Well
a year and half of planning and our youngest daughter Katelyn’s wedding is
over…..I would like to comment on our vendors that we used
Ceremony
: St James Catholic Cathedral--A My daughter is a member of the church and Father
Nick did an awesome job with the ceremony and their wedding coordinator was
very helpful. The only drawback with St.
James is that they usually have 3 weddings or more every Saturday, and you have
1 hour for the service and you must be out of the church within 30 minutes
after the ceremony, but we knew this prior to booking the church. It was beautiful, stunning and a perfect
Catholic wedding. Elizabeth Jennings
(organist) and Valerie Hall (soloist) were a delight to work with and made
planning the music for the service easy and their recommendations were
great.
Reception
venue: Highland Manor—A++ Wow!
What can I say about Highland Manor except that they were truly exceptional. When we were searching for a wedding
reception venue, I was overwhelmed with the costs for wedding receptions in
Orlando. My daughter did not want the
typical hotel reception, so many venues were ruled out because of that. We had narrowed it down to Art Museum, History
Center, Maison Jarden, and Dubsdread. On
the recommendation of a wedding planner we checked out Highland Manor and chose
it because it offered a reasonable package, could accommodate the number of
guests, and we had the venue to ourselves during the reception. It
also met her criteria for a “Victorian Rustic” themed wedding.
After
meeting with David and Corey, I don’t think he realized how detailed oriented
Katelyn and I were, but on our final walk through he understood how important
it was to the two of us (we have been doing prom for our high school for over
10 years and to her details were very important). When we arrived for dropping off the truck
full of wedding décor, table cloths, etc, I think I overwhelmed him again but
when he realized how everything was organized, he was pleased and looked
forward to seeing it on Saturday night but I still worried that I should have
paid someone to do all the details But
alas, I couldn’t be two placed at once so I left it in David’s hands. When we arrived at Highland Manor on Saturday
at 5 p.m. for cocktail hour, I was immediately met by David and given a tour of
every little detail. IT WAS PERFECTION
to the MAX. He understood Katelyn’s
vision and it was perfect. Katelyn and
Ryan arrived a few minutes after David and I were talking and she was
overjoyed! She was so excited….her
vision of pink was perfect! They even
finished directional chalkboard signs that I ran out of time to do. They
paid attention to all the details that were there and made sure they
were perfect.
We
booked an extra hour with Highland Manor, with the option of going an
additional hour if needed. I think the
extra hour was definitely needed. We
could have easily used the additional hour, but since transportation had been
arranged we decided to only go the five hours. We were
told that Katelyn and Ryan would have their own waiter throughout the
evening…..and they did. He was so
attentive to their every need, making sure they had a drink at all times….made
sure they ate dinner, and even tied Katelyn sash to her dress when she needed
fixed. The packed a box of food for them for the
hotel, including their wedding cake, grooms cake, cookies from their cookie bar
and candy from their candy bar. The
details to them were just as important to them as they were to us. The
wedding reception food was excellent, the guests were well served and enjoyed
their experience. The bar service was
excellent and the servers were outstanding.
So now
I had over 60 boxes to be loaded back into the truck, their staff boxed
everything up, loaded into the truck with an hour after the end of the
reception, it was ready to go. Outstanding
service, friendly and courteous staff and my husband, Katelyn and Ryan and
myself could not be more pleased with Highland Manor. I would highly recommend Highland Manor for
any event.
Flowers:
Flowers by Leslie A++ Flowers
were high on Katelyn’s list, not for the church but for the reception. With 8 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen, 3 ring
bearers, 1 junior bridesmaid, and 4 flower girls, there were enough flowers for
the church in every bouquet. However for
the reception, Katelyn had four different patterns that she wanted to be repeated
throughout the table scape. Lesley did
an outstanding job from the first time we met with her. We gave her a budget and Katelyn was able to
have all of the flowers she desired.
Lesley made sure all of the flowers were set properly at the venue, and
returned at the end of the evening to help take down all of the items. She was a delight to work with she repaired
things when there were issues with one of the candelabras. We had three meetings prior to the wedding
and then she attended our final walk through with Highland Manor. The flowers were beautiful, fresh and lasted
over a week after the wedding and that was transporting them home twice after
the wedding two hours away. Lesley
worked to see Katelyn’s wedding flowers a reality and made suggestions to help
with the costs as needed. I was
delighted with her work and her friendly personality made working with her a
positive point in Katelyn’s wedding.
Cake:
Irma Kaye Strickler A+ I used
a local baker from North Florida who we had used for our older daughters
wedding and for a shower cake. The venue
was two hours from her home and she delivered a cake that was tasty and
beautiful, Katelyn and Irma Kay worked
for over 4 hours on the design of her cake and when Katelyn arrived at the
venue the cake was exactly as she had wanted.
Her cakes of scrumptious, beautiful, and reasonably priced for a wedding
cake. I would use Irma Kay for any of my
cake needs
Apollo Chariots— A – We used
several vehicles from Josh at Apollo Chariots. 1. Stretch Limo for 5 hours for
transportation to church, photos and reception—the driver was polite, courteous
and on time. He made sure everyone was
safe and even paid attention to the weather when the bridal party was doing
photos afraid that the bride might be caught in a thunderstorm. 2. Mini Bus for 5 hours for transportation
to the church, photos and reception. The
bus was nice and was what we needed to get a large wedding party around. One thing as MOB I should have done was to be
sure there was water and snacks on the bus, since there was such a long time
between events. We did have issues with
the driver of the mini bus, but after contacting Josh at Apollo Chariots after
the event, he took care of us properly adjusting our costs due to the issues
with the driver. 3. Town Car for transit for Bride and
Groom from reception to hotel after the wedding. Excellent!
The driver was professional, polite and on time. Katelyn and Ryan said they had excellent
service. 4.Van for transport for guests/wedding
party from venue back to Floridays Resort.
The driver was polite, professional and courteous. He arrived on time and delivered all of our
guests/wedding party safely home from the reception. We booked this last minute with Josh and he
worked to get us the transportation we needed with excellence.
Photographer:
Wings of Glory/Nickole Woodyard TBD Nickole was a
pleasure to work with and we think she got some great shots. We expect to
get a copy of the prints within the next few weeks and can review her work
better then. She was very accommodating to various budgets. I can say that she did an outstanding job
with their engagement pictures. We hope
she got lots of great shots because the weather did not cooperate with us!
Elegant Entertainment-- A We were given
Joseph’s name from our photographer and after meeting with several DJ’s booked
him We were pleased with his
professionalism, his ability to keep the party moving and the quality of his
work. He was friendly and worked to play
what guests requested. Katelyn and Ryan
gave him an extensive list of things they wanted played and he did a great job
of making it happen!
Floridays Resort: C When we chose
Floridays Resort 18 months ago we did so after an excellent stay and great
service. I hate to say that after our week of staying there for the
wedding I was disappointed in the resort.
1.
We had several mechanical issues in our room, that require our calling
numerous times to the front desk to get addressed. One included a water
leak in a closet, the closet that the bridesmaids dresses and tuxes were
in! NO ONE ever came to check the issues even after three phone calls.
One of the mens clothes were left on the floor and were soak and
wet in the morning, luckily the condo had a dryer or he would not have had
clothes to wear. 2.
The other mechanical issue was the outlets in the bathrooms would not
reset. My daughter called once about 7 a.m., I called about 11 a.m., but
it took my husband calling at 11 p.m. to finally get someone to address the
issue. We tried the fuse box, but it didn't work, finally they
came late at night and fixed it. 3. We had
a master account set up in our names and it was not to be charged on by anyone
except my husband, my daughter or myself. My brother in law was allowed
to put several charges on it. When we questioned it at check out, the
manager argued with us, and we had to have her to pull the receipts to prove
that they were not our charges. Although it was less than 100 dollars, it
bothered me that anyone could have put charges on our account. My
issue is that I believe that they thought he was us for the entire visit and
that really is an issue because who else could have put charges on my account.
I have booked large conventions before at other Orlando hotels and this
was a great disappointment that someone else was able to charge to the master
account. 4. The
housekeeping staff was excellent, they brought needed towels and items whenever
we asked. 5.
Our reservations were mixed up prior to our arriving however, our event
planner did work with us to adjust them correctly, thank you for doing this.6. We
asked to be in the same building and our event planner did a great job at
making sure this happened. However, the location of our room was quite
noisy, guests walking behind our condo were very loud even after 10 p.m. and
banged on the rails that were outside our condo. When we stayed
there before we would not have known that there were any other people in the
facility.
LeJeune Hair and
Makeup Artistry
Patricia was a delight to work with from beginning to
end. Her staff were on time,
professional and excellent. They even
made me look great! I want to take the
makeup artist home with me. They worked
to make Katelyn have the makeup and hair she desired. It was a very humid and rainy day in Florida
the day of her wedding and she wanted long curls to last the entire day. Patrice took the time to make sure she was
pleased. With 8 bridesmaids, 1 junior
bridesmaid, 4 flower girls , 1 grandma,
1 mom and 1 bride it was a tall order to have ready by 11 a.m. They did it with ease and excellence. I would use them again!