REALLY LONG NOW...ADDED MORE PICS AND DETAILS!!! Ridiculously Late is Better Than Never...MY WEDDING RECAP AND REVIEW, November 27th at The Carltun!

Wow, where do I begin? I had such a wonderful
wedding planning experience. I owe a big thanks to LIWeddings because I found some fantastic vendors and got some great ideas and advice through this site. So now it is my turn to give back and share my experience and review with all of you. Please forgive me for taking so long to do this. After the wedding I just totally needed to decompress and I didn’t want to deal with anything wedding related for a while.

Our wedding plans hit a big obstacle, but survived…
I got engaged in November of 2002, we set our date quickly thereafter for September 5th, 2004 and booked everything within the month or two that followed, EVERYTHING was done by early 2003. Then two and a half months before our wedding was to take place, my fiancé got a new job and would have to be away training in Albany for six months. He would only be able to come home on weekends. Since our wedding was planned for a Sunday evening and he had to be back up in Albany by Sunday evening, we had to change everything. I was devastated about the wedding, but thrilled for my fiancé at the same time. The wedding I planned for the past year and a half was gone, POOF, just like that! Don’t even get me started on the honeymoon (Tahiti was already booked and let’s not talk about the hours and hours of research that went into it). We decided the only thing to do was UPGRADE! (Okay, maybe I decided!)
We didn’t want to put the wedding off until 2005, I mean, we had already been engaged sine 11/02. We had to find a place that had a Saturday night available (daytime was not an option for me, this I was not willing to compromise on). I called the Carltun immediately, it had been my first choice all along, but I thought it would be out of our budget and so I didn’t even allow myself to look at it originally because I knew once I went there I wouldn’t be happy anywhere else. WELL!!! I think it was divine intervention! It was a miracle, they had one Saturday evening available in 2004: November 27th. We ran there, negotiated a contract and BAM!! Just like that my lovely wedding became my DREAM wedding. And I was thrilled with my new date. It was fate; Ed and I met Thanksgiving Eve 1993, got engaged the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2002 and now would be getting married the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2004. It did take some time to adjust to the idea of getting married in the fall though. I made all my decisions with a summer wedding in mind. But I wasn’t willing to change any of my ideas. My girls were wearing amethyst bridesmaids dresses and I was intent on doing pink flowers. I did darken the shades of pink, but I kept everything else the same. In the end it all came together beautifully and I wouldn’t change a thing if I had to do it all over again. Well, I would change one thing, you’ll find out about her later on in my review.

Please don’t do what I did…
The Week Before the Wedding otherwise known as 'HELL WEEK.' Please learn from my experience: Pretend your wedding is a week before it actually is and get everything done accordingly. The amount of stress I put on myself the week before my wedding was just plain STUPID. I had the entire week off from work and I had visions of it being relaxing, a chance for me to slow down and pamper myself; perhaps I’d spend a day at the spa, catch up on some movies I’ve been wanting to see, take long walks, reflect on the fact that I am about to marry my soulmate, meet a few friends for drinks, etc. Well, Ha! HA! HA! HA! The joke was on me. I don’t know what the heck happened, but I had so much to do the week before the wedding that I really thought I might lose it. At one point, I was in my car driving to pick up my track suit that was being embroidered (cause god forbid I didn’t wear an embroidered track suit for my getting ready pics!) and as I was heading there, I was talking to a vendor on the phone and next to me in the passenger seat was my cousin, dialing another vendor on her cell phone. I ended my conversation only to be handed my cousin’s phone with the next vendor on the line. As I wrapped that conversation up, my cousin was dialing up the next vendor, I remember thinking: ‘this is what it feels like to be J.Lo.’ By the way, my cousin was like my angel on earth that week. She also took off the week before the wedding and helped me with so much. I wouldn’t have survived without her! Special shout-out to Susie!!!! Woooo hooo!
I had 100 favors that needed to be wrapped and brought to the Carltun, programs that needed to be picked up and brought to the church, 300 pillar candles that needed to be unwrapped and brought to the Carltun, place cards that needed to be picked up, a music list that needed to be worked on, my dress needed to be picked up... This list goes on and on. I can’t even think about it without getting that pit in my stomach. And of course my fiancé was up in Albany the whole week so I couldn’t even take my frustrations out on him . I actually ended up in the Doctor’s office because I was convinced I was getting sick and insisted that I be put on antibiotics, in retrospect, I think it was just stress. Bottom line is many of these things could have been handled in advance, why did I wait until the week of my wedding to start wrapping favors, get my track suit embroidered, meet with my DJ etc….? Learn from my near breakdown, do as much as you can, as early as you can.

LET THE REVIEW BEGIN!!!!

Rehearsal Dinner: The Davenport Press, Main Street, Mineola- —9
Most of our family and wedding party have been so wonderful and supportive that we really wanted to throw a fantastic rehearsal dinner as a way to say thank you. We had the private room upstairs at Davenport with an open bar and our own bartender. We tried to have more of a party atmosphere than a sit-down dinner. It worked because we had a huge wedding party. The service and the food at Davenport were great. My only slight complaint was that sometimes the bartender would be helping out the waiters and therefore he wasn’t behind the bar, so we had to wait a while, and would finally have to yell or whistle and then he’d appear (annoying when you are paying for open bar). But otherwise, the place was superb. I’ll definitely throw parties there in the future.
Our Rehearsal Menu (these menus have the distinct honor of being the only wedding-related thing I made myself, I’m so not crafty.)


Invitations and menus: Gaddis Design- —7
Let me start by saying, I absolutely LOVE my invitations. Then let me add that they are totally not worth the money I spent on them. I am a believer in the 'you get what you pay for' mentality and I am willing to spend money to get what I want, but I don’t think my invitations are worth the money I spent on them. I spent about 1800 dollars on 125 invitations and direction cards. The design of them is beautiful; they are very unique and eye catching. I got soooo many compliments on them, even from men who would typically never notice stuff like invitations, but you couldn’t help but notice these invitations. My priest even called and left me a message telling me it was the nicest invite he has ever seen! My only problem with them is that the actual paper they are printed on is not overly impressive. The reason that they cost so much is that everything I wanted cost extra. I wanted black thermography instead of lithography: EXTRA! I wanted the floral pattern on the invite printed on both sides: EXTRA! I wanted black linen pouchettes instead of ivory: EXTRA! I was later told by two different invitation specialists that black pouchettes cost no more to order than ivory. This enraged me. I felt like I was nickeled and dimed. Melissa at Gaddis was generally great to work with, but I did feel like she was short on patience at times. Also, I didn’t feel like my options were explained to me very well. Like she’d mail me a bunch of samples with different patterns, different colors and different papers and I’d like a certain pattern or color shading and I’d tell her so, and then she’d automatically assume that I wanted the type of paper that that particular color sample was printed on. Things got very confusing. Later on when I was like, why do you have me down for textured paper when I said all along I wanted smooth, she replied because that is what you picked when I sent you the samples. I was like huh? Little things like that could have totally been avoided with better communication. All in all, she was nice to work with but I’m not sure I’d go the same route if I had to do it again.





Menus:


Programs: Laurie from LA Productions- —10
Laurie is fabulous! I had a vision of what I wanted my programs to look like and she made it happen AT A VERY REASONABLE PRICE. They were so beautiful and well made, I was overwhelmed when I saw them. I definitely recommend her. There was a slight mix-up in the placement of a quote, but that would have been avoided if I actually looked at the proof she sent me. So I can’t blame anyone but me!

Parent thank-you page:

Hair: Lauren Locricchio- —3 (and that is being generous)
You know how everyone always says something will go wrong on your wedding day, well Lauren is my something that went wrong. It was the one and only bad decision I made. I was originally booked with Taralie, but when I changed my wedding date Taralie wasn’t available and she recommended Lauren. Right from our first phone conversation I knew Lauren wasn’t the sweet, warm and fuzzy type, but she was nice enough and all I really cared about was her ability to do hair. She came to my house for a trial and I was really happy with what she did. Of course, it wasn’t exactly the way it would be on the wedding day because on the big day I’d be using hair extensions, so it would be much fuller etc. Okay, fast forward to the night before the wedding, I get a call from Lauren asking if it would be okay if she got started a bit earlier (7:30AM instead of 8:00AM) because she forget she had a wedding to attend that afternoon, but she assured me she would in no way be in a rush to leave. I say no problem. Great, so we are all set. The next morning comes, 7:30….7:45…8:00…8:30….still no Lauren, no phone call. I started to get a bit nervous. She finally arrived by about 8:45, and by the time she was set up and ready to work it was about 9. That is a big difference from 7:30. I did a detailed schedule of when everyone would be getting hair and make-up done and I had my two MOHs going first, then me, then my sister and my flowergirl. Enter my first mistake: When Lauren arrived so late I should have bumped myself up in the schedule, but unfortunately I didn’t, so everything just snowballed from there. By the time I started hair it was after 11:00. Lauren spent at least 45 minutes putting the hairpieces in my head and then taking them right back out again. (That’s my second mistake. Get your trial done WITH your hair pieces if you plan to use them.) I started to get really nervous because it seemed like she didn’t really know how to work with them. An hour into hair and I had absolutely nothing done. I finally had some extension attached to the back of my head and she did some contraption with it. My photographers arrived early, my hair wasn’t done, my make-up wasn’t even started yet and I felt panic-stricken. When my hair was finally complete it looked pretty (from the front and the side anyway), but it was not at all what I wanted and it wasn’t anything like the picture I had saved for the past year nor was it anything like she did on the trial. I truly believe that she spent so much time on the stupid extension that she kind of just abandoned the plan and did something less time consuming. I was fighting back tears when my make-up artist was doing my make-up because I was so unhappy with my hair. Lauren made it clear that she had to get going and I knew there was no time to make changes to my hair.
Can you see my joy?


Hair Extensions: Lucky Beauty Supply, Grand Ave. Baldwin- —10
I went there to get my human hair extensions. They didn’t have a color that matched my hair exactly so they special ordered it for me. I waited until the week before my wedding to get the hair so I had a small heart attack when I heard they would have to order it, but it came in within a couple of days and was perfect. They were very nice, the hair was beautiful and the prices were good.

Make up: Maureen Pedala- —10
I love this woman! She arrived early and did a beautiful job on everyone. Because of my hair drama, she was sitting around waiting for me for quite some time; she was extremely patient and sweet. When I finally got into the make-up chair, she was very calming, which was really what I needed at that moment. I was fighting back tears as I was telling her I didn’t like my hair. She told me that the wedding can’t start without me and that I must not leave until I’m happy. She reminded me that the hair girl was working for me and that I should disregard her attitude and have her fix my hair, end of story. But even more than that, she made me feel beautiful. When I seen my make-up I forgot all about my hair woes. I truly felt beautiful. I would book her again in a second. She is pricey, but proved to be totally worth it.
Genius at work!


Make up: Denise from Angel Eyes- —9
I hired Denise to do half of my bridal party since I had so many girls and nobody wanted to start make-up at like 6AM, I thought it would be best to have two make-up artists. Denise was on time and very nice to work with. I thought she did very nice work on the girls she did. I was very happy with her.

Flowers: Flower Michele- —10
What can I possibly say that hasn’t been said before? John and Michelle are truly amazing artists. They made such gorgeous bouquets for me and my girls, and such breathtaking centerpieces that I was truly overwhelmed when I saw them. The colors in the bouquets were exactly what I wanted; I couldn’t believe how perfect the flowers were. It’s like John tapped into my brain and created exactly what I was envisioning. The bouquets were so vibrant, so full and so gorgeous. They were perfection!! The way the bouquets popped against the BM dresses made me smile every time I looked at them!! My bouquet was even better than I imagined. I wanted something classic, timeless, soft and elegant. I wanted to go with all pink, ivory and green. But I wanted them to blend with each other. I wanted different textures so that your eye wasn’t drawn to just the different colors, but the overall look of the bouquet in general. I got exactly what I hoped for. John took my ideas and went with them, added a few of his own suggestions and truly created the most beautiful bouquets I have ever seen. They were exactly what I hoped for and more. And I had really high expectations! I also want to add that my design sessions with John were so much fun. His enthusiasm for his work really makes being a Bride-to-be so much fun.
When I walked into the Carltun’s ballroom and saw my centerpieces, OH MY GOD, I became one of those cheeseball brides that cry over stuff like flowers! I was overwhelmed, so overwhelmed. I looked around the ballroom and was in complete awe. I turned to my husband and said, 'I can’t believe this is OUR wedding. Is this really OUR wedding?' I was so happy, I literally cried! John was still there setting up and I just had to hug him! He backed away because he was afraid he’d get me dirty, but I didn’t care I wrapped my arms around him anyway! My husband thanked him for how happy he made me. I think my sweetie was overwhelmed too. The ballroom at the Carltun is gorgeous by itself, but John truly made it magical! Without a doubt my favorite vendor!
My bouquet:



My Bridesmaid’s bouquets:


My ballroom centerpieces:

Videographer: Wild Rose Video- —TBD
I can’t fairly rate them until I see the finished product, but I will say that Bill was an absolute pleasure to work with. He fit right into my day like he belonged there. My dog couldn’t get enough of him and my family loved him. More importantly, I felt so totally comfortable with him. I even got dressed with him in the room and didn’t think twice about it. After we did the formal shots at the reception, he left and someone else finished up the night, which was unexpected, but fine. The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was during my phone conversation with Marie to finalize details, I had asked that my fiancé be interviewed at the church before I arrived since Bill would be with me while I was getting ready and there'd be all this footage of me, I thought it would be nice to have someone talk to him and capture his emotions while he was waiting for me. Anyway, I think this was forgotten about because my husband doesn’t remember anyone interviewing him. That made me kind of sad, but not a big deal, he is camera shy anyway. I should have made it a point to remind Bill about what I wanted on the big day and I didn’t. Oh well.


Photographer: **************- —TBD
Again, it’s not fair to rate them until I conclude my business with them, so for now I’ll just say that all three of my photographers were a pleasure to work with. They arrived early and were very sweet, funny and overly patient with my large family. Often they would take one of my sister’s cameras and start shooting when they saw them struggling to get the same shots the professionals were taking. I got my proofs and I got some wonderful pictures. My black and whites are amazing!! I do feel like there were moments that were missed and I could swear pictures were taken that didn’t show up in my proofs, but on a whole I’m not unhappy with them.
A few proofs:





My sister getting her make-up done by Denise:

My niece is watching me take photos in the living room:






My Aunt and Grandmother checking things out:

My Mom and a BM showing me my bo-k for the first time:










All dressed now!












Don't quite know why my dad looks like he is about to fall to the ground in this shot?





My dumb emotional face:













Bridal Suite:

I love this shot! It's my grandfather and some of my nephews getting tired of taking pictures before cocktail hour.

We danced our first dance to At Last by Etta James:





Bride, Unraveled!

Cocktail music: Steel Drum Band- —Andre Phillips: 10
Wow! I didn’t expect this at all. I took a chance when I booked Andre. I didn’t book him through any agency or company, I booked him independently. He was just a man that said he had a band, and he was reasonable so I went with it. He is very hard to understand on the phone and when I called him to let him know I changed my date, he told me just to call him back a few weeks before the new date and remind him. I must admit, I was a tad bit nervous. I joked with my family that there was a 50/50 chance that he’d actually show. And if he did show, I was still nervous, since I decided to book a singer along with the band whom I had never heard before. I didn’t want the music to sound like background music, I wanted it to feel like the party had already started from the moment you walked into the cocktail room, so I thought a singer would really liven it up and take it from background music to all-out party. Well!! Mission accomplished!! They were AMAZING. So many people commented on them. The band and singer were fabulous. People were dancing like crazy at cocktail hour and so many others gathered around to watch the band. Originally when I booked them, our wedding was going to have an outdoor cocktail hour in September, so when I changed to an inside cocktail hour at the end of November, I worried a Caribbean band might be out of place. I went ahead with it and just asked that instead of Caribbean type shirts that the band members wear all black. It worked perfectly. Everyone noticed them and were blown away by how good they were. I would have paid double for them if I knew they were going to be so good.
Unfortunately not a single person got a picture of them (not even my photographers).

Limousines: Royalty Limo- —10
This was another thing I worried about prior to the wedding. I heard mixed reviews about this company so I was prepared for problems. But luckily I can’t do anything but rave about them. We got the 32 passenger Limbusine, a 1939 Caddy and a regular Lincoln limo. All cars arrived on time and all our drivers were so extremely nice, they were really a pleasure to work with. I rode most of the way to church in the bus because I wanted to be with my family and friends (I had my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle and all my girls in there). Then just before we got to church the bus pulled over and my Dad and I jumped into the ‘39 Caddy so we could arrive in a more classic way than on a bus. When I told the drivers my wacky plan they were totally accommodating. The driver that went to my husband’s house even helped my father-in-law get dressed when he got all flustered with his tuxedo buttons.
I was serenaded with 'Going to the Chapel' on the way to church:


Tuxedos: Foresto Tuxedo, Mineola- —10
I didn’t think it was possible to find a tuxedo place with a good reputation. Even after I found one, I totally expected something to go wrong. Nothing did. Nothing major anyway, my one nephew’s shirt was too small so he had to run there the morning of the wedding and get a different one. My husband misplaced his jacket the night of the wedding, it turned up at the hotel a few days later so we ended up returning it almost a week late. Foresto totally understood and didn’t penalize us for the late return. The staff there is extremely professional and very helpful. All the tuxes were in excellent condition and fit perfectly. I highly recommend them and would definitely use them again in the future.

Reception: The Carltun- —10
Words cannot describe how lucky I feel to have had my wedding there. The service, the food, the ambiance— everything— it was better than I even thought it would be. We were treated like royalty. Our guests were treated like royalty. Every guest was greeted with a choice of a Blueberry Martini, Cosmopolitan or Champagne. The cocktail hour was to die for. The Rack of Lamb was the most amazing I’ve ever had. The rice balls made my eyes roll. Don’t laugh, they really did! Everything tasted so damn good! I don’t eat seafood, but so many people raved about the calamari. Also the vodka/caviar station was a huge hit, more for the flavored vodkas than the caviar, but people loved it. So many of our guests commented on the fact that they didn’t have to get up once to get a drink during the reception and that the food was phenomenal. Every time I put my drink down, if I left it for more than a few minutes it was replaced with a fresh one. I could go on forever about this place. It was truly outstanding. Every little detail was taken care of. The picture of the cake I gave to the pasty chef was recreated perfectly, I screamed when I saw it! I requested Bananas Fosters be included in the Desert Café, which is something they don’t normally serve, and they made it no problem. In fact, our waiter came up to me with a serving of Bananas Fosters at desert time and said, 'I heard it was your favorite.' That was the level of service all night. They were on top of everything. I can’t imagine having our wedding anywhere else. My only complaint is that I felt like it was very warm in the ballroom. A few times I asked that the air conditioner be turned up and every once in a while I felt a blast of cold air, but then it was right back to being warm again. Granted I was a dancing maniac in a big ballgown so that might have had something to do with it.
Ed and I with cake:

Mother of the Bride attire: Entoto Couture, Northern Blvd., Great Neck- —6.5
Our shopping experience there was wonderful. My mom had a limit that she didn’t want to go over. Phyllis, our sales consultant, didn’t show us anything over that price. They had tons of dresses for my mom to try on. There were a few that she liked and then Phyllis showed us this one dress and we were like 'nah, no thanks.' Phyllis said, 'just try it on, you might be surprised.' OMG! Phyllis is a genius. The dress looked a bit too funky for my mom on the hanger, but when she put it on, it was so beautiful! My mom was thrilled, I was thrilled! Sold!
My mom really wanted something that wrapped around her arms and everything we were seeing was strapless an annoying shawl thing. The shawl just didn’t seem practical because you had to keep fussing with it. This dress came with a detachable wrap that wrapped around the back and arms and fastened to the dress so there was no fuss. It was literally perfect. My mom felt good in it and I liked that it was fresh and younger than a lot of the other stuff out there. I didn’t want her in something too conservative or boring.
My how things can change!!
When we started alterations it was a whole different experience. The seamstress talked a good game; she was very assertive and made it seem like she was an expert. I, in turn, was very specific about how long we wanted the dress to be. 'IT HAS TO MEET THE FLOOR.' I must have said this a thousand times during the first fitting. I stressed that I like things long and pointed out that nine times out of ten, I feel women's dresses are too short. 'I don’t want to see any feet when she is standing still,' I said. It was to the point where the seamstress actually got a little snotty with me because of how outspoken I was being about it. Well, when we went back for the second fitting, I nearly had a heart attack. My mom’s dress was well above her ankles! Her ankles!! I couldn’t believe that I could see her ANKLES! She looked RIDICULOUS! I flipped out. And the collar thing that fit perfect before was now too small to fit around my little mother! I was like, huh? It was perfect before, it didn’t need to be touched. Why the hell doesn’t this collar fit now? The seamstress was not apologetic, she was just nasty. In the end, she just reversed whatever she did to the collar and she was miraculously able to fix the hem, only because of all the excess material in the gathers of the dress, but it was one hell of a stressful week. I was really annoyed with the level of service we got during the alteration process because up until that point I loved this store.
My mommy in her dress (can you tell she loved it?)

View of the back (at first fitting):


The Wedding Salon of Manhasset:
Bride’s side- —10
I love this place! I had such a wonderful experience while shopping for my gown. I actually changed my mind months after I first ordered my dress and they were totally accommodating. Sania was my sales consultant and she made my bridal gown shopping experience a pure pleasure. She was patient, kind and funny. I had like ten friends and family members there watching me try on dresses and by the end of the night they all wanted me to invite her to the wedding! My dress came in early, but it had a mark on it and needed to be sent back to the designer to be fixed. It came back a month later and was perfect.
Casey was my seamstress and she was AMAZING! She made my dress fit me perfect and created the bustle I was hoping for. We had a problem with the bustle at first because my train wasn’t long enough to do the kind of bustle I initially wanted and I wasn’t happy with any of the bustles she was showing me. We decided to leave the bustle for the next fitting so we could both brainstorm ideas. I found a picture of a bustle I loved that I thought would work with my train and brought to Casey, she created it exactly! I was very happy with her work.
I also purchased my veil from there. It was a European style veil and it was gorgeous, it was ridiculously overpriced for a piece of tulle, but I didn’t care because I loved it so much.
My bustle looks a bit disheveled here, but you get the idea.


Bridesmaids- —8
The service on the BM side is not quite what it is on the Bride side. It wasn’t horrible, but sometimes it was just way too hectic in there to get high-level service. I chose four different styles for my nine girls (2,2,2,3). I went in there already knowing what I wanted because I had done my 'looking around' at the Vera Wang salon (the service there was truly exceptional). So I basically just went in to the Wedding Salon to get all my girls measured and to give them the sketches of what dresses I wanted. There is no way I could have picked out the four different styles and figured out who would be best in what dress and selected the best fabric and color option, if I hadn’t gone to VW first. The Wedding Salon just wasn’t able to provide that level of service. They gave me the best price though, and the dresses came in perfectly and the alterations were good. I was very particular about the length of the dresses and requested that my girls dresses be done by Susanna. She made certain everything was done to my specifications. Also, towards the end of the process WS got funky about the days my girls could come for alterations. A few of my girls wanted to come on certain days during the week and for some girls they said that was fine fine, but others they told they were no longer doing alterations on those days. They ended up accommodating my girls, but it took an argument. But believe me, you don’t want to go on a Saturday if it can be avoided.
Good picture for any brides thinking of doing different styles of BM dresses:


DJ: Music by Michael- —9.9
Michael is such a wonderful vendor to work with. His customer service is second to none and his personality is so warm. He is simply the most organized man I have ever met! I was looking for a DJ minus the guido persona and flashy, cheesy stuff. Michael was exactly what I was looking for. He is truly professional, and he understood what I did and did not want from a DJ company. His on-line music planner is awesome!! I had so much fun customizing my music and spent many hours doing so. He MC’d just when necessary and didn’t do all that other crap that I didn’t want. His playlist was fantastic and my dance floor was packed all night! There were two very minor things that I was a bit disappointed with— 1.) He played a few songs during dinner that I actually wanted as slow dance songs and therefore, he didn’t play some of the dinner songs I wanted. It wasn’t a big deal, my husband and I just danced while everyone else was eating. And it was partially my fault, I indicated on the on-line planner which songs I wanted for dinner, but I didn’t go over that stuff in person during our final meeting. I should have made it a point to go over the slow songs I wanted versus the dinner songs. 2.) One of the things that I was very impressed with during my first meeting with Michael was the way he wrapped all his equipment in black velvet skirting. His set up was much more aesthetic than any other DJ’s that I’ve seen. I was torn between two DJs and Michael’s set-up was actually one of the deciding factors that made me go with him. I loved his set-up!! Anyway, I noticed the day of, that he didn’t have the black wrap. His set-up still looked fine and professional, but it didn’t have the something-something that it had when I booked.
All in all, he was terrific and I would book him again in a second.

Favors: Villa Wines, Jericho Tpke., Garden City Park- —10
My husband had the brilliant idea of doing wine from Argentina. His mom (who is no longer with us) was from Argentina and so it was a nice way to make our favor a bit more personal. We did some research and read quite a few articles about certain wines from Argentina being excellent choices and well-kept secrets. We went to Villa and had them order a few different types for us to taste. They didn’t even charge us for the bottles when we came in to pick up the samples. We chose Navarro Correas Malbec and ordered nine cases. I had called around for price comparisons and Villa gave me the best price and was an absolute pleasure to work with (we dealt with Tony). Also, as a bonus, the wine happened to come in limited edition gift tins, which was wonderful because they looked really pretty all wrapped up. (Paper and ribbons were purchased from e-bay, labels were purchased from www.myownlabels.com).



Day of outfit: The Embroidery Shop, Commack Rd., Commack- —10
I ordered a tracksuit from Victoria’s Secret and had it embroidered with the words 'Eddie’s Bride' on the back. The Embroidery Shop was reasonably priced and fast. Simone, the owner, was super nice. I loved my getting ready get-up.


Flower Girl dress: Violets Blue- —10
I fell in love with Katina Katoo dresses and literally made my niece try on every one I could find on Long Island. I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to order from Thomas Knoell in Manhasset or from Violets Blue in Sayville. But, the same dress was $40 cheaper at Violet’s Blue, so guess who I went with. The women there were so nice too. My niece fell in love with this silly, floppy, dress-up type of hat which I refused to buy her, but when we were leaving the owner gave it to her. I was shocked, it was a very kind gesture and she totally made my niece’s day. The bad thing was I had to sit through lunch with her in that hat. LOL. The dress came in on time and was exactly the way I ordered it (I had changed a few things on it). Also, if you go there, go next door to Café Joelle for lunch, it is so yummy.

Craft Shoes for Bridesmaids- —5
What a yucky store! But they do have a good selection and good prices. I had nine girls getting shoes there, plus a Flower Girl and my Mom, so I was able to negotiate a discount on top of the free dying. All my girls picked out a pair of shoes they were happy with, but the dye job was not spectacular. I was surprised because I know they have a solid reputation for good dying. Anyway, my girl’s shoes were too purple, but they ended up being close enough and photographed fine. My Flower Girl’s shoes were way too pink. Also, the service there can be quite crappy and the old people that work there have major attitudes.

My shoes: Fenaroli showroom, NYC: 7
Lesson learned: slingbacks suck when you are wearing pantyhose. The damn things just would not stay on my feet. They were such beautiful shoes, and very comfortable with their soft leather sole, but I could not keep them on. Every step I took, I stepped right out of the back of them. I would not pick these shoes again if they were free! The service at Fenaroli was fine, but the place is surprisingly a dump. I just should have walked around in the shoes more when I tried them on, I made a bad choice.

Some details:

On the last page of our program I did a thank-you to our parents and included a photo from each of their weddings.




This was our card box. My mom made it!




First pic was the inspiration for my cake. Second and third pics were of our cake (I had them make it in pink and ivory). Loved it!!


I think this pic shows the color best:




My best friend (MOH) and a Groomsmen surprised us by performing Unforgettable at the wedding. She's my friend and he's my husband's friend, one lives in Westchester, the other on LI, so the fact that they actually got together to plan this, was so touching. They sounded beautiful.


This was us watching them:




A piece of advice: Make a checklist of everything you want to be wearing the day of your wedding. I somehow forgot to put my earrings on and once I realized it, I was so upset. In fact, I think in this picture, I was in the corner mourning my earrings. It's a good shot of my whole dress though.




My most prized photos! My Maddie girl and me.

(When I let her kiss me, I heard a collective shriek from the crowd and I think I panicked my make-up artist).




My Big Fat Obnoxious Bridal Party!

Ed and the girls:

Me and the guys:

Me and the girls:

I'd love to hear which of these three pics of my Flowergirl and me you like best. I want to frame one for her and I can't decide which.






My little ham of a Flowergirl did a flip as she entered the ballroom:




I loved the way the colors of my BM dresses went with this room! (Yes, soooo bridezilla of me).




Beautiful girls!




Usually not a ham, but I guess I was feeling playful!























One of my husband's favorite shots:




One of the few shots of my entire veil.

Everything is SOOOOO Beautiful!!
Congrats...You look beautiful!

wow everything looks so beautiful.
and I love your dress, your bo-k, your centerpieces, and etc

Congratulations

Danielle you looked amazing!!! Your review was excellent and I LOVE your pictures. I feel like I was there! The wait was well worth it. Late congrats to you and DH!

Everything looks amazing. You look absolutely gorgeous.

I love the church pictures (but I am partial since I am a St. Aidan's bride too!) and the balack and white shots.

Congratulations to you and DH!

Well that was certainly worth waiting for! LOVE the wrapping on the wine bottles - gorgeous and so elegant!

You should definitely FM Ron and Liz and ask them to move this to The Bride's Review Board...what a great and thorough review!

Congratulations and best wishes!

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Posted by KimberlyBride
Was Bethsiar a bridesmaid? If not they look so much alike.

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I was thinking the same thing! Everything looked beautiful!

wow! what a review! very impressive. and you looked gorgeous!

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Posted by EvenEdan

Yes, that is the infamous Bethsiar in my bridal party. Lol.

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Aww that's great! Did you meet on LIW? You both looked beautiful.