My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

The weather that day was gorgeous!! It was hot and sunny and we had threats of rain, but nothing materialized.

Invitations--Created by Fate--A++++

I heard about this company through theknot.com and really was looking for customized invitations that wouldn't break the bank. They were located in N. Dakota I believe, and all our correspondence was through the phone or email. They did so many mock-ups for me and offered me a variety of options. Kristen and Laura were both fantastic to work with and in the end everyone loved the invitations and all the lil details of it. I definitely was happy that I chose to do these invitations.

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Re: My 527/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Favors--half bottles of wine--(white zin)http://www.specialty-wines.com/index.html--A+++

We decided to do half bottles of wine and this site was the more affordable one I found, without compromising quality. The personalization on the labels were free, so I felt like all I had to do was give them to the hall to stick on the tables! The pricing is cheaper as you order more cases and they were fast and reliable and when I had to order another case, they had all my information on file and were able to ship it to me ahead of schedule.

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Re: My 527/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.UPDATED w/ PROOF PICS

Dress--RK Bridal (Allure Couture)-A+++

RK Bridal was easy to work with and was no fuss--no muss. I also did my alterations there and everything was so smooth. My tailor worked with me to make sure the bodice of the dress fit me like a glove and didn't stick up on top. He even hand-sewed it while I was in it to ensure that it laid flat like I wanted it to. I had 3 fittings with them and it was about $230 bucks. I also purchased my cathedral veil from them as well as my petticoat and headpiece. I know I could have found the headpiece and veil cheaper on the internet but I wanted to do everything through them and have them hold it all for my fittings. My veil has swarovski crystal detail on the edging and the headpiece was pearl and swarovski crystal to match teh detail on the dress.


Shoes-- Zappos.com (Bandolino)--A+

I was looking for comfort with my shoes above anything else. That said, I wasnt' about to be grandma-ish shoes that had no style. I found these shoes online for about $60 bucks and the website was fast and hassle-free to deal with. I think shipping was free as well. The shoes were so comfortable to wear despite being close to 3 inches and I didn't want to take them off!!

Jewelry--Macys.com (bracelet, earrings) necklace (my own).

I looked for a bracelet last minute and actually debated over 4 different pairs of chandelier earrings. The choices were last minute and just worked out really well. The bracelet was originally 90 bucks but was on sale for $30. Macy's has some great steals sometimes! The earrings were about $75 and the necklace I wore was my own that my parents had bought me months ago as a wedding present.

Flowers (Flowers By Brian)--A++

I worked with Cindy and was able to get a great deal. I know exactly what I wanted in terms of my bouquet and she worked with me on the girls' bouquets. In the end, we decided cream and shades of pink roses mixed wiht hydrangea and mini calla lillies for texture. BUt since the day was so humid the hydrangea were wilting at reception time. I wish I had known that hydrangea wilt so easily b/c I wouldnt have added them in the bouqet. The guys had calla lily boutainnaires and the fathers had cream roses. the flower girls has baskets filled with rose petals in shades of pink and roses for a topper. The mothers had orchid corsages and i got my brother a mini-orchid corsage. The centerpieces were a mix of hi and lo cp's in shades of pink and cream. The flowers were all SO fresh and beautiful. The guests who took them home told my parents and me that they lasted well over a week! They also decorated my cake and I was very happy with all the work that they did. The only thing I was a lil upset iwht them about was that they didnt' deliver to both the groom's hotel and my house the morning of the wedding. They ddint' sort anything out either. So I had to have my sister sort out the stuff to send over the groom's hotel and he had to have someone come pick them up. That was very inconvenient! Besides that, they were easy to work with and provided beautiful flowers.

Photography/Videography--Proline Studios-A+++++

Can't say enough great things about them!! I got a package with a traditional photographer as well as a photojournalist. The crew was extremely professional and friendly and Joe, the main photographer, kept everyone in high spirits. I had a HUGE wedding. About 700 people and the morning of, the crew had to go over to the groom's hotel THEN to my house and take an endless series of family shots with ALL my relatives, etc. I loved all the photojournalistic shots. When I came back from my honeymoon I got a call saying all my proofs and unedited raw footage DVD were ready to pick up. I went to the Franklin Square office and picked up a box of what must have been 1000 proofs!! Not one important detail or moment was overlooked! I was happy with all the pictures and thought, 'wow, if this is without retouching, i wonder what hte final product will look like?!' I had 325 thank you cards and I upgraded to a greeting card style with 2 pics and they were ready in less than 2 weeks!!! When I met with my album designer, she deemed my package was too little for my huge wedding and upgraded me for FREE from 60 pics to 105 pics!!!! I did get a magazine style photo album and she said for sequencing purposes I would need that many! She also added pics to my parent albums 'for balance' I loved that was more about making an album look balanced and good, rather than so fussy about the exact #. My experience with them was just sooo wonderful. I will include a link to my pictures at the bottom. They include about 115+ proofs that I scanned in. I will ge the hi-res CD with the proofs with teh album and post more pics then!

The Cathedral of the Incarnation- B+

I worked with a wonderful woman on the church details, Marla Wills. Although she was wonderful the day of hte ceremony we were informed by the janitor that we needed to be out of hte church. He was informed of hte wrong time and instead of having a start time of 3 p.m. , he was told it was 2:30 and was tryign to usher us out while we were taking pictures. He also complained about the 'mess' that people left behind like strewn rose petals in teh aisle and ceremony programs. Um, I'm sorry, but ddint' we pay for the janitor to clean the church after our use? It was expensive to rent this church but it was large and spacious and very beautiful so in the end I'm glad that I used them b/c our ceremony pics are gorgeous.

Hair/Makeup--Mya/Cosmetic Artistry-A+++++++

I can sing Mya's praises from here till next week. She's so professional, personable and reliable! I did 2 trials with her because I had started out wanting to do an updo, but then decided on half up/half down with curls. She did the makeup and hair for my entire bridal party at the house. Mya brought her assistant, Laura and they were both so easygoing and humorous. We played music vidoes on the television and just laughed and talked it was sooooo relaxing. She was so fast and thorough without comprimising the end product at all. I was so happy with my hair and makeup and so happy I pushed for the bridal party to do hair/makeup with her as well. The prices were VERY reasonable and in addition to 6 of my bridesmaids plus my mother, she also did the flower girls. The entire bridal party's hair held up very well. My curls did loosen more than anyone else's but I was in a very hot limo and was fussing and pulling my hair so I'm sure that was a factor. The makeup that she did for everyone was natural yet glamorous. She used fake lashes on all of us and my makeup didnt' move an inch all night. All I had to re-touch was my lipstick and some powder while dancing. I got so many compliment on my bridal party's hair and makeup and everyone thought they looked fantastic!

Leonard's of Great Neck- Before B+/Day of A

We had a HUGE wedding, about 700 people. I worked with Antonio/Ian. Ian was the floor director and Antontio the banquet manager. My wedding was so customized and unique that really regular, standard practices on a lot of things really didn't apply to me. Antonio knew this b/c he thoroughly discussed thigns iwth my groom, my father and I. But I felt like Ian had no clue what was going on. The communication was very poor. I had to end up just requesting to work with Antonio after we had a few seating chart snafus. The day of, the place was gorgeous and the food was fantastic. But they had little errors with dealing with such a large crowd that to compensate for those things they extended my cocktail hour and reception in order to make sure everyone was able to eat at cocktail hour a nd enjoy themselves. I had the entire grand ballroom. I did the cocktail hour in the downstairs cocktail hour room wtih the entire outside including patio/garden area. The other thing that annoyed me was that they had arranged that for my immediate family/bridal party, about 40+ members, theere would be a seperate cocktail hour arranged upstairs in a small cocktail hour room in lieu of a bridal suite. But that was not set up and was too late getting it together so my relatives had to go downstairs to the regular cocktail hour area to eat. Also, my bridal suite got changed about 2 times, because of scheduling conflicts. The bridal suite downstairs with teh grand ballroom that I was supposed to get was too small to accomodate me when I changed into my reception sari. Besides these lil blunders, everything else went smoothly. The bridal attendants and 2 maitre'd's ran around to fix any of the problemsthat occured. My cake was beautiful, the main course was superb, everything came out on time and extra bars were set up to accomodate the large number of people everywhere. People said it was such a large, grand event and everything was so elegant, so we were very happy in that respect.

DJ-DJs Unlimited/South Asia--A+++

I used a DJ and MC from here. No complaints on either. The music was fantastic. They had arranged to put extra sound in teh room we were in and Marco, the MC kept the energy of the crowd up. THe DJ played a great mix of bhangra, reggaeton, hip-hop and TOP 40. The whole place took on a club atmosphere and everyone was dancing and having a GREAT time. He also personalized things a bit and made my groom do a dance to represent his home city, Philadelphia.

Limos/Tuxes-AJ's Limousines-F

This was the only vendor I had a hassle with. RUDE & VERY UNPROFESSIONAL! I used this company because I had bought my flower girl dressses and tiaras from Jessica's Bridal. The woman who owned the store said her husband did tuxes and limos and owned his own fleet of limos. Since I had a good experience with her I decided to book with her husband. He offered me a great low price and I got 2 Escalade limos and a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom from him. I also booked tuxes for my dad and brother through him. The tuxes were supposed to arrive Tuesday. They didn't arrive till the day BEFORE the wedding and they were all wrong sizes and merchandise. The shirt he provided for my dad was ridiculous. It had these huge ugly collars. We had to make do and teh days prior to that, the owner told me 'just because I'm a bride that doesn't mean everything is about me' and he chastized my dad for yelling at one of his employees, after my dad was blatantly lied to about a delivery. The limos on the day of were late and one of them didn't have A/C which was so uncomfortable to deal with on such a hot day. My rolls royce limo was NOTHING that he promised it would be. He told me it was reupholstered leather seats and it wasn't. It was the original seating. I was offered not even water or anything despite the heat by the driver. One of the doors kept popping open and my dad had to hold it shut on the way to the church. I wish I never even got the thing b/c it was a hot, sweaty ride over to the reception hall and it no way relaxing. My husband and I werent' even given champagne or anything which we were promised we would be.

Honeymoon-Amex Travel (Italy-Rome, Venice, Florence)

Our honeymoon was fantastic. We spent 10 days in Italy and our hotels and travel were fantastic!! We were there right before it got very touristy and hot, so that was nice. All the tours we arranged were half day tours and the hotels we stayed out weren't right in city center, but rather a lil out of hte way so we could walk to restaurants that were not so touristy. We traveled to the cities on the Eurostar, which was so comfortable and nice. I can say I never had a bad meal my entire time. The food, people and surroundings are so gorgeous!!

For more wedding proofs, please go to this site.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scorps1027intransit/sets/72157594209640007/

Re: My 527/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Re: My 527/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

hey sibil! your pics came out awesome! thanks for the great review!!!!

ETA: i didnt know mincy was one of your bridesmaids!

here are some of your gorgeous pictures!

Re: My 527/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

lcherian--thanks for posting some pics--i was just about to and you beat me to it and yours are sized better besides. yes, mincy was one of my bm's we went to hs together--i'm in hers aug. 5th as well! i saw some wedidng pics of yours and you looked AMAZING! can't believe it's all over for the both of us!

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Great review you looked georgeous.

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

congrats on a beautiful Leonards wedding! i want to see pics of the cake! lol

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Great review-Gorgeous wedding-literally everything looked beautiful. 700 people-OMG! Congratulations!

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Great you look beautiful

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

You look beautiful

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Congrats on the beautiful wedding!!!!! Thaks for the review. BTW I love the BM sari.

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

congrats, sorry to hear about the limo/tux person. You look gorgeous.

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

You looked absolutely gorgeous! Your pictures are incredible and you are so photogenic! I love seeing fellow indian brides on here!

Thanks for sharing

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Congratulations! Great photos and you looked beautiful.

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Congrats Sibil! You looked beautiful and your pics came out great!!

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

BEAUTIFUL!!! LOVED YOUR GOWN, OMG PERFECT FIT!!! EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL, I CANT WAIT FOR MY BIG DAY!!!!

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

WOW - 700 people! That is quite a wedding list! Imagine all the TYs you'll have to do! Seriously though, congratulations! You were a very pretty bride and had a great looking BP! I used Mya of Cosmetic Artistry for my wedding too and am so glad you liked her. She was one of my favorite vendors. Thanks for sharing your review and photos!

Re: My 5/27/06 wedding--Leonard's of Great Neck. FBB, Proline, Created by Fate, etc.

Congrats!!!!