My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

LIWeddings – A+++++++++

I can not say enough about this site!!! I got so many amazing ideas and vendors from all the brides on here, my wedding would not have been what it was if it wasn’t for LIWeddings! I am so grateful that I found this site and I have made some amazing friends through it! Thank you so much to CS for putting together such an amazing place – I came here to vent, support, congratulate, laugh and plan with so many fantastic brides and I love each and every one of you!

The Engagement

Nick and I had been dating for a little over 2 years when he proposed. We went to Atlantic City for 4th of July weekend and were staying in The Trump Marina hotel. Saturday morning we woke up and were eating breakfast in our room and I was telling Nick about the dream I had the night before - we were at my aunt's house and my grandparents from Florida were there. Everyone was in my aunts bedroom arguing so I went in to see what was wrong and I found out that my grandmother was upset because my dad knew Nick was going to propose that night and he didn't tell her!!! Then I was upset because they ruined the surprise Well I finish telling Nick about my dream and before I know it he's down on one knee - I almost fell off my chair!!!!





The Attire

Day of Hoodie & Flower Girl Hoodie
Customizedgirl.com – A

DH knew I wanted a Mrs. Tarricone hoodie so this was actually a shower gift from him. I wanted a simple zip up jacket with the writing in rhinestones and I didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg – customizedgirl.com was exactly what I needed! Their website is easy to work with and my jacket came out great. The regular writing was cheaper that the rhinestone writing so I went with that for my flower girl’s hoodie, it had her name on the front too!



Wedding Gown, Bridesmaids Gowns, MOH Gown
Lilette's in Bellemore - A +

I fell in love with a BM gown in one of my wedding magazines and decided I had to track it down, Lilette's was the closest salon with the gown in stock so that's where we went and I couldn't be happier!

I went with my mom, moh and one of my bm's to see the dress and everyone loved it!! We were sold on the spot!

I wanted a different dress in the same color and fabric for my MOH and Gerri helped us pick out the perfect dress!!

BMs - Jim Hjelm #5772
MOH - Jim Hjelm #5819




All of my girls loved the customer service at Lilette's, the dresses all came in on time and everyone's alterations came out perfectly!

Since we decided on a dress so fast, Gerri suggested that I try on some wedding gowns. I tried on a whole bunch and fell in love with Maggie Sottero - Jenna.



It was more than a year before my wedding so we put a down payment on the gown and were told to come back in 8 months - THANK GOD!!!! Over the next 8 months I started second guessing my decision so when it came time to order the dress Gerri said 'Absolutely not! You have to LOVE your dress!!!' Gerri is amazing! She pulled a bunch of new dresses for me and I decided on the perfect one, Maggie Sottero - Kendra



I LOVED the Kendra gown but I thought it needed a little extra something and thanks to my amazing LIW girls, I found the perfect added bling!

Blingy Belt
Etsy.com - Kirsten Keuhn Designs - A+

Kirsten was fantastic to work with!!! I would recommend her to anyone looking for a little extra sparkle on their big day!





Tuxedos
Di Re - B

Di Re is a well known tuxedo shop in Franklin Square and since I grew up near there it was a no brainer to use them. The day we went to pick out the tuxes I was a little disappointed, they didn't really help us. We walked in, picked out what we wanted, got measured and left the deposit. Although they weren't a big help, everyone's tuxedos fit perfectly and were in perfect condition so overall I'm happy.





Accesories

Bracelet - This is my grandmother's bracelet, it was my something borrowed.



Earrings - I purchased these online from theaisle.com thanks to a fellow LIW bride! They are made by Haute Bride and I LOVE them!!!



Veil and Headband
Barrons in Tri-County - A+++

What can I say about Barrons that hasn't already been said? They have amazing pieces and even better prices!! They were great to work with and everything was beautiful.

I loved them so much that I went back and purchased my flower girl's dress from them too!











The Extras

Channa Plaque
MySweetMemories.com – A+

Channa is amazing! She is so sweet, helpful and talented – I can not say enough about her!!!! I originally saw Channa plaques on LIW and decided that I needed one, I contacted Channa and she sent me a ton of proofs until I was happy. She is so patient and easy to work with, and I LOVE the way my plaque came out!!


‘I Do’ & ‘Me Too’ Decals – A

These were another great LIW find! I saw the shoe decals in a previous bride’s pictures and ofcourse I had to have them! I purchased the ‘I Do’ stickers from The Knot’s online store but they didn’t have any matching ones for DH. Luckily, I found the ‘Me Too’ stickers on etsy.com.



Invitations
Tessa from ***************.com - A

I had a specific idea of what I wanted our invitations to look like but I couldn’t find the perfect one anywhere. I heard about Tessa and decided to contact her. She was easy to talk to and I truly love the way my invitations came out. The only bad thing I could say is that the waiting list is very long so if you want to have your invitations designed by her, contact her asap! Her prices are also on the higher end but I think the finished product is well worth it!





Above and Beyond Events
Day of Coordinator – Leane – A+
Cardbox- A
Menus- C

I was lucky enough to win lots of discounts for Above and Beyond events from the 2011 shower and TWOTY! When I first booked with them I met with Ryan who was very sweet and down to earth, then a few months later I got an e-mail telling me that Ryan was due to have triplets a few weeks after my wedding!!!! She told me that she wouldn’t be able to be the DOC for my big day but guaranteed me that I was in good hands. I ended up working with Leane and she was wonderful!!! She was on top of EVERYTHING – she sewed a button back on to my little brother’s jacket, fixed some of the girls’ hair with bobby pins and hairspray, blotted me with oil absorbing sheets, fed DH and I while we were taking pictures, bustled my dress – just to name a few!!!!! I absolutely recommend that every bride invest in a DOC and I also recommend that Leane be that person!

I wanted a pretty and simple cardbox and that’s exactly what I got. It was perfect!



My menus were very pretty but since I wanted script and there were so many food choices, they were VERY hard to read! I wish I would have saved the money and just DIYed these myself.




Hair
Palace Hair Salon - Galina - A+

My MOH works at Palace so it was a no brainer that I was going to get my hair done there. I went to her with a few different pictures and she hit the nail on the head!! I absolutely loved my hair the day of the wedding and my curls stayed all night!

TRIAL:




Day of:



Make Up
Kelly from Glam Me Up - A+

I had originally booked with MlA but she double booked my day and needed to change my time so I ended up cancelling with her - never got my deposit back - whatever! That's a whole different story!!!

I knew I liked Kelly as soon as I met her! She is seriously one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She did my make-up dramatic with out making me look completely fake which is exactly what I wanted! She did my mom's, grandma's and 2 of my bm's make-up also and everyone loved her! I would absolutely recommend Kelly to anyone who wants to look beautiful and natural on their big day!







Flowers
Flowers By Brian A+

FBB is the only florist that I met with, I pretty much knew what I wanted and what price range I was looking for and FBB fit my budget! Even though I had seen samples of our high and low cp's the flowers blew me away the day of the wedding! I absolutely loved our flowers, they were in perfect condition and gorgeous!! I loved my bouquet so much that the next day I decided to get it preserved, I am still getting compliments from our guests on our centerpieces!







Limos
Royalty Limo – A+

Royalty Limo is the brother company to Di Re so it only made sense to use them for transportation. Since our bridal party was HUGE, DH and I thought it would be best to get a limo and a party bus. The limo picked me and the girls up from my house and brought us to the church, after the ceremony we all piled into the party bus to head to CHCC. Both of our drivers were courteous, helpful and on time. The price for the cars didn’t break the bank and they even upgraded us to a bigger bus free of charge. I have no complaints about Royalty AT ALL!



DJ
Tommy’s Tunes – C

I booked Tommy’s Tunes based off of recommendations, I had seen rave reviews about the company on LIWeddings and 2 of our friends used them for their weddings. Well, I was disappointed. I do have to say that everyone was up and dancing the entire time and the uplighting looked great! I also loved our monogram T on the wall. However, there were a few issues:

1- I had ONE song on my do not play list and TWO songs on my must play. My do not play song was Endless Love because it is my parent’s wedding song (they’re divorced) – well they opened up the dance floor right after dinner with this song!! Luckily, my parent’s were good sports and decided to dance to it but I was annoyed! The two songs I wanted played were Like My Mother Does – Lauren Alaina and This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan, I wanted him to do a special dedication to my mom with the first song and I guess he forgot. I reminded him and he finally did it at the very end, however, my photographer was gone at that point so there are no pictures of me and my mom dancing. He also never played This Is How We Do It, my brother had to request it 3 times, and he finally played it as the second to last song!
2- We paid extra money for the photo montage during dinner. When I booked this I was told that they would have 2 seats in the middle of the dance floor for DH and I and they would make sure everyone was watching the screen before they started the video – WRONG! They didn’t bring DH and me to the dance floor and they made a short, low announcement about the video. By the time people realized what was going on, the video was half way over, and a lot of people missed my baby pictures – including my mom who was in the bathroom at the time!


My crazy parents:


Monogram


Dancing!!






Photographer/Videographer
Thomas Paul – A
Video pending - C

I found TP on LIWeddings and absolutely loved his style of photography! When DH and I met with him we all clicked immediately. We felt like we were old friends with Tom and that was important to us with our photographer. The day of the wedding Tom was great to work with and our pictures came out amazing!!!! 99% of the pictures in this review were taken by Tom so you can see how gorgeous his work is. I would absolutely recommend Thomas Paul to anyone looking for a down to earth photographer who is amazing at his job!!

I was so excited when I received my video from TP, the pictures were so beautiful and I had really high hopes for the video! Unfortunately, I was very disappointed! I can say that the quality of the video is very good! I love how our ceremony came out and all of the footage of us taking pictures is excellent! The problem I have is with the reception - the videographer stayed in the same place the whole time!! My dance floor was PACKED the whole night but on my video I just have the same people dancing. There is no shots of my family or any of our friends! It is all DH's side because they were by the DJ booth. I really wish he would have moved around the dance floor more!

A few favorites:


















Church
St. Kevin’s Roman Catholic Church – B

Most of DH’s family was married at St. Kevin’s and it meant a lot to him for us to get married there so I went along with it. St. Kevin’s is one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen and it has a gorgeous long aisle, however, I didn’t get to take many pictures inside because they booked our wedding at 2:00 and another wedding at 3:00! The pictures we took at Crest Hollow definitely make up for the ones we didn’t get at the church but it was annoying to get rushed out of your own wedding! Oh well!












Crest Hollow Country Club
A+++++

CHCC was the second RH we looked at and we knew from the second we walked in that we wanted to have our wedding there! Everything from the time you pull into the parking lot to the time you walk out the door is gorgeous!!!!

We met with Eric and let me tell you, he was phenomenal! He answered all of our questions and really helped us every step of the way! He got us a few things thrown in and a lot of things for a lesser price, CHCC was really awesome with working with our budget!

The outdoor cocktail hour was amazing!!! People are still talking about it, I think it’s a must for anyone getting married at CHCC. The atmosphere and food were both perfect!

The staff at Crest Hollow was truly amazing. I’ve never felt more like a princess in my entire life! They truly go above and beyond for their brides!! They set up our room the exact way I pictured it and they decorated my cake and cake table perfectly!

I could truly go on and on about CHCC all day, I have no complaints and I haven’t heard any from my guests, everyone has been raving about the RH ever since the wedding!

Us in one of CHCC's amazing gardens


Some cocktail hour shots






First course - Salad Duet



LOVE my cake


Our amazing room - The Plaza Room








Honeymoon
RIU Palace Aruba – A++++++

Aruba is AMAZING!!!!!! Since we got married during hurricane season we decided to go to Aruba because it is under the hurricane belt. I did a lot of searches on tripadvisor.com and The RIU got really good reviews. We booked through cheapcarribean.com and I think we got a pretty amazing deal!

The RIU is all inclusive which is exactly what we wanted since we like to drink. We didn’t do any excursions because we wanted to relax but we did leave the resort a few times to try some of Aruba’s amazing restaurants! We also did the Kukukanuku Bus tour which was so much fun!!! Every single person we met in Aruba was friendly and polite. The weather was amazing and we loved our resort!! We can’t wait to go back again!!!!

The resort




















Amazing restaurant where you eat on the beach






Hanging with our new friends in the lobby bar



Our favorite restaurant of the trip






I hope you enjoyed my review and I hope some of you found it helpful! If you have any questions please feel free to FM me

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY!

LOVE IT!!!

Amazing reviewwww


U look beautiful on ur wedding day and ur honeymoon!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

beautiful ashley!!!

I never knew your engagement story. Too cute

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Congratulations Ashley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your HM resort in Aruba looks to die for!!!!
an the extra bling from Etsy for your dress was exactly what was missing!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Gorgeous, gorgeous wedding!!! Thank you so much for your review, congratulations!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Ashley I love your review!! Great job! Love all your pictures. You made a gorgeous bride!!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Very helpful-- you look like a model!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Thanks for the review!!! Loved the pics. You looked beautiful. Congrats!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Great Review!!!!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Great review!!! Everything looked perfect!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Thank you so much for your review!!!! It was nice to finally hear about some of my vendors..and I am so happy to hear about CHCC and see pics!! You just made me more excited than ever! You looked amazing in all of your pics!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

great review, beautiful pics

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

BEAUTIFUL and great review

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Great review!! Everything looked amazing!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Great review! You looked gorgeous!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

I loved your review! Your ring is beautiful!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

gorgeous wedding Ashley!!!!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Congrats....great review and you looked beautiful!

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Great review and pics!!! We used a few of the same vendors...and I would probably rate them the same....once I finally do my review. SMH.

Re: My Fairytale 9.10.11 Wedding!!!!! CHCC, Thomas Paul, Tommy's Tunes, Flowers By Brian, Glam Me Up, Above and Beyond!!! Lots of Pictures!!!!!

Gorgeous pics, great review!! Thanks for sharing!