Romigu's Reviews 07.05.08

Ceremony/Reception Venue - The Ocean Club
The minute I walked into the reception area, I knew I was going to get married there. The ballroom is gorgeous and so different from the 20 other places I went to. It has a gorgeous pool area and the ocean just steps away from the ballroom. The ceremony was perfect in their garden and such a beautiful setting for our marriage. The food was incredible and I received compliments all night about how good everything was. The service was impeccable and we also lucked out with getting the premium bar upgrade.
I would say the only thing that went wrong (with the entire wedding as a matter of fact) was the catering manager, Claudio. He was completely unorganized and scatterbrained from the beginning. He never remembered our names...even the week of the wedding, he forgot Martin's name. It was very difficult to get a straight answer from him and he was constantly running 30 minutes late. The week of the wedding, we went to make the final payment and he lost the receipt of our payment of 25% of the cost. Luckily, I kept a receipt but he had to follow us home to get a copy. The night of the wedding, he also sprung on us a few costs he didn't remind us of since January..such as the last hour of bar not being included and the fact that he forgot to include Martin and I in the guest count. I really felt upset dealing with him and that he added more stress than necessary to the situation. On the other hand, he was in charge of the service and decor and it was all beautiful with everything laid out as instructed. In retrospect, I definitely would have had my wedding there but would have hired a wedding coordinator to deal with him.

Photographer - Gregory Paul Photography
One of my favorite vendors. Heidi and Greg were amazing to work with throughout the planning process. Heidi was always very prompt in returning my phone calls and was so helpful and flexible. My work schedule was so busy but they always were accomodating. I cannot say enough about my engagement session and how gorgeous the pictures turned out. Greg is truly a talented photographer and his eye for good shots is incredible. He really has a gift for seeing what will look good on camera and turned us from a camera shy couple to wanna be models. The days leading up to the wedding, Heidi reviewed the timeline with me several times to assure that there was enough time to get all the shots I wanted. They arrived on time the day of and almost acted as wedding coordinators, making sure everything was running on time. Greg was so detail oriented when he was shooting my bridal portraits and was practically invisible during the wedding. We actually only noticed him when we watched one of the videos our friend shot and realized he was crawling on the floor, etc. Our guests complimented his ability to really get in there without getting in the way of anyone's view. At one point during the ceremony, someone mentioned he had a worm crawling down his shirt and never once stopped shooting. That's dedication. They posted our teasers the week after the wedding and have kept contact with us to make sure we were happy with everything. Great experience!

Officiant - Eddie Rodriguez
My other favorite vendor. Eddie is remarkable. When we met him, we knew he would be perfect for our ceremony. He wasn't too religious or too preachy but had a wonderful sense of spirituality and character. Although we only met with him twice before the rehearsal/wedding, we talked for about 2 hours each time and I wouldn't mind signing up for every one of his seminars. He is really wise and intelligent. Ok but I digress. He did a phenomenal job at our ceremony. I really liked the fact that he had us fill out an extensive questionnaire regarding our relationship so that he could get an idea of what kind of a couple we are. When we went over the details of the ceremony, it was very obvious how experienced he was with his organization and ability to tailor the ceremony to the kind of personality we have. He prepared a beautiful dialogue for the ceremony that had so much meaning and was so personal...you would have thought we had known him for years. He was a wonderful choice for our officiant and I wish we were staying in Miami so I could go to all his seminars.

DJ - Ubi Marrero (DJ Ubi)
Ubi definitely lived up to his reputation. He played the music during the ceremony exactly on time and kept the dance floor jumping the entire reception. I was actually really surprised because we had such a huge mix of different people...Martin's family from Argentina, mine from Paraguay, Martin's surfer friends, my Miami friends..etc. Everyone was dancing and I found that to be incredible given everyone's different tastes.

Makeup - Anna Noriega
Well, I'm sure you all remember how many trials I had and I have to admit that I am really picky about my makeup but Anna did a spectacular job. She was always prompt in returning my phone calls and was extremely patient during my 2 trials with her. The day of the wedding, she arrived on time and with an assistant to prep all the girls. She was also very flexible despite the fact that 2 girls decided to get their makeup done at the last minute. Everyone looked gorgeous and not too overdone and their makeup lasted all night...even with all the dancing and sweating we all did. I loved the way she did my makeup and Martin was so happy that she managed to pull off my eyes so that they stood out but weren't too dark. It still looked the same when I took it off at the end of the night.

Hair - Alcira
Well, I first booked Angelica Fernandez to do my hair and really was happy with my hair trial. However, she cancelled on me 2 weeks before the wedding. If you would like my full review, please email me.
But things worked out well in the end and I booked Alcira. She was extremely pleasant, punctual, and patient. I loved my trial hairdo and she was able to reproduce it exactly for the wedding. She also did a phenomenal job on everyone else's hair and managed to come up with 8 (?) different hairstyles. And she was really gentle. My hairdo came out a bit towards the end of the night but I think I was the only one to notice the little strand to fall out. One word of advice - don't forget bobby pins!!!

Cake - Cake Designs by Edda
The cake turned out perfect and exactly the way I pictured it. We ordered the marble cake with fondant which was pretty yummy, although I still prefer Publix cake.

Florist - Desiree at Field of Flowers (Davie)
I loved my flowers!! I went to 4 different florists (Petunia, De la Flor, J. Morgan, and some other one in Key Biscayne who I can't remember) and found that Field of Flowers offered me the best price with the most amount of flowers. I had received the recommendation from 2 friends who had used Desiree for their wedding and had raved about her but I was a little worried because no one on the knot had used her. I am really glad that I went with her and the flowers were amazing. I'm also glad that I didn't go with someone more expensive that was more popular because all the flowers either were left at the reception or died the next week.
She did a wonderful job of taking detailed notes during our meetings and responding promptly to emails. She also discounted several of the arrangements. I was so happy when I turned the corner to see that the ceremony was right out of a magazine and that every detail was in place.

Dress - Leggenda
I loved my dress and the alterations were done very well but that's really all I can say about Leggenda. They are very unprofessional there and have no concept of customer service. Not to mention the fact that they cut the label off my dress and refused to tell me the designer even after I had purchased it. Boo.

Bridesmaid Dresses - Netbride
Although I didn't like the dresses at first (which was completely my fault for not seeing them in person) , I can't complain about Netbride's customer service. They offered me a 50% lower price on the dresses and had them delivered 4 weeks before their promised date. They also were willing to receive them back when I didn't like them but ultimately I used the dresses and the girls looked beautiful.

Shoes - Zappos.com
Colorrifics - Tori - These shoes were amazing. For the first time ever, I was on my feet for 8 hours and danced for half of that time and didn't complain about my feet. I had originally bought their "Desire" model but when I received them, they were so high that I knew I would be uncomfortable. Luckily, I returned them because my friend got married a month before me and used those shoes and was in so much pain the entire night.

Linens - Panache
I have to admit that I found the linens about 2 weeks before the wedding. Panache was great to work with and their prices were about the same as everyone else's but they seemed to have a wider variety from which to choose. They delivered everything as ordered and gave me a 10% discount because I was working with a vendor they work with pretty frequently.

"Guest Book" - Pictureframes.com - $120
Martin was in charge of this and he did a fantastic job of finding a creative way of making a guest book. We used one of the photographs from our engagement session and sent the image over to this company. They printed it onto a canvas print and the quality was excellent. They even sped up the processing time so that we could have it well before the wedding. Everyone loved signing the canvas and its a great piece of art that we now have hanging in our new home.

Invitations - Jack's Graphics
Jackie Alvarez was great to work with and very affordable. She was very flexible with our time constraints and was able to deliver our invitations 1 week after we put the order in. Everything was flawless and I received so many compliments on the gorgeous invites.

STD - Weddingpaperdivas.com
Great website, great prices. I also bought my thank you cards from them.

Rehearsal Dinner Invites - Vistaprint.com
It was cheap and they turned out really nice! You can't really beat the price...free plus shipping.

DIY -
Placecards - paper-source.com. Great price and nice quality paper. We bought the ribbon from Joann's and the blue cardstock from Michael's.

Table "numbers" - we spent a huge amount of time looking through old albums to find pictures of us doing similar things or in similar poses. We scanned the pictures and then put the two on one 8x11 photograph to be printed. We bought the silver frames from Walmart for $3 each and used card stock from Michael's as background.

Favors - I bought the tins at blissweddingsmarket.com - 2 boxes of 50 tins for $20 each. I custom ordered labels from myownlabels.com and we bought the ribbon from Joann Fabrics. It was a huge ordeal gluing the ribbon to the tins and then tying the bows. We filled the tins with either blueberry jelly bellies or blue m&m's. Most people took their tins home and I did notice that the clear cover to the tins came apart by the end of the night. Still, I was glad we didn't spend that much on favors since most people barely noticed them.


Jewelry - Twinkle Twinkle
They have a great selection of bridal jewelry at this tiny boutique store. I was having a lot of trouble finding what I wanted at other department stores and bought all my jewelry from there. Their prices were average for that type of jewelry and the owner is very courteous and helpful.

Alterations - Alterations by Reina
Reina did the alterations for 3 of my bridesmaids and she also lived up to her great reputation. She is such a sweetheart and was such a relief to work with after my initial problems with my bridesmaid dresses. Her prices were so affordable and she altered each dress perfectly.

Veil - Obridal.com
I bought a very simple veil for $23 from this website and I am so happy that I did. I couldn't afford to pay the $200 everyone else was charging and the veil looked stunning in the pictures, despite its simplicity. They promptly shipped me the veil in perfect condition within 3 days of my order and have a wide selection of more intricate veils.

Limo - Coastal Car & Limousine/ Brickell Key Tours & Transportation
My mom initially made the reservation with CCL for everyone but we decided to add on a limo at the last minute for the bridal party to return to the hotel after the wedding and hired a limo and car for us with BKTT. Both companies were on time and had very nice limos. BKTT even upgraded Martin and I from a Lincoln Town Car to a limo because their Town Car wasn't available. Both companies had very affordable prices and were great to work with.


Honeymoon Suite - The Ritz Carlton Coconut Grove
This hotel is on a completely different level from any hotel I've stayed in. They greeted me by name the moment I arrived and did not hesitate to go above and beyond our expectations. The suite was enormous and comfortably fit 6 bridesmaids, three moms, 2 photographers, the makeup artist, the hair stylist, and a partridge in a pear tree. Its too bad we couldn't stay there longer because it was truly in the lap of luxury.

Full Vendor List:
Dress - Leggenda Bridals
Venue - The Ocean Club of Key Biscayne
Photographer - Gregory Paul Photography
DJ - DJ Ubi
Save the Dates - Weddingpaperdivas.com
Bridesmaid Dresses - Netbride.com
Bridesmaid Alterations - Alterations by Reina
Veil - Obridal.com
Officiant - Rev. Eddie Rodriguez
Makeup - Anna Noriega
Hair - Alcira
Invitations - Jackie Alvarez (design by Giselle De Vera)
Cake - Cake Designs by Edda
Florist - Field of Flowers - Desiree
Limo - Coastal Car & Limousine and Brickell Key Tours & Transportation
Honeymoon - Amsterdam, Paris, Burgundy, Tuscany
Travel Agent - Olga at Jacaranda Travel