8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Dante Zeller Tuxedo, Glen Cove Mansion, Swan Club, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

LIWeddings was the key to my success for my wedding. I found nearly all my vendors from this site and whenever I tried a vendor not on this site, it was clearly not the right choice. I learned so much valuable information from other brides….THANK YOU.
And, thank you to my sources that told me which day to pick for my wedding. The weather was perfect. Thank you to DRYDAY.com and the Farmers Almanac. You never let me down!
Now, here’s the review….I appreciated reading so many other reviews.

Crescent Beach Club (Ceremony and Reception): A+
I have to admit that when I was looking around at reception halls, I was not sure about the Crescent. I read so many reviews and people tended to agree that initial “Sales” conversations with staff at the Crescent were unfavorable. However, everyone agreed that the food, service and staff the “DAY OF” the event was flawless. I must say, the Crescent knows how to throw a party and they were flawless. The food was excellent, the staff does not let any detail fall through the cracks. They let me arrive at 6am for my 11am wedding – they let us take pictures anywhere – this place is really great! My bustle even fell down during the party and the staff found dental floss to sew it back up for me during party. You will not go wrong here. We also had our ceremony here….and the one thing we did was to have the DJ bring a microphone and his sound system was better than the Crescent’s so we ended up using that one. Obviously, your pictures will be perfect (the beach is amazing) and if you don’t like your initial sales person, just remember, it won’t be that person who is running your party. See image below of the Crescent at 6am!

Photographer- Photography In Style: A
www.photographyinstyle.com
I highly recommend John – he goes out of his way to make your pictures perfect. Our package included a full day of engagement shoot, design of a Save The Date, high resolution and low resolution images, the images on his website, 4x6 prints of all photos and 2 photographers. You can see that he takes traditional photos and photo-journalistic photos. If you want high quality photos without paying double the price at the “big name” companies, take a look at John’s website – you will really appreciate the personalized service and quality photos. He gave us over 1400 photos! The low resolution photos on this site have his logo, however, you receive all high res photos without logos.
Recommendation: Make your family write a list of all the pictures they want and give it to the photographer, even if you think you will remember on the day. This ensures your family gets all the random pictures they wanted.

DJ – FM Entertainment: A
There’s no question that FM Entertainment has the best prices. We had MC/DJ (2 people) and Frank was our MC. He coordinated everything with the reception hall, confirmed logistics with us the entire night, checked on pronunciation of all names and was on top of all the details. We gave him a list of songs to play and he used the list the entire time. People danced all afternoon and this was a day wedding!

Dress – RK Bridal for Dress: A
My dress was Enzoani Blue: Austin. I must have went to 10 stores for dresses and eventually found my dress in a small shop in Queens. However, the service at RK Bridal when I went there to try on dresses was great, so I went back there to buy my dress. Not to mention it was $300 cheaper at RK Bridal. Their prices are great. They told me the dress would take 4 months and it came in 6 weeks. I did not do alterations there since I heard that the their alteration department was not so great. I highly recommend RK Bridal for their bridal dresses – I would just say to buy accessories somewhere else though since I don’t think they have the best prices for accessories. I ended up getting my accessories for cheap, cheap on ebay.

Hair – Angela’s Hair Design - A
http://www.siteskins.net/angelashairdesign/3.html
I had 3 trials before I decided to try out Angela. She offers FREE hair trials which is great and her prices are cheaper than most others on this site. She is so creative and cares so much about making your hair perfect. I highly recommend trying her out before you spend twice as much with other stylist who are not even as talented. As you look at my pictures, I emphasize that she did exactly what I wanted and what my bridesmaids asked her to do. Sometimes I think people judge too much on whether they like the style on the person – I say this because Angela listens to what you want and creates what you think is beautiful and that is all that is important.

Make-up – Jessica - A+
bellajessy@gmail.com
This is the only person that I used that wasn’t on LI Weddings – however, she really knows how to put makeup on people who don’t normally wear makeup and still make them look like themselves. Send her an email and you will be surprised how good she is and how inexpensive. Jessica showed up at 6am on the dot – she is very reliable.


Videographer – Halo Video
We haven’t gotten our video yet….to be continued.

Rabbi Ronald Brown of Temple Beth Am (in Merrick): A
My husband and I had to interview several rabbis to get one that we thought was going to give us a true conservative service while personalizing the ceremony. We didn’t really want to “rent” a rabbi, so to speak. Rabbi Brown knows how to do a ceremony. It was short, personalized and interesting all at the same time. He spoke to each of us individually to learn what made the other person special – he had all the right questions to ask. Other rabbis we spoke to gave us a menu and said “pick what you want”, I guess I didn’t really didn’t want that - Rabbi Brown gave us the guidance on how tradition says it should be.

Invitations – Allison Reece: A
allisonreece@bellsouth.net
She sent me several designs to choose from based on the theme I wanted to have. Then she gave me recommended wordings and lots of revisions. People really liked the invitations! They were perfect for our beach theme wedding.
Table Numbers/Place Cards/Programs : A
The table numbers are lifeguard stands with numbers that I painted on them ( I am selling these now if anyone is interested). They went perfect with my beach theme wedding. The place cards are from favorfavor.com. Basically I used the placecard frames as the favors and I printed out the names on my printer. Programs were DIY – everything was printed from my printed and put together.

Florist – Flowers By Burton: B+
It’s true that their prices are great. I would say friendly customer service is lacking a bit, but flowers weren’t the biggest priority for me so I looked past that. They showed up on time, delivered extra flowers (not sure why) and flowers were all fresh. Only small issue is that my mom had asked them to pull the flowers further out of the vase more (when we went to see a sample) and they didn’t do that the day of the party….so she went into the room prior to the guests entering and fixed it. Actually the Crescent staff had their waiters go in and help her do it quickly.
Recommendation: Make a list of all the flowers being delivered by the florist and write the names of the people who are supposed to get them, so they are handed out to the correct people.

Honeymoon – Hawaii – Travel Tom: A-
traveltom@gmail.com
I am definitely an internet searcher, however Tom from Amex travel beat my prices by far. So, against my norm, I went with a travel agent. We went to Maui and Kauai and stayed at the Hyatt in both places. Everything was beautiful and went well. We went ziplining, ATV tour, snorkeling (go early to prevent sea sickness) and, surfing and a helicopter ride (do this in Kauai and ONLY do this if they give you the right side of the helicopter, you can’t see anything from the left side).
**One recommendation I got off this site is to buy a fake wedding ring for your honeymoon I got one for $10 from Macys and never had to worry about losing my ring. All the other newlyweds were quite nervous at the activities.

Dante Zeller Tuxedos (Forest Hills)- B+
Overall, they have a great selection to choose from. Customer service is just okay, but if you insist on what you want, they do it. Tuxedos looked nice in the end. I thought one jacket had a snag in it and they got us a new jacket the next day, no questions asked. I would go back - I just wonder why they don't act more organized. They got everythind done. I would go back again.



Glen Cove Mansion- A-
This is where our out of town guest stayed. Hotel is great - it is like a resort. The staff sometimes seems a bit unhelpful when I was getting the block of rooms. When I dealt with the manager a few weeks before the wedding he was really nice and gave me a list of all the guests and allowed me to give out bags.

Rehearsal Dinner- Swan Club - A
We had our cocktail hour outside in their pavilion and then rented the smaller room inside (AfterDeck). Food was very good, though the Crescent Beach Club food was far better. Service was also good, but once again the service at the Crescent is outstading. I would recommend that you speak with Greg here. Some of the sales people kept telling us we couldn't do this or that and Greg made everything happen with no problem.

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Message edited 9/15/2009 3:17:12 PM.

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style...

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Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

Congratulations! You were such a gorgeous bride!

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

Congrats!!! You all look like you had a great time!!!

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

congrats, beautifull

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Dante Zeller Tuxedo, Glen Cove Mansion, Swan Club, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

I am selling the "table numbers" from my wedding if anyone is having a beach theme wedding. They are mini lifeguard chairs / stands. See image below.

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Message edited 9/27/2009 10:28:40 AM.

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Dante Zeller Tuxedo, Glen Cove Mansion, Swan Club, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

congrats!!

Re: 8.16.09 - Crescent Beach Club, FM Entertainment, Burtons, Photography In Style, Dante Zeller Tuxedo, Glen Cove Mansion, Swan Club, Halo Video, Hair by Angela and more...

i loveeeeeeeeeee this!!