My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Genie, JN...

First I want to give a huge thank you to all of the LIW ladies that were so helpful in the planning process! Almost all of my vendors were found on LIW and I don’t know what I would have done with out this site. My wedding planning would definitely been much more difficult!

Our wedding was absolutely amazing!! We had so much fun, I wish I could do it all over again! I was extremely nervous in the week before the wedding, but I woke up that morning feeling calm and totally ready to get married! It was a beautiful day however it could have been a little cooler (It was 93 degrees when we left the church!! ) but at least it was sunny! All of my vendors were great, other than a few small problems (I was the only one to notice them) everything went perfectly!

I definatly recommend to future brides that no matter what goes wrong on your wedding day keep smiling and enjoy every minute of it. Don’t stress about anything. No matter what happens as long as the bride is happy, your guests will enjoy themselves and probably not even realize that something did not go as planned!

Ok, On to the review!!

My Mom and Dad!!: A++++++++++++
My parents did so much for our wedding I will not ever be able to thank them enough. Besides giving us $ for the wedding and letting us make all of the decisions, they were super supportive with everything. They hosted the engagement party and rehearsal dinner. My mom helped me with a lot of the little details. She did all of the church decorating. Here is a pic of the amazing pew decorations that she made!!


Invitations
American Wedding Album- Theamericanwedding.com: A
I really wanted to save $ on invites because it was one thing that I did not really care about. I ordered them online; they arrived in about a week and were about $200 for 100 invites and that included shipping, envelopes printed with return address and all of the enclosures. They arrived in about a week and I loved them!

Misc Stuff
Me!: A
I made my own petal cones, menus, programs, place cards, favor tags, STD, OOT bags and card box. Thank God for AC Moore, Michaels, and Office Max. I spent more time in these three stores than I did at home the last month before the wedding!


Attire
RK Bridal – BM and MOB Dresses: A
I made the trip into the city with my mom and 1 of my bridesmaids. I definitely recommend getting their early because the place gets crazy! We got there a few minutes before they opened and there was a line out the door! My BM and I went one way while a really nice saleswoman helped my mom. We all picked out a ton of dresses and headed to the fitting rooms (which they do not have a lot of, another reason to get there early). I ran back and forth between rooms while my mom and BM tried on dresses. The third dress my mom tried on she fell in love with, and it looked awesome on her. My BM was a little more difficult than that but we had an idea of what we wanted and eventually found the perfect dress. My mom and all of my BM did the No Frills program through RK because most of them live out of state. It worked out perfectly, they each got their dresses shipped to them and had alterations done on their own.


My Dress & Crinoline - Paradise Bridal: B+
It took me forever to find a dress that I liked. I went shopping a million times to just about every salon on LI. I think I went back to Paradise Bridal about 8 times before I decided on my dress. Liz, the woman I worked with was so sweet and patient. I took a long time for my Eve of Milady to come in, but I was warned that it would. The first fitting was great, but when I called one day to find out what time my second fitting was I was told that they never wrote my name in the book! I was a little upset but they rescheduled me for the next available day. The alterations came out beautifully! When I ordered my dress I was worried about the alterations not being done on time so I told them my wedding was 2 weeks earlier than it really was. It seemed like a good idea at the time, however, I lost about 8 pounds in the last week before my wedding so my dress ended up being a touch to big but that was my own fault, not theirs.

Strapless Bra - Macy’s Roosevelt Field Mall: C
I did not really want to wear a bra to begin with but the seamstress thought it would be better to both wear a bra and have cups sewn in. I went all over creation looking for a bra that fit me with no luck. Finally I ended up at Macy’s. I found 1 bra in my size and of course it had no tags on it. It took over an hour to find someone and get a price on the stupid thing. I hate that store, they are soo unorganized! Anyway, it all worked out fine and it ended up being pretty comfortable.


Shoes - Parade of Shoes: A
I was shopping in the city one day with a friend and came across one of their stores that was going out of business. My friend decided that she wanted to go in to look for herself. While she was looking I decided to peruse and found my shoes for $3.99!!!! They were just what I was looking for – strappy sandals with a medium, wide heal. They were super comfy and I wore them all night. I never even changed into the flip flops that I bought!


Tiara – Ebay: A
I can’t remember who the seller was, but it was a very good price and it came very quickly. Unfortunately I changed my mind and decided I did not want to wear a tiara. SO I bought hair pins about a week before the wedding.

Veil- Honeymooneve: A++
Another eBay vendor. I really wanted to order a custom veil, but decided against it. I ended up getting a two tier Diamond White fingertip veil finished with 1/8" round satin rattail cording. The vendor was great. It came really quickly and was very reasonably priced. I ended up costing about $27.00 and was a better quality than many that I tried on at the bridal shops.

Tuxes – Rico’s Formal Wear: A
We have used them for many events so I was not too concerned about them. I did not really have much to do with the tux process. DH went with his GM to pick them out. The guys all looked great! I was happy!


OOT Guest Accommodations
Westhampton Hotel: BIG FAT F!!!
If any is planning on using them please FM me.



Make Up
Jacqueline Nicole: A+++++
She is great! I had a trial with her a few months before the wedding and booked her on the spot. She arrived on time and did make-up for me, all of my BM’s and my mom. Everyone looked absolutely amazing! She is so talented and super sweet. I would highly recommend her to everyone!

Hair
Jenn The Hair Genie: A+++++
Another fantastic vendor. I had a really hard time finding someone to do my hair. I had 3 hair trials before I called Jenn (About 2 weeks before my wedding date!) Thank God for LIW or I would never have found her or Jacqueline. Luckily she had my date available. I had my trial with her and booked her on the spot. She was awesome to deal with. She showed up a little early in order to make sure she got everyone done on time. I absolutely loved my hair! She did a beautiful job on all of the girls’ hair and had no problem doing an extra up do on one BM who was going to do her own hair but changed her mind after seeing what an awesome job Jenn did on the other girls! I cannot say enough about how nice and easy to work with Jenn is. Her and Jaqueline were both so nice and calming the morning of the wedding. I have already recommended her to friends of mine who are getting married!


Favors
Truffles - Truffle Trolley: A-
I found the company from another LIW bride. The company is based in Arizona and has a website – Truffletrolley.com. They were friendly and very easy to work with. I ordered a free sample box off of their website and the truffles were so good that we placed an order the next day for a large sample of truffles in order to decide on a flavor for our favors. Our order arrived quickly and they were all so good it was hard to pick flavors for our favors! We picked two of our favorites and ordered 26 dozen of them! You can specify which date you would like them to be delivered on. We got ours about a week and a half before the wedding because we wanted to assemble the favors ourselves. (You can also order them pre-boxed with a ribbon tied around them). They get an A- because when the truffles for our favors arrived some of them were squished and broken. I think that it was probably due to the way DSL handled them, but luckily we had ordered extra or else we would have been in trouble!

Truffle Boxes – JeanMEssentials.com: A
We ordered plain white boxes to put our truffles in. The website is easy to use and they arrived quickly.

Favor Tags- Michaels
I made the tags myself. I bought the ribbon, paper, and mini whole punch at Michaels.


Limo
Sir Oliver: A
No complaints here! We got one 14 passenger limo for the bridal party. It was exactly what we wanted. The driver was very nice and arrived right on time. We were supposed to be picked up at the end of the night in a town car, but instead they sent a limo! We also used them for transportation to and from the airport for our HM. They were great and easy to work with even when our flight was delayed for 2 hours on our way home!

Elite Transportation: A
We rented a van to transport my OOT guests to and from the reception. They arrived on time and got everyone home safe and sound!


Photography
Brettmatthews.com: A+++++
I think that this was probably the most difficult part of the wedding planning. We met with a ton of photographers and agonized over the decision. I am so happy that we decided to use BM. I was definitely stressing about them after hearing some questionable reviews from other recent brides, but after our engagement photo session I felt totally comfortable with our decision. Chris our main photographer was so nice and really easy to work with. He had no problem answering all of our questions and was quick to return our phone calls. He took all of or posed/family shots very quickly, and we did not have to miss any of our cocktail hour. Once our reception started I barely know they were there and they got so many amazing shots!! I cannot remember the name of our photojournalist, but he was awesome!!

Florist
LA Blossom
I cannot say enough about how sweet Laurie is. I sent her about a million emails and she always responded quickly and was very patient with my indecisions.

My bouquet came out beautifully! It was all black magic roses. They were very fresh and lasted a long time! (Just a warning to future brides... black magic roses will stain your dress so be careful not to let your flowers rub on your dress!)
The flowers in my bridesmaids’ bouquets were beautiful and very fresh, but they were not quite right. The berries in them and the ribbon that the stems were wrapped in were the wrong color. My girls were in Euro Wine and the ribbons on the bouquets were red, so they kind of clashed with the dresses.

Flower petals to throw after the ceremony- When the delivery guy dropped off my flowers I told him that the petal cones that I made were at the church and needed to be filled. Well... During our receiving line the photographer sent one of my BM’s to go get them petal cones and she found out that they were never filled! So she passed around the shopping bag full of petals that the delivery person left. All in all it turned out fine and we ended up with some great pictures of the petals being thrown.

The next glitch! The guys did not get their boutonnières until after the ceremony! I am not really sure what happened but right as we were getting in the limo to go take pictures after the ceremony someone came running out of the church with a box full of all of the guys flowers! I guess the delivery guy got to the church and no one was there so he just left them somewhere and they were not found until we were leaving.

Reception Flowers – A+
Laurie did a beautiful job on the centerpieces. I was totally unsure of what I wanted and changed my mind a million times. After much indecision I decided on candelabras with black magic roses all around them. They looked beautiful and everyone said that they lasted forever!

Candelabras – Homebuddy.net: A
I used these for my centerpieces. You can order directly from their website, but I did it through eBay. They came quickly, were extremely reasonable, and worked perfectly.


DJ
High Voltage: A
Vinny was so easy to work with! We booked him last fall and then did not hear from him again until about a month before the wedding. He played everything we wanted to hear and kept people dancing.

Reception
Watermill: A+++
Everything was perfect!! We looked at over 20 catering halls before finally making a decision. (If you have not figured it out I am totally indecisive!!!) We almost booked somewhere else, but after hearing some questionable things about that place, we began searching again! As soon as I walked in to the Watermill I know it was the place!! I totally fell in love with it and even got butterflies! I went back the next day with DH and my mother met us there. They both loved it, so we signed the contract. Bruce our BM was really nice and allowed us to add some dishes that were not on their menu.

The day of:
I was a little upset when I found out that Bruce would not be the person handling our wedding that night. I think the guy there that night was named Jim. He was ok, but nothing special. Our bridal attendant and captain were awesome though and more than made up for Jim’s lack of enthusiasm. All of the wait staff was super attentive and really nice. The night went great. The food was awesome and my DH and I had a fantastic time!
For those of you getting married there, I totally recommend getting the chocolate mousse as your dessert! I was soo good, everyone raved about it! One small thing that went wrong was that the cake ended up being the wrong flavor and did not look like the picture I gave them! I was the only one who noticed and at that point I did not really care.

Wedding Night
Courtyard Marriott: A
The room was really nice and had a Jacuzzi for 2. That was all my hubby wanted. I booked them over the phone. Some of our guests stayed there as well and everyone had a good experience!




Honeymoon
Mexico: A+++
We had an awesome time in Mexico and will definitely be going back! We spent a week in Cancun at a time share before going to the El Dorado for the second week. We did tons of touristy stuff while we were in Cancun and spent much of the second week relaxing. If anyone wants specifics feel free to FM me!

El Dorado Royale – Riviera Maya: B-

The resort is beautiful but I do not think that we will ever return to this resort in particular. The food and drinks were excellent!! We loved that it was adults only. The room was very nice but we felt like for such a nice resort they really cheaped out on some things. We had to ask for extra towels (they only gave us 2). We ran out of soap and the cleaning lady did not give us more so we had to call down to the desk for it. You could tell that they refill the little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion rather than giving you new ones. Ewww. For the most part the staff is not friendly. They have like a mile of beach which was cool but it was all rocky. There was only one or 2 spots that you could go into the water with out cutting your feet to pieces. (We did go right after the hurricane hit them so it may not always be that way) We did do a lot of snorkeling right off of the beach and saw tons of fish and cool shells. The whole resort smelled like sewage! They had a sign in our room saying that the smell was part of the natural ecosystem of the mangroves located on the property. What ever it was it smelled terrible! Make sure you bring enough cash for tips and whatever else you may need because the resort does not have an ATM and the nearest on is about 15 minutes away by cab. All in all we had a great time at the El Dorado, but we were not overly amazed with the resort.



I am sure that I forgot somethings so I will add more stuff as I think of it. Feel free to FM me with any questions!


My scanner is not the best so excuse the strange color in some of the black and white pics. I am not quite sure what happened but they look normal in person!!


ETA: FM me for pics

Message edited 2/27/2006 4:07:30 PM.

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

great review - thanks for posting! any pics?

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats from one WM bride to another!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

great review!! Congrats

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats!!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

sounds like you had an amazing day, congratulations post pictures please

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

great review.. pictures please

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats! Pics! Pics! we want Pics!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Thank you for the review!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Thanks for the review! Congrats! I can't wait for pics!!!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Lovely Review

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congratulations!!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats can't wait to see pics.

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

congrats and great review can't wait to see pics

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats! Sorry the HM wasnt exactly what you had hoped for. But sounds like you had a beautiful wedding! Cant wait to see pics!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congratulations!!!! It sounds like you had an amazing wedding. Wishing you many years of happiness!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Thanks ladies! I will post some pics soon!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Great Review!! I cant wait to see pics!!

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congratulations!

You looked beautiful...

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

you look like a model! congrats-gorgeous pics! that dress and bustle are just breathtaking

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Beautiful pics. I loved the centerpieces. Fid u have to add the flowers at the bottom or they came like that?

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

congrats

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Congrats! you look fabulous. I love your necklace, where did you get it?

Re: My review: Watermill, Bret Matthews, High Voltage, LA Blossom, Hair Jeanie, JN...

Thanks ladies!! you are too sweet

The candelabras I ordered plain and laurie from LA Blossoms did the flowers.

agailunas - I got my necklace from a jewelery kiosk in the mall.