Just got back from Long Island...

Hi, my fiance and I just got back from LI. We were there for 5 days. Boy were we busy. We had our engagement party. There was about 70-80 people there. (Should of had a priest there, it would of saved a lot of money, LOL). It was a lot of fun. It's funny, the weather cleared up just for our party on Sunday. Anyway, we booked and met with our Priest, photographer, and videographer. We're having Father Douglas Trees from Chevaliers of Notre Dame as our Catholic Priest, he's great. We booked Paul Marino for our photographer. We had 6 appointments but only went to a few of them. We met with Paul first and ended up going back to him. He's great, and his work is wonderful. My fiance and I really like him. It's good too because he's the only photographer, it's his office and business. So we know who we're getting and what the work is like. We got a really great package, and he mix and matches it if you want too. And for our video, we chose Platinum Video Productions. We saw 3 other video companies, but overall, Platinum is what we're looking for. The other work was good, but Platinum is much more personal and creative. He also catches things that other videographers didn't. The way he video tapes the ceremony is different too. And his price is excellent, and he includes a lot, and cuts costs on other things you want to add. We're getting the short form edit style. He's great. Oh, I did look at videos at photography companies and they were horrible. After seeing videos at a separate video company, we actually laughed at what we saw. What's even funnier, is that for the same price of a video through a photography company, you could get the same thing for the same price at a video company. I definitely would not recommend getting a video through a photography company, they may tape your wedding, but there is no comparison to the quality and dedication that's put in with a videographer than getting a video with photos. All of who we chose, have excellent personalities, great work and I highly recommend them. I definitely do not recommend planning long distance though. It's so hard, and we are so tired. Going from place to place, appointment to appointment, trying to meet people and visit with friends and family in between was hell! It was great at the same time because it was a Wedding theme trip, but definitely not enough hours in a day. (Now this is only our opinion from what we saw. I know there are brides out there that have videos through their photography company. From the companies we went to, we had to choose who we did. Maybe what you saw was different.) We were so tired driving back last night, we had to stop 2 times to sleep. Usually we drive straight through. IT'S SO NICE TO BE HOME!!! Happy Planning!

Just got back from Long Island...

Thanks for the advice. I am going to be doing the same thing in two weeks. I know it will be alot of work. Im planning a LI wedding from Florida. Where's your reception?

Just got back from Long Island...

If you guy's need any help let me know I planned from Texas and I'm getting married on June 29th so if there is anything I can help you with just say so!!

Jena...

Hi, yeah it's a lot of work. Very tiring to say the least. Anyway, my reception is at the Port Jefferson Country Club. Do you have a site yet???

Nicole M....

From Texas??? I thought North Carolina was far. How long did you plan your wedding for? Thanks for the offer, I'll let you know if I need help! How many trips did it take you to get things together? So far, we made 1 wedding trip up there. Our wedding is August 16, 2002. I'm not sure what our next step would be. Right now we have the reception site, photographer, DJ, videographer and the priest. If you know of what I should do next let me know! Oh, good luck to you and let us know how things go! Thanks so much!

Nicole M....

Oh my god you have alot more stuff done than I did a year away!! I only had one trip up there so basically everyone else I booked I got referrals from this board and did stuff over the phone. The only really hard thing is I have to ship my dress and all the bridesmaids and groomsmens gifts and all the shipping and long distance calls get expensive I'm sure you know!! Good Luck!!

melissa

I have appointments at a few places, I have kind of narrowed it down to a few. I'm having a smaller wedding of around 75 to 100 people, so I'm dealing with places that can accomodate that amount of people comfortably.Eastwind caterers,westbury manor, Louis xvi, bellport country club,milleridge carrige and cottage house and another one that is slipping my mind. I already have a photographer that will fly to NY for me.'Thank God' I have a few recomendations of vidio guys ,and DJ/Bands. Any other suggestions would be appreaciated. P.J. country club is really beautiful, but they will only do 125 and up.

Jena...

The Port Jefferson Country Club has a minimum of 100 people on a Friday night. That's when we're having ours. We don't know anymore people than that to invite. :)

Jena...

Thats a good thing. I have talked to so many people that have had large weddings, and they all say that if they could do it all again, they would have kept it small.

To Nicole M....

Hi Nicole, This is my first post on this web site -although I have been reading it for a while. I too am planning my Long Island Wedding from Texas so I had to write. I was wondering if you have any suggestions for places in Texas to go and look for Wedding Gowns. I know that there are a lot of places around (I live in the Dallas area), but I don't know anyone in the area to even get a recommendation! I even considered looking for a dress in NY to avoid the shipping of the dress problem! Let me know how that goes for you. Thanks, Tina

To Tina R.

Hi Tina, I have some suggestions email me at [email protected] Thanks!

Atlanta

Hi Ladies- I am planning from Atlanta. We are getting married 9/28/01 (less than 4 months:). We actually got back from LI last night. We have been to LI 4 times- and hopefully this last time was the last time. I am going back in August for my shower but my Fi will not be back until the week before. This past weekend we met with our priest for the first time and did our Pre-Cana classes all in one 3 hour period. He was great about helping out by combining the meetings. We also finalized our menu and cake with our reception site. We looked for limos and tux places as well. It was a LONG weekend. I got my wedding dress down here and my bridesmaids dresses. I got my dress at a cheaper price b/c I got the 'no frills' option- meaning they do not house it there and they are not doing the dry-cleaning before and after. It saved me over $250. I am going to get it sized down here but we are driving- yes I said driving- up the week before the wedding and I will get it cleaned then. I also had one of bridemaids here a while ago and I had her try on lots of dresses and picked one out. Then I had all my others call in their sizes. When they come in I am going to send them to the girls and tell them the length I want them and let them get them sized in their home towns. We deceided to drive b/c- we are going to need a car for the week, we are going to have all of our wedding/honeymoon stuff and we have a dog. We are going to leave the dog with my sister while we are on our honeymoon. We are flying out of JFK and then back to JFK. That way we can drive all our presents back (from the wedding and August shower) The ride back to Atlanta after everything is going to suck but seeing all that we are going to need- it seems easier to us. We used the internet a ton to help us narrow down what vendors we met with. Please let me know if you have any questions. [email protected]. Good luck!