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4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:11 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:11 AM

4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Hi all! For cultural reasons, we had 2 receptions. One at The Harbor Club in Huntington on July 4th and then another at The Huntington Town House on July 6th. First a few pics:

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:12 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:12 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Now a picture from the 6th:

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:13 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:13 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

A table shot:

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:15 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:15 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

And this one of my cousin, cuz she's just so cute trying to blow out the candle:

jags77 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:45 AM+

jags77 MEMBER SINCE: 3/03 TOTAL POSTS : 1395 WEDDING DATE: Nov 15, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 12:45 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

FARAH! i want to see more!!

you look beautiful!!

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 01:03 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 01:03 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Okay, reviews:

Wedding Dress: The Wedding Center (in Commack). My dress came in really quick and it was perfect. The people in the sales section are really terrific especially when I had my alteration crisis 48 hours before the wedding....

Wedding dress alterations: The Wedding Center. This dept was a major source of stress for me right before the wedding. I went to pick up my dress, which was perfectly fine a week before when I went for a fitting. When I picked up my freshly pressed dress, I took a look at the bodice before leaving the store. I don't know what possessed me to do this, but thank goodness I did. When they pressed the gown, I guess they thought the decorative folds in the bodice (which were the only decorations on the front of the dress) were not supposed to be there b/c they TOOK THEM OUT!! When I complained, they said they hadn't altered the bodice at all, but it was obvious to me that they had. Rather than getting them to admit they were wrong, I just kept trying to explain what the bodice was supposed to look like and wanted them to fix it or I refused to leave. After 20 minutes of arguing with them that the dress was not in fact supposed to look like that, I had to go back to the sales section to get the sample (the sales people were really wonderful and supportive during my breakdown here). After seeing the sample, the alterations kept claiming that it was a different dress from mine b/c the bodice looked totally different and they refused to admit that was b/c they had altered it. Finally they agreed to make my dress look like the sample, but the whole thing took me about 2 hours. VERY VERY STRESSFUL!!! In the end I got my dress looking the way it was supposed to though. Oh! And my bustle was too long, everyone kept stepping on it all night - which was annoying considering how much alterations cost!

Bridesmaid dresses: I told my girls to get their own navy blue dresses, so everyone got them from different places. However, one had serious issues with David's Bridal and another had problems with Burtons. Everyone else's dress experience was fine apparently, as I didn't get any crisis calls about them!

Hair: The Emerald Door. They did a wonderful job! They even opened the store for me and my girls on a holiday when most hair places are closed (believe me, I checked).

Tuxes: Dante's Tuxedos. As far as I know, the guys didn't have any problems at all. The sales people are super nice here.

Officiant: Rev. Janine Burns. She was WONDERFUL!!!! Since we had an interethnic, interfaith thing going on, we needed a pretty tailored ceremony. Dr. Burns was wonderful with helping us write the ceremony, reassuring our parents and running the 'show.'

Flowers: Designer Florals. The flowers were gorgeous, but... FM me if you have any questions about the 'but.'

Shuttlebus: Bayview Tours. They were fantastic. The drivers were really nice. They really took care of us. We were running late and messed up our schedule a bit, but they were very understanding and accommodating. Rob's dad left his camera on the bus at the end of the night and they were nice enough to drop it off at the HTH on Sunday.

Photographer: Gray Studios. Steven and his wife/assistant were really nice. Haven't gotten our pics back yet, so I'll have more details later. It did feel a bit rushed though, b/c we started 1/2 hour later than we were supposed to (my aunt thought she was having a heart attack the night before - turned out to be perfectly fine - but most of my family got very little sleep the night before the wedding and a late start the day of b/c of the trip to the ER). We still had plenty of time to take all the pics we wanted.

Videographer: Gray Studios. Michael was very nice as well. I'll have more info when I see the DVD.

Ceremony site/Reception Hall: The Harbor Club at TeeTee's Landing. I love this hall. They totally took care of us. Maureen, the banquet manager, is fantastic. Chris, our maitre d' is terrific - he dealt well with one of our vendors who became difficult on the wedding day. Sue, the bridal attendant was also terrific. The wait staff was wonderful. I cannot say enough nice things about this place. Everything was better than I imagined. The food was great. Everyone kept raving about it and what I got a chance to eat was yummy! My MOH loved the place so much that she thinks she'll probably get married there!!

DJ: Touch of Class. Joe was great. He had people on the dance floor all night. He played all our 'must play' songs and none of the 'do not play' list. Even though he didn't agree with some of our choices, he respected our wishes and it was a great wedding.

Hotel: The Huntington Country Inn. We didn't really have a choice in hotels, as this was the only one that was really convenient and could hold the large number of guests that needed rooms. Unfortunately, we had a lot of problems. They lost several reservations (some more than once)! They refused to tell me how many rooms were booked by my guests, so I had no idea how many hotel bags to make. This was a big problem as my guests needed the hotel bags to get the letter that told them when to board the shuttle to the wedding. I left plenty of extra letters, but some of my guests still didn't get them and didn't get on the shuttle. They were really rude to me, my family, my fiance's family and I don't know how many of my guests. So that was disturbing...

2nd reception: Huntington Town House. I know all the horror stories, but I really think it depends on who you deal with at the hall. We had a couple of bad experiences and then refused to deal with anyone other than Elliott. He really took care of us and was wonderful. John, our maitre d', and Ludmilla (sp???), our bridal attendant, were great. They really took care of us. The bridal attendant was really sweet and took care of our food (buffet this time), so that we could eat! The Viennese table was really cool! (and a wonderful surprise from my parents)

Photographer/Videographer for 2nd reception: Imagine Studios. Paula and her husband were absolutely wonderful. Such nice people! It was a joy to have them with us that day. I'll have more details when I get the proofs/video.

Limo for 2nd reception: Limo Connection. We decided to get a large SUV limo for the Bengali reception at the very last minute (Wednesday, July 2!). They were really great in working with us despite the 11th hour call. Our limo drivers were really nice. Early, pleasant. The cars were very nice as well - my little cousin (pictured above) had the most fun I think!

ok. That's all for now. Of course, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Edited to add the last vendor - sorry, forgot them last night!

GroomsMom Posted: Jul 18, 2003 05:33 AM+

GroomsMom MEMBER SINCE: 6/03 TOTAL POSTS : 167 WEDDING DATE: Oct 10, 2004

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 05:33 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

ONE WEDDING IS SO MUCH STRESS, I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU MANAGED TO DEAL WITH 2. SEEMS LIKE IT WENT WELL THOUGH AND YOU DID HAVE SOME BEAUTIFUL WEATHER THAT WEEKEND. GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

mlp924 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 08:23 AM+

mlp924 MEMBER SINCE: 5/03 TOTAL POSTS : 6172 WEDDING DATE: Mar 12, 2004

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 08:23 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Congrats! Two weddings and you look beautiful in both!

Where did you honeymoon?

butterfly20 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:05 AM+

butterfly20 MEMBER SINCE: 3/03 TOTAL POSTS : 10671 WEDDING DATE: Nov 06, 2004

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:05 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

congrats! you look beautiful, the weddings looked great.. and glad you had a good experience with HTH

daisybride Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:08 AM+

daisybride MEMBER SINCE: 5/03 TOTAL POSTS : 1527 WEDDING DATE: Jul 24, 2004

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:08 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Sounds great. what beautiful pics. You look so nice in both styles. I love that you incorporated both cultures in your marriage. YAY

farah416 Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:31 AM+

farah416 MEMBER SINCE: 8/02 TOTAL POSTS : 280 WEDDING DATE: Jul 04, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:31 AM

Re: 4th of July wedding (long) review and a few pics

Thank you! It was a little insane to have this whole wedding weekend - we had a family dinner on the 3rd and lunch of out of town guests on the 5th too. But it all worked out in the end. It helped to try and get as much done as possible ahead of time. And it really helped that our families were so great and pitched in a lot that weekend!

Unfortunately, due to his school schedule and both our work schedules, we could only take a long weekend for our honeymoon. We went to the Poconos - which is perfect for a long weekend. When he's done with school we're going to try to take a really long break and go to New Zealand and Australia. (That's a few years from now) I have to say though, my brain definitely took a honeymoon! It is really hard to get work done!

edited to correct spelling...

shelzyp Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:35 AM+

shelzyp MEMBER SINCE: 1/03 TOTAL POSTS : 7428 WEDDING DATE: Oct 12, 2003

Posted: Jul 18, 2003 09:35 AM