mishk3's reviews

This review is coming nearly a year after my wedding, but here it goes.

I was very impressed by all the rave reviews I'd read about Jira. When I contacted her, she was very responsive, which, when you're a nervous bride, is so, so important. When I met her, she was kind, friendly, gave opinions and suggestions, but also really tried to listen to what I was looking for.

But... she smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. She airbrushed my foundation, raving about how natural it looked while giving great coverage, but my skin looked so crinkled every time I smiled, I felt it aged me a good 10+ years. I wanted a nude lip, but every color she tried on me was really bright. I also wanted smokey eyes, but explained I didn't want the color to go too high on my lid. The color went really high on my lid. Then came the hair. I wanted loose, natural waves. I knew my hair was capable of this, because I did it myself all the time (I was hoping a pro could give me a touch more volume & staying power), but it came out straight and very flat until the last few inches, where I had Shirley Temple like curls. She blamed it repeatedly on my haircut. Needless to say, I was glad I had booked a trial. While she was wonderful to be around, and excellent at responding to any and all inquiries right away, I left my trial feeling, well, really, really ugly.

My husband and I decided to go with Encarnacion Photography after receiving a recommendation here on PW. It was one of the best wedding related decisions we made! The rates were amazing, the responsiveness was amazing, Jonathan and Joanne were incredibly sweet, fun, and professional, but mostly, we are THRILLED with the photos! There are tons of incredible pictures to choose from, and they captured the feel of our day beautifully. The colors are so rich, the black and white is so crisp, and there weren't any weird angles (these were our stated preferences, which they were happy to take into consideration). Our only problem - which ones do we choose to frame and/or put in an album, because so many of them are so incredible!!!

We received our invitations a few days ago, and I'm sorely disappointed. It wasn't because of the quality, or because there were any errors, but because the samples we received were so misleading. It seems that a few days after our sample shipped, they changed/downsized the standard size of their square wedding invitations. We had no idea, and had placed our order based on the sample received. Had we known, we would NEVER have ordered the invitations that we did. We had ordered through Wedding Paper Divas because we are on a budget, and for the price, the quality seemed great. Now we are stuck with wedding invitations that we are unhappy with. To their credit, though, Wedding Paper Divas was responsive from day one, and did offer a small credit on our order.

We were a little hesitant about going to Gesinee's with some of the negative reviews, but having such a large inventory, we decided to make an appointment anyway (for bridesmaid dresses).

I'll give them one star, because they actually do have quite a nice selection.

Some of the people who work there are quite lovely. Others can be quite...abrasive. Downright unpleasant actually (mostly the people who check you in at the front door).

But my low score has to do with their incredibly disappointing response to a problem filled transaction. Long story short, every time there was a problem or a delay, that was out of our control, we would have had no idea, and no way to fix it, if we weren't constantly checking in. In fact, if we hadn't been so diligent (both bride & bridesmaids), I suspect we wouldn't have bridesmaid dresses in time for the wedding, even though they were ordered 7 months in advance. The whole experience was so, so disappointing. And so, so stressful.