The Hard Rock was an amazing wedding location! We wanted something fun and unique, while still having an upscale touch. This exceeded our expectations!! The staff were so helpful and accommodating; I did not have to worry about anything! The food and service were amazing! Our guests had a blast!! The wedding suite was also beyond amazing.

My experience with TWA was amazing! They--Wally in particular--were referred to us by my matron of honor. Wally was amazing! He really took his time to get the shots we wanted and went to some extremes (i.e., almost falling off a building, jumping on garbage cans, etc.) to get great pictures! He also gave us great tips at our consultation with him regarding several aspects of the wedding--timing for walking down the aisle, when to cut the cake, where to stand, etc. Every contact I have had with TWA was extremely professional and accommodating. While packages may sound expensive, you get a lot for the money, which is not the case with other photographers we looked at. My husband and I picked up our proofs last week, just 4 weeks after our wedding, and there are hundreds of great shots!

In my consultation with Jim Fabrini back in January of 2011, I was extremely impressed! I came in with just a few requests. I wanted all white flowers for the bouquets and boutonnieres and large red or pink flowers for the centerpieces. He recommended flowers for the bouquets based on the lines of my dress--lilies and then added in some tulips for the bridesmaids (as I had told him that I like tulips). For the centerpieces, we discussed that I had vases that were 6"x6"x6". I explained that I wanted one big red or fushia colored flower to sit in this on top of the crystals that I had. I explained that my only request was not to use roses. He showed me some large flowers in the cooler and suggested a particular type of orchid that would be in season--He said that these would be a shade of red or purple and that putting two of them back to back would fill the vase and look like one large flower. He also said that you would deliver these to the reception space ready to put in the vases and that he would put one in to show us. (Looking back, I now realize he steered me toward all very expensive flowers!)

I booked this on the spot and paid my deposit. My contact with him over those first couple of weeks was great! Then, I did not hear from him again again. At our first meeting, he had stated that he would contact me to meet again about a month before the wedding to finalize details. I never heard from him. I emailed him 3 weeks before the wedding and did not receive a response. I then called a few days later. He seemed to have forgotten some of the details we had previously discussed--perhaps they were not written down? However, we discussed some details, such as the specific colors to wrap the boutonnieres, and I believed that everything would be fine.

Then, the wedding day came on June 10, 2011. He delivered just the bouquets to my room. Shortly after he left, we removed them from the vases to start pictures, and we noticed that they were a bit brown and petals were starting to fall off. We also noticed that the three bridesmaid bouquets were all different sizes and lengths. By the time we finished pictures, we had lost about 1/4 of the petals, and the yellow pollen was getting all over everything. (Our photographer said that all florists he has ever worked with put wax over the pollen so that it doesn't stain the dresses.) We did what we could and turned the bouquets in a way that they would look okay for the pictures.

There was also a minor problem with the boutonnieres... The one for the groom was supposed to be wrapped in the same diamond white as my bouquet, but instead, it was wrapped in a sheer white ribbon. My father's was supposed to be wrapped in a silver/gray ribbon, but instead, it was wrapped in black.

The biggest disappointment, however, were the flowers for the centerpieces. After Jim left, a friend of mine brought up the box he had left in the reception room that contained a stem of un-cut small white orchids. This was not anything like the large red/purple orchids that he had described, and they were not even ready to put in the vases. What upset me most, however, was his response when I called. He took about 45 minutes to return my call. His tone was very rude and he also implied that this was my fault because he ordered what he had written down. This is confusing to me because I did not come in telling him to order a particular flower, but rather, I went with his recommendations. The handful of flowers (4 or 5, I think, which looked like they were from Walgreens) that he later had "his driver" deliver, because I asked him to provide us with flowers that we could use (we still had 3 hours until the wedding ceremony and 4.5 hours until the reception), were useless, as there were not nearly enough of them. So, my matron of honor's husband found a flower shop on Michigan Avenue and went out and purchased the flowers from them for our 10 centerpieces!!!

I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. Perhaps Jim Fabrini was having a bad day, week, or month, but he has not made any effort to even apologize. I requested a portion of my money back from him, and he only responded to ask for pictures of the bouquets. I sent a picture and have not heard back....