Merelynn10-7/9/11-Wedding Review- FOX HOLLOW-Tommy Tunes-B*rtons-Sir Oliver-North Island
LIW: A++++++
Thank you to all of the 2011 brides for all your support and advice. I don’t think that I would have ever learned about B-pics, name plaques, cry packets, card boxes, and all the other little touches that we included in the wedding. Being part of LIW was such a great part of the wedding planning experience!
ENGAGEMENT PARTY: Booking the Party D/ Day of A
Martha Clara
D- for communication, responding to emails and taking forever to get a contract. A for day of party, we had such a great time and the staff was great.
E-Party
BOUDOIR Pics: A++++++
Jenerations
STD-DIY-
I designed the save the dates on power point and bought magnet sheets on-line, printed and cut with slicer.
STD
BACHLORETTE PARTY
LIPS in the City- food not that great, but a lot of fun! Johnny’s Utah- fun bar
REHEARSAL DINNER: A+
Orlando’s in St. James
We had about 20 people for the rehearsal, we had a room sectioned off for us. Great service and great food! Ordered the invites on vistaprint.
INVITATIONS- DIY
paperandmore.com & thebuckleboutique.com
They were a lot of work!!! But I LOVE the way they came out. We bought paper and had them cut from paperandmore. Then I printed them on a laser printer. The only thing I had to cut where the inserts so that they staked. I did the whole thing with metallic paper, the pockets, invite, inserts, rsvp cards and outer envelopes. The font I used was called ChopinScript. I also printed the rsvp cards with everyone’s name on them, so it avoided any confusion with getting them back with no name.
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS: A
Holiday Inn, Plainview
Very easy. Its conveniently located less then 3 miles away. They included a free shuttle for guests to and from the reception. We did the buffet breakfast the next day, for around $10 a person, it was ok, not the best, but it worked for us and was nice to see our parents and some family and friends the next day.
WEDDING DRESS: Dress Shopping: A/ Alterations C
Paradise Bridal
Maggie Sottero- Jovi
Great service while dress shopping. I worked with Liz and she was awesome!
Alterations- The first seamstress didnt think my dress needed to be taken in, was making the hem too short and how no idea how to bustle the dress. Long story short, the new seamstress, Rosalie, saved the day. She said that the dress needed to be taken in, the hem just needed a little tweaking and she did a perfect bustle. She literally saved the day, I am so thankful that she stepped in. I was happy with the way altercations came out. I would request Rosalie if you need to get alterations done there.
BM DRESSES: A+
RK Bridal-No Frills Program Bill Levkoff 536 in Eggplant
Easy program, once I found the dress I wanted, I just faxed over a form. Each bridesmaid then ordered it themselves. They came in quickly and were mailed to BMs. I had one BM in Texas, one in Westchester and two on LI, so it worked out perfectly and nobody had to come to LI to order their dress. They each took their dress to a seamstress for alterations.
TUX: A
Proper Attire, but then went out of business and gave our account to Roger’s Tux
Proper Attire (behind the Bridal Suite of Centereach) was very helpful in assisting us in picking out the tuxes. However, a month before the wedding, they called and said that they were gong out of business and were giving there business to Rogers Tuxedo down the road. This was probably the easiest vendor. The boys went in, got measured, few weeks later, picked up there tuxes. Simple and easy.
MOB DRESS: A+
Bridal Elegance- Huntington Jasmine J3309
My mother said that they were very helpful and she had a good experience with them.
BP GIFTS
Girls: Swarovski necklace and earring set, clutches from ideeli.com sale, tote bag that I made from Michaels filled with day of kit and personalized hangers that I made.
SHOES A+
Shoebuy.com
They have free shipping both ways, so you can order a bunch of shoes and return them for free! I ordered about ten shoes and was able to try them on one after the other and compare them. I ended up with Coloriffics Tori. Very comfortable, even though I did switch into the Cheeks Health Sandals flip flops that one of my BMs bought me ?
DAY OF STUFF: A
Veil & Headpiece- Barrons at Tri County Flea Market
It can get very busy there, but once it was my turn, I showed him a picture of my dress and he was so helpful in helping me picking them out. I thought they went perfectly!
Bracelet- Tri County
Earrings- Macys
Rings- Commack Jewelry Exchange
HAIR & MAKEUP A+
Someone from the Cactus Salon in Commack came to my mom's house.
FLOWERS: A
B u r t o n s
Very easy. We didn’t have a ton of money in the budget for flowers, and through word of mouth and being at other people’s wedding, I just booked them before I even knew what type of flowers we were doing. A month before the wedding, I brought in pictures and they recreated them perfectly. The day of the wedding, they dropped them off at my parents house at 11:30am. Exactly what I asked for. They even brought us stems of flowers for our centerpieces that we would do ourselves. (DIY)
LIMOS: A
Sir Oliver
The driver was very professional and attentive. He helped fluff my dress before walking down the aisle, very politely kept a timeline, carried our bags for us.
CHURCH
St Philip & James, St James
Our ceremony started at 3pm. Beautiful church. Father Tony did our ceremony. Our guests said that he was really engaging. Pre-cana was a weekend long, but was enjoyable. We all went to church on Sunday and they invited us all to the alter and blessed our engagement rings. It was a nice experience.
DJ: A+++++++++++
Tommy Tunes
By far my favorite vender!
They were a recommendations from a friend, so we didn’t look at anyone else. They were awesome! I cant say enough about them! The dance floor was packed all night long! They did a great job with the range of music. They played ALL of my MUST PLAY SONGS, which was a short list, about 7 songs. Our MC was Frank and he was the best! Definitely recommend him!
RECEPTION HALL: A+
Fox Hollow
Our cocktail hour was in the Winter Garden and our reception was in the Briar Fox (but I don’t think they will be using that for receptions anymore since they built the new room.)
Throughout the wedding process, I never contacted them that often. We pretty much booked, and that was that. But when I did call them occasionally with questions, our banquet manager would always call me right away that same day. We went to the Rose Hunt for dinner on our one year pre-anniversary and they gave us free appetizers and drinks.
A few days before the wedding, we went for our final meeting. This is when you dropped of everything for the day of the wedding.
Bridal Assistant: A+
Her and the maitre d met me as soon as the limo pulled up. We took pics outside. She took drink orders from the bridal party and brought us appetizers. She carried any of my personal belongings on her and put the rest in the bridal suite. A lot of our guests arrived early so they started the cocktail hour fifteen minutes early. She took us to the bridal suite after our pics (around 7:30pm) and gave me a plate from the cocktail hour. DH and I went to the cocktail hour for 20 minutes to say hi to everyone. BA got all our bridal party together to get ready for the intros, and they were everywhere, in the bridal suite, in the cocktail room…During the ceremony, she was around to help me out with anything I needed. A guest was asking me where the guest book was, the BA stepped in to help him. At the end of the night, they wrapped up everything for me, my card box, table numbers, extra favors, etc and put it on a cart and took it to our room at the Fox Hollow Inn. I really feel that the staff at Fox Hollow were very professional and attentive. There were other weddings going on, but I didn’t notice, and never felt their presence. (Except for seeing my date/hall twin KrysnNick from LIW that I got to meet that day!!!) They were very attentive to my wedding. The BA did wear an ear piece, and every time I went to the bridal suite from the reception hall, she would talk into it, “taking the bride to the suite” I felt like I was in the secret service, lol, but I guess that’s how they keep track of the brides!
CAKE:
This was not an area that we wanted to spend extra money on. I think to add the fondant was around $500. Especially since the meeting was a month before the wedding, it just was not in our budget. So I asked them to make a nice cake with red velvet and cream cheese filling. So before the wedding, I had no idea what it was going to look like! But they day of, I was happy with it. It wasn’t anything outstanding, but it looked nice, which was what I wanted. I make the cake topper- ordered it online and then but rhinestones on them. I cant give the bakery a score, because I never got to taste the cake at the reception! But the cake tasting was yummy, so I would definitely go back there.
PHOTOGRAPHER: A
North Island-Michael
The only think is that we didn’t have the rights to our engagement pics, we would have to pay to have them printed. Don’t know if that’s common or how other companies do it. Michael was our photographer. Here are a bunch of pics (all pics in this review are from NI). We did get all our proofs and a cd of all the pics back right away! very fast.
VIDEO: (A, pending video)
GT Modern Creations
They always responded to my email very quickly. They were such a friendly couple! So easy to work with, great the day of the wedding. They always seemed so enthused and excited when I spoke with them. Looking forward to the video.
FAVORS
Small wine bottles from a local wine store, half red and white. Tags from vista print.
NAME PLAQUE: A
www.my-sweet-memories.com
Great service! Very patient, she sent me over so many mock-ups, I kept changing my mind about colors. I really liked how it came out. Its hanging up in my kitchen right now.
OTHER DIY PROJECTS
Hanger, Day Of Hoodie, Card Box- Michaels- I glued rhinestones on them, Programs, Cry Packets, Church Pew Bows, Table Numbers, Menus, Dancing Shoes
DIY Pics
Wow, that’s my wedding day/venders in a snap shot! I don’t think I could ever write enough about how great the day was!
During my wedding planning, I always loved reading the wedding reviews and looking at all the pictures. Now I realize how much time and effort that you brides put into your reviews, so thank you for that! I hope other brides find my review helpful.
Message edited 8/19/2011 3:19:16 PM.
Merelynn10-7/9/11-Wedding Review- FOX HOLLOW-Tommy Tunes-B*r... 
Posted 8/19/11 1:07 PM 
drop dead gorgeous, missy! 
