My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

I’m so happy I found this site shortly after getting engaged! I’ve met some new friends and gotten TONS of helpful advice. I can’t wait for the rest of you 2014 and 2015/2016 brides that I feel like I know so well to have the same feelings I have right now!
If I had to give one piece of advice, it would definitely be: don’t sweat the small stuff. IT’S SO TRUE that when it’s the day of, none of it matters. Nothing can prepare you for the whirlwind that your day will be. While it did go very quickly, I remember at one point during dinner reflecting on it all and thinking, yesterday feels like it was a million years ago. With all of that said, here’s how my planning and my day went:

The East Wind (The Cottage) – A+
I can’t even begin to find the words to describe just how incredibly wonderful every. single. person. at the East Wind is. Our Banquet Manager was Penny and she was FANTASTIC throughout the entire process. We went to the East Wind for two reasons: When we were first dating, my husband and I used to go camping a lot at Wildwood and Sound Avenue runs along the back side of the East Wind. Every time we passed it I would think to myself, that looks like a gorgeous place to get married. At that time, I didn’t even know that it was a catering hall, the sign says “Inn and Spa.” The second reason was because we knew that The Cottage offered the all-inclusive package. We were worried when we made the appointment that it was going to be a high pressure situation and the sales person was going to try and talk us out of all-inclusive and into a more expensive room. But, that didn’t happen at all! In fact, Penny spoke very favorably of the package and the perks of “one stop shopping” essentially. We already have a significant amount of debt, own a home and have a 7 year old daughter. Having the Long Island wedding experience was very important to us, but so was not going broke. The Cottage really fit our situation perfectly, and it was at my picturesque East Wind dream location.
The ceremony was on site, and we did pictures beforehand to capture the daylight. We got lucky, as we were the Saturday evening wedding and there was no day wedding, so we could take pictures at The Cottage while there was still light. It’s so beautiful; it’s everything I could have hoped for and more.
Our maître d, Suzanne, was amazing. I had specific instructions on how/where I wanted everything we dropped off. The day of the wedding, she executed my vision even better than I could have imagined. The tables were perfect, everything was beyond perfect. Judy, my bridal attendant was also THE BEST. Every time I sat down, my dress would come un-bustled. She had to re-do it three times before I was just like, F it, I’m not sitting anymore, lol. The two of them are a dream team who bring your vision to life and leave you worrying about absolutely nothing. We had a few no shows (I mean really…) and Judy packed up quite a few meals for us to take home. Our guests are still raving about the food! We did get to eat, I wasn’t missing all this food I spent so long picking out! We were so full from cocktail hour, by the time dinner came, we could barely eat! We were very happy they gave us so many meals to take home. The Cottage package includes an ice cream sundae bar with cake, and it was a HUGE hit with our guests. Everyone loved it! Seriously, if you’re considering The East Wind for your wedding, you can’t go wrong. Everyone is so amazing! And if you need seat fillers, call me! I want to attend a wedding there! LOL!
And if you’re considering a wedding at The Cottage, no one knew that it was a “budget wedding.” It didn’t look or feel cheap at all. I mean, AT ALL. It was so so so perfect.







DJ – Tommy’s Tunes – A+
With the all-inclusive package, we had two DJ’s to choose from. But, Tommy’s Tunes and LI Sound? How could you go wrong? We went with Tommy’s Tunes without even meeting with LI Sound simply because when we met with Tommy we just clicked and didn’t really want to waste time or second guess ourselves with another meeting. We didn’t make the wrong choice! We upgraded the inclusive package to the DJ/MC package and added a basic light show. I don’t remember who our DJ was (I know, that’s terrible!!) but our MC was PJ and he was excellent! He really kept the party going without being too in your face, he was just perfect. They played every single song that was on my must play list and didn’t play anything that was on the do not play list. I can’t wait for the video; we and all of our friends and family were dancing animals the whole night! They also did our ceremony music, and everything was on point. I literally can’t think of one single complaint about Tommy’s Tunes. They were one of our favorite vendors.


Photo – ADA – A+
We also had a choice of ADA or Marco Photography. We, again, just met with ADA (in the same building as Tommy’s Tunes) and because the meeting went so well, we didn’t bother with another meeting. We met with Helen for our first meeting, and she explained the package and which upgrades she recommended. The package included A LOT, and she recommended the home coverage (I feel like, obviously, who doesn’t want pics of them getting ready?) and an assistant. What awesome advice. We did those two upgrades and it’s how we were able to take the pics before the ceremony. Having an assistant made things go SO MUCH faster and we were able to get almost all of our pics outside in the fading autumn sunlight because of it. So, yay for Helen!
Our photographer was Aida. I loved her from the minute I first spoke to her. She called me a few days before the wedding to go over everything. I explained that we wanted to do pics beforehand and that we would have access to The Cottage since there was no day wedding. She was excited! She gave me the rundown of how everything would go, and she just set my mind so at ease. I had been stressed about the timing of everything and logistics, but she totally calmed every fear I had. When she showed up the day of the wedding, everything happened so fast! LOL! I didn’t have a list of pics I wanted, but she totally captured everything, she is 100000% a pro! Her assistant Joey was on point also, everything went so smooth and quickly, so we were able to be at our cocktail hour. I’m a little upset at myself for not having a specific list of pics I wanted, because looking at my pics now, even though I LOVE them, I find myself thinking, I wish I had that shot.







Video – LJR Films – A
Thanks to all of you ladies on this site, we found Lesean! I was lucky that I must have called him JUST before he got crazy popular, because he still had my day open (I only booked him two months before the wedding!) and he was easy to get ahold of. As my day got closer, he was a little tougher to get in touch with. It took a few emails before he got back to me. But, he did get back to me and he was on time the day of (travelling from Brooklyn to Wading River – quite a hike!). He was totally professional and got there before the photographer so we were able to calmly do our interview, getting ready shots and everything. He was so sweet, he hugged me when he first got to the hotel, like we'd been friends, even though it was our first time meeting.
**Update** We received our trailer yesterday, and I'm in LOVE!! Lesean did such an amazing job, I can't say enough good things about him!! Now I'm REALLY excited for the whole video!!

Our Trailer


Rings – Artistic Jewelers, Farmingdale – A+
When my husband (still so weird to write that!) was looking for my engagement ring, he stole my best friend’s phone number out of my phone and texted her for advice. They plotted the whole thing and I had no idea! When it came time for wedding rings, we went back to Kay and her staff at Artistic Jewelers and they gave us a super fair price for what we were looking for. I bring my ring in all the time for cleaning, and they’re just very nice people. Definitely recommend them!




Dress – The Bridal World, Baldwin – A
I originally had my eye on a Justin Alexander dress. Not a lot of shops on LI carried the dress I wanted, and even though I live in Babylon, I made the trek to Baldwin to try on this dress. And much to my disappointment, I didn’t love the dress. So the girl who was helping me, Jeanne, picked a few other JA dresses, all of which were beautiful, but none of them were THE ONE. So, just like on SYTTD, SHE picked out a dress for me to try on. And YOWZA! It was the winner. It was an Allure dress, and I’ve never felt more beautiful than I did when I tried on that dress. I found out when I went for my first fitting that Jeanne no longer works there, but the owner, Ronnie, and I totally got along. I feel like we’re friends now, lol. My daughter has done some modeling work for Sweetie Pie Collection, the communion/flower girl dress wholesaler that shares space with The Bridal World, so we’re in there a lot! The ONLY complaint I have about this experience was that when my dress was in, no one called me. They SAID they called me, but no one did. So, I was bummed that I missed out on that experience of “I GOT THE CALL!!” But it all worked out in the end, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. And my dress was amazing. Andrea did the alterations, and they were right at what they said the cap was, and she did a beautiful job.










Bridesmaids Dresses – Burton’s – A
When everyone says that Burton’s has the best prices, they’re not kidding. When I originally picked the dress I wanted for the girls, I took my sister to Renate’s in Lindenhurst to try it on, because it was close to my house. I was seriously underwhelmed by their customer service. I asked if there were any similar dresses to the one I picked out, maybe I wanted to see something else, and the woman who was “helping” me was just like, oh I don’t know… and walked away. Never saw her again. So, someone recommended that I try Burton’s. I was a little nervous after some of the reviews, but I called and they were easily $50 under anywhere else I called. So, we ordered from them. They came in on time, and the order was correct. There were some miscommunications along the way, and a lot of “uummm, I don’t know I’ll have to call you back” which made me extra nervous. But once the dresses were in, all was good. Only one of my bridesmaids got alterations there, and to be honest, I think they made it a little too tight. Even their alterations were inexpensive, so maybe you get what you pay for? I don’t know. Friday morning, the day before my wedding, my sister flew in and needed her dress pressed (it was taffeta) and Burton’s told us to come right in and she pressed it while we waited. I thought that was exceptional customer service.




Flowers – Burton’s – A+
So while I was setting up dresses, why not pop in downstairs and check out flowers? (Are you seeing a theme? I don’t like shopping around, lol) I don’t know anything about flowers; I think they’re a huge waste of money, they die. I don’t even want them for Valentine’s Day, my birthday, not any occasion. I didn’t want to spend money on flowers. But, I know they’re a necessary evil at a wedding, so I wanted the cheapest option ever. And then something happened to me. I became, dare I say, kind of girly for a second? I saw a picture of a pumpkin centerpiece on Pinterest and immediately NEEEDED them as my centerpieces. Centerpieces were included in our all-inclusive package with East Wind’s florist, but the options were meh. So I told Burton’s exactly what I needed item wise, how many bouquets, how many centerpieces, how many corsages, etc. He gave me the price. THEN we talked about flowers. I loved that the price was the price regardless of the type of flowers that I wanted. The price seemed good, so we went with it. When they delivered the flowers on my wedding day, I was blown away. Like I said, I’m not impressed by flowers. But these bouquets were GORGROUS! I had dropped off one of my dad’s ties and two bouquet charms and they wrapped everything perfectly. The centerpieces were AMAZING! They came out even better than I imagined. I can’t recommend Burton’s enough!







Tuxedos – Men’s Warehouse (Massapequa) – A
After all of the horror stories about Men’s Warehouse, I was a little scared to go here, but it was the most frugal option. And it was, thankfully, a very easy experience. We went and picked everything out, and then him and his guys went together to be measured. Everything was in on time, and fit correctly. No complaints on this one!




“Flower Girl” dress – Sweetie Pie Collection – A+++
I don’t go for the extra pluses in a review, but this one deserves it! My daughter wasn’t the flower girl, but this was a flower girl dress. As I said earlier, Sweetie Pie Collection shares space with The Bridal World. When I went in for my first dress fitting, they had a Hasidic a couple in their office picking out a flower girl dress which would then be customized to meet their modest needs. But, they didn’t have their flower girl with them. So when I walked in with my daughter, they asked if she would mind trying on a few dresses for them, so they could get an idea of what it would look like. Any excuse to play dress up when you’re a little girl, lol. So she did, they left, I had my fitting, we all went on with our lives. The next day, one of the owners called me and said they were impressed with my daughter and would she be interested in modeling for their 2015 Communion catalog? So we did. And there was one dress that I was in love with. She ended up getting a call back for a second photo shoot with them (those pics are now on their website!!) and at that time I asked them how I could purchase the dress I loved. They told me since it was the 2015 collection, they wouldn’t have stock until December. Oh, well. What are ya gonna do? And then he said, well you can borrow this one. WHAT?! Just like that. So the day I picked up my dress, I also picked up her dress. Everyone at Sweetie Pie Collection is SO NICE!! I returned the dress the Tuesday after the wedding and BSed with Ronnie at The Bridal World for a bit. They’re just the nicest people. If you’re looking for a flower girl dress (or communion dress in the future!) definitely check out their website! There are quite a few shops on LI where you can order their dresses. (I ended up purchasing a second dress for my daughter for $30 on Amazon for her to change into after the ceremony and pictures. Since the dress was borrowed, I didn’t want to take a chance of her getting it dirty or spilling food. Everyone loved that she had a costume change!)




Day of jewelry & Headpiece – Kate Spade & my something borrowed
A very good friend of mine works at Kate Spade. So she bought me my earrings and the “Happily Ever After” bracelet. It was very nice of her and everything went so beautifully. Another very good friend of mine after seeing the dress I bought and my hair trial was like, omg you have to use my headpiece! It was all Swarovski and it matched like it was made for my day!!






Shoes – Converse – A+
All the girls wore Converse sneaks, a detail they’re still thanking me for to this day! I bought them all as part of their gifts.




Save the Dates, Invitations – Zazzle – A
I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on paper. They had what I was looking for. My only complaint was that I wanted the invites to be more matte, they were a bit glossy. Other than that, they were cheap and cute! Perfect.

Hair – Gina Marie, Glamour Me Up Down the Aisle – A-
Gina Marie is so sweet! I loved my trial so much I booked her on the spot. She was on time, and got to work right away on the day of. Everyone looked amazing. My only complaint was that my trial came out better than it did the day of. But she’s reasonably priced, and so sweet, she’s worth it!


Makeup – Ashley Spedale – A+
I found Ashley on LIWeddings, she was offering a free trial promotion last December. I loved her and her work! She’s so sweet, and a total pro. My makeup came out better the day of than it did on my trial! I LOVED it! And for both my trial and my wedding, the following day my makeup still looked flawless! I was a sweaty hot mess dancing the night away and everyone said they couldn’t tell, my makeup still looked awesome! Check her out on Facebook, she’s totally worth every penny, but she’s also reasonably priced!





Cake – The Rolling Pin Bakery – A-
Our cake was included with the package, from the Rolling Pin bakery. They have mixed reviews and I was a little concerned. To be honest, I’ve never been to a wedding where the cake was actually good. And I’ve been to A LOT of weddings. We got the samples (which we had to pay for, which I thought was ridiculous) and were really disappointed in a lot of the flavors we picked. I thought for sure I was going to have cannoli cream in my wedding cake. But it wasn’t that good. I was surprised, the flavor my husband and our daughter and I all liked was the chocolate cake with raspberry mousse filling. And it was just as amazing on the day of our wedding. The butter cream frosting was perfect also. The East Wind gave us a certificate to go back to The Rolling Pin for our one year anniversary and they’ll make us a new cake (the same size as the top layer of our wedding cake) in the same flavors for our one year anniversary, at no charge. We did NOT save the top layer, year old cake is gross.



Favors - BeauCoup.com - B

So, this could be MY fault for not reading correctly, but I didn't realize the mason jars from this website were a DIY thing. They send you (dirty) jars and you have to put the stickers on yourself. Had I known, I would have spent the extra money on another site to have them fully done and not have the headache. But, there I was with 100 DIRTY mason jars that needed to be washed, labeled, and filled. I have amazing friends, so it didn't take long, but it was just ANOTHER thing to do. They came out too cute though.




Now – I tell everyone like as if this was Sesame Street, this wedding has been brought to you by Etsy and Michaels. LOL! My Etsy Vendors, all of whom get A+ ratings, were:

ThePinkOwlGifts - Cake topper




TheHomespunArtisan - Instagram sign, mad libs, I spy signs



UrbanFarmhouseTampa – Groomsmen gifts, personalized beer glasses

KnoxProPhotography – Unity Sand ceremony set



pinkblossomgoods - Do Not Disturb door hangers

littleshoppeofpaper – Signature drink sign



SugarRobot - Edible leaves cake decorations (side note - the directions on these say 'Do not refrigerate' - you can see why)




keydesign (our very own LIWeddings Bride!) - Menus




It really was the best day ever!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Beautiful wedding!!! Loved all of your details and your centerpieces were adorable :) I got my dress at Bridal World in Baldwin too! I met with Ronnie & She was very nice...I hope they call me when my dress is in! lol

Also, I love etsy so I will definitely be checking out some of the etsy shops you recommended!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Great review!! Congratulations, so glad you had such a perfect day! :)

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Great review, so glad you had an amazing day!!!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Great review! You looked beautiful!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Great review!.. your centerpieces are adorable! I love the cake too! Congratulations!!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Love your review girl and you looked amazing.. So glad we're FB friends! I didn't save the top of our cake either LOL

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Awesome review! We are using Rolling Pin too so I'm glad the cake was delicious! Your dress was gorgeous! Lovely pics!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Amazing review!!!! I LOVEEEEEE your centerpieces :)

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Awh thanks for the menu shoutout! I'm so excited to see my contribution to your big day! <33

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

Thank you all!! I updated the review for video!

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

I LOVE THE TRAILER! Got me all misty eyed. <3

My amazing October 25th Wedding at The East Wind! (Tommy's Tunes, ADA, LJR Films, etc.)

You are so pretty and seem so happy, Congratulations!! very beautiful pictures and I love your dress!!