colther1's reviews

After the rehearsal dinner, our wedding party went to Rae Restaurant for dessert and drinks. They reserved us a large section overlooking the city skyline, and their incredible desserts were so great. My sister is a city event planner, so I’m sure they were helping her out a lot, because they even agreed to give us free valet parking, even though they’d just changed their policy. Their drinks are always voted at the top of the city lists, and that night was no exception. Our out-of-town party and family were very impressed with the service, the luxurious desserts, and the oh-so metropolitan setting.

Amy did a perfect job with our cake. She runs her business out of her home, and she welcomed us so warmly when we came for a tasting. She had plenty of cake in each of her specialties for us to try. We knew we wanted chocolate, but everything else was so good, we were considering a carrot cake at one point! She was willing to listen to any ideas we had, offer her own, and come up with a very fair price. Our sinfully chocolate cake was topped with a very heavy “LOVE” statue that she built the cake around. She delivered the cake on a beautiful platter right on time, and everyone raved about the cake. She even threw in a cake for us to eat on our anniversary. I am sorry to say that her cake was so good, we somehow talked ourselves into eating eat only a few months later.

Rene brought exactly the flowers I wanted on my wedding day. At our consultation, she sat down with us and went through every detail, which was probably slower than usual for her because I had no idea what I wanted. Eventually, I did, and I was a little disappointed she didn’t have any pictures of her previous work. We were taking a big risk. When she was running late because she was stuck behind a huge accident, she stayed a long time to help all the flowers get put together. My mother, a formal florist, was very impressed. The flowers she brought were exactly what I had in mind, and she even made me too bridal bouquets at no extra charge, since hydrangeas don’t hold up so well during picture taking in January!

We got a last-minute dance course on New Year’s Day from Ashley, and she did a great job. We have no experience, and we probably weren’t the easiest students to teach. She helped us choose a song from our remaining options given our skill level, how close it was to the wedding (four days!), and feedback she’d received from other clients on their chosen song. After the lesson, we realized we’d forgotten our checkbook, and she completely understood. She didn’t mind us sending a check a few days later. She was very professional, patient, and easy-going.

Stylist Vicki did a great job with my hair. When a few bridesmaids strolled in with coffee to keep me company, we all had a great time chatting. Unfortunately, she was 45 minutes late getting started on it; this happened at my trial, so I should’ve taken note then, I suppose. The fairly simple hairstyle took so long to do because she kept stopping to talk with my friends. When all was said and done, the whole evening was 1.5 hours off schedule, and, since it was a winter wedding, we had to rush like crazy through pictures to get them in before the sunset. Stuff happens, of course, but I wish I’d chosen a hairdresser that realized we were on a timetable. Plus, she charged my double what the trial was, but I refused to pay that much! I felt so cheated at that point.

When we tell people we went to Boston in the dead of winter for our honeymoon, everyone thinks we’re crazy. It was only a short road trip, and neither of us are interested in sleeping on the beach for a week. We lucked out on temperatures in the 70’s, so we walked and walked from Harvard to the Green Monster to incredible dinners in the Italian district, which is right next to the Bulfinch Hotel. Bulfinch gave us a honeymoon rate, gave us free breakfasts in their restaurants, and the free champagne they gave us was exactly what we’d had at our wedding! Their breakfasts were to die for, and prepared special for us each morning, even when we were running a few minutes late. What can we say? It’s our honeymoon!

I cannot say enough about Clive and the Philopatrian Literary Society. It is right across the street from Ritenhouse Square, which was a lovely walk from the church to the reception. The building has unique history that we included in our program. Clive, the owner, was wonderful to work with, and he showed up that night with bells on—we even had our picture taken with him. They worked with us on cost, bar, and coat-check. There is an upstairs for pool and cigars, as well as a library to explore. Most guests didn’t make it upstairs, but pool was a great way to keep those groomsmen patient while the girls primped! There are a variety of places to take pictures. I would only recommend this cozy venue for winter weddings.

Long story, but Qdoba has a special place in our hearts, and our gracious parents nodded along when we said we wanted Qdoba to cater our rehearsal dinner. They delivered the order right on time, and it was piping hot. They helped my husband’s parents set everything up just so, and they even threw in a few extra desserts. Their set-up kept the food hot throughout the dinner, and there was more than enough to go around for our hungry bunch! Everyone raved about it.

We didn’t want a lengthy wedding video with someone else’s music and campy titles scrolling across the screen, but any ‘artistic’ videographer choices were way out of our price range. Thankfully, we found ____ and, for a very small one-time fee, they filmed the entire wedding and reception for us on two different cameras. They handed my maid of honor a bag of tapes at the end of the night, and my husband is editing our video just the way we’d want it. The main videographer did a much better job than his assistant on angles, lighting, etc. We simply wanted a record of our day, and they offered us just the service we were looking for.

We did what most couples do: we made the rounds at the mall. Whitehall had the most helpful sales representative, and they really took our time with us. We settled on a ring immediately. But after I wore it a few weeks after our engagement, the center diamond started to literally rattle around audibly in its setting. We took it in to get fixed. Then, a side diamond came back crooked. When we got the wedding band sautered to it, the detail on the back was erased. It looked like someone had smeared glue on the back of the ring. We took it back. The other side diamond came back crooked. Yikes! Eventually, they got a new jeweler and we were told they called the other one “The Butcher,” which was not very reassuring. All the Whitehall stores are closing now, and we’ll forever have to send the ring in the mail now to get it fixed.