FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

First of all let me say that I never ever posted on li weddings.com but I was on here almost every day and I got so many great ideas from this cite, so i thought maybe my review would help others as well!

When Jason and I got engaged we thought long and hard about have a wedding (here in NY and with so many people) but we decided to have one. The wedding planning was stressful at times and of course we said things like 'we should have went away and did this' but when all was said and done it truly was the best day of our lives and it was totally worth it! We had the best time ever! The weather was gorgeous and everything went so smooth!

Engagement Ring
Jay got my ring from his family jeweler. They use him for everything. I am not sure what the name of his store is but it is located in the bronx. He always asked me the type of ring i would want, but this ring was more beautiful than i could have ever expected and so unique.



Engagement Pictures
When we got engaged i researched all different photographers, and then it hit me! I used to be a catering manager and one of our recommended vendors was Denisimo photography. Denis is awesome! (I will get into that later) We didn't want to take engagement photos but Denis said it would be a good way to see how we photograph. He works out of the Chelsea Mansion so one day in October we went their and did our engagement shoot, it was fun and only took about an hour. Needless to say the pics came out great....because Denis is great!






Wedding Bands- Ronny's Jewelry-Attius flea market
Since my ring had diamonds around the main diamond a regular band would not fit next to it, we thought we were going to have a special wedding band made for it. We were in the Attius flea market one day and just decided to look at see what our options would be.
My mother in law found this ring and suggested i try it on. It was like it was made for my engagement ring!
Jay wanted a simple band so that was easy! Ronny is such a sweetheart and very personable, I lost a diamond in my band and he is replacing it for free!





Day of Bridal pants and Tank Top-JustJen.com
My little sister got this for me as a surprise. She said the shipping was quick and the items were even on sale. The pants said bride and the tank said Mrs. Collins. Very Cute :)



Dress-Village Bridal
My dress was a Maggie Soterro (MIa) I knew i did not want anything heavy or poofy as I knew I would be dancing all over at the wedding and would not be able to handle all the weight of a big dress. I found my dress after trying on only 5 dresses. It was perfect for me! I had two fittings and everything went great. The day before the wedding I decided to try the dress on IT WAS TOO BIG! There is a chance that I could have lost weight within the 2 weeks that I had the last fitting, but the difference was so drastic. I called Village bridal at 630PM (so last minute, but thats me) and they told me to come right away. They fixed it on the spot! Thank god!






Shoes- MJM Steve Madden
I was in MJM one day and I saw these shoes that matched the girls dresses EXACTLY. I had to get them! They were $40 and I wore them all day! All my guests loved the idea of my shoes matching the girls dresses!

I do rhinestones for shoes
One of my friends got these for me and they are so cute! They make for great pictures and as something blue :)





Jewelry-
I originally got my Jewelry from weddingfactory.com and I loved it! But then I found jewelry at Tri County that I loved even more! Wedding Factory direct is so affordable and they ship quick!
I got the girls Jewelry from there and they were out of stock on 2 sets. I emailed them to make sure it would be here on time, they said it would and it was!

I also wore my MIL mothers earnings in my second hole (something borrowed and old)

Headpiece-Etsy-Mctdesigns
Originally I was going to wear my SIL's tiara but when I got a hair trial i just did not like the way i looked in it. I decided to wear a flower instead. The etsy seller was quick and responsive. The flower was a nice change from your traditional headpiece and veil.




Yankee [email protected]
I think I found her through e bay. Jay and I are both huge Yankee fans so I thought this would be cute.




Bridesmaid Dresses-Impression 1731 Village Bridal

The girl at the store suggested which dress the girls would wear (the rouching matched my dress) I loved it, when i looked at the color samples, I chose Passion. The only problem we ran into was that the dresses were ordered very late. One of my girls was getting her dress somewhere else and VB did not know this so they were waiting for her to get fitted before they ordered. My older sister became pregnant so she called to inquire about her dress fitting her pregnant belly when they told her the dresses werent even ordered yet! I called VB and they said everything would be fine and the dresses would be in (we were already 3 months away) The fittings were a little late but everything was fine. One of the girls dresses was a little tight the day of which was kind of weird because she clearly lost weight....but no big deal. After i picked the girls dresses the rest of the wedding was based around this color. The girls loved their dresses and most of them are having them shortened so they can wear them again! They were a very flattering cut.




Tuxes-Mens Warehouse
This whole thing could not have been any easier. We walked into Mens warehouse one day, told the guy what color we wanted the vests to be and he basically did everything else. He gave us a number and told us the guys could go to ANY mens warehouse just give the number or name and get fitted. They picked up the tuxes 2 days before the wedding.



Dads


Jay


Groom Cuff links-Etsy-TheClayCollection
Jay loveeees Call of Duty so I thought it would be great to find him something call of duty releated for the wedding, Etsy is the place to find anything that you think doesnt exist, they have it! The seller was great! The cuff links came quick and it a cute little Box, Jay loved them and so did all of his COD buddies :)


Flower Girl Dresses-Burlington
My nieces and nephew could wear anything and still be the cutest kids around. They are kids and they are messy. I did not think it was fair for my sister and sister in law to spend a lot of money on a dress they would only wear once. So I told them I didnt care what the dresses looked like. My sister in law found these at Burlington and they had all their sizes. I told her to get them, they were $30!!! Everyone commented on them! They are made by Cinderella and they are called basket weave!
I found the tiara's at tri county for 7$ a piece and thought the girls would love them and they did!!!




Ring Bearer- Mens Warehouse
My Nephew got the same suit as the guys.
I got him a 'ring bearer' badge and he felt so special! The pillow was a gift from my awesome hair dresser. We told him the rings were in the pillow and he needed to watch out for them (it was the only way we could get him to hold the pillow) when the officiant asked for the rings the look of confusion was heart breaking :( he didnt understand why the best man had them)....the photographer got a picture!!




Mother of the Bride Dress-Nordstrom.com
My mom found a dress at Davids bridal but they didnt have her size and we were cutting it close. She went online and found basically the same dress for half the price. My mother is not a dress person and she said this was very comfortable. She stole the show!!! (people are not used to seeing her all done up) She looked Beautiful, the jewelry was from tri county.



Mother of the Groom Dress-Davids Bridal
My MIL found her dress at Davids Bridal, she had it hemmed locally. It was beautiful and so was she!





Invitations- Classic Events Design-Michelle
Michelle was awesome! She was so accommodating and so easy to work with! She kept in touch all the time! The invitations were simple and elegant and people were calling me to tell me they got it and how beautiful it was. When it was time to do the envelopes, I made a lot of mistakes on the address', Michelle fixed them for me right away! She was awesome!

Bad picture not sure why there are lines on it


Table #'s
I made these myself, found some cute glass/silver frames from dollar tree and printed the numbers on regular paper(you couldnt tell when it was in the frame) The color of the font matched the girls dresses perfectly SORRY NO PICS

Programs-DIY
We werent going to have a program because the ceremony was so short but FIL brought up a good point people should know who's who. I typed it up on word (purple font) and printed them on heavier card stock. We rolled them up and tied ribbon around them, they got the job done and the pics are cool :)




Menu Cards-DIY
My friend is a graphic design artist, I typed up the menu for her and she made the layout for me (which I later found out matched my shower invites because she made them too). I put the file on a USB and brought it to minute man print, they put it on heavy stock and they came out so nice....So much cheaper than getting them done through anyone else.
Sorry the picture isn't so good.



Place Cards-DIY
I purchased sheets of blank Place cards from Staples, they had a silver boarder on them. I typed them up my self and was able to print them on my regular printer.


Flip Flops- DIY
I had flip flop baskets on the dance floor. I got the baskets from Walmart for about $6 a piece and laced matching ribbon around it. I got the flip flops from the dollar store, I brought about 80 pairs. It was a nice little detail but only about 30 pairs were used. I wound up giving the rest to my sisters friend who is getting married next year so at least they weren't wasted.



Channa Plaque-Mysweetmemories.com
Everyone should get one of these! They are so great! Channa is awesome she gets back to ASAP and gives you a million options! We hung this up in the kitchen after the wedding.



Beer Cozies-Oriental Trading Company
I was receiving Oriental Trading Company wedding catalogs since I was putting my info out their on wedding sites. I saw these 'to have an to hold' cozies and I thought, how cute and funny! I got them, they were like 70 bucks for 200 (i took a coupon off line as well) I had them placed on the bar and asked that the bartender put them on peoples drinks for them. People thought this was great and loved the fact that they got to take them home :)




VENDORS

Reception Hall- Chateau La Mer.

We looked at a few places before we drove by Chateau and figured we might as well just go in. Jay's sister got married here years ago, but they were very happy with everything. We loved that it was on the water and it was the first Hall that we both agreed on. We talked with Lou, he was awesome, very helpful, very funny, and very straight forward. We wound up booking not even a week later after going home and talking about it.
Chateau La Mer offers a food tasting so we took our parents to it. It was so good!! The food there is amazing. A couple days before the wedding we dropped off some stuff and Nick helped us out. He answered all the questions we had and made us feel like everything was under control.
The day of-Tito was our Banquet Manager, he was very good, He helped make everything run smoothly, anything we needed he got.
Michelle was our bridal attendant and she was AMAZING....the sweetest thing ever and so helpful. We did not ASK for one thing all day, she was 5 steps ahead of us! If it wasn't for her, a lot of things could have potentially gone wrong....She had everything under control.

The only thing that was a problem (which was so minor it wasn't really a problem) It was so hot in the cocktail hour room and everyone was saying something to me about it. I told Michelle about it and she called someone right away to have it fixed, but by that time they got to i we were already moving to the main room.
Oh and the other thing that s*cked was when our photographer said he wanted more pictures of us (towards the end of the night) we wanted to go outside but the Chateau said we couldn't because the other wedding had started. More our fault for wanting to party instead of focusing on getting more pics.

The food was OUTSTANDING, even though Jay and I didn't really get to eat (which I knew would happen) but I knew how it tasted at the food tasting. After the wedding, everyone's number one compliment on the place was how delicious the food was! They give you SOOOO Much food! They even offer seconds on the main course!








Cake- Chateau La Mer ( I think Black Forest)
I got the cake through Chateau, cake was not a big issue for us we just wanted to have something nice. It was beautiful. I forgot to ask the Florist to put flowers on it, but no big deal. The costume cake topper we got stood out with out the flowers.

Cake Topper- Etsy seller mudcards
We wanted a funny cake topper, and after I became obsessed with etsy I found this! I am always on the computer and Jay is always playing call of Duty so it was perfect. This seller was responsive and I got the topper in great shape and exactly when she said I would.








Ceremony Music- Last minute, I decided I did not want your traditional here comes the bride music, I love the Beatles so I found a really pretty instrumental version of All you need is love. I was just going to have The DJ play this but then I remembered....I work with someone who has a connect to a lot of professional musicians(Orchestra musicians, not like J-LO or Jay Z lol), I asked him what he thought about me getting a string trio for the wedding and if he knew someone. He gave me Jon Webers name. I told Jon what I wanted ( I sent him the two youtube clips i had found on line) He assured me that he was a professional composer and that he would have no problem doing this. I was still worried though as I didnt see how it could be possible for someone to replicate these songs. Well, the day of, Jon and his people were amazing, the songs were even better than the videos I had sent him. I told him to play whatever he wanted while the bridal party walked down, He played All you need is love when my father and I walked down, and my special request of 'Another one Bites the Dust' right after Jay and I got married and were walking back down the isle. Anyone who knows me, knows i like to joke around, people thought this was very funny yet it sounded so awesome and beautiful on the strings!


DJ-Fourth Generation
So So So So Amazing! Music was the most important thing to me at the wedding! I LOVE music and I needed this to be perfect!!! We dealt with Jenn the whole time. She took care of everything. She would call us every now and then to let us know when we needed to meet with her and what we needed to bring. Frankie was our MC, DJ Espo was our DJ, and I am so mad I can't remember the percussionists name he was UNBELIEVABLE! Fourth Generation also took care of our montage which came out so cute!! I gave them a list of about 20 songs I wanted to hear and they were able to tell our style right from those 20 songs. They played songs that I did not put on the list but should have! It was like they knew the kind of music we wanted better then we did!!! This was the other main compliment I got (besides the food) 'They DJ was awesome, the drums were such a good idea, and the mix of songs was perfect'. Frankie was amazing. He knew exactly what to do, he was not overly annoying like a lot of MC's are, he was funny and personable! He remembered everyone's names and he really helped make things go very smoothly! He got everyone pumped before introductions and he just has this great vibe about him
Dj Espo-AMAZING, he knew exactly what we wanted, I did not have to go to him once to see why my song wasnt being played, He played everything! His mixes of songs are so awesome!!! There were some remixes that he made that were AWESOME! people were asking where they could get that version of the song!
Percussionist-I cant even describe how good this made the overall music. This guy was out of control, he did not miss a beat, I dont even think he took a break. We wanted some kind of 'LIve' feel to the music and this definitely did it! The people who 'didnt get why we were having a percussionist', came up to me at the wedding and were like 'this guy is awesome! We totally get it now'! They even let us play the drums!!!!







Flowers-Burt*ns
Well, we refused to spend a rediculous amount on something that was guaranteed to die sooner than later, but we wanted to flowers as centerpieces so we needed to figure something out, People kept suggesting Burt*ns to me so I decided to look them up on here. Peoples main complaints about them was :the flowers did not match what I wanted or the flowers didnt last till the end of the day or died the next day' I just wanted the flowers to last through pictures, I did not care if the colors were EXACT and I did not care if they didn't last all night. So we decided to go with Burt*ns. They were so easy to deal with, I just showed them pictures of what I wanted and John suggested some other ideas for the centerpieces and bouquets. The were beautiful and did in fact last all day, all week actually! You can not beat Burt*ns prices ANYWHERE, any flower, same price. I got Calla lilies and they looked beautiful!

My only problem with the flowers was, Burt*ns wanted to drop them off at Chateau instead of my house, I didn't care so I said fine, when i got their, the flowers were just in boxes on the table in the bridal suite. I had no idea what was what and for whom. Jay wound up getting the wrong flower (no big deal, but still) and we wound up ripping the flower girl baskets apart and putting them back together the way we wanted.

All in all, Flowers were gorgeous, centerpieces were beautiful and guests got to take them home because of a game the DJ played with the table.








Flower Charm-Michael's and CVS
My grandparents died a couple of years ago and I was very close with them. I wanted to include something in the wedding that would remind me of them ( I wore my grandmothers wedding band on my other hand, but I wanted something else having to do with both of them)
I saw this idea on LIweddings. I bought the charm at Michael's for $3 and i made copies of their wedding picture and a more recent picture ( for 29 cents at CVS). I really liked the fact that 'they were with me' through this entire thing and the pictures of the charm came out very nice.



Video- VSNY video
Julie was my main contact here, he was such a nice guy. He would return all my phone calls right away and this was no hassle at all.The day of videogropher was very nice as was joking around with all of us. I did not get my video yet but I did get the raw footage and its great.

Photobooth-Party event services-Through 4th Generation

This was a huge hit!!!!! If your thinking about getting one it is TOTALLY worth it! I bought a bunch of props for this, as I thought people would enjoy it even more if they got to put on funny masks and hats!! The guys who worked it were awesome, they were giving the props to everyone and helped move the process along as the line for this never ended! Whenever I went up they made sure to bring me to the front and get me whatever I wanted! They will be giving me a CD of all the photos that were taken in the booth. This was definitely everyones favorite part of the wedding and the pictures were another thing people got to take home!






Make Up- Kelly-Glam me up
I dont think anyone could ever say a bad thing about her. She is the sweetest thing ever! I went with Kelly because she does not cake makeup on, she gives you such a natural look. They day of, she did 6 girls all together (me, my mom, my sisters, and two of the girls). She was so helpful! If it wasnt for her reminding the girls that they needed to go get dressed, we would have wound up being late!!! All of my girls loved her and all of them asked me for her contact info after the wedding.

Hair- Elena=Bridal touch by Elena
I had used Elena for a photoshoot at work and fell in love with her. When I got engaged she was the first person I thought of. I did a hair trial with her, and I liked it but something was right so I called her and told her I wasn't completely into the first look (i had a tiara with hair trial) she insisted I come back for another one and I did(with the flower) it was perfect! Elena is so nice and so outgoing. All of my girls loved her and just like Kelly, asked me for her contact info. The day of she did ALL of our hair!! (8 girls,this was one of my 'gifts' for the bridal party!) She gave me the pillow for the rings at one of the trials i had with her! Who does that? So nice!!!!











Photography-Denisimo
Denis is the Best!! I worked with him a while back (he was a recommended vendor at the last place I worked) A lot of his work is photo journalistic. I loved that! He gets the best candid shots! He totally got Jay and I. He worked with us so well! The day of, he kept everything and everyone in line! He was a huge part of the whole wedding going off so well! He seriously got a picture of EVERYTHING! His work is unbelievable!! Denis had sent another photographer to Jays house to get pictures of the guys getting ready and she was aweosme too! She was laying on the ground, hiding in bushes and climbing on things just to get the perfect unique shot! Both of them are unreal!
Denis got back to me whenever I called him! He made everything so easy and I got the pictures so fast!!!!!!!
If you ask me, I think the pictures speak for themselves. I recommend Denis to Everyone looking for a photographer. The bridal party could not believe how attentive both photographers were!!!



















Limos-Sir Oliver
Awesome! My husband dealt the Limos we got them so last minute like less then a month before. I believe he said the guys name was Rich and that he was so accommodating over the phone, he sent us a contract through the mail, we signed it and sent the money...easy!!!!!!

We only needed drop off pick up, so we got Explorer limos(I think) for each of us(him and the guys, me and the girls) Then we had town cars for our parents also!

And then they sent a Hummer Limo to come pick about 15 of us up to go back to the hotel bar.....It was nice :)

The guys were perfectly on time! Even a little early! And Super Super nice and very helpful....Not a thing went wrong with them! It was nice to have another thing not to worry about.



Let me know if you have any questions, I hope this helps some people :)

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

awesome review. You looked gorgeous!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Congratulations! Everything looked amazing!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Thanks great review.

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Thank you guys so much!! I am so glad you liked it :)

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Congrats!! Everything looked beautiful

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

You looked so beautiful Jackie!!!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

MaryAnn I love you lol thank you!, side note: the only post i ever did make on here was when i was looking for you i think it said 'Mar are you there' lol

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Congrats!!! your wedding looks amazing. I love the idea of the charm on your flowers. May god bless you both and your marriage

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Great review! You looked gorgeousss!!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

wonderful review! congratulations and hope you have a wonderful life together

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

everything looks so amazing!!! congrats!!! and I just ordered COD cufflinks for FH! Thanks for the info!!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

You guys are too sweet! I should have been posting on here all a long :) Thank you so much for your nice words!!!!

@itbroi so happy I could help :)

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

great review!! you looked amazing - congrats!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Loveeeeeeeeeeee Youuu and loved that you did this <3 Everything was amazing and you looked beautiful!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Congrats! everything looked great!!!!!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

beautiful! congratulations!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Awesome review! Everything turned out so beautifully.

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Thank you guys!!! if you have any questions about anything,Just let me know!

Re: FINALLY COMPLETE-Our Wedding 6/18/2011 Chateau La Mer- A LOT OF PICTURES-VERY LONG

Thank you for the very informative review! Everything looked amazing and you looked gorgeous!