of potato, vegetables, and combination dinner plate with choice of beef and chicken (or seafood), desert, a sweets table about 2 hours after dinner with coffee, tea, and delicious desserts. We had the room from 630-1230 and the bar was only closed for two hours during dinner, but there was a bottle of red and white wine on everyone's table for dinner and everyone had a glass of champagne for the toast. The food was incredible and I would definitely recommend Salvatore's if your looking for a venue that will leave your guests full, and talking about what a great party it was for weeks.
Wozniak Photography - I had found that photographer's were one of the most expensive things when wedding planning (aside from the reception venue). Wozniak had some of the most competitive prices we found. They break up the cost into a few different payments throughout the year so once your wedding day comes you only owe a couple hundred as opposed to one huge payment. Though we haven't seen pictures yet, I am confident they will be wonderful. Our photographer, Jessica, was so sweet to work with and already knew a few select poses I had wanted before we met the day of the wedding. I truly cannot wait to see our professional pictures.
Now, comes the downfall of day, Giorgio's Limousine service. THEY WERE TERRIBLE. SAYING THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. Let me begin with the day before the wedding - my husband called to confirm time and pick-up location and the person he spoke to at Giorgio's office was a complete jerk on the phone - saying they didn't have a confirmation from us (which was bullshit because I have a copy of the confirmation we had mailed back after I sent in the deposit, and a copy of the email I had sent them in August outlining the date, times, and pick-up and drop-off locations). So the day before the wedding he had to run out and submit full payment otherwise they weren't going to do it. So already we were not too happy with them.
Next comes the day of the wedding. Our ceremony was supposed to start at 3- Giorgio's was to pick up the guys at 1:30 from Grand Island, bring them to the Village Meeting House, and come pick myself, my bridesmaids and parents, up at the Garden Place Hotel at 2:30ish. My husband texted my sister at 2 to say the limo just came to get them and the driver was being a jerk. The A/C and radio weren't working, so the driver apparently wanted to take the limo back to the shop to have the mechanic look at it - but my husband told him not to, our ceremony started at 3 and he needed to come pick us up at the hotel. 215 rolls around, nothing, 230 rolls around, nothing. My mom called the company, they were extremely rude to her on the phone, saying the "boys were dilly-dallying" - which was false, and that the driver will be there in 5 minutes. 2:50 he finally shows up, and clearly he had not come straight from the Meeting House as requested since he came from the complete opposite direction, so whether he had returned to the shop or just decided to piss us off further by showing up almost a half hour late I'm not sure.
I was stressed beyond belief as it was and that just about had me at anxiety attack. We made it to the ceremony about 15 minutes late, but everything there was so beautiful and perfect we decided to let it go and just be happy.
BUT THE TERRIBLE RUDE SERVICE FROM GIORGIO'S DID NOT END THERE.
After we had pictures at Glenn Falls (beautiful by the way), we had a little time to kill and drive around in the limo before we had to be back at Salvatore's. Of course we were celebrating and partying (there was no policy we couldn't have drinks on the bus) and one of the groomsman's beers exploded- granted we recognized that was extremely unsafe and completely stupid of him but we didn't even have time to react because this asshole driver SLAMMED on the breaks going down Transit Road. EVERYONE flew forward, drinks were spilled everywhere, including my dress all over the train, all my bridesmaid's were soaked, one of our groomsmen hit his head on a piece of the counter, and not to mention the our 11 year old niece was on the bus. The driver started screaming at us and was threatening to make us get out and walk from where we were. I was beyond livid and everyone was freaking out. We ended up having to tip him just to get us to Salvatore's, upon which once he dropped us off there was a screaming match between him and the groomsmen. It was a nightmare and needless to say it was the worst way to start the reception. Everyone was upset and it really took away from my wedding day.
We have been on our honeymoon so I will call tomorrow with a follow-up complaint phone call and if they can't compensate us with some type of refund I will follow up with the BBB.
Aside from Giorgio's crappy service, everything else was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better wedding day.