5/1/04 Wedding review - some new pictures

I hope I don't forget anything!!

The day was abslutely magical!! We had the most perfect weather which was key since our ceremony was outside in the park in Northport village!!!

Dress: Bridesave.com 10
They were great. I tried on my Maggie Sottero Sarchi at Bridal Reflections in Massapequa. They wanted over $1K and never did tell me it came in petite. Sarina at Bridesave was so helpful - I cannot recommend enough (if you are considering ordering over the net). All in all, other than great cust svc and the dress arriving EARLY, I saved over $300.

Veil: Barron's (TriCounty) 10
Went by suggestion from the board. I wanted a really simple veil. It turned out beautiful and the price was right. Yanna also almost made me cry when I picked it up she was so sweet!

Invitations & Favors: Favorite Things 10
Rebecca was so sweet and wonderful. My invites came super fast and she matched a price on the corkscrew/stopper for my OOT bags.

Wine for OOT bags: Osprey's Dominion 10
Bought several cases and got Birthday club discount even though it was a little outside of the window when we purchased. Can't beat a 36% discount!!!

Rehearsal Dinner: Dave & Buster's 10
We had a great time! Food was really fantastic and service was great.

Chairs/Tent: All Island Tent 10
We had a tent put up in our front yard in case it did rain on our day - we needed shelter for the ceremony. They also provided chairs for the ceremony and were very accommodating about set-up & removal we needed due to the public setting.

Limos: Mayfair Limousine 10
Again, great service. We had a car pick up some important folks at Danford's to bring to the ceremony, as well as two white stretches. Drivers were nice, cars were spotless - no problems at all.

Embroidery: Embroidery Shop (Commack Road) 10
Simone was an absolute doll. Found them thanks to a post by Bethsiar about opinions on the hoodies she got for her BP. I loved them!! So I had Simone make two for me. Tim had her make golf shirts & windbreakers for his bachelor party which also came out really cool. I ended up having jackets made for my FG & Jr BP. And eventually brought her my slip to have Tim's mother's & sister's monograms embroidered (they both passed since our engagement). Simone would not let me pay for this!! It really meant so much. Highly recommend!!

Hair: Denise Venti 10
Denise was my only trial and based solely on the buzz on the boards. She was so sweet at the trial and after pretty much being done, completely re-did the up-do cause I was a little iffy. My hair on my wedding day was so beautiful - I absolutely loved it!! Cannot say enough!!!

Make-up: Jacqueline Nicole 10
Again, she was the only person I trialed with and based on her rep from the boards. I actually did a second trial close to the wedding because I was tanning and really loved the results. JN was also shaping my eyebrows a few times leading up to the big day. My make-up was flawless on my wedding and stayed perfect all day (I think I reapplied lipstick twice and that was it!!!). I did the airbrush and I suppose it made all the difference in the world. And for the record, in normal life, I wear next to NO make-up but did not feel uncomfortable or MADE UP at all. She's such a sweetheart too!

Flowers: Flowers By LIz 10
Tired of all my '10''s yet??
Flowers were not all that important to me - at least from the perspective that I had not dreamed of this CP or had planned my bouquet all my life, etc. I just had an idea of what I wanted and Liz (again, the only person I met with) was so laid back and easy to work with. I was happy with what we decided on during our first meeting and that was pretty much that. Until she stepped on to my porch that morning - tears came to my eyes (the one & only time that day - pretty weird, huh?). STUNNING is all I can say. I can't wait to have some pictures. Liz may not be very popular on the boards, but do yourself a favor and check her out. Words cannot describe how pleased I was with her work.


Okay, gonna take a break for now & will finish up with some of the bigger stuff later!!

Thanks for listening!! Wendy

Sounds like a perfect day! Can't wait to see pictures!

Kimberly

Tuxes: Men's Wearhouse 8
Amy in Lake Grove was really nice. DH is big & tall and they did not make the vest he needed in XXL - Tall, so he was disappointed. He ended up calling their HQ and they custom made him a vest (only question was whether or not he was going to have to purchase it - which is what ended up happening). That's not really why I rated them lower though. Thursday PM before the wedding we went to pick up his tux and the jacket was so small it was ridiculous. They insisted it was the right size and were going to rush order the next size up (which Tim knew would be too big). Anyway, when he went to pick up on Friday, they had figured out the original jacket was defective and sent a new one in the correct size, so yay!! On the day of the wedding (I believe before the ceremony) one of the buttons fell off his jacket and one side of the collar on his shirt had a mind of it's own. Hopefully, neither will show up in too many pictures. No problems with the rest of the tuxes (my dad, his brother, his uncle & nephew).

Photo: Viewpoint Photography 10 - so far
We chose Viewpoint based on two things - a postcard we received in the mail from them of a bride putting her earrings on in the mirror with her black lab, head cocked in the foreground (our three dogs were a part of our wedding party) and the recommendation of our haircutter. Pam the owner did our e-shoot and they were just fabulous. Wedding day we had a photojournalist (Dave) & assistant (Jessie - who was awesome & so great at our house before) as well as a traditional photographer (Jeannie) plus assistant (never did get his name!). Dave was really cool and laid back. Jeannie's mind was going faster than she could take pictures!! Which was cool because I felt we'd have so many great shots we'd never thought of (none of us!). We'll see how the proofs come out but what we've experienced so far with Viewpoint has been a pleasure.

Video: Creative Media 8
Another recommendation from our haircutter. Originally we were not going to do a video but eventually, we decided to go for it but had a very strict price point. John met the requirement and the package was even more than we were looking for. After our first phone call, he penciled us in his book and was supposed to send a copy of our hairdresser's DVD for our review. Weeks passed, we never received it and could not get calls bacck from him. When we finally heard from him, he was no longer available but was sending us a copy of work by Christine who would be available for our wedding. At this point it was a little late for us to look elsewhere, so we crossed our fingers & set up a meeting. We liked Christine and again the price was right. Day of - Christine was fantastic!! She's a real sweetheart and was like having a coordinator around! She was really good about kinda being a liason between everyone around and what was going on. One issue which was probably as much our fault, she missed taping the beginning of the ceremony because she could not find parkng down in the park (and Tim cued the music without realizing she wasn't there!). Think she missed my mom & Hershey, our nephew & Max and my MOH coming down the aisle. Pretty sure she got the Jr BM & FG on ... I expected the raw footage to be here when we returned but it's not here yet. If it's not in today's mail, I'll give John a call.

Officiant: Tim's Uncle 10
Oh yeah!! We had Tim's uncle ordained over the internet. It was really special to have him conduct the ceremony. Crossed my fingers the whole time until we got the certificate back signed!!!! LOL!!!

Alterations: Shoreham Bridal 8
My MOH lives across the street and I have to at least give them props for putting up with her finally going to look at dresses 5 weeks before the wedding!!!!
My alterations were pretty simple - added cups, hemmed the dress (which actually was four hems so mayybe not really simple) and the bustle. See May board for my bustle trauma. All in all, ended up fine although the final was supposed to be six buttons and it was only five - an issue more because I am a bit nutz and have a thing about even numbers!!!

Wendy great review! I have pics for you - I totally fogto - I took them at the ceremony. If you give me your mailing address I will send them to you. They are great!

Tell us about Danfords!

Reception: Danford's 8

Had to break this rating up a bit.

Up until 5 weeks before the wedding 5
The catering mgr we were working with ended up going out on maternity leave & not returning which may or not be what caused so many of the problems but frankly we think it was used as an excuse.
Imagine our surprise back in January when we received a phone call from one of Tim's friends 'Hey, wow, just read about the big renovations at Danford's in Newsday. How do they look?' Um, yeah, what renovations??
Can you believe we were never contacted?????????? Let's just say they (all of them in the sales/catering office) have no clue about communication!!!! When we went to see the new room, I was patronized by Nicole 'Oh, don't worry honey, you will have a beautiful day'. Yeah, no kidding but this still isn't the room I booked. Not to say the renovations don't look great, it's the principle. Got the same type of bs, sweet talk from Cynthia the catering director.

Then came Vincent (the replacement for the one who left). Can't say enough great stuff about him. He should be in charge and get rid of the rest of them!!!

Had some issues with the room block - Linda never contacted us when we hit a certain # of rooms (as was stated in our contract) and as a result there were no rooms available at one point until someone else's block got released.

Also about half of our OOT bags were not given out the Friday night before. So when we were there picking up some people for the RD, I was like - HELLO??? Vincent also went nutz and we had bags brought immediately to my brother, etc (people I knew had checked in). Unfortunately, at the time there were some relatives of Tim's who checked in that we were not aware of at that time. In any case, we expected while we were out at the RD, those bags would be delivered - they were not. And they had info on the breakfast hosted by my parents the day after the wedding. We felt very awkward that these relatives did not get the bags/invites.


The cocktail hour & reception themselves were out of this world. I did not eat a lot but everything I did have was great, and everyone was raving that day and still now.

The bridal attendant (Moira - I think that was her name!) was excellent as was Vicky the banquet manager.

So again, the event itself was fantastic, all the other stress & BS was just a royal pain in the butt.

Cake: Rolling Pin Bakery 10
They are the bakey Danford's uses, so it was included. Met with Dave who was a lot of fun and nice. We changed our minds from the original meeting but it was not an issue. Ended up with marble cake with choc pudding. It was yummy! We also had cookie trays per table instead of the dessert course offered.

The final review (unless I think of something else I forgot).

Music: Stan Wiest Entertainment 7

Stan was the only person we met with. He's located around the block from us, so we just thought it was fate. Our initial meeting was great and although his services were pricey, we were comfortable with our choice.

Had a lot of good communication with Stan via FM, phone calls in the beginning. We had to submit our reception choices one month before the wedding. One of the things we were waiting on was a song for Tim & his sister to dance to (in the absence of his mother who passed away last year). Then we found out in January his sister had cancer; went going thru chemo/radiation and things were good. Long story short, she took a turn for the worse and passed away in the middle of March. Completing the song choices were not exactly a priority, but I FM'd Stan, let him know what was going on and assured him we would have the info to him by the deadline. I was pretty stunned when I didn't get a response.

Sometime right before that we told Stan we wanted to meet with the performers (trio for ceremony, guitarist for CH) and DJ. He said once the questionnaire was completed.

The day it was due, he was out of town but contacted us that he had someone picking up his mail, etc. We left him a few messages about setting up a meeting and when we finally spoke, he said the trio does not meet with people (???). The DJ was in Colorado and would be travelling back, arriving the day before our wedding!!!! We got him to send us a play list for the classical guitarist which we were very disappointed in as Tim wanted an acoustic guitarist and this really was not what we wanted.

I can say the trio perfromed the special requests we had for the ceremony, so we were definitely pleased with their performance. As far as the guitarist at the CH, to be honest, I don't think I even heard him. It was outside on the dock and a little more crowded that I expected.

On to DJ Phil. One of the things Stan prides himself on is NO CHEESE, and no signage - ADVERTISING of himself. Well, at one point in the night I was leading the LOVE TRAIN (UGH - but I did it with a smile) and I think you can see the Stan Wiest sign in my first dance picture I posted on BHB. The other thing I didn't like, is he announced the artist & title of every one of our special songs - just strange to me.

The Cd for our first dance also skipped about four different times.

what wonderful pictures!!!
and a fabulous review!!!
congratulations!!

Congratulations!!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

Great review and you look fabulous!!!

Congrats!

One quick question- I was thinking of including LI wine in my OOT bags also. Did you supply a wine opener and glasses or just the wine and people would have it when they got home? Red or white and can you recommend one?

Thanks!

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Posted by babybride

Great review and you look fabulous!!!

Congrats!

One quick question- I was thinking of including LI wine in my OOT bags also. Did you supply a wine opener and glasses or just the wine and people would have it when they got home? Red or white and can you recommend one?

Thanks!

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I did get openers for the bags. I figured if people checked in and wanted a little something while they settled in, it would be nice (and not having to call the desk & get an opener). Figured they could use a water glass!! HAHA!!

I did a mix of red & white - the red was cabernet franc (which my brother had at a restaurant in MA and raved about) and the white was a reserve chardonnay. I happen to like Osprey's a lot (and I'm not a total wine expert) but my brother is big on wines and he always makes a trip there when he's down from MA. They also have a bunch of different discounts (by the case, the birthday club, etc).

Congratulations and thanks for posting your review!! I am glad everything turned out so well despite a few headaches. Looks like it was a beautiful affair!! I hope I have weather as perfect as yours!

I have specific questions about Danfords to ask you regarding seating, menus, cocktail hour, etc. My email is [email protected] - I would love it if you would contact me so I can get some advice!

Danielle - Just sent you an email. Happy to help answer any Q's ...