Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Invitations

With the inspiration and help of a lot of different girls here, I decided to create my own. I wanted modern fun stylish bilingual invites ... so
got tons and tons of samples ... and went to work



Paper Mojo has any and all kinds of decorative paper. I love it!
Paper Mojo
A+

Cards and Pockets
Good quality cardstock, good bright colors, better than what I saw in NYC shops. My only gripes are that they sent me samples of things they didn't have to sell, and they didn't offer envelopes in same metallic colors as the cards.
Cards and Pockets
A-


The Dress


I was starting to give up on finding a wedding dress I liked on myself. I had visited a dozen or so of some of the most popular shops. Nothing.
Then I found Jenny Packham line at Mark Ingram's. Service was excellent, I was beyond impressed at the knowledge, experience and advice of the sales women there. Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier
A+

Alterations, so I decided to get a local woman to do the Alterations hoping I could save a little. She came very highly recommend. Thankfully I just need hemming, shoulder shortening, and a modesty strip over the cleavage. Nothing major, my dry cleaners seamstress could have done this. She did a mediocre job, was arguing with me all the time. She gave me so much stress I actually just accepted whatever she gave me and ran with it. You can see in the picture its not really fitting well on top, but I figured guests would care and I can photoshop so ... yeah.. I guess I survived it.
I really regret it, I should have just forked over the extra money and got alterations at the high end shop.

Lilia at Monica's Bridal
B-

Mother of the Bride Dress
There is NO PICTURE OF THE DRESS because the dress was so horrible she didn't wear it Lilia at Monica's Bridal also custom makes dresses. My mom really wanted something special so she dug up a lot of money (bridal dress money) for this. Like I said we got rave recommendations about his woman. I'm not sure if she ever even completed it. It was ridiculously ugly, the dressmaker ignored us when we told her to change certain things or rework it. Argued about everything. I wont give a review until I can get a picture of it for you.


So we were scrambling the last few days to find a replacement. Last minute my mom found this great top. I have to say though, my mom hated almost everything else in Estelle's. it was a very lucky last minute find. Its an awesome top, it was so flattering to her figure.

Estelle's
A+


My Wedding Party - Flower Girl Dresses


I made a decision very early not to have bridesmaids as it would have created the largest bridal party in existence. Instead I decided to invite all my little cousins and my new niece to be my miniature bridal party. the girls wore dresses by Waters and Waters, ordered from netbride.com ... dresses came early, perfect customer service, cheapest price, no problems.

NetBride.com
A+



The Rental Space - Borghese Vineyard
I chose this place for a few very irrational but personal reasons. They have a very lovely space, the main house is well kept and decor isn't so country. They offered the largest outdoor space for the cheapest cost and didn't make us buy any wine.
The event manager, Mark, gave me a lot of stress, trouble, trauma and unhappiness. I often had to get the owner to clear up things for me and make things right. There were a lot of things promised ... for example, they said they would clean up the area and arrange the furniture, put the old porta potty away, run the water and power lines neatly, clean the picnic tables, have umbrellas for the picnic tables, etc, etc, on and on. They even scheduled a cooking class right before my wedding after they promised I would be the only event that day. They promised help renting extra umbrellas for shade. We didn't get any help or any umbrellas. It was a very sunny day my guests were terrible uncomfortable in the sun for the cocktail hour because of this.
Castello Di Borghese Vineyard
C


The Bathrooms - Aparos
We needed extra bathrooms, so we rented trailers. Large expensive ones and expected large expensive service.
They weren't clean on arrival. They didn't come with an attendant as promised on the phone, but cleverly kept out of the contract. Calling them they where the most disorganized most unprofessional phone customer service. I don't know why this company is so highly regarded, they are a mess. The light in the mens bathroom didn't work all night.
They never hooked it up. Good side, the toilets flushed!
Aparos
D

Tents - NYTent
A little annoyed I payed for an extra barriers that I did get. But overall the service was good, they corrected every problem I noticed the day before. the main tent was fine, but the bathroom tent was hideous, dirty. I realize its typically put up for emergencies, but I decided to put it up to have consistency.



NYTent
A-

Caterer
OMG the food phenomenal! The people are a pain in the *** to work with before the wedding. Menu wasn't exactly what I specified, they gave us a lot of problems in organizing. We didn't know the final price for anything until the day before. But the food phenomenal!
We dragged our Brooklyn caterer out to the east end after they said they've done events in the Hamptons. I was very very untrusting of them, but they came very highly regarded and did know them to have good food. So can they do outdoor catering. OMG Yes! it was amazing!




Atlantic Grill, Brooklyn, NY
Food and Service (day of) A++
Service (before the day of) C


Florist - Moments in Time
Perfect! Understood me perfectly. Overcharged me and reused flowers from a wedding the day before, but also borrowed baskets for me from the day before. I don't know if that makes it even, but it looked great. I loved the chuppah.




Moments in Time Floral Design
As Florist A

Day of Event Coordinator - Moments in Time
Deeply unimpressed by her coordinating skills. I gave her my vendor list asked her to call to confirm with them all the day before. She wouldn't give me a schedule, so I made a schedule. She didn't do anything but after about 4 hours got someone connect the light to the mens bathroom. I totally regret hiring her for this. She's a brilliant florist. but a useless coordinator.

Moments in Time Floral Design
As Coordinator C

Photographer - ShiraZ
All the pro pictures here, or parts of them are from Shira. She's did exactly what I wanted and did it well. She adds so much charm to the art. I love what she did. I cant wait to get the high res disk.



Shira Z Photography
A+


Photographer - Laura Ryan
2 months later - Yay! A+

I'm in her blog. She's incredibly talented artist.
I was so so about the journalistic photos of family etc, but I didn't give her much direction. Her portraits of us, are amazing.





Rabbi Jill Hausman

Only gave me a little headache cause she advertised herself as being able to provide her own mic and cuppah and then told me it was too heavy for her to bring it. In the end she did bring her mic. We didn't need her chuppah. She's a former cantor, so it was actually very nice that she could sing bits here and there. She was very accommodating and patient to my aging grandpa who wanted to read the whole prayer ceremony in hebrew.



Rabbi Jill Hausman
A


Music - DJ - A Starry Night - Dayana
Dayana setup her DJ station beautifully. Talking to her before the wedding I felt she understood what I wanted and could do it well.
I'm conflicted in my review, my guests where absolutely thrilled with the music she played which I prepared for her to play for them.
She skipped over 10 songs on my must play list though. In the end everyone was generally happy and I was happy my guests where happy.

A Starry Night - Dayana
A

Music - Cintron Brothers
They were so much fun, great, better than expected! I could describe them as a Gypsy Kings cover band, but it wouldn't do them justice. They totally blew me and my guests away, when they, out of no where decided to play live on their guitars Hava Nagila. It was so fresh so original, I loved it.
They come with a Flamenco dancer, I didn't enjoy very much and was a bit boring. They could have left her home.

The Cintron Brothers
A++

Music - Capriccio Ensemble

I love Natalie. She is the perfect wedding vendor. She did everything I wanted perfectly.



Capriccio Ensemble
A


The Gelato Wedding Cake - Lick-itty Splitz
I knew this was a huge risk and I was prepared for the whole thing to flop. Terry is a very nice guy, but took forever to return my calls, was hard to get a hold of, but he always gave us free ice cream lol.
Not entirely his fault but the cake didn't have enough time to defrost. The coordinator didn't confirm the schedule with him. Anyway, it arrived we tried to cut it, we couldn't, so I grabbed a spoon and scooped some of the ganache layer into my new husbands mouth. After all the show must go on.
Oh and the cake, didn't even look like I wanted. It had white dots instead of green. I took this up with him 'white shows up better' ... um whatever the ice cream was delicious. We really didn't care what it looked like, we got our ice cream




Lick-itty Splitz, Mattituck, NY
A

Viennese Dessert Table - Sugar Sugar
We came to them for a cake tasting and they have delicious amazing cakes, but way more than we wanted to spend for something we where sure all our guests would like, and DH doesn't like cake. So I thought it was a bit much for us to spend. They did a Viennese Dessert Table for us instead. It was good. Most guests said they found something they loved on it. My Dad said they were a little rude to him and they do have a snobbish air about them, but I needed a reliable dessert to counterbalance my gelato fiasco. In the end it was a great decision. Even as stuffed as guests where from the dinner, they devoured the desserts. So it was all good.




Sugar Sugar
A

Hair and Makeup - Elena
She's professional and experienced and knows bridal hair. My bangs curled up a little, but not a biggie they were cut too short anyway.
She did my makeup airbrush and it was flawless. I brought blotting papers... I get shiny.

I even forgot that I had a hideous cold sore on the corner of my lip, she covered it up so well. I can't tell at all, even from the photos taken by family.


Bridal Touch by Elena
A

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

simply stunning

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

WOW you are gorgeous!!! you made such a beautiful BRIDE!!!! Thanks for the review i'm thinking of elena as well...... Everything looked wonderfull and YUMMMMMMYYYY

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Awww.....nice pics. I see you used Shira too. I just love her work! She also did my wed. Congrats!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

despite you being unhappy with a few vendors, everything looks like it was absolutly stunning! So tasteful and so many great details! Congrats!!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Beautiful Congrats!!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

congrats! it looks like a dream wedding! love the colors

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Yeahh! We finally get to see pics...everything looked great even if you weren't 100% happy with the vendors...you looked beautiful..congrats!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

This is beautiful!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

aww thank you girls

It was really hard to pick the right vendors and get things right, I worked so hard and did so much that when I didn't see them work as hard it kind of got to me. (and as my mom says (and probably DH will soon say too) I'm hard to please sometimes :)

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!! it looks like a beautiful flawless wedding!!! you look beautiful in your dress and the tent looks fabulous!!

yay Terry for the cake!! it came out great!!!! we couldnt cut ours either it had us cracking up that we couldnt get into that thing.

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Congrats everything looked great!!!!! you looked beautiful!!!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

it looks like such a pretty wedding! I had a few vendor gripes as well...but you really did an elegant job!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

I love your dress!!! beautiful pictures!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Everything looked fabulous...despite the few hiccups...thanks for the detailed review!!!

Re: Outdoor Vineyard Wedding 9/21/08

Hi!! Did you book Laura & Shira separately? I see you had both.... I'm curious as I've recently started talking to Shira but love Laura's work too!

Thanks!

- Debra