Saturday:
Venue –
Brooklyn Society For Ethical Culture http://www.bsec.org/
We rented the BSEC building for our ceremony and reception. It’s a turn of the century mansion in Park Slope. We got married outside in the garden, set up the bar and dinner buffet in the sunroom, and had dinner & dancing in the meeting room. We had 55 guests and used 8 round tables for dinner which seemed pretty perfect for the space – I think any more would have been cramped. If you look closely, the building can be a little rough around the edges, but we were willing to overlook the little things like some paint peeling that come with an older space because the overall feel of the space is fantastic. The dark wood trim and stained glass windows provided a perfect setting for dinner.
Flowers –
I did some flowers myself and hired a vendor from this site for others so I’ll split this into 2 reviews.
Flowers by Emil
I hired Carmine to do my bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, and some ceremony decorations. The bouquets were just right – I was very happy with them. And the ceremony decorations were well done – Again I was very happy. However, the corsages were not right and I was disappointed. Despite several conversations both in person and via email about including the flower veronica in my mother’s corsage, it was not included. I had wanted to surprise her with it for sentimental reasons (her mother was named Veronica and it’s my middle name) so I was very disappointed it was missing. Also, all the corsages (white orchids) came covered in glitter which I did not want. We tried to wash the glitter off, but couldn’t get it off, so I ended up not using any of the corsages. I spoke with Carmine regarding my unhappiness with the corsages and he told me that Veronica was out of season and unavailable for my wedding. Obviously if the flower is unavailable there is nothing he can do about it, but if he would have communicated this to me ahead of time, I could have avoided the disappointment on my wedding day.
Marisol Blooms –
I made my own centerpieces with orchids from Marisol. My flowers were scheduled to arrive on Thursday, but did not arrive until Friday morning. This caused a huge amount of stress for me. I spent almost 3 hours on the phone with Marisol on Thursday afternoon trying to track down the flowers. They were finally able to tell me that my flowers were stuck in customs because they were shipped directly from Thailand. The customer service at Marisol was horrendous, keeping me on hold and cutting off my calls. When the flowers finally arrived on Friday morning and I was very happy with the quality and color of the orchids. They were also very easy to arrange – it probably only took us 30 minutes to make all the centerpieces. My vases were from Ikea. This was an easy do-it-yourself project that saved me a lot of money.
Placecards –
DIY project
I saw this in an old Martha Stewart magazine and decided to replicate it. I bought the wheatgrass in the flower district in Manhattan and bought the little chalkboards and sticks from an online craft store. I wrote the names with a white paint marker.
DJ –
Gabriella from The Starry Night DJs
Gabriella rocked. She was one of my favorite vendors. We presented her with a pretty lengthy list of songs we liked to give her an idea of the type of music we like (which is more alt than mainstream), but gave her free reign to watch the crowd and play whatever she thought would get people dancing. She surprised us by actually using a bunch of songs from our list and getting everyone on the dance floor. “The song” that got everyone going was The Clash’s “Police and Thieves” – a song I never would have picked as a crowd favorite. Gabriella only spoke to make the announcements we asked her to, and otherwise stuck to the music (which is what we wanted).
Catering -
On Occasion Catering
Stephanie, the owner, was a delight to work with. Besides being an excellent chef, she’s very organized and has an eye for details. This was important since we weren’t at a traditional catering hall and it was up to the caterer and their staff to do all the setup for the ceremony and reception. I gave her a lengthy document listing how I wanted everything set up from the ceremony chairs to the table settings. She executed everything to a tee. The food was delicious and we got tons of comments about it from the guests. And the staff she brought were all highly professional and extremely friendly.
Dress & Alterations
I bought my Watters and Watters dress from RK Bridal in Manhattan. I tried on a few dresses from a rack of samples and that’s where I found “the one.” Since it was a sample, I took it with me home that day. This was my biggest wedding bargain – since it was a discontinued style and a sample, it was 75% off the normal price.
I only needed minimal alterations to the dress and I had them done by Ann Hamilton. Ann was easy to work with and did a great job on my dress.
Veil
Glamgal - http://www.glamgal.com/veils.html
I ordered my veil online from glamgal. Very easy to work with and I loved my veil. It was English net, which isn’t a traditional veil material, but I loved the look of this fabric.
Bridesmaids Dresses
We tried on BM dresses at RK Bridal in the city, but I ordered them from netbride.com. We chose a Watters and Watters dress. The price was great and the dresses arrived quickly in perfect condition.
Hair/Makeup
Boushelle
Boushelle came to my apartment to do make-up and hair for my bridesmaids, mom, and me. She did an amazing job with everyone. She’s very talented and a wonderful calming personality that puts everyone at ease and calms any nerves.
Officiant
Father Roger Fawcett
First some background: We were unsure whether we wanted to have a Catholic wedding ceremony or not – we were both raised Catholic, but have since taken issue with some of the Church’s positions. We found an organization, The White Robed Monks of St Benedictine (http://www.wrmosb.org/default.html), who seemed like a good fit with our beliefs. They are in San Francisco, but put interested people in touch with clergy in their area. We were put in charge with Father Roger and began attending his mass in Chelsea.
Father Roger was a perfect fit for us. He’s very down to earth and not like other priests who had pushed us away from the church. He did a great job with our ceremony. He’s a former actor and it shows when he delivers his homily. Our guests really enjoyed the ceremony.
Photobooks –
DIY project - Shutterfly.com
We named our tables after different neighborhoods in Brooklyn and created a book of photos of each neighborhood that was placed on each table. The books were fun for us – we went to all the different neighborhoods and took pictures then uploaded them to shutterfly. We put the books together online – just ordering photos and writing captions – and then had shutterfly print them.
Alcohol
We ordered our wine, champagne, and hard alcohol from Scotto’s Wine Cellar on Court St in Brooklyn. All alcohol was on consignment so we were able to return anything we didn’t open. The staff at Scotto’s was knowledgeable and helped us with our order.
Table Runners
I had the table runners made at a sari shop. I love the colors and textures of the Indian clothing, so I was excited to dress up my tables with this cloth. I picked the fabrics and gave them the dimensions for the runners and the seamstress in the store made them.
Photographer
Marianela Vela - http://www.nellavera.com/
I haven’t seen my proofs yet, so I can’t comment on the photo quality yet. But Marianela has been great to work with so far. She’s very laid back and we liked her personality. We took our formal portraits before the ceremony and she was able to keep everything on schedule and keep everyone relaxed. I hardly saw her at the ceremony or reception – she was very unobtrusive.
Honeymoon
LeSport Body Holiday on Saint Lucia
We spent a week at LeSport, an all-inclusive resort on Saint Lucia. LeSport is a bit unique because it has all the typical all-inclusive stuff – food, drinks, etc. – but it also has a health/spa component. There are tons of classes every day from yoga to archery to golf. Plus, each day you get 1 50-minute spa treatment, so we got a scrub, wrap, facial, massage, etc. during our stay. It was a lovely place to spend a week and we left feeling very relaxed, happy, and refreshed!
