Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Hi Ladies,
I know it has taken me so long to post this review, but it has been so crazy after the wedding. First we had to move my stuff into Roger’s apartment, then the honeymoon, and then a crazy work schedule. I also wanted to wait to get my proofs to include with my review, and that took 6 week, but more on that later.

First I want to say that my wedding was absolutely perfect. I was pretty calm during the whole planning process, not too many dramas (only during the table arrangements, go figure). If something wasn’t perfect that day, I had no idea. I had lots of fun with my guests, and they all had a great time. I am just so glad to be married to a wonderful man, that I am so deeply in love with. It was the day I have always dreamed about, and it was honestly the most fun I’ve ever had. I loved all of my vendors, and they all did a fantastic job. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. So here is my review. It’s very detailed, so hopefully you’ll all find it useful. It’s very honest. I didn’t give grades because I felt my explanations will give you all of the info you need. If I’ve missed anything, or if you have any question on any of my vendors please FM me.

Pre-wedding:
Planning: LIweddings.com: My savior and my refuge. What would I have done without these boards? I think I found most of my vendors on here. Thank you ladies!!

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Dance lessons: Dance Manhattan, instructor: Ed Britton. Ed was so great to work with. My DH and I are the worst dancers and he was so patient with us. We had 5 private lessons and 4 group classes and not only did we look great during our first dance, but we had so much fun learning everything. Ed choreographed our dance to “At Last” and our family and friends we so shocked at our performance. We only told a handful of people about our lessons, so everyone was really impressed. I messed up a little, but nobody knew since my dress was so big.

Family Photos: Kinkos for copies, Michaels for frames. We decided to give the mansion a homier feel by putting pictures of Roger and me when we were little in the cocktail hour rooms. We also displayed pictures of our parents and grandparents wedding pictures. A lot of people said it was a really nice touch and enjoyed seeing pictures of us as children. It was really easy to do. The hardest part was picking out the pictures we wanted. We made great copies at Kinkos and put them in all wood frames that we bought from Michaels. Roger and I did that together and actually had fun throughout the whole process.

Favors: Wrap-with-us. I got picture frame placeholders as our favors and got a great price on them. They had all of the favors in stock and it was really easy making our own placecards.


Money holder Birdcage: Pottery Barn. This I borrowed from my sister. But I think Pottery still sell birdcages. It was this antique-looking wooden and wire birdcage that was just perfect. We removed two wires, rather easily, and it fit all of the envelopes in there. It went really well with the vintage feel of the whole place.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Veil: Wrap-with-us. I didn’t want to go crazy with an expensive veil. I just wanted a basic veil to wear for the ceremony and that’s all. I went to Wrap-with-us and got a great one for only $20.


Table cameras: B+H Photo and Video. We ordered 14 cameras from them, and only received 13. So I have to call them about that. Otherwise, they had the cheapest prices around.

Sand for ceremony: Moonglowcandles.com. It was a little tricky buying sand. We went to Michaels and the colors weren’t that great, and were a bit unsure of what the color quality would be like if we bought through a website. So we crossed our fingers and order 4 different colors from this website. Roger ordered 2 pound of each because they have a $25 minimum and a glass bottle (which was really beautiful, we used it as our big bottle that we poured the sand into). The colors were so beautiful, they were sparkly and rich. Great choice.


Bottles for sand ceremony: Save-on-crafts.com. I ordered 3 bottles from them. 2 small and one large. When the package arrived the bigger one was really small. I was really glad Roger ordered that extra bottle from MoonGlow, because it really came in handy. Otherwise, the bottles were good. My suggestion, order the bottles and sand very early so if you need to make changes, you’ll have plenty of time.

Invitations: Marsville Letterpress. I loved them. They came out so beautifully, and her prices were amazing. She did a great job, and I loved working with her. I highly recommend her. It may take a while for her to get back to you, but it’s worth it.


Wedding rings: Jonro jewelers, in the Jewelers on 5th diamond district. We got my engagement ring and were very happy. He has an enormous selection of diamonds, and great prices.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Tuxedo: Gino’s fashion: Oscar de la Renta. Roger and I went to a few places looking for a tux for him, but the sales people at most places weren’t helpful at all. Then we decided to go to Gino’s Fashion on a recommendation from his brother that had recently gotten married. The girl there was so helpful. She let Roger try on about 8 different tuxes until we found the perfect one. It was a double breasted tux with a taupe tie and vest. He looked so great in it. Gino’s has great service and prices.


MOH dress: Carmela’s Bridal Garden: Bill Levkoff. My sister and I went to a bunch of different stores looking for a dress for her. We loved this dress on her because it was the most flattering. It really looked beautiful on her. My sister found Carmela’s and they were the nicest to deal with. The price was the same as every other place, but we liked working with the people in this store better. She got her alterations done there as well, and was really pleased with the results.


My dress: Kleinfeld’s, Designer unknown. I got my dress during a sample sale and it was the easiest decision I made. It literally took me 30 minutes to find my dress. It was one of the best shopping experiences. I had so much fun and Rosaira my sales person, was so great. She knew exactly what would look good on me. It really does pay to go somewhere that has a great reputation and years of service. It was a wonderful experience and I got an unbelievable price, about half of what I was expecting to pay.


Alterations: Kleinfeld’s, Mihaela. Again, a great experience. It was expensive, but I really wanted to go somewhere that I could trust, after all, this is my wedding dress. Since I bought a sample gown, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. It was a size 14 dress and I was size 8. Mihaela was so great to work with. She is this sweet old lady who worked wonders on my dress and was so patient with me. I lost about 20 lbs from when she started work on my dress to when she finished and my dress fit like a glove. I had 3 fittings and a 4th final trial. I know some people complain about the attitude at Kleinfeld’s, but I didn’t experience any of it. They are so wonderful to work with and I’m so glad I chose them.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

You look beautiful! Love the sand idea!!! I went to dowling, so i knew you were guaranteed a nice place!

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Day of:
Weather: Mother Nature: Absolutely beautiful. It was warm, but not humid, breezy but not windy. It was the most perfect weather.

Florist: Burton’s: Of all of my vendors, I had the worst experience with Burton’s. I chose them on price, but from the very beginning I was welcomed with an attitude and a “we’re doing you a favor” manner. Most of the men that work there are very sweet and great to work with, but there is one big woman that is an absolute B-tch. She is a horrible person, and for that reason I do not recommend Burton’s. About a month before the wedding I decided to get an archway. They didn’t have anymore left, so instead of them going out and renting one for me, I had to call up a bunch of rental places and find one. I also had to deliver it to Burton’s the day before the wedding (although they wanted me to deliver it at 5:00 the day of the wedding—are they crazy!). Then after the wedding, Roger’s father had to pack it into his truck and return it the next day. When I told my banquet manager about all of this, she was furious with them (Burton’s is on their recommended vendor list).
The day of the wedding, the flowers were beautiful. I knew they do a great job on flowers, but I was just very disappointed with the service. They also threw in a giant arrangement for the mantelpiece, I guess as an apology. My bo-k was gigantic, but absolutely beautiful. My MOH’s Bo-k was also very beautiful. The centerpiece was gorgeous, there wasn’t one left at the end of the night. I have to say, I was very happy with the design that I picked and the color combinations that I chose. (I think I deserve a big pat on the back for that.) Oh, the archway was also amazing. It was so great standing underneath it during the ceremony.
If you are thinking about booking Burton’s here are my suggestions. 1) Avoid working with the women there. Mike and John are great to work with, so always INSIST you talk with them. 2) Insist on seeing your centerpiece a few weeks before the wedding. They wanted to show me mine 3 days before! First of all, I didn’t have time to go there then. And second, what if I wanted changes? It would be too late to order new flowers. When I did see my flowers 3 weeks before, the flowers were right, but the design was ALL WRONG. I would have freaked out if I saw it 3 days before. 3) When you go in to see your sample, make sure you bring in a list of EVERYTHING you want. The contract they give you says “any flower combination” for everything. That leaves a lot of room for error. I’ve heard other people say that they’ve forgotten some arrangements, or boutonnieres. So to avoid all of that, I typed up this very long list of everything I wanted from them, how it should be arranged, and where. As they were going through my list, a lot of things were missing from theirs, so I am so glad I did that.
Burton’s did offer me the best price, and their flowers were beautiful, my only problem with them is there service.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

more flower pictures:

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

and some more:

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Officiant: Dr. Janine Burns. She offered us exactly what we wanted. We were able to design our ceremony exactly the way we wanted it. I picked out my own vows, readings, sand ceremony, everything. She made us both feel very comfortable when we up on the alter. We got a lot of compliments about her. She is pricey, but she did a great job.

Limos: Sir Oliver, Tim and Joe. I booked Sir Oliver’s about 3 weeks before the wedding.
I priced a few places before I booked with Sir Oliver and they had they best price. They were also so nice on the phone and in person. The limos were both very clean and both drivers were on time (although I wasn’t). The limo drivers made sure Roger and my first meeting at the park was quite and private. Roger really liked his driver as did I. When we arrived at the Mansion at 5:30 (ceremony didn’t begin until 7) a few of Roger’s friends were already there. That really pissed me off, because there was no reason for them to be there that early. So I asked Joe my driver to get rid of them. And he went up to them and politely told them that Roger and I were uncomfortable have anyone see us before the ceremony, and they left. I still don’t know why they were there that early, Roger isn’t that close with those 3. Oh well. So I loved Sir Oliver’s. Great service! At the end of the night we were supposed to get a town car to take us back to the hotel, but instead they sent us a stretch limo. It was so comfy in there.


Photo & Video: Duet: My team was Eric, Alberto, and Woo. I think they took about 1,000 pictures. We took pictures before the ceremony at the Cutting Park Arboretum and they were so great to work with. They were very patient with us, even though I blinked in like every picture. At one point Alberto was taking pictures of us right by the edge of the water, and Woo had to hold onto his jacket just to keep from falling in. They were so professional and fun. We took all of the family pictures on the lawn of the Vanderbilt Mansion. Our families loved working with Duet. They made sure to take lots of pictures of everyone. During the ceremony, they took pictures from every angle. By the time my father and I were walking down the aisle, it was pretty dark out. So Eric had us do the walk again during the cocktail hour. I thought that was really great of them. Instead of just ignoring it, they made sure that we had everything come out perfect. I never felt like they were in the way. During the whole reception they only took us away once to take pictures.
My only problem with the pictures was that they took so many. I was so nervous for most of the day, but when I was busy, I didn’t notice it. Only when I was doing nothing, like posing for a picture, did I feel the nerves come on again. But that was my problem, they did nothing wrong.
It took 6 weeks for me to get my proofs. All they kept telling me is that they are backed up in the lab, so it is taking longer. I was so frustrated and I had no idea where my pictures were. I was so close to calling my lawyer, but finally they came, and they are beautiful. I guess if I had known from the beginning that it would take 6 weeks, I wouldn’t have been concerned, but they kept pushing it up, and I felt like something was wrong and they weren’t telling me. In the end the photos were amazing, and I am so happy with how everything turned out.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

String Quartet for ceremony: Counterpoint: I have to be honest here and say that I really don’t know how they were. During the hospitality hour, I was in the bridal suite, so I didn’t hear them. I only heard them as I was walking down the aisle. At that point, I wasn’t really paying attention anyway, since my heart was racing at a million times per second. My brother said that they sounded great. But the little that I did hear as I was waiting to walk down the aisle sounded ok, but I thought some notes were a little flat. I asked a friend about them as well, and she agreed with me. She said there was one violinist that was a little off sometimes. It sucks now, but what are you gonna do. So I can’t really recommend them.

Pianist for cocktail hour: Sterling Music. This I think was sort of a waist of money because I never noticed the guy playing at all. We were so busy during cocktail hour greeting all of our guests, that I didn’t even notice him. All of our guests stayed in the Hunt room (that’s where all the food was) for cocktail hour instead of mingling outside, so the pianist was outside of where everyone was. I’m not sure what the guests thought of him though. But he was fairly priced and I think he played the music we wanted, but who knows.

DJ: Polka DJ: We chose a Persian DJ to play both American and Persian music. He is one of the best Persian DJs in the New York area and he performed at a graduation party that I went to, so I knew he would be great. Surprisingly, he also had a great price. Only $650! We gave him a list of songs that we wanted, some very obscure ones. And he made sure he had everyone of those songs with him. Although he didn’t play a lot of the song we asked for, we had so much fun dancing. As I said before, DH and I are terrible dancers, but we were up and dancing the whole night. By the end of it Roger and I were so sweaty, but we didn’t care. There were a couple of special Persian dances that the DJ put together, that I had no idea about, but we had such a great time doing them. One of them (which I highly recommend) is where all of your guests form a big circle around you and your DH. Your guests get a handful of rose petals from your centerpieces or wherever, and when the DJ says so they all throw them at you. It was so cool dancing under a shower of petals, and the pictures of that are so amazing.
Also, we created a great list of songs if anyone is interested in seeing it, I’ll email it to you.
A friend of ours who is getting married next month decided to book Polka DJ as well. He is Jewish and she is Colombian, so it’s going to be a big international affair. I can’t wait.
We didn’t hire an MC. I never wanted one, because I find them to be a bit annoying. If you are concerned about getting your guests to get up and dance, there is a sure fire way to make sure they do. You and your DH have to be up there dancing. Roger and I danced all night, and we never dance. But we had the time of our lives. And everyone was up there dancing with us. We had a packed floor most of the night. We spent the most time with the people that were up there dancing with us.


Belly Dancer: Hard Bodies, Inc, Jasmina. Being Persian, there is always a belly dancer at our weddings or any big party that we have. So of course, I had to have one. Jasmina was go great, one of the best that I’ve ever seen. Usually they only dance with some of the willing men, but she got a lot of the woman to dance too. She had us do dances with her that were so much fun. She was a real crowd pleaser. Roger’s family had never seen a belly dancer, so when she came out, you could hear their amazement, and surprise.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Hair: Gizay Michael, Jen. I go to Gizay Michaels to get my hair cut pretty often by Jane. I was referred to Jen from another stylist there who said she does great updos. When I went for my trial, I was so disappointed. She didn’t do anything to my hair, it was more of a consultation. She played around with it a bit, and said that this is what it will basically look like. At $100 trial, I want to know what it will definitely look like. I tried to find another stylist and I called about 6 other people, all of them booked. I decided to just suck it up and stick with Jen. I brought a few pictures of what I wanted and she did a great job. She relaxed me while I was there and really made me look like a princess. So in the end she was a great choice. I would definitely recommend her.


Make-up: Kim Clarke from the Prescriptives counter at Macy in Walt Whitman Mall. Before I met Kim at had two other trials. One woman used WAY too much make-up. She kept saying she wanted to play-up my “Princess Jasmine” eyes. She wouldn’t let me look in the mirror while she was working on me either. I also said I wanted lavender eyeshadow, instead she used pink. So clearly I didn’t want her. The other girl was kind of annoying. She also didn’t let me look in the mirror at all either. She made everything neutral and again, I asked for lavender eyeshadow and she used beige. Again, very unhappy. Then I just happened to stumble upon Kim. I told her about my previous experiences and she totally worked with me. She let me pick out the colors I wanted and while she doing everything, she had me check to see if it was exactly how I wanted it. In the end my make-up was flawless. She really did a fantastic job, and I am so glad I booked her. The day of she was on time and did a beautiful job on my make-up. Roger doesn’t like a lot of make-up, but even he was thrilled with the job she did. If you want someone that will actually listen to you, BOOK KIM.


Hotel: Islandia Marriot. No complaints here. The room was very big, and the bed was comfy. When we got back at the end of the night, they had a bottle of champagne waiting for us.

Cake: Audrey’s Bake shop. The Vanderbilt includes a cake from Audrey’s and I am so glad they do. Thomas was so great to work with. He really helped up pick out a cake that was perfect for us. And it was exactly what I wanted. It was really so beautiful. I think I was most touched when I saw my cake. It looked so beautiful sitting on the table and it was truly a beautiful cake. As far as the taste, it was unbelievably delicious. We picked a yellow cake with strawberry mousse and vanilla pastry cream. I loved it. I don’t usually like wedding cakes, but this one was moist and delicious. And I am not biased! Normally they include a chocolate covered cheesecake with the desserts but we upgraded to a silk and satin, which was so worth the extra 55 cents a person. The silk and satin is chocolate mousse cake dipped in chocolate. It is so heavenly. We both can’t wait to go back to Audrey’s just to buy more.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Reception Hall: Vanderbilt Mansion. I saved this review for last since it will be the longest. Of all of my vendors, VM was the best decision I made. I know from the second I walked into the courtyard that I wanted my wedding there. The grounds are absolutely beautiful. It was the exact location I was hoping for. I wanted something original, something that would make me feel like a princess, and the VM was it. The courtyard for the ceremony is so unique, the alter is high up so everyone can see, and the chairs are set around the beautiful fountain in the middle. There are flowers everywhere, and little trees and statues. It really makes for a beautiful ceremony. The cocktail hour room in the hunt room which has a fireplace a huge statue over it. The cocktail hour also spills outside where tables and chairs are set up on the veranda that overlooks the Connetquot River. It’s a great place to take sunset pictures. The sun sets right over the trees. The ballroom is what won me over. As you enter from the huge double doors, there is this enormous, but not ostentatious chandelier in the center of the ballroom. It sets of a plethora of colors all over. Towards the back of the ballroom in an enormous fireplace that has a 3-section mantelpiece. The fireplace has beautiful carvings on the side. Right in the middle of this fireplace is where they set up the sweetheart table with big and very comfy estate chairs. Everyone commented on our comfortable the chairs looked. Besides our chairs, I also loved the guest chairs. They were made of dark wood and a simple white cushion is placed on the seat. I know this is a weird thing to write about, but I hate those chairs that some halls provide, so I was really happy they had nice chairs.
Now onto the service. Maryann was our banquet manager, and she was so wonderful. She really knows what she is doing. I felt very comfortable knowing she was running the whole show. Since our first meeting with them to the day of the wedding, we called and bugged them with so many questions and changes and she never made me feel ridiculous. We made tons of last minute changes and I never worried that something would get screwed up. They were on top of everything. Our maitre’d was Suzanne, and she was also great to work with. Karen my bridal attendant was there for anything we needed. She went over our processional with everyone minutes before the ceremony, and everyone was right on track. Our families were so impressed with how professional she is. For the ceremony we performed a sand ceremony. The openings in the bottles we had were too small to neatly pour the sand into, so we needed a funnel. Of course, I forgot one. I told Karen I forgot it and almost 10 minutes later, they went out and bought one for us. That was so great of them. They really saved my *** there.
Food: This is the best part. When we went to our tasting months before, we were completely blown away by the food. My parents (my mother in particular), are really hard to impress when it come to food. But they said that the food at the tasting was the best they’ve ever had. I always heard that the food at a tasting is always better that the actual day. But that’s not the case with the VM. Although I barely had time to taste my food (I just gobbled some down so I had energy to keep dancing), Roger did eat and he loved it and said it was better than the tasting. Their menu is so great. We chose the Filet mignon, Potato encrusted Chilean sea bass, and a lobster and shrimp crepe. We didn’t choose a chicken dish because we loved the other items so much. Our guests still rave about the food. The VM is so great that they packed us 6 dinners to take home with us. That’s all we ate all weekend long. I didn’t eat anything during the cocktail hour because I was too busy greeting everyone, and because I was still really nervous. But everything looked and smelled amazing. Our guests were so thrilled with how everything tasted that no one was walking around to mingle at all. They were all too busy eating. At the end of the night, Maryann gave us a chilled bottle of champagne with 2 flutes. In case it’s not completely obvious, I loved the Vanderbilt Mansion, and would highly recommend it to anyone. I’m trying to push a recently engaged friend of mine to have her wedding there just so I can actually sit and enjoy my food.
My only complaint was that the maitre‘d didn’t coordinate with our DJ. So he didn’t know when the toast, father/daughter dances, or cake cutting was supposed to happen. I didn’t notice anything, and neither did our guests, but it was hard for him to work. Also, either my bridal attendant or maitre‘d gave our DJ the list for the announcements at the beginning of the ceremony, and Roger’s last name was spelled completely wrong, so our DJ read it wrong. It was embarrassing because this is the first time we were being announced, and it came out as the wrong name.

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Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Oh, if you want to see more pictures, we posted about 180 proofs on our website. We also included pictures from our honeymoon in Maui.
Here is the link: RogerandSamira.com

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Everything looked so beautiful!!!!! You made a beautiful bride.

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Beautiful bride, beautiful wedding, awesome review!!!
Thanks for taking the time.

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Everything seemed so perfect!

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Great review, Everything looks beautiful!!! Congrats!!!!

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations! What a great review and such beautiful pictures! You look absolutely radiant! Reading your review made me think about our wedding at the Vanderbilt and how truly amazing their staff and the venue is. Again Congratulations!

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Great review and beautifuly pictures...everything looked perfect...

Re: Finally, my August 27th wedding review--with proofs!!

Excellent review!!! sounds like everything was wonderful. I love the belly dancer, how cool!! But my favorite part was the pictures. They came out AMAZING!!! congratulations and thanks for the review!!