07.26.08 Crest Hollow, D& E Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin Updated with Portrait by Alex Basin

I haven’t been an avid participant, but I have been an avid reader of posts on this site. It was extremely helpful in planning our big day, however I did get a big obsessive about things I would have never even given a second glance after being on the site. Luckily, according to my DH I was anything but a bridezilla on and around our wedding date so that’s a sigh of relief.
As far as people telling you that things will go wrong, they probably will, but you won’t notice because you are caught in such a whirlwind of excitement that little things really don’t matter. Yes, I noticed, but I didn’t care that my cake wasn’t decorated the way I asked, or that my flower girl basket was missing, our reception was 30 minutes shorter than it was suppose to be, DH’s pants were ripped and I didn’t get a picture with some of my family members. Things might/will be off, but for me it was the most perfect day I could have asked for. You could see it on my face. I was beeming.
I’d like to begin by saying that the 3 key factors in planning a wedding (at least for us) were compromise, prioritize and BUDGET!
If you have any questions, please FM me for info. I’d be happy to help.

Here we go:
Weather: A++++++
I don’t know who to thank for that, but whoever it was, THANK YOU. All week it was thunderstorms, rain and expected thunderstorms for our wedding day. I was so upset. All my friends and DH were on alert for weather changes since cocktail hour and ceremony were outside. That was the only things I cared about or wanted, to have an outside ceremony.

Invitations: Mediaplus A+
(weren’t a priority, but I did get exactly what I wanted at a really great price)
I ordered them online at 35% cheaper than I found everywhere else. Service was very quick and easy. Our friends and family called glowing with how much they loved the invitations and how adorable and fitting they were.

MakeUp and Hair: Giovanna, Tosha and Starr from ************* A+
The ladies arrived at 5:30 am on the dot. They were sweet, very easy going and attentive. After seeing their work a few girls who had previously declined to use their services decided to get their hair/make up done. One thing that I was disappointed about was that *** had promised to come to Crest Hollow for touch ups, since she couldn’t be the one to take care of me the day of the wedding. She didn’t show up and didn’t return our calls. I still don’t know what happened. I was very happy with the rest of the girls though. My bridesmaids look gorgeous, my mother was glowing and I felt all dolled up.

Dress: Artemida Wedding Gallery A
www.artemidawg.com
After searching through hundreds of dresses that all looked the same to me, I chose my dress based on the veil. My dress was oyster colored Pronovias Nicole. I was very skeptical about it, because when I first tried it on I looked huge. The dress was my size, but somehow I hated how big I looked in it. My mother however insisted that this is my dress, it was made for me and it’s perfect. I trust my mother above all else so I decided to stay with it. Good thing I did, because after working out and eating better I lost a total of 32 lbs for my wedding day and the dress looked amazing. I never felt so tiny. Natasha at Artemida worked with me to resize the dress several times to get it just right. She designed the bustle to match the layout of the dress. (The bustle had 4 steps to it.) Oh and she also does a special service for her brides. She gets them bridesmaid dresses from certain companies for practically wholesale prices.

Shoes: Wierner Kern A++++
I bought these shoes at WorldTone Dance Shoes in Manhattan. It’s a store that caters to dancers. I figured that if dancers can be on their feet all day, everday I can stand to dance in them for a few hours. These shoes were amazing. They were so comfortable to walk in, dance in, jump in. They got dirty and worn from the wedding. I just washed them by hand and they were like new. So worth it. The salespeople at the store were friendly and very helpful. They have a separate selection for bridal dance shoes. Definitely recommend them!

Photography/Videography: LeMuse Photography A+++ (so far)
www.lemusephotography.com
We hired 2 photographers and 2 videographers. They showed up on time, very friendly, easy going and kept us smiling. Oleg (the main photog) took us to unique spots for poses. We actually ended up meeting some bikers on the street and took pictures with them. Our guys were even involved in a fight, but the bikers stepped in and kicked the guy off the street. Some crazy guy on a bike was following our photo shoot and yelling obscene things to me and the girls. Then he told us to get off the public street, because it doesn’t belong to us. So my brother lost his temper and ran over to fight with him, even our photographer got in an altercation with him, but then the bikers saw what was happening and they chased him away.

Candid Photography: Alex Basin A+++
www.alexbasin.com
We also chose to use a candid photographer at the reception to catch people’s reactions, including our own. Alex was amazing. He was on time, very creative, very reasonable in price and caught some really great moments. He had a large poster prepared for us the day after our wedding. He dropped it off at our brunch so we could have something before we left for our honeymoon, which meant he worked all night on it. The poster was amazing. I have to scan it. I will definitely post it later. I highly recommend him. If you want info, please feel free to FM me.

Ceremony: Crest Hollow A+
The ceremony was magical. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Friends and family said it was straight out of a movie scene. The florist did a great job (more about that later) decorating the outside gazebo. The aisle was lit up with candles, flowers and tulle. It looked gorgeous. The music fit the mood perfectly and the trees swayed from a small breeze. I walked down the aisle to an accoustic rendition of “At Last”.

Rabbi Greenblatt: A+
He was wonderful and we highly recommend him. Rabbi Greenblatt is outgoing, funny and very open-minded. We are not very religious and he completely understood and saw our vision for the ceremony. He ordered the kettubah and the kippas for us at a great price.

Reception: Crest Hollow A+
Everyone at Crest Hollow were very helpful and attentive. Our BM Helen was wondeful. Paul, our maitre’d and Marina, my bridal attendant were amazing. Anticipated all wants and needs. My DH was a maitre’d at an upscale catering hall years ago so he was really excited to see the process from another perspective. Even he remarked at how great the service was. All of our relatives called remarking how much food was at the wedding. The only thing that everyone was upset about was that we couldn’t take all the food home. They did, however, wrap up a few containers for us to take home. The room looked magical when I walked in. Everything was white and lit with either lights or candles. It was exactly as I had imagined it. Unfortunately, we missed the cocktail hour, signing our kettubah and taking pictures, but I heard it was beautiful. If I had to do it over again, I definitely would not have changed our venue, but maybe we would have ordered a little less food. We chose the family style meal. (aka The Russian Menu).

Tuxedo King: Tuxedos and Limos F+
I would have given this review an F, but the representative, Laura, tried to fix things throughout the ordeal. For fear of getting this pulled I will just state the facts, no opinions. We began our contract with Don Corleone who suddenly closed shop and sold all of the contracts without informing us to Tuxedo King. I found out through a friend who also got her contract transferred. At first we were reluctant with the change, but Laura was friendly so we felt at ease. We ordered all of our tuxedos and 3 limos with the company. I’ll skip forward to a week before wedding day. The company rescinded what they initially told us about pricing for the limos for starters. Then when we received our tuxedos ONLY ONE tuxedo showed up the way it was suppose to. The tuxedos had wrong colors, wrong sizes, ripped button, wrong sleeve lengths, stained sleeve AND the kicker is that the groom’s tuxedo was the wrong size, color AND had a ripped crotch (which we only discovered ON our wedding day). On top of everything, they charged us $200 for 15 minutes that we were stuck in traffic and sent a cheaper limo (other than what was originally discussed) to pick us up after the wedding. I could go on, but I think this explains my grade. We were happy with ALL of our vendors, EXCEPT this one and I am a VERY easy going person and easy to please.

Florist: Spitz & Peck A
Maddy was wonderful, as was Bobby (the owner). He came over and made sure we were happy with our package. Madddy was friendly, but she was all business. She understood exactly what I wanted and my vision for this wedding before I was even able to see the complete picture. I was extremely happy with the results. My bouquet was gorgeous, the girls bouquets were beautiful. Our centerpieces were exactly what we wanted as was the decorations at the ceremony. The only thing that was missing was the flower girl’s basket and I also asked that my matron of honor’s bouquet stood out. I wanted it fuller, but when we got the flowers we couldn’t tell the bouquets apart. They all looked identical. However, this is definitely not enough to take away from everything that they did for us.


Band: Douglas and Eddie Orchestra A+
This band was our top choice and our only choice from the beginning, because DH has seen them perform and insisted on having them perform at our wedding. Douglas and Eddie were wonderful from the beginning to the end. They worked with us to customize our play list and even helped us out with the music and timing for our first dance. I would highly recommend them if you’re looking for a band that sings in English, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Their song choices were perfect for our crowd and I have heard the same from many other couples. Douglas and Eddie even set up their stage for my brother to perform his song for us. Our guests were on their feet all night including Doug’s rendition of “Living on a Prayer”, which I must admit was definitely at the top of our list as far as entertainment.

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

The last is a portrait by Alex Basin, as promised.

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

WOW!! Great review!! You looked beautiful!! Can't wait to get married there!!!

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

Our Honeymoon: Royal Carribean Brilliance of the Seas 12 Night Mediterranean Cruise A+

This honeymoon turned out to be everything we could want or need out of a vacation. Let me back track a bit. (I promise to be brief). We have been together for 7 years and we’ve lived together for 2 years, so I didn’t have too many expectations about the whole newlywed feeling. This was our first chance to be totally alone for 2 weeks in a long time. It was great. The trip was exciting, fun, interactive and romantic. Going on a cruise ship allowed us to mix going on excursion, running around looking at things, relaxing at a bar/lounge or dressing up and going out to dinner on the ship. We are not beach people so this turned out to be the ideal situation for us. The trip included Italy, France, Greece and Turkey from Spain. A few highlights:

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

u were a beautiful bride...congrats!!

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography

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Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

beautiful pictures.....who was your makeup artist?

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

Starr, she works with M i a from B r i d a l L o u n g e

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

You looked BEAUTIFUL!! Great pics

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

Wow, beautiful review. Your honeymoon pictures are amazing!

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

pretty pictures!! love your bo-k

Re: 07.26.08 Crest Hollow, Douglas and Eddie Orchestra, Spitz & Peck, B r i d a l L o u n g e, Tuxedo King, LeMuse Photography, Alex Basin, among others + Our Honeymoon with pics

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Posted by kbond06

pretty pictures!! love your bo-k

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Thank you very much. It was probably one of the few things that I actually decided on early on in the process.