Vendor Reviews
Brookside Travel Agency (Northville, MI): C-
The TA I dealt with was Shelly Andrus.
Oct 14, 2009 - So far my experience with Shelly has been great. She replies to e-mails very switftly and she is very knowledgable with the Sandals resorts and how to get specials & perks. She is very friendly and knows her job! It seemed to take a while to get my pricing, but I don't think that was her fault. Also, she seems very willing to help our family and friends with booking thier trip. Yes, she gets something out of it, but she seems excited about our wedding and happy to help.
May 30, 2010 - My experience hasn't been as great as it was in the beginning. The level of service has dropped of a lot since we've paid for our trip. It takes her a while to reply to emails. I'm not sure why. My mom, aunt and FI's parents all booked using other sources. They all said that when they called Shelly her prices were too high. They also said it took days for her to return a phone call. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did. Also, I ended up just mailing my final payment. I tried to email her to make payment arrangements, but she didn't get back to me...so I just mailed it. Also there is an issue with our resort credit that has not been resolved and I can't seem to get anything in writting nor a straight answer.
August 2010 - In the end the customer service from my main TA was not good. The comunication was even worse. I ended up dealing with the owner of the company a few weeks before we left, and sadly, he too was bad with follow up. We did not get all the credits we were promised by the TA...and of course they blamed Sandals. I don't know what the real issue was because it was hard to get straight answers. When we got to our room, we had 2 bottles of champagne from the travel agency, which was a nice gesture, but it wasn't a big deal because the champagne was included in our package. It wasn't an "extra". Yet, with all that said, I would not use this company again and I would not recommend them.
Group USA (Auburn Hills, MI): B
My Dress Search/Purchase Experience~
Oct 14, 2009 - My experience here is mixed so far. The 1st time I went, the experience was OK. I tried on about 6 dresses there before I found my dress! Rosa, was not very on the ball with customer service...BUT then again, she did bring me THE dress to try on. My 2nd visit there was great! I dealt with a 2nd consultant who grabbed my dress quickly and let me try it on as long as I wanted, LOL. My 3rd time, I went just to try it on one more time before I purchased it (they have no return policy), I got service from a 3rd consultant, she was OK. Not so friendly, but not bad. She helped me after I asked for help at the front counter. But she was nice about showing me the French and American bustles on my dress. She seemed to get a much nicer when she realized I would be ordering my gown that day....hmm, makes you wonder.
The Needle Nook (Farmington, MI): A+
Gown Alererations~ Maria
1st visit - 6.11.10. So far so good. The little old lady who runs the place is so cute. She really knows her stuff and I was in and out. I felt confident that she knows exactly what I need to be done.
2nd visit - 7.3.10. Maria, was awesome. My dress came out wonderful and her pricing was very reasonable. If you go to her, tell her Tamara sent you. :-)
Rubber Ducky Designs (Carla, Etsy Seller): A-
Oct 14, 2009 - Yesterday I finished up designing my boarding pass style invitations.
What I do like: What like about her is that she is good at following direction and is very open to your suggestions. She has good e-mail communication skills and she replies quickly. She seems like a nice lady.
What I didn't like: I designed them myself....which is okay since it turned out how I wanted. I just didn't expect that. I thought she would have designed them and let me give feedback. I gave her a digital copy of my STD and my monogram (that I previously designed), which she used. Nothing on my invitation was something original from the seller. Like I said, they turned out perfectly, so it all worked out.
March, 2010 - I got my invitations in the mail. It took about 3 weeks to get 50 invitations. Not bad on delivery time. I must say they turned out amazing. She did a good job puting them all together. The quality of work was very good.
Vista Print: B+
Oct 14, 2009 - Late last week the STDs came in the mail. I was very dissapointed with the cutting quality of the postcards. They were all uneven and looked like someone couldn't cut along the lines! You could see the lines on the back of the post card and my design was not centered due to the bad cutting. BUT they did fix the situation, by giving me an in store credit to re-purchase them.
July 2010 - I got some free items from VP. Of which all turned out well! I got a "Game Over" shirt for DH, which I uploaded the picture myself. I got a "Soon to be Mrs." shirt for myself, which also turned out well, but it was a little to big. I also picked up a note pad & sticky note pad (both with my new name) and free pen (which the ink was dried up), but it was free, so I can't really complain. The shipping was super fast, which was awesome because I ordered at the last minute!
Sandals Grande St.Lucian Spa & Resort A+
Resort Overall:
FABULOUS! It’s a very nice resort. Well maintained. The pools and hot tubs are immaculate. bars are awesome and they make strong drinks! J The beach is nice and ocean was swimmable! The I think that the Grande has the best beach out of the three Sandals Resorts in St.Lucia. The staff is very helpful and kind. Everyone is so happy and fun. The resorts has different events each evening. From a midnight Chocolate Buffet to a Street Carnival. They had something going on every night.
Side note: We could not tip anyone. We tried more than once, but they would not accept it…they said they could accept gratuity in non monetary forms. I guess they meant gift cards, gifts or something…anything except cash. I guess they get in BIG trouble if they are found accepting cash.
Concierge Level Check In:
When we arrived at the resort we were escorted to the Concierge Lounge. We sat down and were offered rum punch, pop or water. We did all the check in stuff while relaxing in the lounge looking out at the ocean. There was also an orientation offered to us in the form of a tour of the resort the next morning. You don’t have to take the tour if you don’t want, but since there are so many things going on, we figured it wouldn’t hurt. It only took 30 minutes.
The check in was quick and painless. A Concierge brought us to our room and explained more things that we had available to us. They explained the mini bar, the room service, the restaurant reservations and a few other things. Basically the Concierge will take care of anything you ask about. They said they never say “No”…lol, now we didn’t test that statement, but they do try to help you in any way they can. We were greeted with a fresh fruit plate, some canapés and a bottle of champagne in our room. Shortly after we got in the room our luggage was delivered.
The Room & Concierge Service:
We had a Concierge Level Ocean View Suite room. It was great! Not as big as I thought it would be, but it was a nice size and not cramped. The room was very clean and well kept during our stay. I wish the bathrooms had a little more of a spa feel, like with a jetted tub or something, but it was nice. The housekeeping service comes so early! The first few days they kept coming so early, we were still sleep! We had to tell them not to come before 11am. After that it was all good.
The view from our room was also nice. We were on the top floor, but still there were some high trees. Even with the trees, we could still see the ocean just fine.
With Concierge Level rooms you get a fully stocked mini bar with alcohol, beer and mixers, juice, water, etc. You can tell the Concierge what you like and they will just refill that if you prefer. In our case we didn’t like the beer they put in there, so we told them no more beer, more juice…and they did just that! No more yucky beer for us. J
You also get a full room service menu that you can order from at any time. That was great, because our first day there we were so tired, we just ordered room service and took a nap. We went out much later, but it was nice to just chill for a moment and not have to go eat all tired from the trip.
Also with the Concierge Level you have access to the beach Cabanas. They book up REALLY fast, so book this with the Concierge as soon as you arrive. It’s a nice thing to have. You get a Cabana server and you get food and drinks brought to you on the beach. No need to even get up! It was nice laying in a Covered Cabana in the shade. We’ll defiantly do that again!
In our opinion, the upgraded Concierge service was worth the costs. We will do Concierge Level again on our next Sandals vacation!
The Food:
The restaurants are very good. The five star Italian restaurant on the resort is Josephine’s and the food was great! We had both our breakfast in bed (morning after the wedding) and our wedding dinner there. It was amazing and it was more than I expected. At our wedding dinner, the head chef came out and congratulated us. He talked to our table and gave us recommendations. The chef also prepared an appetizers for us!
We also went to Toscanini, which is the 5 star French restaurant at the other Sandals Regency Spa & Golf Resort which also was amazing. I had the best Chocolate Cake I ever had there. It had Grand Marnier in it! Sooooo good!
I must stay, the buffet style meals were more average food, BUT if you take the time to go to the 5 star restaurants….you will not be disappointed. One evening, they had a Street Carnival where they had all kind of local foods and entertainment! That was amazing. I had grilled lobster tail. That rocked! They also had some kind of BBQ another night, I can’t remember what they called the event. But it also had tons of good grilled foods.
The restaurants are very good. The five star Italian restaurant on the resort is Josephine’s and the food was great! We had both our breakfast in bed (morning after the wedding) and our wedding dinner there. It was amazing and it was more than I expected. At our wedding dinner, the head chef came out and congratulated us. He talked to our table and gave us recommendations. The chef also prepared an appetizers for us!
We also went to Toscanini, which is the 5 star French restaurant at the other Sandals Regency Spa & Golf Resort which also was amazing. I had the best Chocolate Cake I ever had there. It had Grand Marnier in it! Sooooo good!
I must stay, the buffet style meals were more average food, BUT if you take the time to go to the 5 star restaurants….you will not be disappointed. One evening, they had a Street Carnival where they had all kind of local foods and entertainment! That was amazing. I had grilled lobster tail. That rocked! They also had some kind of BBQ another night, I can’t remember what they called the event. But it also had tons of good grilled foods.
The Service:
The staff was amazing. Like I said earlier, everyone is kind and helpful. For some reason our air conditioner was on the fritz, It had been going off for about 2 days. Every time we called about it, someone came up ASAP and fixed it quickly. Unfortunately the morning while I was getting dressed it was off. I was sweating like crazy trying to get ready for the wedding. It was annoying. I ended up going to my mom’s room to finish getting dressed. The wedding planner must have mentioned it to customer care, because the next day a customer service person called us to find out what happened. I explained what happened the wedding morning and she apologized and we let it go. The next day we got a call from the General Manager apologizing about the troubles we had with the air conditioning. I mentioned the wedding morning and he was very sincere that he wanted to see if he could do something for us since we had such trouble with the air. We went to the concierge lounge to check out the night before we left and we found that the General Manager had authorized a $300 credit for our room. We were very surprised and happy about it. While we were in the lounge the General Manger came in and introduced himself and he was VERY nice about everything. We left there with a great feeling about everything. They were so proactive in trying to set things straight for us. AWESOME customer service.
The Spa Services:
The Spa staff was great! The services I got were; a 60 minute massage, a nail polish change and a makeup trial the day before the wedding. On the morning of the wedding I had my make up done. The atmosphere was really relaxing and I would recommend it! They have some outdoor locations where you can get a outdoor massage if you like. I believe there is an extra charge to get a massage on the beach, but you can do it. They also have these hot and cold dipping pools that are supposed to be good for cleansing toxins. I’ll be sure to try those next time.
The massage was so relaxing and enjoyable. The massage therapist I had was very nice and sociable. She did an excellent job giving me a massage that relaxed me instead of being too painful! Of course, at the end of the massage she tried to sell me products…but that’s the norm I guess.
The makeup artists was great. She does the hair and makeup, she too also tried to sell me makeup products after my makeup trial. She really listened to what I told her I wanted to look like and did a nice job of executing the look. She was also very kind and personable. While doing my wedding make up, I noticed that my bangs started to fall already since I’d done them, so she was nice enough to re-curled them for me at no additional charge.
I will use the Spa services again on our next trip!
The Wedding Services:
The Wedding planners there were great! The day after we got there we met with our wedding coordinator. She went over all of our options and we tasted the cake options. We made our choices and had 1 day to add any flowers or upgrades/additions. I must say, all of the upgrades and additions are very expensive. Sandals really gets you with all the add-ons. All very pretty and when you see them, you’ll want it all!
They really know what they are doing and even though they do a lot of weddings in a day, you do feel like you got personal service. I didn’t get that “conveyor belt” assembly line feeling at all. I felt that our choices made our wedding unique and not like the others. We ended up paying $100 to have rose petals down the aisle, which was a nice touch. Too bad that once I got down there, most of the petals had blown away…oh, well! We paid $100 for the sand ceremony (even though we brought our own sand). They didn’t have the colors we wanted, so we brought our own.
I was able to give her our own colored sand for the sand ceremony and a “F” cake topper. She took care of this without any extra charges. I ended up using our my own bouquet, but I gave my mom the free one from the resort.
After the wedding they even boxed up all the extra cake and brought it to our room. We got munched on wedding cake with champagne for the next few days. They wrapped up and froze the top cake tier for us! They said customs would allow us to bring it into the US…but in the end we opted not to bring it back with us. We already had the sand ceremony to bring back plus with how long our trip was, it would be a hassle and the cake would probably be thawed by the time we got home.
FYI, if you bring things that require them to set up anything, like table décor, place cards, photo book table, etc…they will do all of it for you at a fee of $150.
The Photographer, Videographer & Photo Shop:
The photos are very expensive. Period. The packages go as high as $3000. Plan on spending no less than $595. That is the lowest package available without buying Al Carte. That price includes 18 photos with the digital negatives. The photographer was nice, but he didn’t do any of the must have shots I gave him and that was disappointing. The pictures were nice, but nothing special. Nothing to artistic or unique.
We paid $500 for a Wedding DVD. The videographer was nice also. She did a wonderful job. When we looked at the video, we realized that we didn’t even know some of the times she was recording! We got to review the video when we picked it up, but we had no say in how it was edited. Which I was nervous about, but it turned out great! That was TOTALLY worth the money. The DVD was awesome quality!
I brought our own music (burned on a CD) for the ceremony. The wedding party/ groom’s walk down the aisle, the bride’s walk down the aisle, the marriage certificate signing and the first dance. They laid the music tracks that I brought with us perfectly.
The person we dealt with at the photo shop was okay. She kind of rushed us through viewing all of the photos to make our choices. They did not work with you at all on the prices. It is what it is. That part sucked.
The staff was amazing. Like I said earlier, everyone is kind and helpful. For some reason our air conditioner was on the fritz, It had been going off for about 2 days. Every time we called about it, someone came up ASAP and fixed it quickly. Unfortunately the morning while I was getting dressed it was off. I was sweating like crazy trying to get ready for the wedding. It was annoying. I ended up going to my mom’s room to finish getting dressed. The wedding planner must have mentioned it to customer care, because the next day a customer service person called us to find out what happened. I explained what happened the wedding morning and she apologized and we let it go. The next day we got a call from the General Manager apologizing about the troubles we had with the air conditioning. I mentioned the wedding morning and he was very sincere that he wanted to see if he could do something for us since we had such trouble with the air. We went to the concierge lounge to check out the night before we left and we found that the General Manager had authorized a $300 credit for our room. We were very surprised and happy about it. While we were in the lounge the General Manger came in and introduced himself and he was VERY nice about everything. We left there with a great feeling about everything. They were so proactive in trying to set things straight for us. AWESOME customer service.
The Spa Services:
The Spa staff was great! The services I got were; a 60 minute massage, a nail polish change and a makeup trial the day before the wedding. On the morning of the wedding I had my make up done. The atmosphere was really relaxing and I would recommend it! They have some outdoor locations where you can get a outdoor massage if you like. I believe there is an extra charge to get a massage on the beach, but you can do it. They also have these hot and cold dipping pools that are supposed to be good for cleansing toxins. I’ll be sure to try those next time.
The massage was so relaxing and enjoyable. The massage therapist I had was very nice and sociable. She did an excellent job giving me a massage that relaxed me instead of being too painful! Of course, at the end of the massage she tried to sell me products…but that’s the norm I guess.
The makeup artists was great. She does the hair and makeup, she too also tried to sell me makeup products after my makeup trial. She really listened to what I told her I wanted to look like and did a nice job of executing the look. She was also very kind and personable. While doing my wedding make up, I noticed that my bangs started to fall already since I’d done them, so she was nice enough to re-curled them for me at no additional charge.
I will use the Spa services again on our next trip!
The Wedding Services:
The Wedding planners there were great! The day after we got there we met with our wedding coordinator. She went over all of our options and we tasted the cake options. We made our choices and had 1 day to add any flowers or upgrades/additions. I must say, all of the upgrades and additions are very expensive. Sandals really gets you with all the add-ons. All very pretty and when you see them, you’ll want it all!
They really know what they are doing and even though they do a lot of weddings in a day, you do feel like you got personal service. I didn’t get that “conveyor belt” assembly line feeling at all. I felt that our choices made our wedding unique and not like the others. We ended up paying $100 to have rose petals down the aisle, which was a nice touch. Too bad that once I got down there, most of the petals had blown away…oh, well! We paid $100 for the sand ceremony (even though we brought our own sand). They didn’t have the colors we wanted, so we brought our own.
I was able to give her our own colored sand for the sand ceremony and a “F” cake topper. She took care of this without any extra charges. I ended up using our my own bouquet, but I gave my mom the free one from the resort.
After the wedding they even boxed up all the extra cake and brought it to our room. We got munched on wedding cake with champagne for the next few days. They wrapped up and froze the top cake tier for us! They said customs would allow us to bring it into the US…but in the end we opted not to bring it back with us. We already had the sand ceremony to bring back plus with how long our trip was, it would be a hassle and the cake would probably be thawed by the time we got home.
FYI, if you bring things that require them to set up anything, like table décor, place cards, photo book table, etc…they will do all of it for you at a fee of $150.
The Photographer, Videographer & Photo Shop:
The photos are very expensive. Period. The packages go as high as $3000. Plan on spending no less than $595. That is the lowest package available without buying Al Carte. That price includes 18 photos with the digital negatives. The photographer was nice, but he didn’t do any of the must have shots I gave him and that was disappointing. The pictures were nice, but nothing special. Nothing to artistic or unique.
We paid $500 for a Wedding DVD. The videographer was nice also. She did a wonderful job. When we looked at the video, we realized that we didn’t even know some of the times she was recording! We got to review the video when we picked it up, but we had no say in how it was edited. Which I was nervous about, but it turned out great! That was TOTALLY worth the money. The DVD was awesome quality!
I brought our own music (burned on a CD) for the ceremony. The wedding party/ groom’s walk down the aisle, the bride’s walk down the aisle, the marriage certificate signing and the first dance. They laid the music tracks that I brought with us perfectly.
The person we dealt with at the photo shop was okay. She kind of rushed us through viewing all of the photos to make our choices. They did not work with you at all on the prices. It is what it is. That part sucked.