Jessie720's Reviews 05.23.09

The weather suuuucked and it poured for the only moment in time I wanted it to be clear- getting out of the limo and to church. I had a team of men come and get me with umbrellas and they got soaked and my hair lost its curl. Also I would recommend tucking a hankie into your cleavage or something; I couldn’t stop crying through the whole ceremony and had a snot rocket type situation going on when we exchanged rings. Not pretty. However, I loved how my wedding turned out overall and I am so happy to be married!



Ceremony: St. Hugh Catholic Church- B
First off, I LOVE Maria, who is the church coordinator. She is so sweet and super helpful. Father Garcia also delivered a wonderful ceremony for us. There were a few things that did disappoint me. I was told that Father will not be happy if you are late to your rehearsal because he does them all in one day, so I drilled it in to my bridal party to be there super early. Our rehearsal was scheduled for 5 PM and we were there at 4:30, except for my in laws who arrived around 5:10. Anyway, we started the rehearsal around 4:50 with a few people missing, and when they showed up at 5:10, he refused to go over the order of things again, even though we were scheduled to have rehearsal till 5:30. This wasn’t a huge deal. The day of the wedding, Ollie and his crew of men showed up at the church at 3 PM, which is when the second photog was going to be there to get some shots. Well some guy that works for the church refused to open the gate for them. He didn't want anyone in the church before 3:30. They didn't want to go into the sanctuary, the just wanted to park thier cars and take some pics out front. At this time there were about 10 cars clogging up the road, trying to get in for my ceremony (invites said 3:30, it started at 4.) Ollie threatened to call the archdiocese of Miami and magically the gates opened. I was mostly disappointed that during the ceremony, the readings were not placed on the stand for the lectors to read them. Luckily my one reader printed it out and brought it with her to the stand. My second reader, poor girl was only 11, just stood there for a minute like a dear in headlights. Luckily, I had made programs with the readings in there, and my MOH finally ran up to her with the reading. Since then, I have become an advocate for programs! Also my cousins went up to bring the gifts to the priest, and there was no bread or wine for them to bring up. What REALLY upset me was we only had 10 minutes to take pictures at the altar. Just when our grandmas were lining up to take pics with us, we got kicked out and we never did get to take a picture with them. They are all still upset over this, as am I.


Ceremony Vocalist: Cecilia Witkowski from St. Hugh- A
I was really surprised that people even paid attention to the songs at the ceremony, but they kept coming up to me all night commenting on how amazing she made the ceremony. Her communication was great and she gave an excellent performance.


Reception Venue: The Rusty Pelican- B
I was working with Betty originally, and then I was assigned to Edward. I will say that this place did give me some headaches early on, and what annoyed me the most was when they informed me I couldn’t bring my wedding items to the venue until the morning of the reception. This was just not possible for me logistically. When I signed our contract, they said we could bring in all of our stuff when we gave the final payment, which is 4 days before. Needless to say, I argued until they let me bring the stuff Friday afternoon, but I was still super peeved. I ended up buying a ton of things to bring to the reception, and if I had known about this rule when it changed, I wouldn’t have accumulated so much stuff. Also, because we opted to have a buffet set up, we were invited to the Sunday brunch as our tasting, but none of the food was the same as what we could select, so we really didn’t have a tasting. At our cocktail hour, which was scheduled from 6-7 PM, they told our guests the bar will not open till 7, which was an error because I paid for them to begin serving liquor at 6. They did fix it but I had some unhappy guests for awhile. During our planning meetings, they kept telling me not to stress about the timeline. If guests arrive for cocktail hour early, they will serve everything early and just move up the timeline. My guests arrived at 5:30, and food and liquor was not served until 6, after the minor mishap of when to open the bar. I would have much preferred everything moved up a half hour like they said they would. Sometime towards the end of the reception while I was dancing, a server came up to me to give me a comment card to fill out. Ummm I was kinda busy and did not need to be bothered with that. I told them to leave it on the sweetheart table and I have no idea what happened to it. Overall I am still thrilled to have had my wedding there, because the ballroom, the view, and the food are still being raved about.

A little story about their valet drivers- while we were partying at the Rusty Pelican, one of the valet drivers ran a customer’s car into the limo my in laws had. The police came to do the report, and it was discovered the valet did not have a license. He went to jail that night. 2 other valet drivers were found to either have no license, or a suspended license. Not sure if they went to jail or were fired or whatever. Craziness that valet companies don’t check to see if people have valid licenses! And the clientele of that restaurant have expensive cars.


Fabulous Fetes, Justine- A
She was VERY helpful prior to the wedding day, printed my programs free of charge and also did my menus and printed them free of charge for me. I spoke with her when I was having doubts with my vendors and she was a good sounding board. She offered to meet with vendors when I had meetings with them, but I didn’t really need her to do that. She dropped off my menus at AB Covers for me and finalized all of my vendor contracts. She attended our rehearsal and took all the directions from the priest. Everything was set up the day of the way I wanted it to, and came out beautifully. I tried to keep my guests out of the ballroom until my photogs got there, but my mom told her to open the doors so I got overruled. I spoke with her several times during the night to have her do something for me and it was never a problem. Everything was packed up nicely at the end of the night. Overall I thought she did a good job.


Photography: DB Images- A (pending pictures)
Based on how my e-pics and shower pics came out, and my incredible wedding teasers, I am super happy with my decision to have used Devynn. I spoke with her constantly during the planning process and she always got back to me, it really feels like we have become friends. She is also shooting my cousin’s wedding so I know we will be in touch for a long time to come.


Photography: Joseph Keith Photography- A (pending pictures)
I really wanted a second photographer, and Devynn hired Joseph for me. I had no prior contact with him before the wedding. He brought along a ton of lighting gear, and I love a lot of the ideas he had for posing us and setting up shots. He went to the church to photograph the guys before I got there, and they thought he was super cool and they loved working with him. Ollie couldn’t stop raving about him on our honeymoon lol. I have yet to see any of his final photos though, but based on his professionalism that day, I am super excited to see his shots. I have heard he is relatively inexpensive, so check him out if you don’t have a large budget for photos.


Video: My Treasure Videos- A+!! (pending final video)
I had not even met Javier in person until my wedding day, so I really didn’t focus too much on our video. After the drama I experienced with another video company, I felt I could trust him 100% to do his thing and he did. He gave us a ton of upgrades just because he really wanted us to have certain things. Our video recap is so beautiful and I barely noticed Javier at all that night, even in our cramped hotel room getting ready. I really cannot get over how nice he is and how he couldn’t wait to do our recap, it was ready the next day!


Video: Dreammaker Events- no grade, just do NOT use them!
I feel entitled to review them since for a long time I was a client of theirs. This review is based on my actual experience with them, ALL CRAZY KNOT DRAMA ASIDE. I can say that Rob always returned messages, however I had a lot of concerns based on the experiences of other brides. When I brought the concerns to his attention, he basically said everyone was lying and his company would never do these things. When I originally booked with them, I was told you had to have the blu ray package, they didn’t shoot in standard definition anymore. Of course when I told him he was no longer worth the 2 grand I was contracted for, he told he would let me change my package to a smaller one, without blu ray. Where was this package when I originally asked for it? He refused to do anything to make me happy, and was saying that all I wanted was a discount. Not completely true, I just felt he was no longer worth the money and that I wouldn’t receive what I was paying for. I ultimately went elsewhere and could not have been happier.


DJ: Liquid DJs- A
Shannon sent us DJ L.A. and the dance floor was busy all night, which is really the only thing I cared about. Communication with Shannon was great leading up to the wedding. We wanted to be announced into the ballroom and then go straight into our first dance, and I don’t know why there was a delay, but after we were announced, the DJ played some dance music and told everyone to join us on the dance floor, then 30 seconds later they all sat down when our first dance song came on. Kinda awkward, but it wasn’t a big deal.


Uplighting: Ubi- A
Ubi tried to get me a DJ a few weeks before my wedding, but he was all booked up. He offered to try and hunt one down for me with another company, but I ended up finding Liquid DJs so it was fine. The lighting looked awesome and as far as I know it was there on time and set up properly.


Cocktail hour violinist: Music for Anything- A
I had heard stories about how bad their communication is but I actually had an awesome experience in that regard. I only hired them about 2 weeks before and it was constant communication. I didn’t hear the music at all, and nobody really told me about the performance, but I know they did their job and were prompt.


Cake: Lily with Edible Creations- A
This woman is as sweet as her cakes. It was delicious and the design was exactly what I requested. The red velvet was a the biggest hit with our guests.


Florist: Gil Sosa- A
What can I say that already hasn’t been said about this man. His communication definitely improves when your wedding nears (but you have to be super close, like a week out.) 4 days before the wedding, he offered me a new idea for my centerpieces that sounded really awesome. It was to use the floralytes like on one of the weddings on Justine’s blog, with opaque white vases. He said it would blow my mind and it probably would have, but I opted to keep my original design because my flowers and linens were white, so I just felt like white vases would have been too much white. My flowers turned out beautifully. My sign in table was my favorite thing. I will be nitpicky for a second and say that a few things were different from my contract. The BM bouquets were supposed to be only calla lilies, but they ended up having several types of white flowers with the little green berries. This was fine, they looked good. I wish my cake had flowers on the very top tier though; I am not sure why that part was left out. Lastly, my centerpieces were surrounded by cylinders with floating orchids, as opposed to the candle holders that were originally used during my trial. It still looked nice, but I would have preferred the candle holders with different heights.


Linens: AB Covers- A
I love Ana, she did several different set ups for me and didn’t pressure me into upgrading. The only linens I upgraded were the napkins, I wanted them to be teal. She offered to take my extra damask fabric and make napkin ties. This came out so fabulous and she didn’t charge me anything for it, even though sewing the edges on all those ties must have taken a lot of work and time.


Limos: A-1 Limos out of Boyton Beach
We had 2 limos and a towncar the whole night. They were on time and very professional. They tried as hard as they could to get me close to the front doors of the church, the parking area of St. Hugh is quite awkward. My FIL booked the limos so I do not know how their prices were or their customer service prior to that day. I do know my FIL told me we would be getting an 8 passenger limo, and we got a huge SUV limo that could have fit 15.


Flower preservation: Forever Flowers: A (pending final product)
They picked up my flowers at the reception venue on time, I still need to pick out how I want my display to look.


Wedding Gown: bestbridalprices.com- A
Although they no longer sell Maggie Sottero gowns, I was able to get mine from there before they stopped. The dress was perfect and came a few weeks early. I agonized over this decision, since buying a wedding gown online is not ideal for a nervous bride. It was probably one of the better decisions I made during the planning process.


Alterations: Reina- C
This review disappoints me so much. I loved the way my dress fit, don’t get me wrong. Reina did a fabulous job with it and had to do a significant amount of alterations. However, my mom and I tried on our dresses for the last time, and then we waited over an hour for her to steam and press them and then took everything home. Imagine my surprise when I take my dress out of the bag on my wedding day to find it is NOT pressed or steamed at all! I had to call the Biltmore and they sent a steam machine up to my room, so my aunt and I were steaming my dress. I only had enough time to do the front, which looked awesome. You can see how wrinkled the back of the dress was though in a black and white photo on Devynn's blog. I was so upset by this, it was my biggest disappointment. I still love her and would recommend her to anyone for alterations; I just don't understand how my dress wasn’t pressed when I was sitting there while they worked on it. It didn’t occur to me to take the dress out of the bag to check and make sure it was steamed. My dress really needed it because I ordered online and it was packed up in a box for a while.


Hair: Dina Acle- A
What a sweetheart! She did my hair, my mom’s, my grandma’s, 2 of my bridesmaid’s, and my flower girl’s. Everyone looked great. My hair did lose some of it’s curl throughout the night but only because it downpoured on me. I can’t blame her for that, I still insisted on having my hair down regardless of the weather. I am still happy I decided to have it down, because it still looked decent in pictures. She also did my eyebrows for me a week before the wedding, and she will send you lots of pictures of her work.


MAC Makeup: Jorge Pena- A
This guy is a trip and half and kept up the entertainment factor while doing my cousin’s makeup, my mom’s, and myself. My mom looked so awesome, she never wears makeup. Same with my cousin, she usually wears none and she looked great that night. I loved my own makeup and it help up all night. Great communication with him as well.


Bridesmaids Dresses: Patricia South- A
The dresses were fabulous and all the guests loved them and the girls looked smokin. They came in on time and were the best price I found besides online ordering.


Groomsman Tuxes: MW Tux Aventura- C
I don’t know too many details because everyone hid the problems from Bridezilla, but I do know that our long distance groomsman had their tuxes delivered to their local tux places instead of here in Aventura. A bunch of them had to get refitted, and one groomsman did not have his tux delivered to him until 1 PM on our wedding day (ceremony started at 4 PM!)



Hotel block: Biltmore Hotel- A
LOVE this hotel, it is a great backdrop for photos. I recommend staying here because they allow you take photos for free as a guest on their gorgeous grounds, instead of paying the $200 fee or whatever it is. They had a few weddings going on that day, so they asked us to leave those areas, but that is understandable. Those brides are paying an exorbitant amount of cash and deserve priority. They also dropped our room rates by 70 bucks a night a week prior our stay, for no reason that we know of. Super grateful for that! When I needed my wedding dress steamed, they sent a commercial steamer up to me right away to take care of my dress. That was lifesaving right there.



Rehearsal Dinner: Los Ranchos Cocowalk- A
I had never been there before, but their food was amazing. The steak I had with tons of chimichurri was a lifechanging experience. Service was great and prices seemed reasonable, although I know we had a large bill due to the alcohol we consumed. I cannot wait to go back there and have more steak. Everyone had a great time and the families got to know each other better. My in laws did all of the arrangements, so I cannot comment on that experience but I am guessing it went smoothly.



Honeymoon: Sandals Regency in St. Lucia- A
We used Nancy Finn as our travel agent and she was a pleasure to work with. We were orginially booked at the Sandals Grande, but we decided to switch over to the Regency to save money. The amount was saved was significant, and we think the Regency was the resort for us anyway, after visiting all of the other Sandals on St. Lucia. Our room was super cute and we had a phenomenal view. The food is okay, and the bartenders are very liberal with the alcohol. The only thing that is odd is that you can't eat lunch past 2:30 or dinner past 9:30, and a few times were were later than that so we got stuck eating at the burger grill that is open all the time. I would highly recommend the zipligning excursion, as well as Simon Says tours. He is independent from Sandals but gives you a local tour of the entire island, and he even brings you back to his house and his wife cooks you some awesome carribbean food. Money well spent, and we definitely needed the time to relax after the wedding planning.