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It feels crazy to work on this. I love reading wedding reviews. I think it is the best feature on this amazing site. They are not only immensely helpful, but also insightful. These reviews remind us what is truly important about our wedding days: the beginning of your marriage. Those reviews reminded me to relish every beautiful moment of my wedding day and remember that the best is yet to come.
With that, I will begin with the only problem of my day: rain. I watched weather forecasts on tv and monitored them online. For ten days, the forecast never changed, only the percents of chance of rain. April 1st was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and unseasonable warmth. I hope that we would have a repeat of the same weather a week later, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Wingate Inn, Garden City Wingate InnAfter my nail appointment, FH helped me check into the Wingate Inn in Garden City on Stewart Avenue. I booked the Junior Bridal Suite for myself for the night before the wedding and the night of. The bridal suite is two rooms: a living room and a king sized bedroom. I booked this room based on Jenn the Hair Genie’s recommendation. She was totally right. The room was a comfortable fit for all nine people who spent the morning in my room. There is plenty of seating and the bathroom is big enough for several girls. There is also a beautiful floor mirror in the bedroom.
Hair by Jenn the Hair GenieHair Genie’s WebsiteMakeup by Oksana Oksana’s Website100% Recommended! Book them now!!!! J
Jenn called my room just before 5:00am to let me know they were on their way up to the room. It was then that I remembered that I forgot to bring a picture of my hair trial (of course, I reminded my BMs to bring theirs). When I told Jenn, she whipped out pictures she had taken at the trial. Jenn and Oksana helped us wake up and kept us talking and laughing all morning, which was great, because I was a huge bundle of nerves. While I was checking out my makeup in the other room, Oksana told the girls to turn the weather off….which was probably the best decision made all morning. We watched cartoons instead.
All of the girls looked gorgeous. Jenn and Oksana are an amazing team. They are incredibly talented at what they do and they are fun to be around. I recommend them without reservation.
LA Blossom Recommended! Laurie is incredible!
Laurie arrived at the hotel room sometime between 8 and 8:30 with the personal flowers. My bouquet was ridiculously gorgeous. It was everything I wanted. The girls’ flowers were perfect, exactly what I asked for. My bouquet was even larger than I thought it would be! Laurie dropped them off and then went to WM to give DH his flowers and to set up the centerpieces.
With the flowers in the room, I started to get anxious about time. The photographer would be arriving around 9:00am to begin taking pictures and I wanted to get dressed. It took some negotiating to actually get into my dress, since I was wearing two slips underneath. I ended up needing three people to help put the gown on.
Lillette’s Recommended
I bought my Maggie Sottero at Lillette’s before Ashleigh was discontinued. I had nothing but excellent experiences at Lillette’s. I decided to buy the third gown I tried on, even though I wasn’t planning on buying a dress that day. I had total faith in Lillette’s, as they have been in business for 50 years. They also came highly recommended from my MOH. This trust was really important because when I was measured, I fell in between size 16 and size 18. This was because of my bust and broad back. I didn’t really want the size 18 since it was plus size (read: 10% more), but I didn’t want the pressure of having to lose weight before the wedding. So I ended up going with the larger gown, knowing that it would have to be taken in.
Fast forward to September: I joined Weight Watchers through my school. I lost weight pretty quickly and began to worry about how the fittings would go, knowing that the gown was ordered too big, plus I lost weight. Everyone reassured me that the gown could be taken in.
My gown came in January 13. Because of the corset back, the weight loss was no problem. My gown needed no alterations except for the hem and to sew in the buttons for the bustle. Francesca worked with me both times I went for fittings. She showed the girls how to do the corset. She is the just sweetest. She gave me a huge hug when I came to pick up my gown and wished me well. My dress looked gorgeous; I was very happy with the results.
Veil – Bridesave.com A- Recommended
The veils at Lillette’s were a bit too pricey for me, especially since I spent more on my gown than I was planning. I knew exactly what I wanted, so buying online was easy. I bought an ivory, two-tiered fingertip length veil with pearl edging on a comb.
The only problem was that they emailed the ship date for the veil as June 2006 – two months after my wedding. I emailed them to make sure that the veil would reach me before my wedding. I received a voicemail right away changing the ship date to summer 2005. I believe it shipped in 12 weeks. It was beautiful. I put it on a hanger and the wrinkles fell out within a few weeks.
Tiara – Veilshop.com Recommended
Again, the tiaras in bridal shops were just too expensive. I found one I absolutely loved, but it was $200. One of my bridesmaids emailed me a picture from veilshop that looked almost the same as the one in the shop, but $150 cheaper. It was on backorder until the end of March. Once it was in stock, it shipped quickly and was well packaged to prevent damage. It looked exactly like the picture on the website. I love LOVE my tiara.
BM Gowns – Bill Levkoff 201
Lillette’s I chose my bridesmaids gown the day I bought my dress. Lillette’s has a nice selection of gowns. Carol pulled a dozen or so to have my girls try on. I knew what color I wanted, but I wasn’t sure about the dress itself. They girls mainly tried on Bill Levkoff. I liked 201 the best because it had a wrap waist like mine. Because I purchased my gown at Lillette’s all of my bridesmaids would get theirs for 10% off. Even before the discount, Lillette’s was $1 cheaper than R.K. Bridal. Woohoo!
The girls got their fitting cards at the end of December. I was so excited to see the gown in Champagne. The sample gown was in green, so it would look completely different in the right color.
First fitting seemed to take FOREVER. The seamstresses didn’t seem to get along with each other. Two of my Bridesmaids worked with one seamstress, while the other two worked with Francesca. Francesca was AWESOME. She helped my girls find a bra that would flatter them. She gave each girl lots of attention. The other seamstress rushed through my bridesmaids.
The second fitting was scheduled for early March. The girls just tried the gowns on and they got to take them home. Just FYI: when you pick up your gown, you must have the balance paid or be able to pay in cash. Lillette’s does not take credit cards and will not accept a check for the final payment.
Sherwood-Triart Photography Outstanding! Pending albums, 100% recommended
Karen and her assistant Lynn arrived around 8:45am to start taking pictures. I was still getting dressed, so Karen introduced herself and started shooting right away. My girls were having some difficulty with the corset, so Jenn came over to help them get the corset going. Karen took pictures the entire time, but I barely noticed her. The pictures from this time are beautiful. Karen has a real talent for taking a lot of quality photographs in a short period of time. Sherwood is known for photojournalistic pictures and this is exactly what she was getting. Looking through my proofs I am amazed by some of the shots she got.
Somehow, she managed to take pictures of rings, diy projects and the invitations and over 100 formal shots in about 45 minutes.
These photos are the previews that we received sooner than the promised 4 weeks after our wedding. They are scanned, so some of the pictures are a bit washed out. The colors are gorgeous in the physical prints. 
Invitations: Intricate Beauty – Carlson Craft We ordered these invitation because they were simple and inexpensive. I have an obsession with paper, but I couldn’t spend more than $300 in invitations. We searched online and looked at hundreds of invites and then ordered them through a friend who owns a printing company. There were problems with Carlson Craft and the printing that they did, so my friend re-printed them himself. All in all, I was VERY happy with the way the invitations looked.
Cathy – the Invitation Station LIW Vendor - Recommended
When we ordered the invitations, we forgot to get inner envelopes. We didn’t have enough time to get the envelopes shipped from Florida, where my friend lives, so we ordered from Cathy at the Invitation Station. She emailed my FH a few times to get the ordered settled. She placed the order and the envelopes were in within a week. He drove out to pick them up and was very happy with them.
We took formal photographs in the hotel room until 9:25am or so, when the limo driver from Royalty arrived. I was still very nervous and anxious, but one thing I did not have to worry about was timing. All of our vendors arrived earlier than expected. Their punctuality is a testament to their professionalism. I never once worried that something would go wrong – they arrived before my worries began!
