7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Wedding review
When Rob and I got engaged, what I thought we would spend on a wedding soon became an impossible reality. We were not sure if we could have a budget wedding on Long Island. After so much research I was able to find vendors that we could afford. A lot of the vendors I found were due to the chats I read on LIWeddings.com. We ended spending a little less than eight grand on everything but the honeymoon. We had 51 people attend our Saturday afternoon wedding.

Weather A+++++
July 31 2010 was the most perfect day. After one of the hottest summers ever (2nd in line with the summer I was pregnant:)) I was a little worried that I was having an outdoor noon wedding. But we could not have asked for a more beautiful summer afternoon. It was a beautiful blue sky, low 80’s and no humidity.






Miller Beach Surf Club - A+
Finding Miller Beach Surf Club was like finding a hidden gem. We originally wanted to get married upstate in the county but after much deliberation and really wanting a honeymoon we decided to get married on Long island. That presented a huge dilemma. We wanted July 31 2010 and we were not going to budge. The problem, we also wanted a beautiful view, outdoor ceremony, we only wanted about 50 people and just one wedding at a time. I was about to give up when I was searching LIweddings and found Miller Beach Surf Club. It was almost too good to be true. We met with Stephanie and she was such a pleasure to deal with. The view was amazing. Because Rob works ALOT she also arranged for a Sunday tasting during a wedding they were having. On the day of, my Maitre D, Val, was attentive to our needs. She passed out all the flowers and pinned on all the boutonnières. My champagne glass was always full. The food was excellent and plentiful. I felt I had a million dollar day without spending a million dollars.



Invitations – Wedding Paper Divas A+
Our wedding invitations came from wedding paper divas. The quality and price was excellent. I accentuated my invites with lace doily inner envelopes and hand painted flowers on the outside and calligraphy.





Dress- Julius Bridal – B
I wanted a lightweight dress that I could comfortably wear outside on a hot summer day. After trying on several dresses I realized I was not going to find the lightweight dress that I was looking for. That is when I turned to Julius Bridal. I drew a picture of what I wasnted and cut out dresses that I liked the look and feel. When I received it, it was almost exactly what I wanted. After the minor changes the dress was mostly perfect. The biggest problem I had was that I am 5’2”. When they made the dress they made it for a standard torso and just made it short in length. The back was a corset that ended at the bottom of my butt instead of the bottom of my back. They ended up making a large bow in the back to cover the length of the corset. Julius was a pleasure to deal with and honored everything they said at the end. The new partner Laura made me fell rushed and was in it for the payment and that was all.





Bridesmaid Dresses – David’s Bridal, St. James – A
We had absolutely no problem with ordering our bridesmaid dresses. from David’s Bridal. The dresses came earlier than we thought. Both my girls got them altered somewhere else.
Groom and Groomsmen and Aiden- Macys -
We were going with a more casual summer afternoon look. So all the men wore Linen pants and Cubavera shirts


Flowers – With all my Heart – A+
With all my heart went above and beyond my expectations. I was going to do the flowers myself. In fact, I already bought all the glass for our centerpieces. With All my Heart called me one day and I decided to go for a meeting with them. I signed the contract that day.They used all my glass and only charged for the flowers and delivery. The day of the wedding I was pleasantly surprised with all the flowers. They definitely had the same wildflower vision as me.











DJ – Sensational Sounds – A
I interviewed with a couple of DJs and none of them were in my budget. Although Sensational Sounds was out of my budget they were flexible with me and realized that I only wanted someone to play music. We didn’t do a bouquet toss, garter 1st dance, introductions ect. They altered the price and played music for the ceremony cocktail hour and reception. The DJ got more people on the dance floor than I expected for a daytime wedding.



Photographer – ACR Photography A+
Photography was something I thought I would also have to cut out of my budget. I figured I would count on friends and family for my pictures. Christy is an old friend from school. On facebook I saw her post pictures of another wedding that she shot. So I gave her a call. And I am so glad I did. She made photos painless; I hate getting my picture taken. She was trying to get my must take list from me and probably realized that would be a difficult task. She put a list together for my approval, she also went to the hall weeks prior to do test shots and was totally prepared for the day. The photos I have seen so far are absolutely beautiful. Christy was not intrusive on my day and if she were not an old friend I probably would have forgotten she was there taking photos.
Christy delivered me the disk as promised 3 weeks after the wedding. Not only did she give me a picture cd but she also surprised we with a DVD movie of the pictures. And the packaging was awesome!






Hair and Makeup – Rose from Cactus Salon in Northport A+
Rose met me at a family friends house very early in the AM. She was punctual and on top of her game. We did a hair trial that was stressful for me since I have curly hair and once you put a comb through it, that is it. It will not look good. But it was a trial and we couldn’t wet my hair after each change. She cuts my hair and my hair always looks excellent that day so I trusted the same would be for my wedding day. And it was, my hair was soft and curly all day. She went with my natural curls and just accentuated them with a curling iron.
We did not do a make up trial. I told her what I wanted and she listened. My makeup was really natural looking and held up for the whole day.

Create a cake – A+
They were one of my two choices for a bakery through my hall. Our cake was delicious. Vanilla cake with fresh strawberry and whip cream filling. The outside was white chocolate and milk chocolate ganache and chocolate covered strawberries on the outside.





Limo – Summerset Limo A
We chose this company because they are part of a barter group that my company used and I still have credit to spend. We had a 14-passenger ford expedition. The driver was on time and stayed the whole time to drive us home. My only complaint is that the windows were a little dirty.



Quality Limo – A+
I also used town cars from Quality to get my father, Aunt and Uncle to and from the wedding. They were punctual and clean. We also used them to get us to and from the airport for our honeymoon. Once again they were punctual.

Officiant - Julisssa from JZ Event Planning - C
I wish that I could give her a better grade but I just cant. I also wish I would have trusted my gut in February and fired her and hired someone else. She was delightful to meet with in November, promptly got back to us and we thought that she saw our vision. After giving her our first payment she dropped the ball. We waited months for a draft of our ceremony. And when she finally sent us something it was one paragraph of garbage. It was like she forgot whom she met with and just gave us a random paragraph.
I had been saving ceremonies that I liked. So after receiving her crap I emailed a fully written ceremony by me. I asked her to make changes or suggestions of what was missing. She never sent anything back. I kept giving her the benefit of the doubt that she would get it done but she never did.
When we had our initial meeting she said she was going to come at least an hour before hand to go over the day with our bridal party and readers since we were forfeiting the rehearsal. The day before I called her to touch base and she changed her story and said she would get there 15 minutes before the ceremony. I explained to her that she needed to be earlier like she promised to give everybody direction. She said that she lives an hour from us and arriving earlier would be impossible for her. (Nothing changed since the agreement; it was always an hour from her)
Julissa showed about 20 minutes before the ceremony and gave no direction what so ever. And honestly the way she read the ceremony it was as if she had NEVER read it before. She broke paragraphs in the wrong spot (at the turn of the page) She didn’t test the microphone before hand and had to make lots of adjustments during the ceremony. She also made jokes inappropriately about and during the ceremony.
Sorry this is so long but I just had to get it all out.
The only part of our day we would have changed would have been hiring someone else when we started to doubt her doing a perfect job on the day of.



Coming soon...review of Costa Rica Honeymoon A++++++

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

congrats
loved the cake!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Great Review! Your cake looks delicious! It's too bad about your officiant, you'd think people would take more responsibility for their work!

CONGRATSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

congrats

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats....love your cake.

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats!! Your cake looks awesome!!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

congratssss!! awesome cake!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats, sorry about the officiant not stepping up the way you wanted. Glad the rest of the day went perfectly! Love the cake!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Great review!! Love your cake; beautiful family! It's not to see a review of a great wedding on a budget! Lets me think it is actually possible!!

And sorry about your officiant!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats!!! I absolutley love your cake!!!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

beautiful! love the flowers and that cake looks SOOOOO yummmmmy!



congrats! LOVE THE SURF CLUB!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats!!! Love your flowers and that cake especially!!! YUM!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

congrats everything looked beautiful!!! your cake looks like it was sooo yummy!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Congrats!! everything looked wonderful especially that cake!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to hear about the officiant!

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Great Review!! Thanks for sharing!! Congratulations

Re: 7-31-10 Miller Beach Surf Club budget wedding

Very Beautiful!!! Congrats