Samay's reviews

I can't say enough bad things about this place. All I wanted for my bachelorette weekend at the beach was to relax. I am 33 years old so the days of going out and getting wasted and acting like a fool are past and quite frankly I wanted to just chill out with my friends. My only specific request was that I wanted a hot tub. Since it was October chances of going to the ocean were slim. My Maid of Honor did most of the planning for this too and got a house that seemed to be exactly what we needed 5 BR / 2 Kitchens / HOT TUB, ect. Everything we wanted. Well...

1: The front door wouldn't even open all the way b/c the floor was slanted 2: the door from one of the bedrooms to the outside didn't even lock. 3: In that same bedroom there were 12 inch wide holes in the wall. 4: There were more than 10 dead roaches throughout the house. 5: in the three days that we were there BOTH toilets overflowed (and keep in mind that we are all 30+ years old women, not a group of 21 year old kids getting drunk and accidentally putting too much toilet paper in the commode) 6: Lights were out and the kicker...7: THE ENTIRE SELLING POINT of 'The Pink House' was the hot tub, which DID NOT work the entire time we were there, in fact, after we called Bob complaining at least three times Friday & Saturday he finally got someone out there to look at it, which WE HAD TO OVERSEE b/c of course, we were the only people at the house - we were then thrilled to find out that the hot tub could not be fixed by Sunday, the day we were all leaving to come back home. This was not what I wanted to be doing on my 3 day beach trip with my 'girls'. He (Bob) promised to refund some if not all of the money which never happened (total cost of the house was 1,070.00 - which by the way was charged to my maid of honors card before we arrived at the house - the entire mount, not half, not some THE ENTIRE AMOUNT) Needless to say no one has seen a cent and all we have now are pictures to prove what a piece of crap it was.

I wasn't really impressed with the food or the service. We met months before the event and mad it VERY clear that my husband was deathly allergic to crawfish and that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was there to be any crawfish on anything that was served. We went over the menu, paid the money and hen showed up for the rehearsal dinner. THE FIRST THING M HUSBAND PUT IN HIS MOUTH had crawfish on it. Thank God one of my bridesmaids fiance's is a doctor and had the appropriate medication on him to 'save the day', but that was only after my husband went running to the bathroom trying to gag himself. Again, if the food was outstanding it would be easier to overlook the mishap, but really, I just was not very impressed at all.

My husband, naturally, handled the travel arrangements. This company has a web site, but he told me that the actual booking took place over the phone. He says the booking process was hassle free. Once booked, our reservation showed up almost immediately on Carnival's web site as an active reservation and we were able to begin adding excursions, directing friends there to the ''bon voyage' section of the site where they could purchase gifts for us on the ship, like fruit baskets and wine and drink tickets. 'Our choice was for a 7 night Exotic Western Caribbean Carnival cruise that left out of Miami the day after our wedding, which turned out to be an awesome honeymoon! Two things jump right out about how out great experience relate directly to the travel agent. First, my hubby tells me that she encouraged him to consider getting a balcony room, which we did. The extra money spent on that turned out to be the best money we spent on the entire trip, that is to say, it was well worth it. Secondly, and this is so much more important than we would have realized prior to the trip- without our knowledge or asking for it, the Cruises Only agent arranged for us to have ''romantic seating'' for our dinner. ''Romantic'' translates to ''a table for 2'', as opposed to normal group seating at a table with up to 6 strangers. We were so pleased with this arrangement, and we had absolutely nothing to do with it. We thought briefly about the desperate conversation we would have made with some of the people sitting near us, then we just enjoyed our dinners, night after night, with just one another. Excellent! Cruises Only was also there to assist us when we were about to leave the driveway at 7 o'clock on Saturday night and realized that we had failed to get the address of the port. A real person answered the phone and gave us the address of the port as well as the parking authority. Very helpful.

This is another thing that I just wanted to be easy. Like I said earlier, I didn't do rsvp's so I really didn't know exactly how many rooms I needed to reserve. I didn't think I had alot of out of town guests but what few I had I didn't want them to spend a fortune. The girl that helped me and set me up on a program where as the date got closer if she saw that would need more rooms she was just going to take care of it - that is what ANY bride wants to hear. She was very easy to deal with, and I believe she also gave me a very good price. I think I only ended up having two rooms booked, but of those guests I was told that not only was the hotel very affordable, but that it was extremely nice and also very centrally located. My guests were all happy with the ease of the booking experience and with the hotel itself.

Another one I met with one time. I wasn't big on having cake at all, I wanted a cupcake tower, because I never eat the cake at a wedding myself and I thought this would be an area where I could save some money - but to appease my mother in law we went the cake route. So, if we were going to have to get them - the main goal for me was that they were hassle free, and they absolutely were. We met with Doron at a very convenient location - she came the further distance. I just wanted my flowers o mine and my husband plays the guitar so he wanted a guitar on his. She brought samples with her, we picked out both bride and groom cakes and when we showed up to the reception they were perfect. Exactly what I wanted. She made them personal to us and hassle free - which is all we wanted. Oh and of course they tasted wonderful too ;)

I met with them one time. I told them I wanted southern 'comfort' foods, nothing people couldn't pronounce and that is exactly what they did. They fed 200 people for 1975.00 and I haven't heard anything but compliments

in regards to the food. I will say that I was not excited about the serving dishes and utensils they were planning to use, but my wedding planer/decorator took care of that. However, when I told them that I didn't like what they were planning on using, they were absolute professionals and did everything I asked them to do.

I wanted a southern gospel, bible belt, a cappella singer and Charles was magnificent. I called a friend adn he suggested that I visit his church and hear his music minister. My fiance and I did and we immediately fell in love with Charles' voice. We approached him after church and asked him if he would be available on our wedding date. He was and that was it. We asked him about price and he refused. Of course we gave him a check the day of the wedding but not for NEARLY what we would have had to pay for some stranger to come in. He doesn't sing on a professional level, that I know of, but if someone was looking for the sound I described earlier - and lives in my area - you would not find a better person to do the job. He is humble, professional and he considers it an honor to sing for people. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. He sang Amazing Grace and The Lord's Prayer - He was the highlight of the wedding for me.

She was a friend of a friend and I had seen her work and it was what I thought I wanted. I wanted someone to capture the moment and not focus so much on the usual wedding shots. Of course I wanted a good shot of the entire wedding party, the groom and his family, the groom and his groomsmen, me and my family, me and my bridesmaids, ect, but the examples I had seen of her work seemed to include those kinds of shots also. I gave her 2 stars because 1: she made promises (that of course were't in the contract) that she didn't come through on (ex: you will walk away the day of the wedding with ALL of your pictures on a disc to have to look at immediately following the wedding - my wedding was November 22, 2008 and I FINALLY go the last 4 discs of 8 the third week in February) and 2: I don't have any of the shots I mentioned above. There are a few good ones, but to have EIGHT cd's of wedding pictures and only have about 30 that are (not even great) JUST decent is absolutely positively not worth the $1,100.00 I paid her. I brought the photos to the teacher that TAUGHT me photography and she said that all of the problems in the pictures were problems that any self respecting photographer would know how to deal with. Lighting, positioning/centering, overall aesthetically pleasing ect. (I mean, there WOULD be ONE decent shot of the entire wedding party inside the chapel, if she had positioned us evenly - the groom's side goes from tallest to shortest all in a single line and my side is 3 in the front and 3 in the back. My 6 year old niece could see the uneven-ness in that)

This has to be the best kept secret in Birmingham. VERY affordable. A man named Walt Savage runs the place. He is not your typical wedding venue character at all - Hargis is a beautiful botanical gardens type place and Walt tends to it all. He was so easy to deal with, so accommodating and even ended helping to get cars parked the day of the wedding. He doesn't want to advertise, doesn't want to have to deal with crazy bride-zillas all the time, he just wants to make enough money to keep the place beautiful and live his simple life. OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE!!

My engagement ring and my wedding band both came from Agnew's. My engagement ring is a unique shape so we couldn't get a standard wedding band. The designer there, Pete was OUTSTANDING. I thought I knew what I wanted in the beginning and after the first pour I took the ring home only to stew on it a bit longer and realize that it was not at all what I wanted. I have very small fingers and the first ring they designed looked like a super bowl ring on my tiny finger. I returned to Agnew's with the ring and expressed my concerns. I was persistent, and they were patient, but after 4-5 different molds were poured I finally got exactly what I wanted. My rings are absolutely beautiful and it is due to, in part, my own persistence but mostly to the talented and VERY PATIENT Pete.