HelenZzzzzzzzz’s HUGE 9/15/07 wedding review!!!!! DOUGLASTON MANOR, DUET, Flower Michelle, Francesca/Dazzling Affairs, Jenn/Oksana, STARLIGHT EXPRESS, Royalty Limo & many more! w/ tons of PRO PICS!!!

Ok so it’s official, I’m Mrs. JOHNSON!!!!!!!!!!! I figured I’d finally get around to writing my review, now that I’m married 3 months (yikes where has the time gone!!). The truth is I’ve really been dreading writing this because I know how detail oriented I am, so this is going to be a HUGE review. But I figured I owe LIW that much since I used this site for so much information when I was planning!!!

Where it all started…………
THE PROPOSAL!!!
Ok, this was 6 years in the making! Mike & I went to EB Elliotts in Freeport for dinner, it was one week before our anniversary, so I was completely unsuspecting as we took a walk on the dock after dinner and we were just standing around listening to the music from the bands playing by the water and he popped the question! And I might add, the song that happened to be playing when he proposed was the oldies song “doo wah ditty” (“she looked good, she looked fine, wedding bells are going to chime” totally coincidence, but how perfect!!)
Here’s a picture that I asked a sweet old lady to take of us:


Next stop: Engagement party!
We had our e-party on 10/13/06- we had met on 10/13/00 so it was so appropriate to have it on this date! And it wound up being a Friday the 13th too, just like the night we met at good ‘ole Dublin Pub!
The Dance Club- Middle Village NY - A+++++++++
718-326-2121
http://www.danceclubinternational.com/aboutus.htm
What a fantastic deal this place was!!! At first we had debated even having an e-party, but considering how economical the Dance Club was, it was totally worth it!!! For the price we paid, it included buffet food catered by Stallone’s in S. Ozone Park (which was delish!!!), all the decorations (125 balloons above the dance floor), the cake, and even THE DJ was included!!!! It was a 4 hour party and I honestly was so relaxed and happy the entire party, it couldn’t have went any better!!

This would be the one & only dance I got out of DH the entire night! Oh and btw, I got my hair done at Marco’s on 101st Ave. in Ozone Park.



E-party invites: A++++++++++
www.ganapit.com
great prices, beautiful invites!! I found the exact fall theme I was looking for with these!


E-party favors:
Magnetstreet.com- save the date magnets A+++++++++++
We uploaded a pic of us that I loved and they e-mailed us a proof back really fast. I absolutely loved our magnets!! I put them in a little tented card w/ a cute poem on the front- “here’s a magnet for you to post, to remember the date we will treasure most”. It was perfect b/c for those family members that couldn’t make it the e-party, I included a magnet in with their Christmas cards.

We also gave out bags with hershey’s kisses & Lindt truffles which I purchased from the Lindt store at Roosevelt Field Mall. I threw in some autumn leafy confetti in the bags, it was very cute, and who doesn’t like edible favors? Lol

Next!!!!!!! My Bridal Shower!!!!!!!!!!

The DeSeversky Mansion 6/3/07- A++++++
http://www.nyit.edu/resources/restaurant/index.html
My bridesmaids threw me such an AWESOME shower- I was COMPLETELY surprised, as my bf MimiMcG was lying to me for WEEKS to throw me off!! I had thought I was going to a work event for Mimi so it was so wonderful to walk in and have my family jumping at me and scaring the bejesus out of me!!! Lol I was so clueless, I think it took an hour for it to sink in that I was really at my shower!! The food was excellent, the scenery at DeSeversky is just amazing, and of course I was sooooooo happy with all the gifts we received!
The favors at the shower were LOVE cookie cutters, and Kim Anderson themed bookmarks w/ a cute poem. What is really really funny & ironic is they used the very SAME e-bay vendor I did for my sisters bridal shower favors 3 years ago!! Designs By Heidi on ebay…….this was purely coincidence, she had no clue I had ordered everything for hers through this same seller!! So crazy! She did a great job on all the items for my shower!

My niece running around as a “toilet paper” bride!! Lol loved the view there!

My favorite gift at my shower- getting everything for my casual china!

My bow hat was out of control!! Lol

DH with my clone!


The Rehearsal Dinner:
Carosello Restaurant A+++++++++++
http://www.carosellorestaurant.com/
We worked with Lisa, who was excellent!!! She gave us their largest room (Sorrento Room)- since it was a Thursday night and no other big parties were going on that night. The food was excellent, and the package they gave us included so much food!! Highly recommend this restaurant for rehearsal dinners! It’s right across the street from Russo’s on the Bay, and for us it was only 5 minutes from our house.
Ok I don’t have the best pictures from the RD, I didn’t bring my camera!

Me & DH chowing down!


Now for anything & everything that went into the BIG day!!

First and foremost, THE DRESS!
Anyone who knows me or has ever read any of my posts while planning on LIW would know I am VERY indecisive, one minute I love one thing, the next minute I’m doubting my choice and asking everyone & their mother which one they like. This is how I got with dress shopping!!!! Anyone who has been through planning knows how overwhelming looking for a dress can be, for an indecisive person like me, it can be torture!!! I absolutely LOVED going to check out dresses at Lillette’s, Paradise Bridal, Lynbrook Bridal, Macys in Manhasset & Bridal Elegance. It was just narrowing it down between the dresses I liked that was tough! I got it down to 3 dresses and couldn’t decide, so I went back to Paradise Bridal & Lillette’s to see if one of the dresses would “speak” to me! Lol At Paradise Bridal there was an Anjolique dress I loved, and one that most LIWer’s voted for made by Davinci (see my “dresses I like” album), and then there was one at Lillette’s by Mori Lee. It was so difficult for me to compare with them being at different shops, I think I made 3 trips to each store before I decided. I ended up going with the dress that originally gave me the “this is the one” feeling……and that was Mori Lee style # 2822……it had a sweetheart neckline, lace, an organza overlay, a beautiful train……and everything I wanted in a dress…..it just felt right! From time to time I would wonder whether I should have went with the Davinci dress, but on my wedding day I knew more than ever that I had chose the right one!

Bridal Elegance Dix Hills- A++++++++++
www.gownfind.com

I ended up ordering from Phyllis at Bridal Elegance because she had my dress $100 cheaper than Lillette’s, and at the time the alterations were locked in at a price easily $150-$200 cheaper than Lillette’s (I know they have since gone up since Bridal Elegance has a lot more business now). I personally loved working with Phyllis, she was very sweet to me, and had a lot of patience (even when I stood in her shop for an hour when my dress first came in and had my bf standing by as my personal paparazzi!). Her alterations on my dress were absolutely perfect, not too tight, not too loose, and my bustle was just gorgeous!! I chose a pick up style and it worked out perfectly with all the embroidery on the back of my dress. The only thing I would’ve changed is adding tabs to the inside of my dress to keep my lowline bra in place, b/c I kept feeling like it was creeping up and it made me a little nuts when I was dancing during the reception!














BM dresses- Bill Levkoff style #557 (same as 966, but in taffeta!)
Bridal Elegance- B
While I had a great experience w/ Phyllis, I know some of my BM’s weren’t thrilled with having to go back for alterations 2 or 3 times, so for that I can’t really give Phyllis an A. Other than that, the price was great for the dresses, probably $40 cheaper than at Lillette’s, and the alterations were $30 cheaper too. The dresses were sable w/ a camel sash. I thought the taffeta was great b/c it was such a light fabric. I originally wanted chiffon, but didn’t like any brown chiffon dresses that I had seen. Levkoff really has the best BM dresses!! So many styles to choose from! I loved these dresses, and I thought they were flattering on all of the BM’s. The mini-train and sashes were all cut to be floor length.









MOB dress, FG dresses
Bridal Elegance- A-

My mom & I found her dress on clearance at Estelle’s but it was in the wrong size, so I found the dress online on the Montage website and got a price from Phyllis, she didn’t offer any discount for the dress, but instead gave free alterations. My mom was SUPER picky with dresses, and would only wear something w/ short sleeves. September can be a hot month, so she didn’t want a jacket or anything with long sleeves…..and she absolutely hates strapless dresses or spaghetti straps……so it was a mission to find something she liked. I think her dress by Montage Mon Cheri was perfect for her! She did have to have it altered twice at Bridal Elegance, but that was just b/c she wanted it shorter than Phyllis recommended.
Originally I wanted a FG dress by Jordan Sweet Beginnings w/ an organza pickup skirt and rhinestones in the pickups……but then on the day we were ordering them at Bridal Elegance, while just browsing through the store, I found another dress and thought it would compliment my dress really well……I check out the tag and see it was also made by Mori Lee just like my dress……it was fate! Lol The dresses were so adorable on our flower girls (our nieces!), Phyllis gave a discount on these, so that was great since the original price was more than I wanted the mom’s to spend.

Sorry there’s a lot of pics of the FG’s, but they’re just sooooo cute I had to include them!


















My shoes:
www.bestbridalprices.com A+
I had read some reviews on LIW about comfy wedding shoes, and since I LOVE to dance, I knew comfort would come first for my shoes!!! I went with the infamous Love Knot shoe……OMG these were soooooo comfortable, I had slippers with me and didn’t change into them until we were in the limo on the way to our hotel!!! The style I got was actually called “lovely” which is the shorter heeled version of the “love knot” (I think mine were 2 inches)…..I got them in ivory, but they actually looked like a pretty dark ivory to me…..I didn’t really care since no one would really see my shoes under my dress! I searched online and ordered them from the cheapest place I could find…..I think they were about $40.


BM shoes:
Naturalizer- Brown “prissy” sandals

www.shoemall.com- A+++++
gold toned “Baby sequin shoes”- Advantage Bridal (which gets a C for slow shipping times) and then the other girls ordered from a different site, can’t remember which one!

I picked a few random shoes for the girls to consider, since they’d be wearing brown, I had told them to go with whatever shoe they wanted to. 3 of the girls wore a gold toned shoe, and 3 wore a strappy brown shoe. Both looked great with the dress, but I know the brown ones were not too comfy, as the girls were in their slippers by the time they got to the hall!

BM gifts
Century 21 for handbags- A+
Things Remembered & Macy’s for jewelry- A+
Jewelry Boxes- ebay- A+
I knew I wanted to get the girls jewelry to go with their dresses, and a little handbag. Well I originally purchased sets from Things Remembered when I first got engaged in the summer of 06…….BUT that is when I still thought I was going to go with wine colored dresses, one word of caution, wait until you’ve picked the dresses before you get crazy like me and buy jewelry!!!! Lol!! I bought a silver set, and once I decided on chocolate brown for the BM dresses, I wanted something a little more earthy toned for their jewelry. So around Christmas time 06 I bought necklaces & earrings from 1928 at Macy’s (on sale AND with a coupon! Awwwww yea!!!!!)….the necklace had amber & peridot stones…..I liked it so much I bought myself one too! So I ended up giving them both sets- the one to go w/ the dresses, and the Things Remembered sets……heck after all BM’s do, I thought they deserved it anyway! (plus I hate returning things!!). I found these really pretty jewelry boxes on ebay- for get this- ONLY $3!!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes!! I thought it was perfect to put the jewelry in.
I was still working in the Financial District last spring when I went on the rampage to find bags for the BM’s…….I hit the motherload in Century 21…..first I found beachy tote bags that were blue & beige (my colors were blue & brown, so it was pretty close lol), I figured they’d be great to throw all their gifts in, and the price was pretty good so I got them. Then I saw these adorable little gold clutch bags from Calvin Klein, I thought they’d be great w/ the dresses, and they could actually use them when they go out since they didn’t really look like “evening bags”.
Here’s my BM Mimi displaying the gold wristlet I gave them (she forgot to get rid of it before walking down the aisle lol).


The tote bags:


The jewelry:




GM gifts;
Macy’s- A+
Best Buy- A+
We got all the GM’s nice leather wallets from Macy’s and put a gift card in them from Best Buy…..all the guys loved them!! Let’s face it, not all GM’s appreciate keepsakes as much as bridesmaids do, so I figured we should get them something useful like a gift card.

Gift for the groom:
Things Remembered- A+
I had a gift sent over (via my BIL) to DH the morning of the wedding……gun metal cufflinks w/ his initials engraved on them (that disappointingly he didn’t get a picture of at the house, and I forgot about it later!), and also a pocket watch which I had inscribed w/ a message and our wedding date (this of course will be more of a keepsake, since I don’t think DH will be wearing his pocket watch much! Lol). Here’s a pic of his best friend putting it on him:




DH sent me some beautiful flowers with a little note, and the florist included this beautiful butterfly inside the bouquet, which was great b/c then at least it was something I could save after the flowers died.





Day of Hoodie:
Stitch Art- TriCounty- A+
I got the white hoodie from NY & Co. on sale for like $25. I brought it to Stitch Art in Tri-County and for $20 I had “Mrs. Johnson est. 9/15/07” embroidered on the back. It was actually a little chilly the morning of my wedding day since it had rained, so I ended up wearing it while getting ready. I also wore it all over Hawaii for our honeymoon since it got a little chilly at night by the water. FYI- if you park by the back of Tri-County, Stitch Art is on your left, right by the pretzels (just follow your nose lol).


“Bride” Tank- Theknot.com- A+
Got it on sale for maybe $15, it was very cute!


My something blue- PANTIES (JenMike331’s favorite word!! Hehe)
Boy shorts: Target for like $6
Embroidery- again, Stitch Art- I think he charged me $10- I had “Mikey’s bride 9/15/07” sewn on them.


Veil & tiara:
Barron’s- TriCounty Mall- Levittown NY- A++++++++
I ordered my veil from Barron’s and they were very reasonable- I got a detachable cathedral layer, and an elbow length blusher w/ rhinestones, and a fingertip length 2nd layer also w/ rhinestones, I had the veil mounted on a “stick” as my hairdresser suggested, so she wouldn’t have to bury combs in my hair. The total was around $230……I thought it was a great price considering it was 3 layer customized veil.

I also got my tiara from Barron’s, I looked at a bunch of different ones but decided on going with one that had a hint of gold considering my dress had some goldish/beige detailing on it. I loved it!!!! And got it for a great price- $80 something bucks!












When veils attack!!!!!!!! Just a little windy ya think?


Day of Jewelry:
Several retailers at Tri-County:
Ok I can’t really remember all of the places at Tri County that I purchased jewelry from, because I purchased a total of SEVEN necklaces, so I can’t even remember which one the necklace I wore actually came from!!! Doh!! I still have business cards from SilverStone & Looking Pretty, so I know I purchased some jewelry from them (just can’t remember what!) The two I originally purchased just had too much going on and when my dress came in and I tried them on with it, I knew they weren’t right. Which put me on the warpath to find a new set!! I wanted something fairly simple, and I’ve always loved marcassite or antique-y looking jewelry…..so I’m glad I went with the set that I did!






The garter- Bridal Elegance- A+
Every time I went into Bridal Elegance for fittings I was eyeing this garter, I finally purchased it the week of the wedding- it was $15- I loved it!


The invitations:
My Gatsby- A+++++++++++++++++++++++
www.mygatsby.com

My Gatsby is such a great site!! It’s only online, so I’d recommend ordering their sample for $5 it includes every type of cardstock they offer, metallic, linen, you name it. It really helped when I was deciding what colors to use since I knew I wanted a 3 layered invite. I originally saw one from Elite that I LOVED, but didn’t love the pricetag!! They were over $900. So I kept looking and my good friend Kerri (brady37) introduced me to My Gatsby!! I ordered from their Mix & Match set, metallic bronze paper for the bottom layer, gold leaf for the 2nd, and poison ivory for the top layer w/ espresso thermograph ink. I wanted to make it a little different, so I chose the bronze for the reception card, gold leaf for the envelopes, and poison ivory for the RSVP (so I could actually see what people wrote! Lol). I absolutely loved how they came out and I got so many compliments on them!!! It was still slightly more than I originally wanted to spend, but practically a bargain compared to the Elite invites.




Calligraphy for Invitation envelopes:
www.inkspun.com- A+++++++

I worked with Bill at Inkspun, his prices are beyond reasonable!!! It’s computerized calligraphy, but honestly you wouldn’t really be able to tell. He had a really quick turnaround and did a great job, even on my metallic gold inner envelopes.

Reception Hall:

When we were shopping around for a hall, I knew we didn’t want to go too much over our budget, and I thought if I looked hard enough I could find a hall for under $100pp, even if it was on a Saturday night in peak season! I scouted out a bunch of halls with my best friend Mimi before I dragged DH into it, just knowing I could take more time in my search if I looked with her first! There were a few halls I absolutely LOVED, but for one reason or another we didn’t choose them. We heavily considered Swan Club, Sans Souci, Stewart Manor CC, The Metropolitan, and Larkfield Manor. I really really loved Larkfield, but DH did not want us or our family (mostly from Queens) to have to drive out there, which would easily take an hour. The Metropolitan- when I first walked in there, I felt like it was “IT”, and the food at the tasting was absolutely out of this world. BUT when DH went there with me, he was concerned that the hall might be a little tight for our guest list (we invited 210). We continued our search……when DH walked into Douglaston Manor, he LOVED it. It was the first hall where he had such positive things to say, so we knew it was the one we should book! I’m kind of grateful that I never went there before they completed their renovations, because I don’t think I would have ever considered them. All of the renovations were absolutely gorgeous, and with a view of the golf course, it was just everything we wanted in our hall. I loved that despite its location in Queens, it felt like we were out in the countryside or something. It just had a great wide open feeling. OK, now I’ll finally get on with reviewing them!

Douglaston Manor- A++++++++++++++++++++
www.thedouglastonmanor.com

For anyone that has ever heard less than favorable comments about Douglaston (which was prior to the renovations), FORGET what you’ve heard!!! Mike & I truly were treated like a king & queen by Douglaston Manor. Our banquet manager- Thomas- was sooooooooo wonderful!!! He looked out for us throughout our entire planning process! Both he and Claudia got so used to seeing me because I was constantly stopping by to see if anything new was done to the hall, Claudia actually told me she was going to miss seeing me now that my wedding was over! The staff was just so sweet and attentive. I had Mary as my bridal attendant- OMG she was great!!!! Any DM brides out there, see if you can ask for her, I also had a DOC for my day of, but Mary was just as great I must say. She even wrote us a sweet little note on top of our cake box that we took home, congratulating us and wishing us many happy years. I really felt like they each personally took care of us at Douglaston, and they didn’t treat us like we were “just another wedding”. What was also great is that in my final week of planning I was completely overwhelmed with all of my DIY projects, I had no idea that Douglaston did personalized menu’s for each place setting, so that was one less thing I had to do!! We had 5 entrée choices for our guests…..the only thing I would recommend to DM brides is to take note that the “chicken siciliano” choice they have is chicken on the bone! If I had known that, I would not have chosen that as our chicken option! I’m just not a fan of chicken on the bone. Other than that, everything was excellent!!! For our other entrees, we chose: prime rib, sea bass puttanesca, veal rollitini, and a vegetarian option. The appetizer was mozzarella & tomato in a pesto sauce, and we had TWO pasta choices for our guests- tortellini alfredo or penne w/ sun dried tomato & broccoli in garlic & oil. Instead of salad, I opted to have intermezzo and went with the raspberry sorbet…..I was SOOOOO glad I did b/c I needed a little refresher like that…..for some reason I was hardly hungry despite not eating much all day, I guess it was adrenaline, but I can remember so clearly how refreshing the sorbet was! It seems goofy but it was like the best thing ever when I was eating it!! Lol Our cake was also included…Douglaston uses Cascon Bakery in Whitestone. I went and met with Andy at Cascon a few weeks before and chose fresh strawberries and vanilla custard for our filling, with whipped cream on the outside (not a big fan of buttercream). I gave him a picture of the design I wanted and he got it PERFECT!!! I loved our cake!!! I must say that somehow flowers were put on my cake when I didn’t want any on them, I don’t really know who did it…..luckily I did one last walk through of our reception room before going to the bridal suite, and when I saw the flowers, Claudia at DM just took them off and then the smudgy side of the cake was turned around to face the wall! Lol voila!! It was like they were never on, and no one ever saw the smudge in the design b/c that was the side we cut the cake from!! Another wonderful thing Douglaston did for me, was a few weeks before my wedding, Claudia told me to come by to see the set up for her sons wedding (which happened to be 3 weeks before mine) and it looked absolutely gorgeous!! She had Pedestals put up these beautiful sheer draperies all over the room, it just looked magical. These were things that were definitely not in my budget. So, Claudia told me “if you like them I’ll leave them up for you”……so I got all of these amazing draperies hanging from the center of my room, and also fake floral arrangements they left up hanging from the chandelier. Just look at these pictures!! Claudia (who designed most of the beautiful changes at DM), also left up little chandeliers she had put in the trees outside on the deck, it looked so great!!! I wish I could’ve joined cocktail hour so I could have hung out on the deck too!! I really felt like they went out of their way to help me, I loved how everything looked.
If I could sum up my experience with Douglaston Manor- it would be sheer EXCELLENCE!!!! I am a perfectionist, and they got everything right by my standards, I could not have been any happier with our hall and their staff!!!
**these were all taken at Douglaston Manor, I LOVE the shots taken from the balcony!!








Here’s Thomas our BM pouring champagne for our toast!














Here’s a good shot of the draperies:


Weather on day of: A
All week long I was stalking weather.com (as all brides do on the week of their wedding!!!), it kept jumping around- 40% chance of rain, 20%, 60%.....it was all over the place!! It rained over night (I remember tossing and turning around 4AM and hearing rain hitting my air conditioner! But when I woke up at 8AM it was lightly drizzling…..it was completely clear by 10AM, and the sun came out by 11!!!! Whew, BIG sigh of relief!! I was so happy mother nature decided to cooperate!! Lol It was a little on the windy side (as evident by some of my pics with my veil flying around) but it made for some interesting shots. I was so happy that it wasn’t too hot, the weekend before it was in the upper 80’s, and I think it was low to mid 70’s on our wedding day.


Day of Coordinator- Francesca from Dazzling Affairs- A+++++++++++++++
www.dazzlingaffairs.com
Francesca was a gem, she was so on top of her game. From the day I first met with her I knew she had such attention to detail that my party would really run smoothly. She was super attentive and on top of everything, things would come up that I didn’t even know about until afterwards, and to me, that is what a DOC should be! Someone to be there so when things go wrong, the bride doesn’t even know about it!!! When my flowers came from Flower Michelle, I had expected the stems on each bouquet to be wrapped all the way to the bottom, Francesca was on the phone with John within seconds, he was offering to have someone meet us at the church with the extra fabric I gave him……I ended up turning them down b/c instead Francesca just cut the stems a bit so they didn’t seem sooooo extremely long to me…..and I didn’t really want to make such a fuss about it anyway! Francesca also had an assistant named Jaime……she was wonderful and so sweet!!! She brought everything over to the church (programs, unity candle etc.) and kept all the GM’s in check before we all got to the church. One of the things that happened that luckily Francesca did not tell me about as it was happening, was at 2:45PM she got a call from Jaime who was at the church saying “we’re down a groomsmen” lol…..this was FIFTEEN minutes before my wedding was to start, and Mike’s oldest brother who lives in god’s country out in Suffolk was not at the church yet!!!!! Thank goodness he showed up at 2:55PM, so I was completely in the dark!!! Sheesh, guys just have to throw the tux on and show up, I couldn’t believe he was running that late!!! Francesca & Jaime were a lifesaver, and until the day of Mike had no idea why I was hiring a DOC…….come the day of, he completely understood and appreciated me having someone there to worry about everything. We (ok, really me) were able to enjoy ourselves instead of fussing over details, for that I will say to all future brides, if you can truly afford it, or even cut back on a few other things in order to get it in your budget- HIRE A DOC!!!!!!!!!! They are worth every penny!!!!!
Here’s Francesca helping with my veil:


It took both Francesca and Jay (from Duet) to grab my veil in this pic!! It literally was flying right out of my hair!!!


The Ceremony:
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary- Ozone Park- can’t rate a church!

My husband is Catholic and I’m Lutheran, but considering his family is more religious than mine, I knew it would mean more if we got married in the Catholic church. We worked with Father Angelo, and he was really pleasant and Mike & I were very comfortable talking to him. I will say though that he was really low when he was speaking during our ceremony and everyone had a hard time hearing him. It was pretty funny b/c Father Angelo had pronounced us husband & wife and then leaned in and whispered to us that we could start to turn around to proceed back down the aisle….and I whispered back “uh Father Angelo, shouldn’t we light the unity candle?” lol. It was pretty funny, but after DIY’ing that candle I was not walking out of there without lighting it!! Seriously though, our parents lit the taper candles, and I felt it was very symbolic for us to light the pillar candle, so I’m glad I remembered! After I said it to Father Angelo, he literally slapped his hand on his forehead and said “oops”. Very sweet man, but I guess it was just b/c he’s getting a little older.

We went to the interfaith pre-cana at Immaculate Conception in Douglaston, Ana & Carlos were the hosting couple- they were absolutely wonderful!!!! I would highly recommend going there for interfaith pre-cana.


Here’s my DH praying I’m the right one lol




























Wedding bands:
Diamond Roof- Tri-County- A+++++++++++++++
I had checked out a bunch of jewelers at TriCounty to see if anything would compliment my engagement ring. Once I started talking to Sam at Diamond Roof I explained what I wanted and he made me the most perfect ring!! DH’s ring is great too, too bad he won’t be wearing it much though since he’s an electrician!! (don’t want him getting electrocuted!)






Ringbearer pillow & FG baskets:
Ebay!- seller: Always Elegant- A+++++++++++
http://stores.ebay.com/Always-Elegant
I loved this ebayer!!! Her prices are phenomenal and the detailing on the FG baskets was beautiful- it had organza, just like my dress! The RB pillow was just as beautiful with some lace on top. I was originally going to get a personalized RB pillow, but the ones I was looking at were $50 and up, and I just thought that was a bit much for a pillow that would get tossed around all day.




Hair- Jenn the hair genie (LIW vendor) A+++++++++
I loved working with Jenn!! When I went for my trial in January 07, Jenn & Oksana gave me a bouquet of flowers b/c I had told them it was my birthday!!!! It was the sweetest thing and just a testimony to how personable they are!! I gave Jenn a picture of a hairstyle I liked and she copied it perfectly. Despite it being a little windy on the day of my wedding, my hair stayed in place very well. She also did my mom’s hair, my niece (one of the FG’s), my sister, and 2 BM’s. I loved all of their hairstyles!!! Her prices are great, and I was so glad that I had someone come to the house instead of going to a salon, it really made the morning run smoothly.


Jenn did everyone’s hair who is on the left side in this picture- my sister, my cousin, my bff Mimi and even my niece/FG on the left.


You can kind of see the back of their hairstyles here:


Here’s Jenn putting my veil in for me:


Make up- Oksana (LIW vendor)- A+++++++++++++
At first, I really thought I wanted air brush make up, but after having my trial with Oksana I could see that she could contour my features better than airbrushing could. Oksana’s make up was impeccable on the day of!!! I had people coming up to me and asking me who the make up artist was b/c they were impressed by how well it lasted, even up til the end of the night. It looked very natural on me, and most importantly it felt like I had nothing on my face (I don’t wear a ton of make up normally). She also did my mom’s make up, my sister, and one of my BM’s. I thought everyone looked so beautiful!!








This is probably maybe 10 hours later…..the make up still looked great!


DJ- Starlight Express- Mineola NY-
www.starlightexpressdjs.com

I have to break them down in to two grades:

For playing good music, and keeping people on the dance floor: A+

For communication and some mishaps: D

This is really really hard for me, because leading up to the big day, this had to be one of the vendors that I worried the least about!! Vinny was our MC and he was energetic and great before the day of, I was so happy that he was going to be our MC, I really felt like we would be in good hands. I have to be honest, that our first choice for DJ was already booked, and that’s why we had to shop around- we had really wanted Vinny from Satisfaction Guaranteed, since they had done so many weddings in DH’s family and always did an awesome job, they were fully booked over a year before our wedding!!!! So when we found Starlight, we thought we had found a good alternative. We spent a good chunk of change on our package with them, it included: 2 50” plasma screens for the montage & zap shots to be displayed throughout the night, an MC and DJ, their really beautiful lighting columns, 5 hours of music (including cocktail hour) and a photographer to take pics starting from the church. Ok, for my two grades, I have to say, I was extremely happy that my dance floor was not empty at any point of the night, so Starlight did a great job in that respect. For some of the mistakes that happened I had to give them a lower but separate grade……while it did not completely ruin my party, what they did seriously caused me some embarrassment. First problem: on my contract, they were supposed to play music for FIVE hours…..b/c I didn’t go to cocktail hour, I didn’t even realize until after the wedding that they actually only played for 4 hours- only during the reception. Next problem: on the questionnaire form they give you, for MC participation I checked off “very involved”, our MC Vinny I felt like he hardly spoke, a lot of my guests didn’t even know I had an MC. Perhaps this was b/c my crowd didn’t need a ton of motivation to get out on the dance floor, but I still thought it would be nice to hear him occasionally since we did pay extra to have an MC & DJ there. They didn’t play a whole lot from my must play list, I heard a few songs I requested during dinner, and then until I said something, they finally played some of the dance songs I wanted to hear around 11PM, with a half hour to go to the reception (I guess it was better late than never). They played the wrong song for our cake cutting (“Buttercup” instead of “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies), Vinny told me that I didn’t write anything down on my form. I’m sure I did, but regardless, he could have asked me that night (or at least ask Francesca) if I had selected a particular song, I had no idea that he thought I didn’t pick one, this was very silly in my opinion for them not to simply ask me. Now for what I consider the worst mistake of the whole evening- my in laws had celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary a few weeks before our wedding. So I thought it would be nice to highlight the milestone and dedicate their wedding song to them after our cake cutting. Vinny announces that it’s their 26th wedding anniversary!!!!!!!!!!! I was MORTIFIED. First off, my DH is 32 years old, so now at this point people from my side of the family were walking up to my mom and saying, isn’t Mike 32??? His parents are only married 26 years???? Like he was born out of wedlock (not that it’s a big deal, but my family was just perplexed since my in law’s are very religious, and that would be odd to them if they had Mike before marriage). What’s worse is that a lot of guests immediately saw how annoyed I looked, it took me out of the enjoyment mode I was in all day and really had me upset. And it gets better- they played the wrong song!! It wasn’t their wedding song at all. When I walked up to Vinny and said it’s their 40th and what the h*ll song is this??? He actually took out his paper that I originally filled out and said to me “sweetie isn’t that your handwriting?” which I found to be very combative- he should have immediately apologized, but instead it was like he was somehow trying to blame me. On the paper I had written “Patricia & Martin celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on August 26th” so for some reason Vinny only picked up on the 26th, he should have read it exactly as I wrote it (which is why I wrote it that way)…..and for the song I wrote “So in love” which they played some song from the 70’s called So in love (which should have been obvious that in 1967 that song wasn’t around yet lol…..but who knows what they were thinking since they announced it as their 26th). I can’t completely blame Starlight for playing the wrong song, since I didn’t list the artist…..but in my defense, I did SING the song to Mike at Starlight when I sat down with them a few weeks prior to go over my song list (I said it was not the remake by All 4 One but the original “as we stroll along together…..”……come on people I sang the song to you!). I know this was only one song throughout the entire wedding, but I will always remember how upset and embarrassed I was at that moment when everything went wrong as I was trying to honor my in laws. I truly felt like my DH”s side of the family thought I just got it wrong, not realizing the DJ made a mistake. Vinny did try to correct himself after the song ended and announce it was their 40th, but at that point I already felt the damage was done. So for anyone using Starlight- I will say the music was excellent, but as far as communication, be precise, be clear and go over your details several times in order to avoid any major mistakes such as this.
Their lighting was absolutely beautiful!!




Flower Michelle- Mineola NY- A+++++
John was amazing!!!! This man has the patience of a saint!!! I changed my flowers like 3 times and he was so accommodating!! First I wanted fall type flowers, gerber daisies, sunflowers etc. Then I decided I wanted to go a different route……I was going to have hydrangea’s, tropical amazon roses, circus roses & sahara roses. Then I saw KellyS15’s sample centerpiece post from Flower Michelle…..I LOVED them!!! So once again, I asked John to change the CP’s! We wound up with orangey/red hydrangea’s (don’t know the official name of them), black magic roses & circus roses with orange snapdragons in the center of the vase. The BM’s bo-k’s were all circus roses wrapped with scraps from their dresses, and I bought bunches of crystals to put in the bo-k’s from Francesca my DOC. My bo-k was leonidas with vendella roses with crystals in the stephanotis, I attached a brooch I gave my grandmother the last time I saw her alive (she lived in Finland), it really felt good carrying that with me on my bouquet. I had wanted all the bo-k’s wrapped all the way to the bottom of the stems, which I didn’t actually tell John that ahead of time, so he wouldn’t have realized, and it was great that they offered to come to the church and fully wrap the stems (which I turned down, as noted in the DOC section). I highly recommend Flower Michelle!












And of course……..the inevitable “stop and smell the flowers” pic! HA! I swear I could not stop laughing when Jay kept telling me to smell my bouquet!


Duet-
www.duetwedding.com
Photography- A+++++++++++++++++++++++
This was one of my favorite vendors!!!!!!!! I had Jay’s team, with Danny as the photojournalist. I had met with about 12 photographers after doing extensive research on LIW….my DH only went with me to 2 or 3 out of the 12 because he really had no opinions on pictures!! Lol He hates taking pictures, so I think he resented having to be involved with photography at all. Based on the quality of the photography and the pricing I got from Eric at Duet, I booked them. Both me & Mike met Jay for the first time for our e-pics taken at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay in May 07. We could instantly see how patient Jay was and unobtrusive (which Mike really appreciated!!). He would tell us to just “take a walk” and he took these beautiful relaxed natural pictures of us. What’s so funny is Mike & I had a big fight on our way over to Planting Fields, I had a migraine headache…..it was bad!! Once we got there, Jay had me so relaxed we really looked happy in our pictures and my headache actually started to go away. I knew I’d be in good hands on our wedding day after our e-pics with Jay. We were there for an hour and got 200 pictures from Duet!!
Here’s a few of my e-pics (more in my album)








On the wedding day, I believe they were a few minutes early, they started taking pictures right away. I had prepared a small must take list, but forgot to give it to them. I’m kind of glad I did so I didn’t have them checking things off a list all day, but instead just captured moments as they happened. Everyone was joking around that they were the paparazzi, they were all over!! The only thing that was kind of odd is that when the GM’s picked up me & DH in chairs above the crowd on the dance floor, there’s no shots of it in our proofs or on our disc. From the whole day, that’s the only thing I’m missing, but it was ok since Starlight Express’ zap shots guy got a picture of it (I guess Duet finally took a break at that point?). I received almost 750 printed proofs, and over 2,700 pictures on the discs they gave me. I’m definitely going to have a hard time choosing pics for our album!! The proofs speak for themselves.

Video- TBD- pending receipt of footage
In our contract we’ll be receiving the raw footage and some edited copies w/ chapters included……I haven’t even submitted my form yet (I’m so bad), but from their performance on the day of, I’m sure I’ll love it! I don’t remember my videographer’s name, but he looked like he did a great job!


























Here’s Jay helping out with the fly away veil situation lol
























One of my favorite pictures….his dad smiling as he’s watching DH & MIL dance, and his aunt tearing up……this just brings me to that moment




Royalty Limo- A++++++++++
www.royaltylimo.com
I worked with Manny who Mike & I met at a bridal expo at Douglaston Manor in September 06. He gave us a good price for a 20 passenger Escalade so we booked on the spot (which is so not like me!!), but even without seeing the car, I figured we’d be fine since we had some friends who had also used them. Fast forward to a bridal showcase in February 07 at Leonards of Great Neck (I went there to see Starlight Express in action), and I wound up winning a free limo from Royalty!!!!!! It was a 10 passenger limo for 3 hours. It worked out so well, because my mom doesn’t drive, and we ended up having 5 Finnish family members staying at my house (for three weeks might I add) for the wedding, and obviously none of them would be driving either. I was going to try and ask my BIL and anyone else I could get to drive them, but winning the limo was so much better! Since the family rode with me in the Escalade to the church, I had the extra limo pick them up at the church after the ceremony (so we didn’t go into OT) and bring them back to my house where my mom hosted some OOT family members from upstate. I was so happy my family from Finland could “ride in style” to the wedding lol…….for almost all of them it was their first time in a limo! The driver of the Escalade was Mal- he was great- very courteous, and on time. I would’ve liked if our limo was a little better stocked, but maybe that was a good thing so the GM’s didn’t get loaded! HA!! The smaller limo’s driver was Frank. At the end of the night we were picked up in a 10 passenger limo, we had Doc (Holiday! Kidding!!) pick us up. He was SUPER accommodating, we dropped off my mom & family at my house in Howard Beach first, (which worked out well since DH forgot to bring ANY clothes w/ him and he was definitely not sleeping in his tux!), then he brought us to the Garden City Hotel. All of our drivers were absolutely wonderful from Royalty, but especially Doc, he was very sweet & funny. For anyone booked with Royalty, you have nothing to worry about!!






Notice the veil flying straight up in the air! lol


Tuxedo’s- Dire Formalwear- A+++++++++++++
http://dire.kpsearch.com/df/default.asp
Di Re was great!! DH told me that since he wasn’t allowed to see my dress, I wasn’t allowed to see his tuxedo choice until the day of (pfffft!)……so I had to trust him on this one!! He had no problems with Di Re- since he had a total of 8 guys getting tuxedo rentals, they threw in 2 for free. Mike decided to give one free tux to his younger brother, and one to his dad (which is nice, but I tried to tell him he should’ve taken a free rental for himself, I know I’m so bad!!). Well I really liked the jackets he picked, DH picked a grey vest for himself…..it looked nice, but I wish he would have went with cream or even beige. He chose cream colored vests for all the groomsmen, and I personally thought he should have went with a darker color for them to mimic the BM dresses more (not necessarily brown, but just darker than cream!)….I guess this review isn’t so much for Di Re but for my husband!!! HA!! Great prices & selection at Di Re- go check them out- they’re right next door to Royalty Limo, and I believe they give a discount if you’re also booked with Royalty. Oh and btw, Di Re was really understanding w/ our GM’s, b/c I found out after we got back from the HM that the best man’s tie caught on fire at the reception!!!! OMG it’s amazing the things you don’t notice when you’re the bride & groom!! Lol So at least Di Re didn’t give him much of a hard time, he had to pay $20 to replace it, which I thought was pretty reasonable.






Cake topper(s):
I used a Kim Anderson cake topper on the cake table, I had purchased it a long time ago. MIL also bought me one b/c she liked the one she found better. I didn’t want to not use it and cause drama, so I put the Lenox one she bought us on the memorial table next to my dad (since it was dancing figurine, I figured it would symbolize “our dance”, at least to me it did, I don’t even think MIL noticed).




Toasting flutes- ebay- A++++++++

I have to look up the ebay seller I bought these from- great price- I think they were $50, crystal and engraved with our names.




Cake serving set- ebay- A++++++++
Another ebayer I have to look up! Both pieces were personalized, the cake server was shaped like a heart. Great set! I don’t have the best picture of it unfortunately, but you can see the engraving in this picture.


Favors:

CD’s: www.catskillCD.com- A++++++++++++
I worked with Veronica and e-mailed her a few engagement pictures from Duet to play around with. I loved the one we put on the CD it just looked so classic. I added a song track listing insert on the inside cover which cost a little extra, and the front cover Veronica tried a few different effects, but in the end I just wanted something simple for the cover. I burned all the music on the CD’s myself, I love how these came out!!




LOVE coasters: www.photoframesplus.com- B+
I wanted to give another favor that would be useful to our guests. I decided to go with the glass LOVE coasters. Since our color scheme was brown & blue, when I found the coasters online w/ Kate Aspen designer boxes, I just had to get them!!! The downside was that they only come 2 coasters per box, and I didn’t want our guests to only take one if I left one per person on the table (instead of one per guest), so to avoid any confusion and having a ton left over, I hot glued 2 boxes together, so each couple would take 4 coasters home. It worked out fine, but it was a little bit of a pain in the neck to do the extra work. That’s not the reason I’d give them a B+, but rather b/c when I ordered the personalized name tag’s for the boxes, they came in a different shade than the boxes. The tags were actually more the true blue color I was expecting, whereas the boxes were almost a bluish green….this was not something that was a big deal, b/c honestly if our guests noticed, I’d be surprised. I mentioned it to Photo Frames Plus customer service, they explained that box color was supposedly the correct color (since it’s called “pool”) but the tags were a “bad batch”. I didn’t make a fuss about it or get replacements, but it was just a little weird, hence the B+.


Matchboxes: www.foryourparty.com- A++++++++++++
Ok I spent more on these than I should have, but they were one of the few vendors I found that did match boxes using metallic paper. Our names were in gold foil writing. I loved them!


Placecards:
www.nictamdesigns.com- A++++++++++
Tammy did a phenomenal job!!!!!! From the seating chart I e-mailed her, she printed each placecard w/ the guests name and table # (my handwriting is horrendous, so this was a must for me!!). Her prices are great! I got a 2 layered placecard- bronze metallic paper w/ a top layer of champagne metallic paper. I also used Tammy for our direction cards to the church to include with our invites. I scanned in a copy of Douglaston Manor’s direction card……she perfectly matched their font, it looked like a set. She truly is a perfectionist!! She also does invites, I wish I would’ve found her before I ordered from My Gatsby, I can only imagine what she could have created for us!




DIY’s: all of course get an A+++++++ b/c I did them (with some help from my BM’s!!)

Unity candle- purchased tapers and pillar candle from Michael’s, printed on the vellum paper and used double stick tape to attach it and then to attach the brown & taupe ribbon. Found the saying on LIW. I found the Lenox pillar candle holder and the Lenox tapers from two different Ebay sellers, it was great!!!!! If it would’ve been selling as a set, I’m sure I would’ve paid double what I did.




Memorial candle: again, bought the pillar candle and vellum paper from Michaels, the black candleholder I bought from Bed Bath & Beyond for like $3!! I also found the poem on LIW.



Pictures for memorial table: scanned in some pictures of my dad, my grandparents, and DH’s grandparents and ordered enlarged copies from Kodak Gallery. Used some 8x10 frames I already had.



Programs:
got the template from Aug07OFCbride (thanks Jess!), but it was still painful to figure out which page to print on what…..very confusing!! And in this respect, I credit MimiMcG my bf from helping me pull it all together just a few days before my wedding, I was literally crying when I called her in despair, b/c I was so frustrated and thought I was having a nervous breakdown…..yes…..over….programs. it’s kind of funny now, but I was such a mess the week of my wedding!! At least the programs came out great!! I wound up having 2 blank pages on the backs of other pages in my program, so for filler space, I put romantic quotes on one page, and the lyrics to our song printed on the last inner page (hey church attendees need something to read if they get bored!).






Petal Cones:
This template I got from Yesenia (MrsQin2007)……it was a circle template so you could cut across the line that printed and just fold and double tape…..very easy! I just inserted our monogram, I printed on scrapbook paper I bought from Michaels (but last minute decided to make more, so I printed on ivory cardstock I had also). Flower Michelle gave us a bag of petals when they dropped off the bo-k’s. Francesca & Jaime filled them at the church.




Slipper basket:
Got the plain wicker baskets from Michaels, and bought the slippers from Mysisterusa.com. Great price- $1 each!!! I got all black slippers in a variety of sizes. I bought wine bottle sized organza bags- I bought the blue ones from www.Pouchdepot.com (10 for $5), and I bought the brown ones from www.nashvillewraps.com (12 for $5). On a tip from ChrissynRicky (thanks!!) I bought perforated business cards from Staples, they had them