Good advice, but push their own products a bit too much

I got introduced to Westpac's financial planning service when I bought a new house. I had a somewhat complex series of financial transactions that I needed done and they researched and advised the best way to conduct them and structure the loans. They also made some investment suggestions - I didn't follow all their advice, but am reasonably happy with the investments I made based on their recommendations. They regularly contact me about briefings and new offers, too many of which are from BT, which is owned by Westpac. Because of this, I sometimes wonder how unbiased their advice is!

Approximate cost: $0

Great workmanship, but the service is poor

We had our wedding bands made and an engagement ring redesigned. Matt did great work, but he took much longer than he said he would. We went to pickup the rings once and they weren't ready; luckily we didn't need them right away, but a phone call would have been nice. Later when we tried to call to inquire about the status of the work, it was very hard to get in contact with him and he never once returned our calls. If you use him, don't be in a hurry!

Approximate cost: $0

Good charter bus company

Transported all our wedding guests staying at various places on the Mornington Peninsula to and from the ceremony and reception. Great to deal with did a good job.

Approximate cost: $300

Good limosine service

We used these guys to take the wedding party to our wedding. They were professional to deal with and there was no hassles getting to the wedding on time.

Approximate cost: $0

Great music and atmosphere, Gil Askey is a living legend

We had the Paul Williamson Jazz Band play at our wedding. They were a little on the expensive side, but we got what we paid for. Gil is the real deal from Southern USA and he plays trumpet and sings amazingly. The vibe was fantastic and they had no trouble getting everyone up and dancing. The only trouble was that our dance floor wasn't big enough! Highly recommend.

Approximate cost: $2200

Great looking and tasting chocolate wedding cake at reasonable price

We wanted a basic chocolate mud cake for our wedding. Nothing too fancy and a reasonable price. We mentioned to our celebrant that we still needed to organise a cake, and he reccomended Donata. Donata is his wife and she makes wedding cakes herself in her home. She delivered it to the reception and set it up and it looked and tasted fantastic. We were very happy with it and can highly reccomend her services.

Approximate cost: $0

Experienced Celebrant who added a lot of life and character to our wedding

We me and spoke with four celebrants before deciding on Roger. When we met with Roger it was quite an experience as he asks a lot of questions, but this allows you to get to know him a bit better. I must admit I was a little unsure about him at first, but after an hour I warmed up to his sense of humour. Allow plenty of time to meet with him. Roger had plenty of ideas for our ceremony. On the day of our wedding he was great and then a number of our friends have used him since.

Approximate cost: $475

Great views, pity about the staff.

We used Willow Creek for our wedding, holding the reception in the room where they store all the wine barrels. It worth checking out this place for a wedding with between 80-1225 guests. The scenery is excellent from the hilltop winery and whilst the food and wine was quite good, I can't give them a very high rating because they were not as helpful and accommodating as I would have liked on the day. We had arranged for a friend who is a lighting expert to install some lights, because the lighting that they had available wasn't bright enough. On the day they said that he couldn't use his lighting because might cause problems with the wine. I can't comment on this accuracy of this. They insisted that we use their lighting and then afterwords they tried to charge us for this and given that we were already paying for the hire of the unused lights, it left us with a bad taste in our mouth.

Approximate cost: $0

Great deals if you book through the web

I have hired cars from Avis in both the US and Europe and they offer really good deals if you book through the web. I haven't had any problems with the cars that I have hired. Their insurance excess isn't too bad either, but I usually only take the minimum option becasue my travel insurance covers the rest at no extra charge. So far it's worked fine for me.

Approximate cost: $50

Poor service and overcharges for extras

I used Carbon Tune for servicing my car after experiencing bad service and expensive prices from my previous repairer. They are Ok, however I have stopped using them after they quoted me what I thought sounded like a lot of money for new tyres. After shopping around I confirmed that it was indeed an extremely high price.

Shortly after one service I noticed my car running extremely roughly. And I mean rough - it kept stalling. I happened to be near another garage and took the car in and was told that the spark plug leads needed to be replaced as they were damaged. They replaced them and then I tried to get CarbonTune to pay, but they wouldn't. So I took my business elsewhere.

Approximate cost: $150