My 10/13/02 wedding review part 2 (VERY LONG!)

Limos
M & V- Smithtown
We booked the 35 passenger Limbusine (Party Bus) and the 16 passenger white Lincoln super stretch. Both limo's were on time (actually a
little early) and clean. The party bus went to pick up the guys and the Lincoln picked up me, my parents, my Nanny and all of my girls.
Our limo driver was Todd. He went above and beyond his call of duty. We were a little concerned how my 89 year old Nanny would get into the
limo. He simply sat her in the back seat and swung her legs in where her back was actually flush with the backseat, kind of like she was break dancing. It was very, very funny and she laughed all the way to the church. Only problem...... the 16 pass. limo smelt really bad. Thank God we were only in it for 15 minutes. Honestly, I didn't smell it as much since I was sitting all the way in the back near the doors. Before we arrived to the church, Todd kept playing the bridal horn, at my dad's request. When we pulled up to the church, both limo drivers placed the runner down the aisle and made sure no one could slip or fall on it. They fluffed my dress and off I went. After the Mass, we took our pictures in the Church. We ended up
running a little late (we were told by Todd we would go into overtime if we didn't leave by whatever time and we were really wrapped up in our moment to even care) Needless to say, we were charged OT for the Party Bus, OH well. After church, the parents went in the 16 passenger and my husband and I went in the limo bus with our bridal party- a total of 20 people. We were all very comfortable and were able to move and walk around. There was even a bathroom on the bus! After the reception, we had the 16 passenger to bring us home as well as my family. Again, Todd was our driver and treated us great. This time I sat in the middle of the limo and it smelt NASTY!! We asked our driver what the heck the smell was and he was just as baffled as we were. He assured us he would leave a note for the mechanics to check it out. The only thing we could all think of was someone got sick and it went under the seat and was being heated up by the exhaust or there was something dead under the car. My parents even suprised us and booked a town car for us to take us and drop us off at JFK airport so we didn't
have to worry about driving to the airport at 5am. When my dad called to request Todd the day after the wedding, he also complained about the stench and was told the driver also left a note and they were looking into it. My dad requested Todd since he was so wonderful to our family. For both the pickup and drop off- he was very early, carried our bags for us was such a gentleman.

Florist-Lee Anne's
This is a local florist in Mastic who my husbands aunt highly recommended from the day we got engaged. I was a little iffy but the flowers were
beautiful!!!! Nancy really showed me all sorts of color themes I could go with and went above and beyond to make me happy. Diane was the actual
designer of the bouquets and she did an amazing job. Only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the stephanotis. It is a very delicate flower and we
were hugging people all day- needless to say they were a little brown on the edges by the end of the night. Overall, the flowers smelled great and the price was great!! We came in way under budget in
this category!!

Videographer
Wild Rose Video
WOW!!! Bill and Marie are so professional yet so down to earth. I can't wait to see the final product!!! When I arrived at the Church, Bill
was there ready to go. I think that was the only time I seen him all day except for when we did our formals and mini interviews. Candid from the word go. Small camera, low light and no sqwinting!! (sp?) I looked at some of our table pictures and Bill is laughing and smiling like he really wanted to be there, not like Ho hum- just another wedding I'm videotaping. All you Wild Rose Brides.... EXCELLENT CHOICE!

Church
St. Jude
Rehearsal was a bit hairy since they had 4 or 5 weddings that weekend and 3 of the rehearsal were on Friday night. Our rehearsal was scheduled
for 6:30 pm. The weather was horrible and everyone was stuck in traffic on Sunrise and the LIE. We had people coming home from college and
traveling from Pennsylvania, Cortland and Ithaca. The rehearsal coordinator was a very cranky old lady who was yelling at us to hurry up. Overall, went OK.

Photographer-
Mark Kauffman
I can not wait to see our proofs!!!!!! Mark W was our main professional photographer and Lynn was our Fine art professional candid photographer.
They worked together very well and were snapping away all day. I could only wish the weather was nicer that day. We never got to go into my
parents beautiful backyard and take any photos. I was a little nervous about my dress getting dirty since everything was very wet and muddy. I
think alot of the family pictures were taken at the church. I say think because a majority of the day is such a big blur to me. Even looking at our table pictures I kept saying, 'I don't remember that' and 'when did that happen'!!

DJ
Get in Tune
AMAZING!!!!!!!! Glen was our MC. The package we decided on was the Ultimate, which included the MC, a DJ and a lighting operator. Worth every single penny. EVERYONE, including my 89 year old Nanny was up dancing. Glen and his crew were very professional. Went over names and final details and made sure he had pronunciations down to a science. A great crowd motivator and from what we have heard from so many of our guests 'This was one hell of an @ss kicckin party'!!!! We had 4 calls from guests wanting his name and # because they want to use him
too! Played a great variety of music (boardy barn classsics, oldies, Frank Sinatra, slow songs) Only time people were sitting was to take a bite or 2 of food. Even in our seats while we were eating, we were swaying away to 'That's amore' and 'knock 3 times'. Glen played both mine and My Husband's parents anniversary songs, who have been both
married for over 30 years. He even wished my mom a happy birthday!! Two highlights that totally stick out in my head are when my 25 year old
brother who caught the garter had to put the garter onto Mike's sister who caught the bouquet. Glen added some spice and blindfolded my brother,
switched my husband's 18 year old sister out of chair and replaced her with Mike's grandfathers girlfriend who is in her 70's!!! My brother
had no idea and when we pulled the blind fold off of him, he fell back and laughed hysterical, as well as all of our guests. Picture 100 people in a very tight huddle around a chair in the middle of the dance
floor. VERY, VERY Funny!!!! Then we had to have every girls theme song at one point in her life-Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive. But again,
Glen put another twist in it. Not alot of people have heard it, but the group Cake recorded a guy's version of I will Survive and my husband
liked it from the second he heard it. We looked for a mix of it and couldn't find one, but Glen had the girls line up on one side of the dance floor and the guys on the other. First he had the girls sing to
the guys, then switched and had the guys sing to us. It was very cool.We were SO happy with Get in Tune!!


To be continued again!!!