MegKate
2010 UMaine Graduate... now unemployed. What to do
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Messages
- 1,706
Hello everybody!!
I'm finally married! WAZOO!! And I'm uber excited to share everything in the trip report with you all.
I wish I could say everything went smoothly, but in typical Meg and Rob fashion we hit some.. well... bumps for lack of a better word! So in writing this, I hope you can learn from my mistakes and be a better DISBride! 
First off - here are the details of the wedding, just in case you forgot...
Date and Time: October 12th, 2009 at Noon
Locations: Sea Breeze Point, Atlantic Dance Hall and UK Lochside
And the major players -
Me! - I'm Meg, 28, a Social Work student at the University of Maine in my senior year. Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts I moved up to Caribou Maine (8 hours north of Boston, on the Canadian border) four years ago and find myself in a state of constant culture shock. Who knew that florescent hunting orange could be a fashion color? I'm hoping to move south next year!
Rob - he's 35, and works in accounting during the day, but at night he comes out as a spiffy meteorologist focused on tropical forecasting. He has his own website and perhaps someone will come along and post it, cause I can't!
I'll introduce you to the others as they come up!
While I was on the plane home, I sat down and wrote out some vendor reviews. I'm not going to include all of them because I'm not done working with them, or I haven't gotten the finished product. I'll be updating this as I go along..
Meg's Brutally Honest Vendor Reviews
The Roots - A+ - If there is any decision that I made 100% correctly in planning this wedding, it was hiring the Roots as our photographers. I've only seen the preview photos, but I know they'll be as gorgeous as our engagement pictures were.
Nathan and Jensey are incredible people - they really kept me sane the day of the wedding. In the craziness that was the morning of my wedding, they functioned not only as awesome photographers, but as (and I'm probably forgetting some titles here) door people, train fluffers, fan attendants (it was 88oF, dewpoint 73oF, and 70% humidity at ceremony time), complaint department, hydration faciliators, protectors (from 8 legged spiders etc. My only regret is that I couldn't have them at the Dessert Party.
Seriously - the Roots are just amazing. The pictures that I've seen, are just incredible. I love the Roots not only as photographers, but also as friends. My highest recommendation is for anyone thinking about photography is to get them asap!
Here's the proof of how awesome they are. Definitely check out the slideshow, but if you have time to look at 1820 proofs - feel free!
Slide Show :: http://clients.rootography.com/megrob/
Proofs :: http://proofs.rootweddings.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=12 (password is "lightbown")
Reverend Jack Day - A+ - One of the nicest people I've ever met. He really did a beautiful ceremony for us, and all our guests complimented us on it! For us, he was uber easy to work with, and we had no problem getting in touch with him at all. Another great decision there!
Patricia LeJeune - B+ - I've struggled over this rating, and it really could go higher or lower. Let me explain why. Patricia is awesome - a sweetheart, and uber talented! We really only had minimal problems getting in touch with her. She and her associate Christy did an awesome job on all the girls. My makeup was flawless and it held up all day.
The part where I would downgrade her is my hair. I'm really not sure how much of it was the heat and humidity of the day, but my curls went from beautiful curls to waves by the time of the reception. I mean it didn't look bad, but it wasn't a really good look either. My hair just doesn't hold curls, waves etc. It's stick straight. In retrospect, I should have gone with an updo, but I really wanted long curls! I would still recommend Patricia though.
Carolyn Allens - A - For both steaming and tuxes, I would highly recommend CA. We had only one minor problem, and it was quickly remedied. They answered all our questions and were uber helpful. We got everything taken care of and never stepped foot in CA's itself.
Disney
Anaeli (Group Reservation Specialist) - A+! - By far, my favorite person of the whole Disney team! If you have Anaeli, you're in awesome hands. She honestly went above and beyond the entire planning process, and let me tell you - I had people not reserve their roomsuntil they got down there! She handled everything with grace and was literally the calm in the middle of the storm quite often! Not to mention that she helped Rob and I find out about the free dining, which was awesome! Just cannot speak any more highly about Anaeli!!
Pam Pearce (Wedding Coordinator) - B+ - again, another rating that was hard for me! I love Pam as a person, and she was awesome before we got a planner. But the handoff to the WP was a little rough. Like things I had discussed with her didn't translate over to our WP and it showed up on the wedding day.
Diane Bowen (Wedding Planner) - B - Before the wedding, I would have easily given Diane an A. However, there were a lot of little things that went wrong on our wedding day that were in either the BEO or email that we agreed upon. Like there were mushrooms in the food and we had 3 people (including myself who were allergic), the cake topper was wrong, the music for the ceremony was wrong etc... And these were things that were written out. Personally I like her, but I expected the day to be flawless based on other brides experiences.
DJ Frankie - D - First of all, he didn't email me - I had to get in touch with him. Disney assigned him to me. He gave me attitude when I did get in contact with him! We filled out our forms stating what music we liked and what to avoid. I asked for big band to play during the pre-reception and the dinner and he played Rod Stewart. We had that we liked 80's, 90s music (Rob likes singers like Sarah McLachlan, and I'm more grunge Nirvana, and I'm obcessed with R.E.M.), so it would have made sense that the music that he started with was in those lines. Nope! We got Motown! No one was dancing, and we had that problem the entire time. We got music that you really can't dance to, so the dance floor was empty a good bit of the time. Again, I hate to give these ratings, but even though he was a nice guy in person, it seemed like he didn't care about engaging the group into dancing.
Disney Bakery - F - I was not at all happy with the cake. The colors were completely off (the yellow ribbon was more yellow-green and the blue hydrangeas were barely blue) The worst of all - they lost my cake topper that I bought and substituted the Minnie/Mickey bride one, which I didn't want!! THey later found it, but I was uber upset! And the cake was wicked dry in my opinion - others liked it alot, but to me it just didn't taste the way it did on the tasting day!
Pending ratings - take these with a grain of Margarita Salt as I'm still working some stuff out with them
DPS - F - I haven't gotten my pictures back from them yet and I'm not quite sure when I'm going to. They took my Dessert Party Pictures, and I wasn't uber happy. It was a team of two photographers, one who was in a constant state of pissiness because we didn't use him for our photos during the day (Literally, he asked me who did our ceremony/reception pictures, and when I said the Roots he turned his nose up, and walked away from me!
) and the other one who made us stand still and not move a muscle during the fireworks pictures. The pissy one was supposedly walking around taking candids, but the only time I saw him taking pictures was when I was doing something like putting food in my mouth or getting crumbs out of the top of my dress!
I called on Tuesday to find out when they'll be ready as my contract says two weeks after the wedding. The woman said that I must have had an old contract because they take three weeks, but they're 5 weeks behind, so maybe in December they'll be ready. I called my photo contact Dara and left a message Tuesday afternoon to get an explanation and she returned my call Friday at 4:45pm and left the office at 5. I will get in contact with her Monday. Stay Tuned...
UPDATE to DPS - we got the pictures and I really don't like them at all. Here's the info to check them out -
Please visit http://www.collages.net/disneyweddings, and fill in the following information:
Username: Medlinskas / Lightbown
Password: 1971
Disney Floral - PENDING - Many things were wrong the day of the wedding, and I mean many. But the worst thing of all is that they glued my silk bouquet together and it melted in the sun and got all over my dress. And I must mention, it was a GREEN glue. My floral person is offering to re-make my bouquet and we'll see how that goes before I rate them and go into other things that were wrong.
STVs - PENDING - I don't have the video yet, but I like the sneak peek - check it out on their website!
So begins the TR! We have like 14 days of wedding/honeymoon to get through, and I'll have to break up days I'm sure, so I assume I'll have this done by hmm... our 1st anniversary?! LOL
I get the Roots Image Disc in next week, so I'll be able to supplement my reviews with pictures, so I hope you follow along! Even with the problems we encountered, we had an absolute blast!! 
I'm finally married! WAZOO!! And I'm uber excited to share everything in the trip report with you all.


First off - here are the details of the wedding, just in case you forgot...
Date and Time: October 12th, 2009 at Noon
Locations: Sea Breeze Point, Atlantic Dance Hall and UK Lochside
And the major players -
Me! - I'm Meg, 28, a Social Work student at the University of Maine in my senior year. Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts I moved up to Caribou Maine (8 hours north of Boston, on the Canadian border) four years ago and find myself in a state of constant culture shock. Who knew that florescent hunting orange could be a fashion color? I'm hoping to move south next year!
Rob - he's 35, and works in accounting during the day, but at night he comes out as a spiffy meteorologist focused on tropical forecasting. He has his own website and perhaps someone will come along and post it, cause I can't!

I'll introduce you to the others as they come up!
While I was on the plane home, I sat down and wrote out some vendor reviews. I'm not going to include all of them because I'm not done working with them, or I haven't gotten the finished product. I'll be updating this as I go along..
Meg's Brutally Honest Vendor Reviews
The Roots - A+ - If there is any decision that I made 100% correctly in planning this wedding, it was hiring the Roots as our photographers. I've only seen the preview photos, but I know they'll be as gorgeous as our engagement pictures were.
Nathan and Jensey are incredible people - they really kept me sane the day of the wedding. In the craziness that was the morning of my wedding, they functioned not only as awesome photographers, but as (and I'm probably forgetting some titles here) door people, train fluffers, fan attendants (it was 88oF, dewpoint 73oF, and 70% humidity at ceremony time), complaint department, hydration faciliators, protectors (from 8 legged spiders etc. My only regret is that I couldn't have them at the Dessert Party.

Seriously - the Roots are just amazing. The pictures that I've seen, are just incredible. I love the Roots not only as photographers, but also as friends. My highest recommendation is for anyone thinking about photography is to get them asap!
Here's the proof of how awesome they are. Definitely check out the slideshow, but if you have time to look at 1820 proofs - feel free!
Slide Show :: http://clients.rootography.com/megrob/
Proofs :: http://proofs.rootweddings.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=12 (password is "lightbown")
Reverend Jack Day - A+ - One of the nicest people I've ever met. He really did a beautiful ceremony for us, and all our guests complimented us on it! For us, he was uber easy to work with, and we had no problem getting in touch with him at all. Another great decision there!
Patricia LeJeune - B+ - I've struggled over this rating, and it really could go higher or lower. Let me explain why. Patricia is awesome - a sweetheart, and uber talented! We really only had minimal problems getting in touch with her. She and her associate Christy did an awesome job on all the girls. My makeup was flawless and it held up all day.
The part where I would downgrade her is my hair. I'm really not sure how much of it was the heat and humidity of the day, but my curls went from beautiful curls to waves by the time of the reception. I mean it didn't look bad, but it wasn't a really good look either. My hair just doesn't hold curls, waves etc. It's stick straight. In retrospect, I should have gone with an updo, but I really wanted long curls! I would still recommend Patricia though.
Carolyn Allens - A - For both steaming and tuxes, I would highly recommend CA. We had only one minor problem, and it was quickly remedied. They answered all our questions and were uber helpful. We got everything taken care of and never stepped foot in CA's itself.
Disney
Anaeli (Group Reservation Specialist) - A+! - By far, my favorite person of the whole Disney team! If you have Anaeli, you're in awesome hands. She honestly went above and beyond the entire planning process, and let me tell you - I had people not reserve their roomsuntil they got down there! She handled everything with grace and was literally the calm in the middle of the storm quite often! Not to mention that she helped Rob and I find out about the free dining, which was awesome! Just cannot speak any more highly about Anaeli!!

Pam Pearce (Wedding Coordinator) - B+ - again, another rating that was hard for me! I love Pam as a person, and she was awesome before we got a planner. But the handoff to the WP was a little rough. Like things I had discussed with her didn't translate over to our WP and it showed up on the wedding day.
Diane Bowen (Wedding Planner) - B - Before the wedding, I would have easily given Diane an A. However, there were a lot of little things that went wrong on our wedding day that were in either the BEO or email that we agreed upon. Like there were mushrooms in the food and we had 3 people (including myself who were allergic), the cake topper was wrong, the music for the ceremony was wrong etc... And these were things that were written out. Personally I like her, but I expected the day to be flawless based on other brides experiences.
DJ Frankie - D - First of all, he didn't email me - I had to get in touch with him. Disney assigned him to me. He gave me attitude when I did get in contact with him! We filled out our forms stating what music we liked and what to avoid. I asked for big band to play during the pre-reception and the dinner and he played Rod Stewart. We had that we liked 80's, 90s music (Rob likes singers like Sarah McLachlan, and I'm more grunge Nirvana, and I'm obcessed with R.E.M.), so it would have made sense that the music that he started with was in those lines. Nope! We got Motown! No one was dancing, and we had that problem the entire time. We got music that you really can't dance to, so the dance floor was empty a good bit of the time. Again, I hate to give these ratings, but even though he was a nice guy in person, it seemed like he didn't care about engaging the group into dancing.

Disney Bakery - F - I was not at all happy with the cake. The colors were completely off (the yellow ribbon was more yellow-green and the blue hydrangeas were barely blue) The worst of all - they lost my cake topper that I bought and substituted the Minnie/Mickey bride one, which I didn't want!! THey later found it, but I was uber upset! And the cake was wicked dry in my opinion - others liked it alot, but to me it just didn't taste the way it did on the tasting day!
Pending ratings - take these with a grain of Margarita Salt as I'm still working some stuff out with them
DPS - F - I haven't gotten my pictures back from them yet and I'm not quite sure when I'm going to. They took my Dessert Party Pictures, and I wasn't uber happy. It was a team of two photographers, one who was in a constant state of pissiness because we didn't use him for our photos during the day (Literally, he asked me who did our ceremony/reception pictures, and when I said the Roots he turned his nose up, and walked away from me!

I called on Tuesday to find out when they'll be ready as my contract says two weeks after the wedding. The woman said that I must have had an old contract because they take three weeks, but they're 5 weeks behind, so maybe in December they'll be ready. I called my photo contact Dara and left a message Tuesday afternoon to get an explanation and she returned my call Friday at 4:45pm and left the office at 5. I will get in contact with her Monday. Stay Tuned...

UPDATE to DPS - we got the pictures and I really don't like them at all. Here's the info to check them out -
Please visit http://www.collages.net/disneyweddings, and fill in the following information:
Username: Medlinskas / Lightbown
Password: 1971
Disney Floral - PENDING - Many things were wrong the day of the wedding, and I mean many. But the worst thing of all is that they glued my silk bouquet together and it melted in the sun and got all over my dress. And I must mention, it was a GREEN glue. My floral person is offering to re-make my bouquet and we'll see how that goes before I rate them and go into other things that were wrong.
STVs - PENDING - I don't have the video yet, but I like the sneak peek - check it out on their website!
So begins the TR! We have like 14 days of wedding/honeymoon to get through, and I'll have to break up days I'm sure, so I assume I'll have this done by hmm... our 1st anniversary?! LOL

