OUR 6/28/08 WEDDING REVIEW - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

Hi everyone! Our wedding is over and its time for my review. I'll start off by saying I wont sugarcoat this as my AMAZING WEDDING or the PERFECT DAY or the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. we had a great wedding and we had a blast, but I definetely did have things go wrong, I DO have regrets (not walking around to each table- do it!), and my vendors did make mistakes! It's all part of the process but I will say none of it could have changed how I felt on that day. I was on a high! It was great and I would do it again in a heartbeat. FH and I had been together almost 8 years when we got married, lived together for almost 2 and were engaged for a year and a half so this day was a long time coming.

FOUNTAINHEAD -



Awesome place. I loved every aspect of this venue. The marble dance floor, the high ceilings, the spotlight on centerpieces....



and especially the lighting within the walls and ceilings. it just made for a welcoming atmosphere.

sometimes red, green, purple, blue?







the cocktail hour took place in the glass enclosed atrium with waterfall. as you can see, roomy all around for my 260 guests. food was abundant. I looked at about 10 venues before booking, and no one offered me as much food as the fountainhead did for cocktail hour.






I hired a saxaphonist for my cocktail hour through our DJ. I have no review on him bc even though I attended cocktail hour, we got so bum rushed that I never heard him. DH did and said he saw him walking around through the tables.

I have to say that if you can attend your cocktail hour, do so! It was awesome...I wish I could have stayed longer....but we were only able to attend the tail end due to a traditional ceremony we had to do.

Cocktail hour was huge. My veinesse hour was just as huge - banana flambe, ice cream, canolis piped, all sort of cakes and cookies, chocolate bars, 3 chocolate fountains (milk, dark, white), it was well worth the extra money.














We got married in the chapel upstairs... I loved the skylight


we also took some pics here before the ceremony


My maitre'd Michael was amazing and attentive. My bridal attendant - not so good. But overall, i have to give Fountainhead A.

we took some before pics at the new rochelle high school park. not recommended in summer time - duck shiet everywhere!!! gross!



DJ - FM Entertainment
I really liked Frank from the start. I enjoyed the showcase and really appreciated that he gave his customers the benefit of seeing him in action. His prices are also very reasonable. Overall, he did the job. The dance floor was filled. He mostly played what I asked. Orginally I asked him not to do the electric slide but after overwhelming requests for it, I told him to play it and he got right in there no problem (the dance floor was never so packed!). If you were to book him, you will be in good hands. The minor issues I had with him arent even worth mentioning on here. he also provided us with our gobo nameplate.











Arcadia Floral -
I was asked to use 1 of 2 of the house vendors. Like most brides, I had an issue with this. But honestly, I looked around at 6 other florists to compare price and Arcadia was not far off at all. I went simple on the flowers...just used color to make them pop. I was annoyed that Arcadia didnt offer me a final meeting...but was overly happy when i saw the results. They really did a great job. And in retrospect, im glad I didnt have to go through many meetings with them. I left the flowers in their hands and they really came through for me. I had asked that the centerpieces not be too large bc I really wanted the guests to be able to take the entire arrangement home.








String Quartet - Marie Stack
I only needed them for the ceremony....they did a great job. Marie is super quick with emails which is a plus in my book. For my bridal party, they walked into Canon. I walked into Con Te Partiro and our recessional was the beatles here, there and everywhere - my parents wedding song.



First Dance - John from Ballroom Dance LI
We choregraphed a song with John for our first dance. We used Bubbly by Colbie Calliat and he taught us a foxtrot. The crowd was blown away. First off, we did not tell anyone we were doing this - not bridal party, not parents, no one. So it was a surprise to everyone, esp since we had been denying we would ever take classes for the year and a half we were engaged. John is truly a teacher. He'll see what you're doing wrong and correct it right away so it doesnt become a habit. This was one of my favorite parts of planning the wedding.





Officiant - Pastor April
MUST MUST BOOK! she is awesome. she met with us and 2 days later we had an entire ceremony written for us. We tweaked here and there but overall, she did an amazing job. I got a lot of compliments on her...she doesnt drag on and on....she speaks clearly and with heart. And she didnt mind when I sobbed like a big baby.







Limos - Top Class in Westchester
We got a limo bus for 35 people. well worth the money! we had to drag around kids with parents, family, bridal party. it fit, it was comfortable and Lauren from Top Class priced matched for me.


Bridal Store - Lillettes
I looooooved this store. I worked with Donna who was amazing. She was patient and helped me find my perfect dress (I went back 3 times!). All the girls there are so nice and kind and call you by your name everytime you go in. My seamstress was Francesca...a total sweetheart. My dress was a Kelly Chase. Other dresses with beading and lacey stuff didnt look good on me, so I went for nice and simple.








Photographer/Videographer - Duet
I had Sam and K and they were freaking awesome. they did my friends wedding a month before mine and i was happy then. They are great, they are not intrusive and they caught most of everything i needed, even if i didnt realize it. I got back my proofs and i kept saying to my DH 'ohhh they DID they get that!'. i am very pleased with my pictures...I got back over 2500 of them!!!


Make up and hair - Sachiko Yanase
The nicest person ever! she did me and my 3 girls hair and makeup by herself. my girls loved her....one of them commented that they had never seen anyone apply false eyelashes the way she does -carefully, individually and without anything feeling like its hanging off your eyelids. she is so nice and so talented...






DIY and other stuff
I had my hoody embroidered at Sew Fast, Sew easy on 35th street in manhattan,. i loved it so much, i went back to embroider my day of underwear, also my something blue.





napkins -from foryourparty. a bit pricey but well worth it. loveddddd them! Fountainhead used them at cocktail hour, on the bars and to pass our hordourves.


matches - i got from vendors on ebay. fairly inexpensive. I bought glass vases from michaels to put these in at the bar tops. eventually, the boys emptied out the matches and used the vase to drink beer from! we're so classy!








Programs with confetti. I made these from scratch. Very easy. I took plain white cardstock, designed the layout (very simple, i did not get wordy at all), and on the back, I attached an envelope filled with confetti (which i later found out i couldnt throw even though i had called to ask them prior to buying the confetti!). Hibiscus confetti from oriental trading.








aisle runner - from bridalvillage. we used fabric paint to draw on our saying and names.




J pins - my name as well as my 3 girls names all start with J. So i bought J pins off ebay to have on their bouquets for the day of. I dropped these off to Arcadia a few days before the wedding.







party hats/glowsticks - i got from windycity. totally worth it....had fun buying them and people had fun wearing them! Even my FIL!










placecards - i bought these from magicwand weddings. nothing too fancy.


CD Boxes - instead of disposable cameras, i tried to use CDs instead. I included a few Cd's (i got free from work haha), inside mailing envelopes. I left these on each table for people to take. I can't say these were all too successful, I had a few poeple send the CD back and some sent video..but mostly, poeple sent me their pics over the internet.






Photobooth- a huge hit! this was set up as soon as guests arrived and it was in use the entire night. we used partybooths.com and got the contemporary booth so more poeple could fit inside. I bought a book at Michaels, and inserted the photo corners myself (tedious, yes) so that people could put their photobooth picture inside the book. Great keepsake! some more photobooth pics in my non pro album.







Invites - a labor of love. we used a designer from canada. will not recommend bc she is slow as molasses. however, she did produce a nice product. i did the envelopes myself.








wedding bands - we went to our jewelry on 47th street in manhattan to get this done. FH got a white gold band with 7 etchings (one for each year we were together before marriage). I got a regular eternity band. On the inside of FH's, i engraved 'Oh, the places we'll go. 6.28.08' - an ode to a Dr. Seuss book about a boy and his new journey. as a play ring (FH works a lot with his hands) he bought a tungsten carbide ring off ebay for 30 bucks. he threw it against a brick wall and not a single scratch hehe.






Gifts - i bought FH a Breitling watch (something he's been wanting since we've been together). I also got him 'eye do' cufflinks. He bought me beautiful diamond stud earrings.




Favors - we did wine bottles and lotto tickets.
The wine bottles we got at our local liquor store. We stuck with Luna di Luna wines (truthfully, not the best, but within our budget and avaialable in stock). I bought both red and white, and made the labels ourselves. We bought the lotto tickets from a local store and purchased the glassine envelopes from an online stamp collector site. i also made the sticker myself, using a circle punch and xyron sticker machine (both purchased at Michaels). you'll notice a lot of my labels and stickers are circles - i used the same tools for everything.








Bridesmaid dresses - Jim hjlem...
We bought our bridesmaid dresses off netbride.com. Totally recommended and saved us a ton. Quick shipping too!


Flower girls and ring boys -

i bought the flower girls dresses from burlingtoncoat factory for $18.99 each! i bought fabric from jo ann fabrics (spent like 5 bucks) and made the sas to match the bms dresses...the boys got suits from sears. i think it cost 50-60 bucks for each and i bought their ties from neckties.com.




Shoes - Coloriffcs Desire. i got them from zappos.com after i priced matched. i think i ended up paying no more than 50 bucks. after the wedding, i had them dyed black so i could get more used out of them. I went to my local shoe store to do this. They had so many colors, but i couldnt choose one, so i opted with black.




Cake - Fountainhead did our cake. We chose raspberry puree with chocolate mousse as our filling. only took the one bite but it was pretty good. I provided the ribbon which i got from Michaels for cheap. The cake topper I bought off ebay.




Bridal Party Gifts:
We got the girls necklace from swarovski, flip flops, and a tote bag (from jiffy totes).






The boys got kenneth cole watches and brooks brothers socks:



Each member got an 'i survived' tshirt:



OOT boxes - got gable boxes from wrapwithus. filled it was various goodies, and shuttle information.




Table newsletters: I included this on each table. Since there were 2 different cultures getting married, I wanted to share a little bit about each traditional ceremony. i printed out the info on microsoft publisher and then folded them into trifolds.





Kids bags. We had almost 20 kids at our wedding so i wanted to keep them entertained. I bought some bags at Michaels and made labels with each kids name on it with table number. Fountainhead distributed this to each table before the guests came in.

I filled it with misc items like magic tricks, silly putty, cards etc


here you can see one in the background. the kids AND parents really enjoyed this. i have a lot of pics with the kids walking around just holding the bags. They wouldnt let them go!


Thank you cards from Kodak:
front

back


I think that wraps it up! thanks for reading! More pro pics
here

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Aracadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Great review!!

FH and I are still debating on the photobooth! lol.

I have Sam from Duet too so I feel even more confident!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Aracadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

fantastic review!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Aracadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Wow everything looks beautiful.....love the colors...your dessert bar looks amazing, love all the details...you look gorgeous CONGRATS

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Aracadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Great review. Love the photobooth-photobook idea!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Aracadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Great review...I am using Sam from Duet, Sachiko and FM. Great to here good things about them!!!!

Looks like you had an awesome time!!!!!!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Beautiful wedding & great review! Thanks and congrats!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Everything looks amazing..you should think of being a wedding planner!!! For REALZZZZZ.....!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Wow what a wonderful review! You're wedding sounds fantastic!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

awesome review!!!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

wow your pics capured so much! beautiful! congrats!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Congrats on your wedding! Your review was great and the pictures were beautiful!!!

Thanks for sharing..

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

what a great review!
Congratulations!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase

Great Review! Looked like a beautiful wedding! I loved all of your own personal touches and DIY things.. very impressive!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

great review Congrats!!!!!!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

awesome review! congrats!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

Your wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

awesome reviews & pics! CONGRATS!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

awesome reviews & pics! CONGRATS!

Re: Our 6/28/08 wedding review - Fountainhead, FM entertainment, Marie Stack, Arcadia floral, DUET, sachiko yanase *pics*

beautiful review