inanna's reviews

Caribbean Catering provided the rentals, staff, wedding coordination, and food for my November 14th private estate wedding in Islamorada, FL. They did an absolutely phenomenal job! Debbie really took an interest in every detail of my wedding and her recommendations on other vendors were fantastic. This is an extremely organized small business! Debbie is familiar with all the private estates in the area and if you hire Floral Fantasy for flowers she will work with them to make sure everything is perfection. Debbie met with me at the estate location on the Thursday before our wedding to do a walk through of how everything would be set up - she even brought flower samples from Floral Fantasy to that meeting to make sure the colors were as I wanted. In the days before and after the wedding, they handled all of the ceremony and reception set up and breakdown. I was provided an excellent day of coordinator. On the day of the wedding, the food was absolutely magnificent and Debbie's staff was incredible. Our guests loved the food and raved about the service. Some of the dishes I loved were the caribbean salad, the Mojo pulled pork with Caribbean BBQ sauce, the super fresh mahi mahi, and their cucumber and carrot "noodles" were absolutely to die for!

Overall I was pretty happy with Blu Bamboo. My mom and fiance began with massages, which my mom absolutely loved, but my fiance was so-so about. I started with a pampering facial which was wonderful and the same woman did my manicure and pedicure, which were beautiful but not long lasting. My bridesmaids also had manicures, but I overheard one of the technicians tell one of my bridesmaids that she has "rough working hands." Ugh. Nevertheless, they seemed happy with the final result. Then off to hair (Jaime). She did a decent job considering I hadn't done a trial. Part of me wishes I had just DIYed my hair because I think I could have done a better job with my own hair products and CHI iron (Jaime used a Paul Mitchell iron which I didn't really care for). Then off to makeup, which was the absolute best experience I had at Blu Bamboo. Monica is wonderful!!! Loved the makeup and Monica has such a great personality! She really made the whole experience at Blu Bamboo worthwhile.

One of the things that hurt my experience at Blu Bamboo was that the owner could not get the billing straight, even though I had talked to her on the phone previously for 30 minutes explaining everything. She apparently chased my mom out of the salon after her massage demanding payment. YIKES! I was very explicit earlier that I was paying for my mom's massage. Plus the owner already had my credit card on file, so why the big fuss? My husband ended up taking care of my mom's massage. Then later, after my pedicure the owner sat me down demanding that I list all the things that I was paying for. Um, we already did this... and I was essentially paying for everything, so this really irked me. Blu Bamboo does have good technicians, but the owner is pretty kooky and disorganized.

My flowers were quite possibly the prettiest wedding flowers I've ever seen! Debbie at Floral Fantasy is amazing and a true artist. She was able to order in peonies in November and knew exactly what would pair with them beautifully. Highly recommended florist and an absolutely must for anyone getting married in Islamorada.