sgould's reviews

This was the only place I looked for a wedding dress. I found many dresses I loved for under 1,000. I enjoyed how the ladies at this store did not make you feel bad for having a budget. I felt that they went out of their way to help me find the perfect dress for me. The only reason I did not give 5 stars was because I was not thrilled with the alterations I had done in store.

All I have to say about Rev. Bob Schneider is that we hired him a year before our wedding and he cancelled on me 2 weeks before the wedding. It was nearly impossible to find a replacement for a Saturday evening June wedding, 2 weeks before. Aside from causing us a lot of stress right before the wedding, I just found it completely unprofessional. We had signed a contract - he even called my wedding planner to cancel instead of calling me first. Then he left his cancellation notice on my voicemail!

What a disappointment!

I hired Ida a little over a year before my wedding to help me choose vendors, develop my theme, and be there the day of to coordinate everything. Ida was a wonderful wedding planner and truly cared about my husband and I. She helped me create my beach theme, but kept it elegant and modern. She was always available to talk, drive me around to purchase needed items, and even ordered things for me herself when I was too busy. Ida always paid attention to the little details that made the event amazing. She even surprised me at my rehearsal lunch with a cake for our party. I had many issues the few weeks before the wedding (my violinist and reverend cancelled) and Ida found me a replacement for each, keeping my budget in mind. Again - I would never have been able to do this all on my own. All in all, I would recommend Ida to anyone planning a wedding who wants to just experience bridal bliss and let someone else deal with all the details that come with planning a wedding. Ida has many friends in the industry and has a great team of vendors that she recommends. I used most of them and had wonderful experiences with them. She surrounds herself with professionals who care about their clients. My husband and I can never thank Ida enough for helping make my wedding the best day of our lives.

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. First of all, we had our June 2009 wedding here. I booked over a year in advance and during that time, I was bounced around between 4 different catering managers. I understand that staffing issues arise, but each time my catering contact was changed, no one notified me and I had to go over everything I had already communicated to the person before. I luckily had hired a wedding coordinator independent of the Portofino - otherwise, I would have been in big trouble. For the amount of money this hotel charges, I expected a bit more professionalism and care. Here is a sample of some things that happened that I would not expect to happen in a nice hotel.

1. We had paid to have 2 bars set up (one on the outside pation area and one inside). When we began the cocktail hour, only one had been set up and staffed.

2. At the start of cocktail hour, the platters we ordered had not yet been set up

3. The room had a lot of flies in it before hand and my coordinator told me that she had to deal with it.

4. A week before the wedding, after numerous meetings, spreadsheets, etc. I got a call asking me to confirm that the fish was salmon. All along it had been mahi mahi.

5. My own brother was not given his welcome basket that I had dropped off at the hotel for him. When he asked the front desk about this, they told him that they had "given it to someone else." Real professional huh???

There is so much more, but this is just a sampling.

My wedding was beautiful because you can't beat the view and I had an excellent coordinator (independent of the hotel) who fixed all these fires. The food was wonderful and I can't say enough positives about the wait staff. However, it was a headache to deal with the catering people and I would not recommend this venue unless you have someone else to help you weed though all the unprofessionalism.

Damon was one of my most reliable and professional vendors. He was always available via e-mail or a phone call to discuss the wedding music, made my husband and I feel at ease thoughout the process, and was worth every penny! He had the dance floor packed all night with a super mix of music to meet everyone's needs. People did not want to leave at the end of the night. I have been to some weddings where the DJ takes over and is constantly on the mic. Damon is not like that - he plays the music and keeps the focus on the bride, groom, and guests. What I most appreciated about Damon was that he genuinely seemed to care about us and wanted to do everything possible to make our night memorable. Another thing to note is that all of my other vendors knew him and spoke highly of him.