Melinda.Reider's Reviews 11.08.08

Hair: Alcira
Contact Info: 305-205-3579
Grade: A
I loved the way Alcira did my hair for the wedding. She took my inspiration photo and added her own twist. My hair was just how I had envisioned it. Alcira was lovely and patient. I had two trials with her and each time she was polite and accommodating. The day of the wedding she was on time, didn't take forever to do my hair and didn't leave until I was completely satisfied.

What I will say is that during my crazy reception dancing my hair did start falling out a bit, but this always happens to me unless my hair is completely schalacked somehow...and who wants to have helmet hair for their wedding (or any time for that matter)??


Videography: Cousin Matt- A
We love him and our video was completely free. Sure, it wasn't fancy schmancy, but we are very happy with what we did get considering we weren't going to have video at all. Cousin Matt got everything that was important to us and even came to the rehearsal to scope out the place and find the best place to film our ceremony. And now we have a home movie of our wedding to show to our kids! :)


Ceremony & Reception Venue: Villa Salcedo (Owned and operated by Exquisite Productions)
Contact Info: www.epevent.com
Grade: A
Can I tell you a secret? Finding a venue was one of the most difficult parts of our wedding planning process. I had something VERY specific in mind, but we weren't finding it. I had to revise. This isn't the first place that I would have chosen to have my wedding, but honestly I am very very happy that we did have our wedding here. It was unconventional, very Miami, and very intimate for my guests. Jose and Raquel know what they're doing. They were very willing to work with everything we wanted to do. A small example of this: if you've seen my planning bio you know that I wanted the terra cotta pots that were everywhere on the grounds removed for our wedding. As you can see in the picture to the left, they're all gone. They did everything they could to accomedate us and made sure the wedding went very smoothly.
My only complaint: we had our ceremony overlooking the pool and a week before the wedding I saw this video. As if I didn't have enough to worry about.


Full Wedding Coordinator: Dayana Valero, Events by D
Contact Info: dayana@eventsbyd.com
Grade: A+
See the petite woman in the corner looking like she's in charge? That's Dayana! Hiring her was one of THE BEST decisions we made for our wedding. Worth every. freaking. penny. I planned our wedding from Los Angeles and I couldn't have done it without her. Most of my decisions were made either in a blur of marathon visits to Miami or over email. She took pics of EVERYTHING and sent them to me when I couldn't be in town. She talked to me AT LEAST 5 times a week (yeah...I was THAT bride). She's detail oriented. She's filled with great ideas. Honest without being overbearing. Quick to get back to you. My family LOVED HER. My SILs wanted to hang with her even more. Plus she's fiesty but polite with vendors. She gets THE BEST deals.

Just an example of her wonderousness: When Dayana found out that our day of hotel didn't have the room I had reserved available due to overbooking (story will be detailed), she called and talked to the hotel manager. 10 mins later we were in the Presidential suite. For free.


Make up: Sara Pino
Contact Info: 305-519-2647
Grade: A
Can I first say that this woman is beautiful?? I realize that it's not relevent to this particular discussion, but still. That is all.

Onto the matter at hand. Sara was great. She was so sweet, so patient and very talented. Unfortunately she doesn't speak much english and my spanish is as good as a 3 year old's. No matter though, one of my SILs is fluent (as well as Dayana) so we were all good. I LOVED my make up on the wedding day. It stayed in place (even though I danced the night away) and didn't feel like a mask. She was on time and didn't take forever to do my make up (but took her time to make sure everything was perfect) I would highly reccommend her to anyone. Not to mention that every time I teared up while she was doing my eye makeup she would say in english, "Don't cry for me, Argentina!" :)


Photographer: Stephanie Sokol
Contact Info: oceanwavesdeepblue@yahoo.com
Blog: www.stephaniesokol.blogspot.com
Grade: A+
I wanted an artistic and photo journalistic style for our wedding pictures. I saw Stephanie's work and was absolutely amazed. She was everything we wanted stylistically and more...I honestly couldn't be happier with our wedding photos. Also, this woman is amazing with people (all my guests loved her) and just a really positive presence. She was the first vendor to show up day of and one of the last to leave, and the whole time she was calm, happy and just awesome. She gave us all our images on DVD and I was able to do whatever I wanted with them. It was perfect. :) I would HIGHLY recommend her to anyone. There was only one of her (she didn't bring any assistants) but she got over 1600 images of the day!!!! NOTHING was missed. DH loves our pics too. This is HUGE as my DH is an amateur photographer and photography for our wedding was incredibly important. Stephanie Sokol ROCKS!


Catering/Food:
Info: www.torrellascatering.com
Grade: A
DH and I are foodies. Because of this it was imperative that we have great food at our wedding. Well, Torrellas was an awesome choice. People are STILL talking about the food at our wedding. It was amazingly yummy. This vendor was a joy to work with and totally calmed me down when I began feeling a bit stressed. They are great at what they do and I am SO glad we hired Torrellas. They also provided the chairs for the reception. Highly recommended.


Linens/Chargers: A Touch of Class
Info: www.atouchofclasslinen.com
Grade: A
As you can see, everything was beautiful! These weren't my original choice of linens, but they were really great when I told them I wanted to change. I got a very decent price, though not as cheap as it COULD have been. I knew that though...linens and chairs were my biggest splurge. I just loved how the color dressed up the tent. Everything was delivered on time (so I was told) so I'm happy.


Flowers: Joel's Floral
Info: www.joelsfloralpartydesign.com/home.htm
Grade: A
Joel is absolutely adorable. He's lovely and fun to work with. He's also talented. I didn't want to spend too much for flowers especially I'm one for simple arrangements. He is very talented! Showed up on time to the wedding, did a final walk through with me, my coordinator and my catering people a few weeks before the wedding and was really helpful. I also really appreciate his honestly; I had ordered two arrangements for the ceremony but after he had walked through the venue with me he told me that he didn't think I needed them (I agreed) and he took them out. I didn't feel pushed or like he was out just to make a buck. Two thumbs up from me. He'll do a great job for any bride, I think.


Mojito Bar/Coffee Station: Cafe On Wheels
Info: www.cafeonwheels.net
Grade: A
Instead of a full bar we decided that we'd have wine service with dinner and a mojito station and coffee bar for people to enjoy at the reception. Honestly, this was a HIT! Everyone loved the mojitos (they were VERY yummy), and there were even four different kinds. The coffee was a great pick me up after a long night of dancing. The service was lovely and people even now still talk about our awesome mojito and coffee fueled wedding. Highly recommended.


The Entertainment: Pangea
Info: www.pangeaband.com
Grade: A
So, one of the only things that DH had insisted on (besides amazing food) was a live band. We love to listen to live music and thought that it would be more than fitting to do the same at our wedding. When my MIL informed us that we had a family friend who was a pianist in a local events band, we were excited! They invited us to one of their shows to see how they could work a crowd and we were sold. The only reason why this band didn't get an A+ is because it was actually rather hard to get in contact with them for much of anything until about one or two months before the wedding. Besides that this band was completely and totally worth the money. We were dancing like crazy people. Please refer to the "reception" part of my bio to see what I mean!


Day of Hotel: The Westin Colonnade, Coral Gables
Info: Westin Colonnade
Grade: D+
I think my experience was an anomaly due to the fact that a few crazy things happened at this hotel the weekend of my wedding, including a VERY large conference as well as overbooking due to a pipe explosion (or something like that). But the way they handled this the night before my wedding was really not ok (and I am NOT one of those people to complain at every little thing. My BM's were much angrier than I was). The situation was, however, rectified in the end (with a quick call from my feisty coordinator) which was appreciated. However I chose this particular hotel to AVOID the kind of thing we experienced. I know that many knotties are using this hotel and that negative reviews aren't supposed to be "done" on our bios anymore, so I'll just say that if you want more details email me: melinda.reider@gmail