My late Wedding Vendor Review-now with some EastWind pics

My wedding was on August 24 but I wanted to wait until I had all my vendor jobs complete before submitting my review and a problem with the video delayed it (see below).

Ceremony and Reception: Estate at East Wind. 99 % perfect. What you’ve heard about the food and service is true. The only glitch was they served the cake and coffee earlier than usual because they needed to turn the room over quickly for a larger wedding that was coming in after mine. That was a little disappointing because once my Italian family gets their cake, it’s their signal to leave. East Wind had food waiting for us in the Bridal Suite, which was a very nice (and welcome) surprise. The matre’d even found my mother a pair of slippers for when she took off her shoes. They packed up all the extra food (from the no shows) and the extra cookies from the Viennese, too. Aside from the early cake, everything was top notch.

Ceremony: We had Reverend Joe and Judy and they were marvelous. Everyone complemented us on the ceremony and really enjoyed it. I recommend them very highly; they know the ropes inside and out. The only glitch was I rewrote one of the readings. The first time I sent it to them, AOL gobbled the text and they only got half the reading. I then faxed it and re-emailed it, but I didn’t follow up to make sure they got it (the fax went through so I just assumed-bad me). So they substituted a longer reader than the one I wanted, but since I (and the reader!) were the only two who noticed; it was a minor thing.

Flowers: The one thing I stressed about the most was the flowers. I had nightmares of them not showing up. I used an unkown florist to these boards: Dix Hills Florist, whom I met at a Wedding show and who happened to literally be around the corner (within walking distance) of my Mom’s house. To my surprise and delight, Eric, the owner, did a beyond fabulous job and at a very reasonable cost. I had 14 centerpieces with 24 roses on 4-foot brass stands with 4 candles swirling up the base and rose petals on the tables for only $75 each (no rental fee). He also used extra rose petals to decorate my mailbox/gift table and our head table at no extra cost. My bouquet was white and light shades of pink, about 30 roses, exactly what we had discussed. He even made an extra corsage and 2 extra boutonnieres for the guys (one was a refresher for the groom). The mother’s corsages had 4 roses each. They turned out to be a little heavy and big for our petite moms, but they were still gorgeous. I was lucky in the fact that he had never done a wedding at East Wind and had been eager to show them what he could do, so I think he may have done a little extra to impress them as much as me. I did stress the last month about whether or not he’d come through, because he had shown up late to two of our meetings, but since he runs the business himself, I could understand him getting caught up in other things. Plus, he took another $50 off for being late to our first meeting. I’ve included a pic of my bouquet and centerpieces below. Overall, even with the stress, it was worth it.

Photos: VIP Studios. John is very good and the package deals for the price can’t be beat. I would definitely recommend a two photographer shoot. I know I’m not always comfortable smiling at a camera, so some of the second photographer’s shots of me (when I didn’t know he was snapping) really captured me best. Overall, we had about 500 great shots, out of which only 6 were shots I wouldn’t show people.

Limo: I only needed one 10-seat limo to take me, my bridesmaids, and parents to the site. We used Mayfair Limo in East Northport. They were early and the driver was very careful with me and my dress and long train (he warned me about the grease on the tires and helped me into the car). I think it was $150 for the trip to East Wind (about 50 minutes). We drove home from the reception ourselves.

Music: We had Rhapsody, one of the Skyline bands, and were very happy with them. They learned about 10 songs for us (including our first dance song) and played everything on our Must Play list. We had a wide range of ages at our party (from 10 years to over 80) and all were happy and dancing. Rhapsody sounded great and really listened to us and gave us the reception we wanted. My only (minor) complaint was their booking agency, Skyline, promised us "continuous, live" music, meaning when the band took breaks, they didn’t do it all at the same time. Someone would always be playing live. Instead, they used tapes/CDs to play while they took a break. I didn’t mind, but when you pay for live music, you expect live music. But since the band really went out of their way to learn our songs, I would still recommend them very highly. Just make sure you have "live, continuous" music in your contract if that is important to you. Everyone we contracted with showed up (no replacements).
Mike, the keyboard player, also did our ceremony and cocktail hour. He arrived early and also learned a song for me. Again, everything went smoothly.

Hair/Make Up: Cactus Salon in Dix Hills. I was very happy with how my sister’s and nieces’ updo’s and make up came out (they had up do’s). I was OK with my hair and makeup. They did a good job, I just wasn’t assertive enough with what I wanted. I have naturally curly hair and had been torn between doing it myself and having it done. I decided to have it done so it would stay all night and have it look a little different than I do every day. I probably would have been more comfortable if I had done it myself. The salon staff were nice and accommodating, though it was a little expensive. Again, they were within walking distance of my Mom, so they were the best choice for us since we had to get ready so early (starting at 7 a.m.) and there wasn’t going to be room in the house to have someone do our hair there.

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Message edited 11/20/2002 9:17:47 AM.

Re: My late Wedding Venor Review

Video: Here’s why my review is delayed. Had a bit of a problem getting in touch with our video guy, Marc from Videomaker, after the wedding. We had no problems before the wedding or the day up. I booked him back in May before any discussions of him came up on the board. He showed up on time and was great to work with. When we came back from our honeymoon, it took a few calls before we arranged an appointment to see him to drop off our honeymoon photos, in about the third week of September. Then we were supposed to come back about 2 weeks later and he’d have the raw footage in his video system for us to review. He had promised us we’d have our final tape in 8 weeks from the day of the wedding. Well, we didn’t hear anything after that and called him a few times and tried to set something up for the weekend of the 27 (tentatively Sunday). He was supposed to call us back to confirm, but didn’t. We started calling him Wednesday, the 23 and continuing through Thursday, October 31. We left about 6 messages on his business phone and cell phone. We finally got through to him on his cell phone on Thursday and we scheduled a meeting for Saturday. He is not very good about returning calls, but I was beyond thrilled with the quality of the raw footage that I saw on Saturday. The colors, the angles, the sharpness of the scenes—everything was great. He got everything we wanted, plus got some cool angles that were really nice. Overall, I was surprised at how good it was.
More delays followed after we saw the initial raw footage. We were told three times the video was ready and even showed up twice to get it, but came away with nothing. Each time we heard some pretty outrageous reasons why he couldn’t finish the tapes (that is, when we were able to get him on the phone). I don’t mind something not being finished, but don’t tell me it is ready and waste my time in driving to your house! While we have the three tapes, we still don’t have our raw footage or the DVD (as per the contract). We were told we’d have the raw footage this week and the DVD a week later. We’ll see. I’m just glad I have the video.
Even though I’m very happy with the quality, I would not recommend Marc because of his inability to return phone calls and his elaborate excuses.


I planned my wedding in 7 months (got in engaged January 19). Because of the short time frame, we got a very good deal at East Wind and were able to have our smaller wedding (150) at the Estate when normally they have a 175 minimum. The short planning time frame really was to our advantage.

Centerpiece shot (doesn't do it justice!)

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Re: My late Wedding Venor Review

Sounds like everything went GREAT! Your bouquet was beautiful!

Can I ask a question about Rhapsody? I am using them for my wedding next year. Not many people have used them so it was nice to hear your review. Were they good? I mean they kept the dancing going right? I just don't want my guests to be bored. Whenever you get a chance, would you mind reassuring me that I made a good choice? THANK YOU!

Again, I am glad everything went great for you! Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations!! I love you bouqet it was beautiful and your florist did a fantastic job. Can't wait to see more pictures...

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Congrats!!! Your bo-k is beautiful!!

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I am glad everything turned out nicely for you. I would be very upset with the video guy. He is not the only one who is busy. Perhaps he needed to hire some help to off-load some meetings or production work so that all of his clients get fast, professional service.

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Congrats !!!!
Your bo-k is gorgeous !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Your flowers are gorgeous! I am so glad everything worked out for you and with Eric, I understand he is still new to the business. He took over the flowershop from someone I used to go to regularly. Thank you so much for the review, glad you had a wonderful day!

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Everything sounds like you had a wonderful day. I'm happy to hear of the good review for East Wind (My reception will be in the Country Gardens in Jan 2004).

Questions about East Wind...How was the cake. I'm not a bakery cake person. I'd rather have a Carvel cake anytime but I doubt that's appropriate for a wedding reception. Was the cake OK? How do they decorate it? Do you have any say in how it is decorated?

Did you do the full veinese (?) hour or just the cookies on the table? Did you think it was worth the extra $$?

Any tips for East Wind brides?

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Congrats...all the best and I can't wait to see more

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Congratulations!!!

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Thanks everyone!
I'm sorry it took me so long to post.

Kidlibny and OctBride 03-I sent you both forum mail to answer your questions.

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Congratulations

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Well other than the video situation sounds like everything else was great! What color flowers did you use in your centerpieces?! Congrats!

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congrats ....i want pics!!!!

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Congrats!

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Shellmarie- i remember we had the same date. So glad things went well for you. Arent you glad the rain held out? With the forecast they had all the way up to the day of, I was happy and surprised it held out for us. Good thing!

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Congrats, and I hope everything works out with your video!

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Congratulations! Everything sounds like it went well, I also am using Rev. Joe. Thanks for sharing!

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Congrats on your wonderful day!!!! May you and your DH have a long and happy life together!

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Congratulations to you and your hubby !

Sounds like you had an amazing day! Please post more pictures when you get them. It all looks so beautiful!

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Congrats and have a wonderful married life!!!

Re: My late Wedding Vendor Review

Thanks everyone!

Here are a few more pics.

For you VIP Photo Brides, here's John (and my DH) waiting for me to come down the aisle.

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Here are my sister and niece with their "Martha Stewart" inspired bouquets. The stems are wrapped in pink.

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Me and my DH under the arch.

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