5/27 Wedding Review

I never really posted on LI Weddings, but I lurked on the site throughout my planning process. My favorite part about the wedding reviews was checking out the photos. So here is the link and username/password for my photos in case anyone wants to take a look:

http://www.collages.net
Username: sarahjeffrey
Password: 8291

Although we both grew up on Long Island and we now live in NYC, we got married in the Berkshires, MA (his parents have a second home there and we love it up there!). Therefore, I didn’t use many local vendors (at least for my main vendors). Here is a short review of the LI/NYC vendors I did use:

Wedding Salon of Manhasset: This is where I bought my Anne Barge dress, my veil, and my earrings. Mary was the saleswoman that worked with me. She was very nice and helpful, but I never saw her again after my first time in there, which is when I bought my dress. They told me that Anne Barge does not allow discounts on her dresses (they usually give customers 10% off if they buy on their first visit), so instead she gave me free alterations (which are capped at about $365). This could have been equivalent to about 10% had I actually needed alterations and hit the cap. As it turns out, the dress fit me almost perfectly when it arrived. Jenny was my seamstress and did a great job on the few alterations I needed (mostly in the bust). She was also a good sport when I cried hysterically at my first fitting because I hated the dress. In the end, I loved it again. As I mentioned above, I also purchased my veil there. Probably a rip-off, but I loved it. Finally, I hadn’t gotten earrings by the time I picked up my dress a few days before the wedding, so I ended up buying my earrings there. I liked them, and I will probably wear them again sometime.

My Glass Slipper/myglassslipper.com: I wore the Ava by Grazia shoe. I tried the shoe on in the store and then ended up ordering it online. I have no complaints about either, and I absolutely LOVED my shoes.

Thomas Knoell: I bought 4 hair pins from his boutique – one large one and three small ones (the Kristen style). My sister and I walked into the boutique without an appointment, and ended up being in there for about 1 ½ hours! Thomas was very helpful, and helped me decide how to customize my pins to compliment my dress. I got SO many compliments on the day of the wedding regarding my hair jewelry!

Bridesmaids Dresses, Netbride (www.netbride.com): We ordered Bill Levkoff #555 in black. I have no complaints about the service at Netbride -- we ordered the dresses in late December for my May wedding, we were promised a arrival date in March and they actually came in in mid-Feb. The dress retails for about $200, and we got them for $128 +shipping (all the bridesmaids are local, so I had them shipped to me to save the extra shipping cost). My one complaint is with the Bill Levkoff size chart. Two of my bridesmaids are big busted, and so (following netbride's instructions) we ordered based on their biggest measurement, the bust. Well, their dresses were HUGE on them. My sister's was so big that we couldn't find someone who could alter it down to fit her. I complained to netbride and in accordance with their policy, the did not exchange the dress. They did however get me a new dress, which they sold to me at their cost (so they made no profit) + shipping. The dress was to arrive about 2 weeks before the wedding, but we got it in April. So in the end I am not sure we saved money by using netbride, but I blame Bill Levkoff's size chart, not netbride. If anyone is interested in purchasing a size 24 Bill Levkoff #555 dress in black, let me know!!

Tuxes -- Brooks Brothers/Men's Wearhouse: My husband bought a tux from Brooks Brothers for the wedding. It was a nice tux and for the amount of use he will get from it, it made sense for him to buy. He rented his ivory vest from Men's Wearhouse (it would be silly to buy because he would never wear that color vest again), and we got all of the guys tuxes from Men's Wearhouse. No complaints -- they were cheap, looked great, and the guys were able to pick them up from all over the country, and my brother returned them all to a store in Queens.

Flower girl dress: I got this off the rack from Bloomingdales, reduced from $130 to about $70. It was gorgeous silk material. It originally had a pink sash but we had a black one made out of the extra material from the bridesmaid's dresses (and if you read above, there was tons of extra material!).

Papyrus: I ordered my Vera Wang invites and thank you cards from a Papyrus store in NYC. They were very easy to work with, and my invites came in within 2 weeks. I LOVED my invites. They were very elegant and I received many compliments on them.

Kate’s Paperie (SoHo): I bought Stardream paper from here for my DIY save-the-dates. I probably should have gone to Paper Presentation because it is cheaper there (but this was early on in my planning and I didn’t know about PP). Also, Kate’s Paperie SoHo recently had a relocation sale – I got Vera Wang place cards (which matched my invites) for about $20 total. At full price they would have cost about $140!! What a deal! I also got ribbon for my programs and for my out of town guest bags during the relocation sale – I am not sure how much I saved but everything was marked down and then reduced by an additional 20%. Unfortunately the sale ended at the end of May.

Paper Presentation: I got my Stardream paper from here for my DIY favor labels, my DIY hang tags for my out of town guest bags, my welcome packets for the guests, table numbers, and my programs. The program paper was already hole-punched and scored, which was great. I also bought a cheap paper-cutter thingy from here which I used to cut the favor labels and hang tags – very useful for DIY projects!

Calligraphy by Michele Clark ([email protected]): She was absolutely wonderful!! I used her for my invite envelopes and for my place cards. Everything was done over email/mail, and she was very efficient and so talented! You have to book her way in advance, but if you want to use her and haven’t booked in advance you should still email her – I did, and she ended up getting a cancellation and was able to do mine!

Papermart.com: I bought our out of town guest bags from this site -- 8 X 4 X 10 Gold Euro bags. They were a nice quality and came quickly.

Asianideas.com: I am a huge fan of eatable favors – I don’t personally like knick knacks (this is just my opinion, please don't get mad). So I bought mini gold chinese take out boxes and filled them with hershey kisses. The boxes were a nice quality. I glued a little square of Stardream paper on the front that said our names and date. The favors ended up being pretty cheap, but looked great and were yummy!! Note on the bulk chocolate – it was cheaper to get it from Amazon.com then any of the bulk candy websites.

Bridesmaid/Groomsman gifts: The guys got shaving kits from the Art of Shaving (I got my hubby one for the holidays and he loved it). I got the girls necklaces and earrings from Lord & Taylor – they were beautiful (I also got my wedding-day bracelet from there (Nadri) as well as my Spanx!). I also got the girls pashminas from pashminas.com (very nice quality) and little totes from jcrew.com. They all seem pleased with their gifts and the girls got compliments on their jewelry the day of.

Ketubah (www.JudaicConnection.com): I loved our Ketubah!! We looked at tons of ketubahs online and then went to a Judaic store on the UWS to check them out in person. We picked ours out at the store but it ended up being cheaper to get it online. I would recommend that you try to see the Ketubah in person before you purchase online – some of them look very different in person! The Ketubah came quickly and is gorgeous!

Vickers in St. James (www.vickersgallery.com): My mom’s friends own this beautiful framing store in St. James. They posted our Ketubah on a hard board to make it easier to transport/sign/display at the ceremony. I plan on having them frame the Ketubah as well. I’ve seen there work and it is wonderful!

Dance Manhattan: We took a total of 6 dance lessons there. Although our instructor was good, the place itself is totally disorganized and we found the reception desk staff to be rude and obnoxious. We learned the fox trot and danced to Frank Sinatra’s the Way You Look Tonight. But we were too nervous on the actual wedding day (it is overwhelming to walk into a room filled with people cheering for you!), so we didn’t actually do the fox trot!! Unless you really have time to put into the dance lessons and to practice (we never did), I wouldn’t recommend dance lessons. Although it was a fun thing to do together, in the end it was probably a waste of money.

I think that’s it for the local vendors. I loved my reception place and I loved most of my other vendors – photographer (MA but he does weddings in NY), videographer (from Hudson, NY), string trio, band (out of Albany, NY), cake baker (Worchester, MA), etc. If you are interested in any of these vendors please feel free to send me a forum mail.

Finally, we honeymooned in Moorea and Bora Bora. We stayed at the Sheraton Moorea and the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort. If you have any questions about these resorts or in general about the islands you can send me a forum mail.

Re: 5/27 Wedding Review

Thank you for sharing! Im def going to check out your pictures!!! Congrats on ur wedding!

Re: 5/27 Wedding Review

Congrats. Gorgeous!