11/6/04 Island Hills Wedding Review (LONG with PROOFS)

As a fairly active LIW member, I’ve always loved reading everyone’s reviews and seeing everyone’s pictures. The more detailed the review, the more I enjoyed it.

With that in mind, that’s how I wrote my review. It includes all of the ideas I used to make our wedding unique, our experiences and our vendor reviews. It’s long – 17 pages. But the treat at the end is a link to my wedding proofs. I hope you enjoy it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to FM me.

I'll be posting this in sections, so please be patient until I am done. Thanks in advance!

HOW WE MET:
I had basically gotten frustrated with who I was meeting at bars and clubs, so I posted a profile on Match.com. It wasn't the first time I had done it, but the last times all I had met were weirdoes. The very next night as I was getting ready to go to yet another club, I get an Instant Message. My husband had seen my profile and guessed that my AOL name was the same as my profile name. He had just moved to New York from New Mexico and wanted to meet new people. According to Match.com we were a 70% match. Not bad odds. Having done the Internet dating thing before, I was hesitant to meet him right away, so we chatted for a week, then started speaking on the phone. By our first date, we had a steady flow of conversation. He was so sweet and nervous on our first date. He bought me the first book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (I had mentioned I had wanted to reread the series before the movies came out) and a rose and then we had a very typical date -- dinner and a movie. Two weeks later we were practically inseparable and both knew this was it. Our wedding day, was exactly 3 years to our first date.

GETTING ENGAGED:
After living together for a few months, we had open discussions about our future and the timing of our life together. My husband loves to surprise me, but its difficult because I’m a very intuitive person. So he planned and plotted so that the day he proposed to me would be an absolute surprise. He succeeded with flying colors! I didn’t have a clue. In the weeks prior to his proposal, I thought he was working late nights and weekends at work. He connived with my boss to come in early so he could set everything up. He chose St. Patrick’s Day since he is Irish and my diamond engagement ring is a custom setting between two Celtic knots. When I walked into my office on Monday, March 17th, 2003, I was taken aback when I heard music playing and found my husband kneeling on one knee amidst a carpet of rose petals. He video taped the whole thing, see it here:
http://www.amynatoli.com/proposal.wmv

BEING ENGAGED:
We had a wonderful engagement period marked by many happy memories. Buying our home together being one of the happiest events we have shared. But we also were thrown many challenges that tested our personal and combined strength. Shortly after our engagement, my father was diagnosed with bone cancer. This of course impacted our planning, but my father insisted that we choose the date we wanted and he’d be there. He was doing well the first few months, but in early fall, he took a turn for the worse and we learned that the cancer had spread to his liver. We almost moved our wedding date up an entire year, but again, my father insisted we not change our plans. Just as my father started to feel better again, my husband’s father became ill and was hospitalized. It came as an unbelievable shock when my future father-in-law passed away in November of 2003. As we mourned his death, my father was miraculously feeling stronger and healthier. Christmas 2003 was bittersweet as we missed my father-in-law terribly but celebrated my own father’s strength and endurance. This celebration was short lived when my father fell ill again in mid-January and was soon hospitalized in early February. My father passed away less than a week after being hospitalized and was buried on Valentine’s Day of 2004. Needless to say, my husband and I were both devastated at losing both our father’s in such a short period of time. But these experiences also brought us closer together and made us stronger. Knowing our father’s would want it this way, we focused on our happy memories and looked towards our future, beginning with our upcoming nuptials.

THE PLANNING:
Once we were engaged, I knew we were not quite ready to jump into planning a wedding. In the back of my mind, I had always loved the notion of getting married on the same day as our first date. After reviewing the calendar, it worked out perfectly that our date fell on a Saturday in 2004. With the date picked, we were out to pick a location. We set a budget (which of course we went over when all was said and done), and started our search. We wanted a Saturday night, and we did not want any place that had been done before (at least by friends and family). Since we knew our ceremony would be held at the same location, we were looking for someplace that could accommodate our ceremony and reception as well as allow for picturesque photos. We wanted to be able to customize our day and not have to share it with anyone else. I made quite a few phone calls and in the process of searching online, stumbled across Island Hills Golf & Country Club in Sayville. Not much from the outside, but beautiful and elegant on the inside. And their beautiful golf course was the perfect backdrop that we wanted. After meeting with Island Hills, we knew this was the place. They were so relaxed and accommodating. We weren’t stuck into conforming to a package. And their price was in line with the budget we had set. With the location set, everything else fell into place. We were very lucky with our vendor choices. We researched what we could ahead of time and in most cases by the time we met with a chosen vendor, we already knew that we liked their work and it was just a matter of clicking with their personality. We met with vendors that were recommended by friends and/or family. Almost every one of our vendors were the one and only ones we met in that field, because we had done our homework ahead of time.

THE WEDDING EXPERIENCE:
The morning of my wedding was a beautiful sunny day. A little windy, but I’ll take that over rain any day. The morning of the wedding is such a surreal experience. With all the hustle and bustle of people coming and going, getting ready, deliveries, etc., you would think I would have been a wreck. But I was very calm. First of all, as the Bride, you end up doing a lot of waiting because you are the last to get your hair and makeup done. You are also the last to get dressed. So I ended up just sitting and watching. I had a smile on my face all day. I felt so at peace knowing that my wedding day was finally upon me. I loved watching all of the little and big details that I had spent over a year planning, fall perfectly into place. And even the big and little things that fell out of place didn’t bother me. I took the advice of many LIW Brides and observed my day as it unfolded whenever I could. I didn’t rush anything and I tried to consciously be aware of my environment and what I was seeing and hearing. I can’t tell you how great it feels to remember the little moments throughout the day.




Our ceremony was scheduled to begin at 3.30pm in the afternoon. Guests were due to arrive at 3pm for a champagne greeting and were then ushered into the ballroom for the big event.


The classical trio that we hired played throughout this time.

We planned the timing of our day around wanting pictures during sunset. We didn’t realizing that the added bonus to that was a beautiful sunlit ceremony. Some of our pictures are almost euphoric because of this. It really created a beautiful setting.


We customized our ceremony to be a unique experience that reflected who we are and the families we come from. I have so many family and friends that I am close with, I wanted a way to include these people without having a large wedding party. The solution came to me as I watched TLC’s A Wedding Story. Once of the episodes was about a bride who chose to gather the flowers for her bouquet from honored guests as she walked up the aisle. This solved my problem. I invited 15 of my closed female friends and family members to participate in this by sending them personalized notes prior to our wedding day. Each of them told me they would be honored to participate and loved being included in this way.





The most overwhelming moment of the day was when the ceremony doors opened and every eye was on me. But that soon passed, and as I made my entrance and walked up the aisle, my these chosen friends and family stood lining the aisle to greet me and handed me a rose as I passed each of them. I loved how this helped personalize our ceremony not only for myself and my husband but also for these honored guests. My only regret was that gathering my bouquet distracted me from making eye contact with my husband until I was practically standing in front of him. I had another bouquet prepared by the florist for all my pictures, but the 15 roses I gathered became my bouquet for tossing during the reception.

Because both my parents are deceased, and my husbands father is also deceased, we also wanted a way to include other important families members into our ceremony. My godfather was asked to escort me down the aisle. My Aunt and my husbands Aunt began our processional by lighting decorative candles at the alter. My other two Aunts and my husband’s mother and godfather participated in our unity candle lighting. Our entire families were prompted to vocally participate in our family’s joining and blessings. Our Bridesmaid read a selected poem about marriage. One of my husband’s best friends read a second poem about marriage. Our Maid of Honor and Best Man actively participated in the blessing of our rings. And finally our Groomsman participated in the handfasting ceremony.


To honor our deceased parents and grandparents, we began our ceremony with a moment of silence. We also honored them by having a memory table setup for the duration of our day.


Our Processional entered to Prelude in C Major by Bach. My entrance was accompanied by Canon in D by Pachelbel. During the Unity Candle, the trio played Ave Maria and then during the Handfasting they played “One Hand, One Heart” from West Side Story. Finally, our Recessional was accompanied by The Four Seasons – Spring by Vivaldi.

Every other moment of my day was enjoyed and cherished. We even lucked out and enjoyed a beautiful sunset for our pictures. Our reception was so much fun, we danced the entire night, had time to greet every guest and actually tasted dinner and desert. Our friends and families are still remarking on how our wedding was one of the best they had every been to. It is so satisfying when so many of them comment on the little details that we put so much work into making our day unique. From the seating cards and table cards, to the favors and flowers. It is all worth the time, work and expense.

The song playing during our reception introduction was “All Things Keep Getting Better” by Wildlife (theme song from Queer Eye).



Our first dance was to a song by a group called Mandalay called “Deep Love.”



Our follow-up song where the rest of our guests were invited to join us was “The Nearness of You” by Norah Jones. I danced with my Uncle to Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight”


and my husband danced with his Mother to Enya’s “Only Time.”


During the garter removal, we requested Nine Inch Nails “Closer.”


Our last song was supposed to be Simple Minds “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, but the DJ didn’t have it, so we chose Delerium’s Innocente instead.

The last unique thing we did was the bouquet toss. Having been an embarrassed single at many a wedding, I didn’t want to do that to any of my guests. So I invited all the woman at our reception to come to the dance floor for the bouquet toss. I had the DJ play “I’m Every Woman” by Whitney Houston. Remember the 15 roses I gathered during my ceremony? Well those 15 roses were what I threw during the reception. So instead of one lucky woman, I surprised them with 15 roses for 15 lucky women!

My advice to new brides is to always take someone’s vendor review with a grain of salt. Very often, people’s personalities clash and it has nothing to do with the actual job done. That’s not to say that mistakes don’t happen, and vendors don’t screw up. Just do your research carefully, and make a decision based on what’s right for you, not other people. With that said, here are my vendor reviews…

VENDOR REVIEW:
Note: Highest Rank is A+. A vendor earned an A+ if they met or exceeded our expectations. As you’ll see, most of our vendors earned this ranking because they went above and beyond in one or more situations.

Wedding Gown – Price A+, Service A, Alterations A-
Alfred Angelo from Beautiful Bride (Lynbrook)
As a plus size bride, I was dreading the gown search. Luckily, from reviewing the message boards, I was lucky enough to find a handful of bridal salons on Long Island that carried plus size samples. I found the biggest selection at Commack Wedding Center, however, I was not happy with the atmosphere and service there. But it’s a great place to look. I ended up going to Beautiful Bride in Lynbrook. Overall, the service there was great. It’s a small salon with a lot of personal attention. The cost of my gown was much lower than I had budgeted. I ordered my gown in February (the day after my father was hospitalized), and it came in June (2 months early). I did run into some problems with my alterations, which I can only partly blame Beautiful Bride for. Because I am only 5’1” and my dress had a lot of detail, when I ordered my dress I was told that they would probably hem my dress from the waist. This would be an extra alteration charge, however, it would ensure that the detail along the hem of my dress would not be disturbed. Well the alterations became a nightmare. After about 6 appointments, I was still having length issues. My final fitting appointment was the Sunday before my wedding – way too close for comfort. But in the end, my dress was perfect and I have no complaints. My advice to any bride with extensive alterations: make sure you give yourself plenty of time for alterations (start early if you have to) and setup your fitting appointments ahead of time to ensure that appointments are available at convenient times for you. Also, always make sure someone else goes with you. I can’t tell you how many times through my fittings process that someone from my bridal party or one of my Aunts would catch something that needed to be altered which could have made the process even more extensive.

Veil/Headpiece A+
Barron’s @ Tri-County Flea Market (Levittown)
I ended up going to Barron’s upon the numerous recommendations of LIW Brides. What a hidden gem Barron’s is. I only went there looking for my veil and they custom made my 2-tier short veil plus my cathedral length removable veil. As I was there, I also found my headpiece which I hadn’t even planned to shop for there. They had a beautiful crystal and pearl comb that they changed to swap the pearls for rhinestones (to better match my gown). Their prices can’t be beat and they really know what they are talking about. Everything was ready when they promised and there were no hidden costs.


Shoes A+
Sandy’s Shoes (Massapequa Park)
I only shopped in one other place besides Sandy’s shoes. I found Sandy’s shoes prices better and they had a better selection in stock. The other place I went would have had to order the shoes I wanted in my size.


Jewelry A+
Home Shopping Network (HSN.com)
I searched high and low for my wedding jewelry. I didn’t want anything too modern, but I also didn’t want anything to common. I know my bride’s gift from my husband was a diamond bracelet, so I was also trying to match the styling of that. Home Shopping Network had a great selection of CZ jewelry and their prices were good too. I ended up ordering my necklace and matching earrings from them and I was very happy with my purchase.


Garter A+
eBay Member buylace8391
Again, being a plus size bride, the garter search was an annoying experience. Garters come one size fits all. Now, I don’t care if you are a size zero or a size 24, all thighs are not created equal. Luckily, my Aunt found someone on eBay who makes custom garters. My aunt had my garter made with blue ribbon (for my something blue) and had an Irish claddagh charm attached as a surprise for my very Irish husband. The garter was made very well and fit great.

Make-up A+
Jackie/I Make-up You (Works On-site)
A friend originally referred me to Jacqueline Nicole, but when I called eight months before my wedding, she was already booked. Jacqueline Nicole referred me to Jackie of I Make-Up You and although I’ve never seen Jacqueline Nicole’s work first hand as comparison, I have to say I was extremely happy with Jackie of I Make-Up You. I had my make-up trial in April, and she was so nice to work with. She has a very light hand and really chooses colors that complement your complexion, coloring and features. I went with the air-brush make-up and loved it. It was like not wearing make-up at all. I also used Jackie for my facials up to the wedding. I found her prices reasonable and she does a great job. I love the products she uses and now use them myself. I also still go to her for my monthly facials. The day of the wedding, Jackie was organized and professional and arrived early. My make-up was flawless. It lasted all day and night without a touch-up needed except on lips.



Hair A+
Carmella (Works On-Site)
When I found Jackie, I asked her if she had a recommendation for a hair stylist. She immediately recommended Carmella. Carmella is a sweetheart. She does on-site wedding hair as a side business, but she really knows what she is doing. I met with Carmella twice before my actually wedding day. The first time she did an up-do that I requested which I really liked. It stayed the whole day and night. After looking at the pictures, I decided I didn’t like the sides, so I made another appointment and at the second appointment she was so patient and tried like 3 different styles. On the day of the wedding, we ended up doing a combination of the first trial and one of the styles from the second trial. My hair came out better than I hoped for and it with my headpiece and veil stayed in all day and all night. We didn’t take it out until after 1am that night. Carmella’s prices were awesome, she arrived early and worked quickly and efficiently the morning of the wedding.

Personal Onsite Massage A+
Marjorie Brook, A Kneaded Break
As a surprise, my husband hired a private masseuse to come to the house the morning of our wedding. What a great way to start the day. Marjorie rates are very reasonable and she does wonderful work. She came at 8:30am to do three 30 minute sessions starting with myself, then my bridesmaid and finally my Aunt. We all liked her so much, we plan to use her for future massage needs (or treats). Being pampered like a princess was my husbands intent, and it certainly worked.

Maid of Honor Gown A+
Lord & Taylor (Garden City)
We found the gown my Maid of Honor wore off the rack at Lord & Taylor. We both loved the gown when we saw it, and the color was a perfect match for what I wanted. It was a gorgeous gown that was unique and certainly wearable again. Between sales and L&T coupons, the price worked out great too. And the bonus was that no alterations were needed!

Bridesmaid Gown A+
Jordan Couture from Beautiful Bride (Lynbrook)
When we were first engaged, we originally decided to have only a Maid of Honor and Best Man. As our engagement progressed, I realized that I wanted one of my other best friends to have a bigger role in the wedding (she was originally just a reader). So 5 months before the wedding, by bridesmaid and I went dress shopping -- cutting it a bit close. We found a beautiful Jordan Couture gown that had the same shape and style as my Maid of Honor’s dress. I chose for her to wear black and it was the perfect foil to my Maid of Honor (who’s dress was shimmery burgundy with black accents). Beautiful Bride offered my bridesmaid a 15% discount since my gown also came from them. The dress came in on time, and after minor alterations, fit perfectly.


Tuxes A+
Roger’s Tuxedo’s (Babylon Village)
I had gotten recommendations from LIW for tuxedo places. We went to one and my husband was not happy with their selection or initial service. He ended up finding Roger’s Tuxedo’s in Babylon Village and was thrilled with their service and price. The had exactly what we were looking for and they were conveniently located. Everything was ready on time and when one of the groomsmen’s shirt was too tight the night of the rehearsal dinner, they swapped it out for a new shirt the next day without a problem.

Wedding Bands A+
Elsa’s Rings (Farmingdale)
My engagement ring was custom made, so we knew we’d end up with custom made wedding bands. My husband and I wanted our bands to match in some way. Unfortunately, my engagement ring was custom made from a jeweler upstate in Buffalo, so having our wedding bands custom made sight unseen was a bit trickier. A friend recommended Elsa’s based on seeing someone else’s custom made ring years ago. When we met with Elsa herself, we were very impressed with their portfolio and with Elsa’s knowledge. The process of making a custom ring is very fascinating and it was cool to be involved every step of the way. Her quote was very accurate, and the end results were exactly what we wanted. Elsa is easy to work with, eager to make her customers happy.



Invitations A+
Birchcraft
We went all out on many elements of our wedding. And we felt the invitation was important in the sense that it sets a tone for the affair your guests are invited to. However, it is ultimetly something that gets thrown in the trash, so we were not going to go crazy. My cousin had a contact at Birchcraft, and after reviewing the samples, we found something simple and elegant that suited our needs. The price was great, and the ordering process went very smoothly. My only recommendation to any bride is to ALWAYS get a proof and ALWAYS have someone else read through the proof. No matter how many times you’ve reviewed and spell-checked your wording, another set of eyes will ensure that what you want it to say, is what it says.


Monogram Seals A+
OldSchoolSeals.com
I got this idea from someone on LIW and fell in love with it. OldSchoolSeals was easy to work with, answered all my questions and worked with me to find a monogram seal that I liked. Their price was reasonable and everything was shipped and received in time. It’s an elegant way to customize your invitation and its something you can keep and use for other projects as well. My only recommendation is that creating the seals for 100+ invites can be a bit tedious. We ended up creating all our seals ahead of time and then sticking them onto the stuffed invites later. This made less mess on our invites and allowed us to pick and choose the best seals. The ones that came out messy or got screwed up we just melted and remade without ruining any of our envelopes.

Programs & Table Cards A+
Paperandmore.com
I love translucent vellum paper. When we picked out our invitations, we ended up choosing an invitation printed on vellum paper. Because of that, I tied in all other elements with the same paper. I found ink-jet friendly vellum paper online from Paperandmore.com. Their prices were good and what helped me was that they include customer reviews on their site, so I had proof that what I was buying would not give me smearing issues with my printer.

I knew I wanted our programs to be different that typical church programs. We were not having a religious ceremony, so that gave me the freedom to design what I wanted. At first I was having some trouble with the design. But then I saw Jimmy’sBride’s menu design and that helped me layout what I wanted. Jimmy’sBride was very helpful with suggesting fonts, and from there I was off and running. (Thanks JB!) I designed our programs to be a single 8.5x11 sheet of vellum that was then rolled into a scroll and tied with a burgundy ribbon. I found beautiful (free!) scripted fonts online that helped me create an elegant and sophisticated program.



Once the programs were done, I used the paper and fonts to create custom table cards. Being that my husband and I are Irish and Italian (respectively), we decided to name our tables after Irish and Italian cities.


Seating Cards A-
invitationfactory.com
After choosing our invitation and creating the program, I was now off and running. I had all the beautiful fonts and everything was tied in with the paper stock. The only thing left was the seating cards. I didn’t like the seating cards provided by Island Hills and typically seating cards do not have very much real estate (in terms of printing). I also didn’t want to have to hand write the cards, especially since we had decided to create table names which are longer. So it took me a long time, but I finally found vellum seating cards that our ink-jet printer would feed through and print on without smearing. InvitationFactory.com has some beautiful products. My only complaint about them is that it is a very small operation. They are difficult to get on the phone and their web site is a little confusing to navigate. But they did send me several samples free of charge and once I placed my order, the expedited it out to me so I received it quickly. Overall, I would recommend using them. Just make sure you a lot enough time for getting in touch with them and receiving everything since they are based in California.


Inside our scrolled program:

Favors A+
LTD Commodities, Yankee Candle (Bed, Bath & Beyond), Oriental Trading, Michael’s, Kinkos
Soon after getting engaged, my Maid of Honor found great favors from LTD Commodities. Having ordered from LTD before, I knew that they often have backordering issues, so I quickly ordered my favors. I chose goblet candle holders in varying sizes. Of the 100+ favors I ordered, only about 2 were broken. Others had slight imperfections or rough edges, but were still usable. Our original idea was to wrap them in tulle or organza, and tie them with a bow. Anyone who has worked with tulle, knows this was going to be a nightmare process. But then I found nice silver organza bags that fit perfectly over the top of the holder at Michaels. The only problem was Michael’s wanted $1 per bag. I thought this was too expensive for something that was really being used as wrapping. So I searched the Internet and found that Oriental Trading had similar bags (not quite as nice, but nice enough) at a much more reasonable rate. Meanwhile, in my search for a burgundy colored candle to place in the holder, my Aunt discovered that Bed, Bath & Beyond had a Yankee Candle Scent on clearance. The color was perfect! The problem was they didn’t have 100+ that I needed in the store. My Aunt called Bed, Bath & Beyond, and the offered to find the quantity we needed and ship them to us. Most of you know Yankee Candle votives are not cheap. When all was said and done, the candles came to $0.60 a piece. I got the ribbon from Michaels and my Maid of Honor and Bridesmaid spent a few nights assembling, wrapping and bowing the favors. I then had the idea to add some kind of personalized tag to the favors. I called in a favor from my graphic artist at work and she created customized tags with our names, colors and wedding date. Because my husband and I love ladybugs, she designed a ampersand symbol using a ladybug as the background. We brought them to Kinko’s and had them printed on vellum (of course). We love the tags she created and they were the perfect finish touch to our favors. Everyone loved our favors at the wedding, and since then we’ve seen them placed here and there at our guests houses.

Florist A+
Jack & Rose (Woodbury)
I went to Jack & Rose upon the recommendation of a friend who used them for both her first and second weddings. That to me was quite a recommendation. It was not until after I booked them that I started reading about some peoples discontent. I found Jack & Rose very reasonable priced, very knowledgeable, honest and upfront. Their standard contract is very confusing to read, but that is why they are in the florist business and not the writing business. Jack worked with me on all of my ideas. When I didn’t want baby’s-breath in my arrangements he helped me find something to my liking that would not blow my budget. The only problem I had with Jack & Rose was that at my design session meeting we were made to wait over 2 hours before we were helped because a previous appointment that had come in late was taking too long. This pissed my husband off, and had they known it was going to be another 2 hours, we would have gladly left to get dinner and come back. But they probably didn’t know how late they would run, and overall, it wasn’t like we had anything else to do that night. The biggest inconvenience was that my Aunt had come to the meeting from New Jersey. My flowers were breathtaking. Better than expected and everybody is still talking about how stunning all the flowers looked for both my ceremony and reception. Some advice to brides on a budget – I saved money by having my table centerpieces used to decorate my ceremony area and then moved to the tables after the ceremony was over. I rented plant stands from Jack & Rose to help dress up the room where I was married. The affect was beautiful and saved me tons of money.

Limos A-
Sir Oliver Limousines (Sayville)
We were on the fence about whether or not we needed limos. But we decided to go with it. I went with Sir Oliver after hearing good reviews from other brides on LIW. I went to meet with them after getting quotes via email. We met with Rich, the owner, and found him very honest and upfront about costs. We thought we needed 2 limos for each pickup, and then at least 1 limo for the end of the night pickup. It turned out that it was the same amount of money for the hummer-limo which held more than we needed instead of getting 2 cars. The limo was early for every pickup. Rich, the owner, was our driver the whole day. The car was clean and well stocked. The only reason they are not getting an A+ is because my husband had arranged for a DVD that he made to be played when I was in the limo and when he made the arrangements he was told that the DVD player was broken but would be repaired for our wedding day. However, when I got into the limo, the picture played but not the sound. That was a bit disappointing, but to Rich’s credit, he got it working so we could see and hear the whole thing on the way from the reception to the hotel.





My nephews/ushers:

Ceremony Officiant A+
Rev. April Gismondi, Church of Ancient Ways (Lindenhurst)
My husband was in charge of finding an officiant. He found April on the Internet, and liked what he saw from her website. To be honest, when we first met her, we were a bit reserved. She seemed a bit flower-childy and we were not sure that was what we were looking for. But after speaking to her at the first meeting, we knew she was a perfect fit. Our first meeting ended up being over 2 hours, and in that time we fleshed out all the basic elements of our ceremony. April got to know us and was then able to personalize our ceremony. And we got to know April. During that meeting, April proved herself to be very knowledgeable both religiously and spiritually. And most importantly, she proved herself to be extremely articulate and cultured. Throughout the meeting, she would begin to speak various verses that would fit within our custom ceremony. We were very impressed. Her price is very reasonable and we hired her on the spot. Within a week, she had emailed us a 15 page ceremony script which was like reading a stage play of our ceremony. We were then able to edit, shift, move and change any portion of the ceremony to suit our needs and wants. It really helped us visualize everything. We worked with April on and off for the next 6 months leading up to our ceremony. Because our ceremony had many moving parts, April was a huge help at our rehearsal dinner and the day of our wedding. She knew our ceremony inside and out and worked with all guests involved in the ceremony plus the ceremony musicians. She even came prepared with extra supplies. Knowing we were having two of our Aunts light decorative candles as the processional began, she provided long decorative matches that looked much prettier than the candle lighters I had purchased. Our ceremony was everything we wanted it to be. April spoke beautifully and pulled each element together into a natural flow. We wanted a unique and original ceremony and April achieved that for us beyond our dreams.
PDF of our Ceremony & Vows Script is online here:
Ceremony Script PDF

Ceremony Musicians A+
Encore Music
I was referred to Encore music by a friend of a friend. I visited their web site and then met with the leader, Patricia Johnson personally. Patricia is such a sweet woman, easy to work with and very flexible. We hired her as our violinist and she then commissioned a harp and cellist. Their price for all three was great and was even cost economical to have the live musicians not only for our champagne greeting before the ceremony and the ceremony but also for the cocktail hour. Since our budget could not allow for a live band, having live music at the cocktail hour was a nice compromise. We had a complicated ceremony with several musical changes during the processional, unity candle lighting, handfasting and recessional. Everything went beautifully. Unfortunately I only remember bits and pieces of the music, because as the bride your mind is everywhere, but I can’t wait to hear it again on our video.

DJ Service B, Day of Wedding, A-
BodyRock (Carle Place)
Overall, I will give BodyRock a A- because on the day of the wedding, most everything was great, they played mostly what we requested and had everyone dancing all night. However, in general, if I could do it all over again, I would not use them again. We ended up meeting with Bodyrock, again as a recommendation of a friend of a friend. Because of the timing of my Dad’s illness and passing, I had to rush and hire a DJ. We met with BodyRock and they told us all the right things. What I didn’t realize when meeting them was that they are DJ brokers. This means you don’t ever meet with your actual event DJ until the day of the wedding. When we met with the owners to go over our musical selections, they argued with us about the songs we wanted. Now, to their credit, I was overly anal about our music list and had too many choices. But they were arguing about the type of music we wanted. My husband and I grew up in the 80s listening to alternative, new wave type music. Our friends and I spent our single days going to clubs like Malibu and Luxe. That’s the type of music we wanted. Not pop! They felt that our selections would not go over well at the wedding. However, as I explained to them, we were not a teeny-bopper couple. We’re in our 30s and our guests are in their 30s, 40s, 50s and up. After some negotiating and revising of the list, we came to an agreement. Prior to that point, I was ready to find another DJ, but 30 days before my wedding was not the time to start that. So I crossed my fingers and went with the flow. Bottom line, I knew that myself and a few friends would be the only ones who noticed if they screwed up. So like I said, for the most part, they did a good job. They did screw up the songs to be used for the reception introductions – the right songs, but the wrong order. I was not happy with the way they lead the traditional Italian “Tarantella” and the Beattle’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” They also forgot to play some Irish music for my husbands family, and played one song off of our do not play list (Madonna’s Holiday). In the end, it worked out because we provided them with most of the music we wanted (because they didn’t have it) and they followed our provided request list.

Day of Coordinator A+
Rosalie Kolarick, Expressions
To follow is a portion of the recommendation letter I wrote for Rosalie after our wedding. It sums up my review of her as a vendor as well as some of my problematic wedding experiences.

We got married on November 6, 2004 after being engaged for 20 months. Those 20 months prior to our wedding was spent planning every detail of our event. As the time grew closer to our actual wedding day, we began to feel anxious that all of our carefully planned details would be overlooked.

Since we had booked our affair at a private golf & country club, we were concerned that because they do not cater weddings often, that the banquet manager, Maitre’ D and bridal attendant would not have the necessary experience to see to all of our important details. We have many close friends and family members that we could have trusted with all the little arrangements, but that would have become a logistical nightmare of delegating little pieces to various people. Plus, we wanted our close friends and family members to enjoy our wedding, not work our wedding.

As the bride, I began researching “day-of” wedding coordinators. I was quickly shocked at the aggressive nature of most vendors in this industry and the costs associated with the services they offer. Since I’ve had experience with event planning, I had done all the leg work of booking and planning each of my vendors. I really just wanted someone to handle the day-of logistics. Being on a tight budget, we had a very small allowance for this expenditure.

After speaking with many coordinators, I finally found Rosalie Kolarik of Expressions Wedding & Event Design. From our very first conversation, Rosalie was honest and upfront about what services she provides, her ability to customize her services to meet our needs, and her willingness to work within our tight budgetary needs. Because I didn’t want to waste her time or ours, most of these negotiations were done via email. Once we came to an agreement, we arranged a meeting to go over the details and confirm our costs.

Our first meeting was over two hours long. Rosalie traveled to our home and we immediately clicked. She listened to all of our ideas and the logistics associated with our wedding. She loved our ideas and even improved some of them. It was apparent that she is very professional, hard working, and best of all, loves what she does. After hearing all the details, we gave her a deposit on the spot for a day of coordinator. Because of our tight budget, we did not take her pre-wedding coordination or rehearsal dinner services.

From the day we hired her, Rosalie and I communicated via email. My husband appropriately named her D.O.C. Rosalie! Not a week went by without hearing from her. She always confirmed receipt of whatever I sent her and she was available to bounce questions off of (i.e. information being sent to the vendors, tipping guidelines, etc.). I sent her copies of all of my contracts, as well as all of the logistic information provided to each vendor (for example, photographer lists, music requests, etc.).

As our wedding approached, I realized that it would be easier if D.O.C. Rosalie came with us to our final appointment at the country club where we would review every detail of our wedding day from the first vendor arriving, until the final guest leaving. This meeting was not part of our originally agreed upon price. When I asked D.O.C. Rosalie to join us, she readily agreed, no questions asked.

Our original agreement also meant that D.O.C. Rosalie would not attend the rehearsal dinner. Even though we were not paying her for the time, she chose to attend that as well so that she could help us out and meet all the important people in the family and bridal party. Her willingness to get involved was above and beyond! Her help at the rehearsal dinner was invaluable. Our wedding had a lot of moving parts and she kept it organized and moving smoothly.

The night before the wedding, D.O.C. Rosalie was so sweet! She called, just to check up on “her bride.” And it was great that she did, because we had 2 last minute cancellations and another guest who decided to attend at the last minute. D.O.C. Rosalie took all the information and made sure that the seating arrangements were adjusted to reflect these changes including the new vegetarian dish required for our last minute guest. One last worry off of a busy bride’s mind!

The day of the wedding, her service was impeccable. When I arrived early for pictures, D.O.C. Rosalie met the limo to make sure I was calm. I could tell she’d been running around but when I asked her if everything was okay, she said everything was under control. I found out later there were quite a few dramas unfolding. Throughout the day, D.O.C. Rosalie was there with whatever we needed. And even when it seemed things might be out of control, she never showed it. It wasn’t until I asked as a curious (but calm) bride, the I found out just why I needed D.O.C. Rosalie to be there:

1. Our table numbers were too big for the catering hall supplied holders, so Rosalie ran over to Michael’s to buy something that would work!

2. Our florist got stuck in traffic and was 30 minutes late for the ceremony setup!

3. And last but certainly not least, our bakery forgot / lost / screwed up (we’re still sorting out this story with them) our wedding cake!

All of these little drama’s worked out in the end because D.O.C. Rosalie was on the job!

At the end of the night, D.O.C. Rosalie was there to make sure every last guest was safe to drive home or had an alternative means of transportation. As a tired and excited bride and groom still on cloud nine tried to gather all of their belongings and jump into the limo that would take them to their hotel after-party, D.O.C. Rosalie was there to help make sure nothing was left behind. She even volunteered to come back the next day to collect additional decorative belongings and follow us to the hotel for a wind-down off-duty drink. It was here that we found out the details of our little dramas. None of our guests knew anything was amiss. Our wedding day was a complete success!

As a control freak, my husband was afraid that I would be a total loose cannon on the day of our wedding! Because of D.O.C. Rosalie, I was a cool and calm bride without a care in the world. I was able to focus all of my energy on enjoying my wedding day as a carefree bride! D.O.C. Rosalie is worth her weight in gold for any bride’s wedding day! If we were to do it all over again, she would be the first person we called!