The Happiest Day of My Life a.k.a. Our Glorious 10/7 Wedding

Oct 22, 2001 05:06 PM

It was a beautiful sunny fall morning, the birds were singing and a wedding was about to begin... hehe. OK, I`ll get to the point - but this is gonna be long, so be forewarned! :)

Our wedding, in a word, was fantastic!! We received so very many compliments on everything from the ceremony, to the food, to the color-coordinated organza favor bags and ladies room basket!!

All of our vendors were incredibly professional and truly a delight to work with! In no particular order, here they are!

The Day Before:

'Rehearsal' dinner: Outback Steakhouse in Merrick - fantastic! Great service and food - everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! The biggest hit was the surprise Groom`s cake with a fishing scene that I had made for my husband. Incredibly beautiful and delicious! And SO reasonable!! $65.00 (including delivery) fo 30 people. If anyone is interested in the baker`s info., let me know and I`ll post it - she put a picture of our cake on her website!!

The BIG day:

Hair/Makeup: Michele at Salon Menage didn`t let us down! She opened at 7 a.m. for us and I looked radiant if I do say so myself. I will say
that I either brought her too many heads to do (11) or she didn`t have enough staff on hand. My mom and 2 sisters ran 45 minutes late for pictures.

Reception: Coral House. From start to finish - Amazing! Our guests are still raving about the cocktail hour, the service and the view. I`ll be honest and say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see how well-run it was and while I wasn`t the only bride there, just one other wedding going on, I felt like it! I never saw the other bride - just a few guests.

Ceremony: The best part of the day for us. Absolutely, unbelievably, beautiful! Father Steve from St. William the Abbot and Rabbi Applestone were terrific. We had no rehearsal and didn`t need it. I didn`t cry once and I wasn`t the slightest bit nervous - it was like a dream! I can`t tell you how many guests (Jewish and Catholic) complimented us on how beautiful and tasteful it was. Interfaith brides, feel free to ask any questions about our ceremony content, etc.

Ceremony/Cocktail Hour Musicians: Island Classical Ensembles. Flute, Violin and Cello trio - $750 for 2 hours. They were wonderful. I got chills when I heard them play my bridal party recessional - Canon in D and my song, Trumpet Voluntary. They made one small mistake during the ceremony by playing Ave Maria at the time of the memorial candle lighting instead of the unity candly lighting. They caught their mistake and played a different song during the unity candle.
No one but me noticed. Very professional.

DJ: D-Jay Joey and Co. - Great!! We didn`t have a 'dancing' crowd but he knew what to play and when. Since we had 18 kids there, we made sure to have plenty of giveaways, which the adults loved, too. He played every single song we requested, got all of our dedications right and even made some great suggestions along the way!!

Videographer - Wild Rose. Bill and Marie, the owners, were not available to shoot but we worked with Dave and he was fabulous!! We never knew where he was. Marie even showed up at our reception to make sure that everything was going well and to congratulate us. I can't wait for our video!!

Photographer - THE BEST!!!! (Jenny B will be SO happy!!) Ed Collins. Incredible!! Patient, professional and completely unobtrusive. We should be seeing our proofs within a week and I know we won`t be disappointed. So many of our guests mentioned how good they thought he was - he was everywhere and I hardly ever saw him!!

Florist: Colonial Flowers in Bellmore. We worked with Irene and our flowers were EXACTLY what we wanted!! We saw our centerpieces the night before and they were incredible - a mix of fall flowers. Some guests told us that with the exception of the roses, the flowers lasted until this weekend!!

Wedding night: Garden City Hotel. SO worth the $300!! We were going to stay in our apartment that night to save the money, but I`m so glad we didn`t! It was nice to show up there in my gown and get the smiles and applause! :)

Honeymoon: 10-day cruise on Royal Caribbean to Canada and New England. We had a wonderful and relaxing time - the foliage was incredible and we truly lucked out with the weather!! Just 1 rainy day last Wednesday, which happened to be my birthday!!

So, I think that`s it! We`re back at work, looking for a house so we can start our family and we`re married!!!

Oh, one last thing...all throughout the planning, my husband was in awe of how much work I put into it and often told me not to stress the small stuff. I always said, wait until October 7th and you go to the best party you've ever been to! I have no regrets - every detail mattered to me and it showed. The best part of the day - besides the pronouncement of our marriage - was when he told me how very proud he was of me - for planning our beautiful wedding and for making him the happiest man in the world!!

:)