To create a new account with a different email,click here
Welcome to the WeddingWire Community!
Congratulations!
Your WeddingWire account was created successfully and you have been signed in.
A confirmation email has been sent to you. You will need to confirm your account in order to sign back in to your WeddingWire account.
Check your spam folder if you do not see the confirmation email in your inbox. If you have not received an email within 1 hour please email us at support@weddingwire.com.
Planning: They went through banquet staff pretty frequently, so the person I was working with changed mid-way through the planning process. Fortunately, she (Dewi) was wonderful to work with and was responsive. She let us use easels, candles, and even let me box the lemon cookies (which was one of the dessert options) and make them into favors! That was a huge money saver. The only complaint I have is that she told me that I could extend my event until 10:00 without an extra charge, and on the day of the wedding, my wedding planner told us we had to end at 9:00 or be charged. I felt like those four hours went by WAY TOO FAST. If you decide to use Maggiano's, please have everyone be on the same page and have them write it down if they say you can extend your event for no charge. I think 5 hours would have been a lot better, although we still had an amazing time.
The Day Of: Flawless (except for the aforementioned blunder). We had the entire second floor. We used the small room on the side for "cocktail hour" (they even hand passed signature cocktails for us!!!!) with the hors d'oeurves and cocktail tables. The large room was set up with 15 guest tables, 1 sweetheart table, and the dance floor in the middle of the room. We had around 150 guests, and it worked great. No, the space isn't super huge, but it has this cozy, warm "home-y" feeling. Nobody was cramped at all. It looked gorgeous! I told them I was making my own menu cards for the tables, and alas, that was the ONE thing I forgot to pack for the wedding. Not to worry, though, they made all the menu cards and reserved signs to make up for my mistake (although it wasn't on my pretty gold paper...hey, it was something)! The food was INCREDIBLE. I have been to too many weddings where I eat "rubber" chicken and feel unsatisfied, so I really wanted to make this aspect of our reception memorable. Our menu was:
Appetizers: Bruschetta, Spinach & Artichoke Al Forno Pastas: Ziti Pomodoro, Four Cheese Ravioli (seriously the best ravioli I've had) Main Courses: Salmon with Lemon & Herb, Chicken Parmesean Desserts: Tiramisu, Lemon Cookies (in boxes as favors)
I still hear, to this day, how amazing everyone thought the food was. It's presented very classy and the quality is impeccable. This isn't your every day "chain Italian food." Trust me, I'm a foodie. The fun thing about Maggiano's is that the courses are passed family style, so it was fun to see the guests interacting with each other and passing the food. The bar package was unbeatable. The staff is so friendly and accommodating.
MY ONLY COMPLAINT: TOOOOOOO SHORT! I wanted it to go on forever!!!!!
Bottom line: Maggiano's has, without a doubt, the most amazing food/bar packages for an insanely good price! If food/drink is a main concern for you, this is your place. Your guests will rant and rave about the food/drink. They will feel cozy in the warm atmosphere.
John is very talented and professional photographer. I would recommend him to any bride. I have recommended him to any friends I knew that were getting married before I got engaged. When it was time for me to plan my own wedding, I didn't even consider any other photographer. Even though Anne (his wife) is a great friend of mine, I knew I was going to get great photos. I've seen most of his work and have consistently been impressed. I've been a bridesmaid in one of the weddings he shot and a guest at another. He and Anne drove from DFW to Houston for the wedding and were on time for everything. He started shooting pretty early in the day and I have no idea when he stopped. I know it must have been pretty late. The group shots were done quickly and efficiently after the ceremony so we were able to spend a little time with him one-on-one before heading to the reception. He was always taking pictures. I think I saw him sit down maybe once or twice to eat a bite of food/cake. I think he also had fun! Of course, our wedding photos were wonderful. The proofs were online within days. I was on my honeymoon in Mexico enthralled by them rather than the blue ocean out my hotel window! I have gotten a tremendous amount of feedback from the photos - everyone loves them! I haven't gotten my album or DVD proofs yet, but will be receiving them in the next couple of weeks. I was able to go through the proofs online and pick out my favorites so John knew which ones I liked the most while designing the album. I suppose I might come back and add my comments on the album - surely it'll be fabulous! Anyway, John is great. You won't be disappointed.
EDIT (10/4/09): Still haven't received my album or DVD with the images. Apparently my DVD is coming to me next weekend. Will keep you posted.
I bought my wedding dress off the rack here and received a huge discount. My dress was AMAZING. I was so lucky to find it only one size bigger so it didn't need many alterations. Not to mention, the dress had only been tried on one or two other times before I got to it, so it was not dirty AT ALL. They were great to work with while selecting the dress and pretty flexible with the price. However, with the bridesmaid dresses, it was a different story. I chose a color and had my bridesmaids pick whatever style they wanted. This must have annoyed them and I got treated with less respect than I deserved. I went in with a few of the bridesmaids, and I swear I got called by three different names (by the same sales girl) within ten minutes. I understand when things are busy in retail (having worked 3 years retail myself), but come on!!! I also got told different things by different people, so it was hard to get a clear answer on questions that I had.
The shop is in a questionable part of town. The building itself looks awful and inside it really is not a pretty sight. Some of the sales girls are really rude, and others are ditzy. However, they have one of the biggest inventory of dresses in town. That is what drew me to the store. I tried on a dress in Dallas and fell in love with it. Ventura's had it and I bought it off the rack (which I mentioned). They are also able to order other colors and styles of bridesmaid dresses so long as they carry the designer. This helped since a lot of my bridesmaids were out of town and tried on dresses in other bridal salons.
Just be super consistent with them. Make sure you watch them when they write things on your folder so that there are no mix-ups. If I had to do it again, I might have gone with someone else for bridesmaid dresses.
I had booked LG Entertainment pretty early on in my wedding planning process. I think I booked in January and my wedding was in July. He was recommended by my wedding planner and I was impressed that he did lighting (this is cool to a high school theatre director). We met and things seemed great. Well, I didn't hear from him for months (which is okay since I didn't try to contact him either) and it seemed like he sort of forgot about me when it came down to the bottom line. Apparently I booked the package before the price increase so I sort of felt like I didn't matter as much since I wasn't paying as much as the other brides. Consequently, I had been given to another DJ when I was told Lewis was going to DJ my event. No hard feelings to Jason - he was a great guy and really fun to work with! I didn't want to cause any drama so I just went along with it.
I understand lighting design, and it looked pretty nice on the day of the event to the average Joe. However, to me, it kind of looked thrown together. Some of the lamps were burnt out, too. That is not acceptable, especially for someone who KNOWS lighting design!! My gobo design was thrown together. It looked nice and I got a lot of compliments on it, but I didn't even approve the design and he went ahead and ordered it anyway (since it was the WEEK OF the wedding). I tried to be understanding and cool about it all instead of go "bridezilla"! It was not worth arguing over and looked fine in the end. I got along really well with both Lewis and Jason and preferred not to have any bad blood.
The event itself was great, aside from the burnt out lamps, the gobo that was ordered at the last minute, the fuzzy sounding speakers (when someone spoke on the microphone it was pretty unintelligible) and the constant feedback from the speakers whenever anyone spoke on the microphone. I mean, shouldn't sound professionals know how to set up equipment to where there is absolutely no feedback? That seemed a bit odd to me since all I seemed to read about these guys is that they have top notch equipment. It felt like I got the back-up equipment since they had three weddings that night. Of course, that's only one side of the story and there could have been other issues I haven't known about. It could have been the size of the room that caused those problems and not the equipment.
ANYWAY, the GOOD things: Lots of dancing - everyone had a blast! I was on the dance floor a lot and had tons of fun!!! Our last dance was "Sweet Caroline" and I am not kidding, every guest was on the dance floor swaying back and forth, and even picking up candles and swaying them too! It was great. He was playing a little too much "booty" music at first and started playing more stuff for the older crowd and they loved it. Guests have commented how much fun they had at the reception and how fun the dancing was. He really stuck to my "Do Not Play" list. Sure enough, one of my silly friends tried to get him to play one of the songs on the list and he didn't do it, THANKFULLY! The venue looked beautiful - it really did. I suppose I'm just being a bit nit picky.
Honestly, I would recommend these guys as your DJ. I don't know of any other DJs in the area that offer lighting in addition to music. I just would keep in constant communication with them. I think that was partially my fault for not keeping up. Do ask them how many weddings they have booked that day. I honestly believe the less they have booked, the better service you'll get. They really are great guys and the music was great. I just felt a little jipped. LG Entertainment responded with the the following comments: Future Mrs Owen, I'm glad to hear that everyone had a blast! I'm sorry that you felt like the our lighting was "average joe". I really do appricate the honest feedback.. this gives us a chance to improve and correct our mistakes...
On the feedback note, Sound professionals do setup their systems to where we TRY to avoid any feedback but sometimes when the wireless mic is handled by someone that doesn't have knowledge about what to do and what not to do... We can only prevent things from happening that are in our control.
Lately Murphy's Law has been trying to create a disaster for me.. just the other week, I was walking with a cane! This week... one of my dj's catches mono... Because of situations like this, I make sure that 1. We have backup dj's 2. Every client meets the dj and the backup dj for that day. As of right now, we are only capiable of performing 9 events per day.. Currently we have 12 dj's, 2 in training.
What would have happened if you hired a "one" man company and they got sick on the week of? Do they have a replacement? Can they have your guest "have a blast"?
Once again, I do thank you for your honest review and wish you a happy new beginning! :)
Review Date: 09/22/2009 Services Used: Beauty & Health
5.0 out of 5.0
Quality of Service:
(5.0/5.0)
Responsiveness:
(5.0/5.0)
Professionalism:
(5.0/5.0)
Value For Cost:
(5.0/5.0)
Flexibility:
(5.0/5.0)
LOVE LOVE LOVE these girls! They offer some of the best prices that I researched and really have impeccable service. My hair and makeup turned out amazing. I worked with Anita, and she really took her time with me on my trial run (which was about 3 months before the wedding). She was super thorough and took detailed notes so on the day of the wedding, there were no questions. Artee was with her on the day of the wedding and between the two of them, they did hair and makeup for myself, two moms, my aunt, grandma, and 4 bridesmaids. Everyone looked spectacular and loved their hair and makeup. I would definitely recommend them to any bride I know in the Houston area.
Samantha is wonderful and super creative! She is amazing!!!!! Our wedding probably would have been super stressful if it wasn't for her and her crew. The only disappointment with the entire wedding is that there was a little miscommunication between her and the venue. We were told by the venue we could hold the reception an extra hour for no charge. On the day of the reception, Samantha informed us we had to end the reception an hour earlier or be charged. This made the reception feel SO SHORT and EXTREMELY rushed. It was a blast, it was beautiful, and the entire wedding was a dream, but I still feel a little upset that it was so short.... I want to plan another big party...AND hire Samantha to coordinate it again! I really feel the miscommunication was NOT her fault.
Anyway, she is WONDERFUL to work with. I would recommend her to any of my friends or people I know who are getting married. She has a lot of wonderful ideas. I hired her for day-of coordination and I feel I got the same attention as a bride who would have hired her for entire event coordination. She is genuine, sincere, and very easy to communicate with and talk to. I felt comfortable talking to her for just about anything. The event was an absolute success! Our guests are still talking about how much fun they had and how wonderful the event was. I really think I could not have done it without her. She is so darn organized - she has things planned down to the minute! Please do not look anywhere else for an event planner - SHE is IT!
This Item is Inappropriate
