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The sales staff (Debbie) was wonderful, friendly, and fantastic. When we were assigned our wedding coordinator, however, we hit a few bumps in the road, mostly due to miscommunications that could have been avoided had the coordinator asked us some key questions about our expectations. However, on the actual day of the wedding, things came back together and the coordinator took care of our every need expertly, efficiently, and professionally.
The few minor mishaps that occurred included thinking we were going for a food tasting when we were not (apparently picking the food does not automatically indicate that you will be tasting it before picking it; if you want to taste it you have to specifically ask to do so, and your coordinator may not tell you this!), the top layer of the cake having the wrong filling (the sheet I faxed back with our choices was admittedly a bit confusing since each layer we chose was different, but I was told the coordinator would call me to clarify, which was never done. Not a huge deal to us, but it may be to some, so make sure that you don't get too flustered before the wedding to follow up on things that are important to you that are supposed to be followed up on by the coordinator), and my groom not getting the salad that he specifically requested upfront when we booked (again, very minor detail, but I'm including everything since as a bride myself, I know I'd want to know everything possible before making my vendor decisions!)
There were, however, a ton of things I didn't think of to do, that they had covered before I even realized it needed doing! As the bride, crises were averted without me even knowing so as not to stress me out, little extras were done last minute with nothing but friendliness and efficiency, and at the end of the day, my final assesment of my wedding coordinator is that she did a fabulous job.
HOWEVER, please be advised that if you have to deal with the manager Lisa, don't expect that you'll be dealing with a professional. There was a minor misunderstanding concerning a gratuity fee attached to the ceremony fee. When we booked the Manor, I specifically asked if gratuity was attached to the ceremony fee, and was advised that it was not. Now, as a professional myself, when a client says this to me about a policy that's been in place for a very long time and hasn't changed (like the fact that gratuity is always tacked on to the ceremony fee at the English Manor), I too tend to believe that the client is mistaken and that my sales associates would not have misinformed them. I do, however, admit that miscommunications can indeed happen, and that if one such miscommunication did happen, I apologize profusely, even if funds cannot be returned. Respecting the client enough to admit that mistakes are possible and apologizing for any miscommunication is a very basic component of management. However, instead of apologizing, Lisa raised her voice over the phone with me to a near yell, spoke over me numerous times, accused me of not knowing what I was talking about, and even had the gaul to say to me that if I didn't know what the symbol "++" in their contract meant, (even though there was no key and for all I knew it could have been an indication of the end of the sentence), then I shouldn't have signed it and that in general, I shouldn't be signing contracts if I didn't know what I was doing. Nice, right? I responded by admitting my naivitee in trusting the honesty of her establishment to not have hidden items in the contract. It was actually almost comical how pulled together I was and how insanely unprofessional and emotional she was throughout teh conversation.
So basically, if you book with The English Manor, watch your own back, make sure that you don't forget in all your wedding frenzy to follow up on things that THEY are supposed to follow up on with you, and pray that you don't have an issue that escalates to a management level. It will be more like fighting with a child that dealing with a manager, and that is the last thing a bride needs to deal with three days before the most important day of her life to date. The English Manor responded with the the following comments: There are two sides to every story. I would like to state that The English Manor gave Lauren the utmost service as we do with all our clients. As the General Manager of this wonderful wedding estate, I had to deal with a misunderstanding that Lauren had about our charges for gratuity. After apologizing for the misunderstanding, I stood by our policy of charging gratuity for services I feel are well earned. Lauren did give me an ultimatum during our conversation. If I gave in, she would tell 10 friends of how happy she was, which in return, would make 10 possible future clients. However, if I did not give in then she would tell 100 strangers, still possible future clients, how unhappy she was with my decision. I choose to stand by The English Manor policy and my dignity as a manager and not back down to her threat. I am proud to be part of a great staff that gives exceptional service. Lisa Truesdale General Manager The English Manor
We can't even tell you how awesome it was to work with Ryan. He is fantastically flexible, responsive, laid-back, and most importantly, immeasureably talented. He is such a pleasure to work with and so good at what he does that you'd think you could never afford him in your wildest dreams...but you can. Superior value for the quality of services rendered! My husband and I can't recommend him enough. We took a ton of his business cards to give out and even gave one to the girl who checked us into our hotel for the wedding night because we saw she was engaged! If you have the chance to work with Ryan Morey, TAKE IT! You'll be glad you did!
Linda was FANTASTIC! My husband and I could not be more pleased with her! Great personality, great eye, and beautiful, BEAUTIFUL work! We got a ton of compliments on our flowers and I think if I could have married my bridal bouquet, my husband would have had some stiff competition (lol)! Great service, great value, and great results - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
WeddingSetGo & Be Our Guest DJ's Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey 08742
The only thing positive in our experience with Be Our Guest was the manager Danny. Friendly, personable, and accomodating, I thought working with one of his DJ's would be a pleasure. Then we got assigned to work with ERIC MILLER. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. Getting him to call us when he was supposed to was like pulling teeth. We finally had one conversation with him, where he wasn't at all accomodating to my husbands requests, and he then said he'd call the week of the wedding to go over details, pronunciations, etc. GUESS WHO NEVER CALLED US? When we called the company THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING saying he never called, they said he was very busy. He was very busy? HE WAS VERY BUSY??? I'm sorry, but if you are so busy that you can't provide minimal standards of service, you shouldn't be being booked for jobs. I then told management that he should call me before 3pm if at all possible, but we never heard from him, either before or after 3 o'clock.
Had he actually bothered to call us (or call us back),as it was noted in the contract that he would, maybe he would have bothered to ask what we wanted played when our bridal party came out, or when the bouquet was thrown, or even when we,THE BRIDE AND GROOM ourselves, entered our own reception! But he didn't. Eric just played what suited his own personal tastes. After all, who cares what we wanted for our wedding? We're just the bride and groom; it's not like we're as important as the DJ or his own personal agenda.
And had he called as he was supposed to, maybe he would also have known that we didn't want cheesy, and irritating table games to be played UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, let alone while people were in the middle of eating their salads, that we didn't want the party songs played right at the beginning of the night when everyone is first coming in and no one has any intention (or nearly enough alcohol in them) to dance to the high-energy party songs that should be played only in the last two to three hours of a wedding, that when we said we didn't want a wedding arch upon our entrance, for him to completely ignore us and start instructing our bridal party on how to make an arch so that we and the wedding coordinator literally had to yell at him "We JUST said NO ARCH!" He also would have known that the last thing we wanted was cheesy "Fight Bells" ringing when we entered the reception. And maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have be on the verge of tears at how obnoxious our DJ was before we even began our wedding reception.
But I would have to say that the worst move of all was him starting a table game, which I had told management upfront upon booking that I DID NOT WANT under ANY circumstances, I went up to him and asked what he was doing, saying that we SPECIFICALLY said we wanted MINIMAL MC-ING and NO games. He said he was doing a "That's Amore" game, because I noted that I liked the song. Just because I wanted a song played at my wedding does not mean I want the company we've contracted with to ignore our "NO GAMES" request because he happens to know and like a game that goes to that song. The concept of playing a song without making everyone play a stupid game while hearing it is to me, not rocket science. But since he had already interupted everyone's meal and all of our guests were now standing up as instructed and just looking at each other with expressions of "Why on earth is this guy making us stand up just as we sat down to eat", I told him to just finish whatever he had started as fast as possible and not to do anything like it again. In response, not only did he not shorten the game, he actually extended it into a CONGA LINE!!! I was so infuriated that I had to LEAVE MY OWN WEDDING RECEPTION, and within 10 minutes of it's start to boot. I was upset, my bridesmaids had to come comfort me, the coordinator had to convince my husband not to deck this man in the middle of our wedding, and my guests felt akward and confused as to why the bride, groom, and bridal party had all suddenly disappeared, which only added feelings of guilt for having had to leave my guests right at the start of my reception. This DJ was continuously ruining all of those perfect wedding reception moments that I had dreamed of since I was a little girl. I was heartbroken.
Throughout the night, my husband, bridesmaids, and the wedding coordinator all had to talk to him at different times to instruct him on what he was not to do, a constant source of frustration and annoyance that would have been completely unnecessary had Eric just (1) COMMUNICATED EFFECTIVELY WITH WITH MANAGEMENT ON WHAT I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR UPON BOOKING, and (2) CALLED US THE WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING TO HAVE THE ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL CONVERSATION ABOUT WHAT WE DID AND DID NOT WANT for the one and only wedding we will ever get to experience. On top of all of this, he even unbelievably played a song that was on the "DO NOT PLAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES" list that we faxed over weeks before. There are important reasons that people put certain songs on DO NOT PLAY lists. So glad he ignored this and brought up painful memories right in the middle of my weddingf receprion. Additionally, he either didn't play or must have only played all six or seven songs we specifically requested to hear (because they were incredibly meaningful to us) while we were out taking pictures, because both the groom and I missed all but two of them.
Finally, at the end of the entire fiasco, since we were advised by Danny in management that we were not supposed to pay until after services were rendered because Be Our Guest Entertainment guarantees our complete satisfaction (ha!), I told Eric we weren't paying him until we heard back from the message we had to leave Danny mid-wedding about the attrocious experience we had had. Upon hearing this, Eric actually had the GAUL to ask me what it was we weren't satisfied with because, get this, "you didn't mention anything during the wedding." WHAT? WHAT?!?! We didn't MENTION ANYTHING? Is this guy KIDDING with this?!? I was absolutely DISGUSTED with him at this point and for fear of being so angry I would cry or punch him in the face, I told him he was to deal directly with my husband and that was no longer to address men at all.
I know it must seem like I am a bridezilla for how angry I am, but I promise you, I am so laid-back, friends, family, and even OTHER VENDORS actually poked fun at me for being so mellow and relaxed. So believe me when I say that I am telling you this with all sincerity and reasonableness: ERIC MILLER RUINED THE VAST MAJORITY OF OUR WEDDING. And although we are trying to be as all-around positive as possible about our wedding (because who wants to let go of their dream of having a wonderful wedding?), both my husband and I are furious and heartbroken that we used Be Our Guest Entertainment. We will NEVER get back the moments that Eric Miller took from us, and no bride and groom should ever have to feel like that about the day that they have planned for a year and dreamed about for a lifetime.
Jessie was PHENOMENAL! She was friendly, respectful of all our wishes, professional, accessible, knowledgeable of a huge variety of different ceremony and commitment practices, and all-around frickin' awesome! She did everything we wanted and nothing we didn't want, no questions asked. Her sincerity and upbeat personality were evident in all she did; it's hard to imagine anyone not loving her instantly!
Most importantly, our guests could not stop complimenting us on how wonderful the ceremony was, stating that it was wonderfully personal, sincere, heart-warming, beautiful, and hands down the best ceremony they'd ever been too (we got that one a lot!).
Our greatest compliment, though, came from my father who lives far away and only met my husband days before the wedding. After the ceremony, he pulled me aside and said to me, "I didn't know Tom [my husband] from Adam, but after that ceremony, I know that he loves you with every fiber of his being, and I couldn't be happier for you." If that's not the ultimate compliment for Jessie's ability to capture the spirit of our love in the ceremony she created for us, I don't know what is.
If you have a chance to work with Jessie Blum, take it, and thank your lucky stars, because working with Jessie means having the wedding ceremony of your dreams!!!
-Lauren and Tom Scialla (happily married on 06/13/09) Eclectic Unions by Celebrant Jessie Blum responded with the the following comments: Oh, Lauren! Thank you so much for this wonderful review! It makes me SO happy that you and your families were so happy with the ceremony, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it.
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