I can't believe it's my time to do a review. Wedding planning was a fun, busy—and yes, sometimes stressful process, but in the end it was worth it. I truly had the best day of my life. To those still going through the process, don’t worry, it pays off the minute you see your FH waiting at the end of the aisle. With that, I will start from the beginning. Brace yourself, there’s a whole lotta reading and pics!
(pre-wedding)
Engagement party
A+
Constantino Brumidi Lodge, Deer Park (Son’s of Italy)
My parents wanted to throw us an e-party, but since we both have large families, we knew we had to have it out. My mom booked it here and it was great. The food was delicious (all homemade Italian) and the bakery they use, “A Taste of Italy” on DPA made the best whipped cream sheet cake I ever tasted. The room was nice with a huge dance floor. I heard they were renovating it, so it may be brand new now.
STD Bookmarks
Friend designed A+
Printed at Sir Speedy A-
I knew I wanted to do a bookmark after I saw a gorgeous letterpress one in Martha Stewart Weddings. I ask my art teacher-friend to design something for us. I planned to print it myself, but I wanted thicker paper than my printer could tolerate. I gave Sir Speedy an A- b/c the first time they forgot to print the backside. They were also pretty pricey, but we got great feedback from our guests. (Pics to come!)
My shower
Spring Lake Golf Course, Middle Island
A++++
My mom gets all the credit here. She chose Spring Lake because my Uncle is the catering manager and he went above and beyond with the food. It had a great big sunny room with a panoramic view of the course. We had a brunch with an omelet station and tons of other stuff. My mom copied ideas from Martha Stewart: Custom Crossword Puzzles (she made them at crosswordpuzzlegames.com) at each place setting and the favors were little pots of African Violets arranged on 3-tier trays. We also had cupcakes that looked like flower pots from Jacqueline’s Patisserie in Babylon. They were both adorable and decadent.
Dress, Anne Barge from Wedding Salon of Manhasset
A+++++++++++
I had such a great experience here from start to finish.
I originally thought I wanted a Monique Lhuiller dress so I dragged my mom to a trunk show “just to look.” Monique’s dresses didn’t look good on me at all—too sheathy, not enough structure. After what felt like a million dresses, the saleswoman, Mary, bought out my dress. Well, it was like the sample was made for me. My mom and I both loved it. I didn’t cry, but she did. I was having a hard time with the price, but we walked out of there saving $700 on the dress. Girls, always negotiate. They want to make the sale. The bolero was mom’s idea. She saw at wedding fashion show on Martha Stewart’s show. Casey, an excellent seamstress at the Wedding Salon made it and it was gorgeous. I took it off for the reception and it totally changed the mood of the dress. I also got my 2-tier cathedral veil from the salon.
BM dresses: Jim Hjelm, Bridal Reflections, Carle Place
A+
We went to BR b/c they were having a Jim Hjelm trunk show and wanted the discount. I told the girls they could pick any style, but they all liked this one. My MOH feel in love with her dress online. It was nice because it played off my lace dress. They opted to have it altered elsewhere, but BR did do one BMs dress. Her dress was too tight (she ordered one size down). Another tailor didn’t want to touch it. BR opened up the seams and it fit perfectly on the day of.
Shawls: NYC city streets
$5 a pashmina and they came in handy considering we had a chilly day.
BM jewelry
Bridalchemistry.com
A+
I saw this site in Instyle Weddings and thought it was great. I wanted to give my girls all something different that reflected their own style, but keep the stones similar. You can mix and match and the jewelry comes in many colors. The girls were thrilled with them.
Headpiece: Leah C. Couture Millinery
A+++++++++
I thought I wanted an antique looking brooch and after I ordered my veil, realized I loved the look of a birdcage veil. I saw some of Leah’s stuff in magazines and met with her at her studio in the fashion district. We decided on a “flyaway,” which I would wear for the reception after I took the cathedral veil off. It gave me the feel of a birdcage, without being an actual veil. Leah showed it to me with a flower in the center. Her flowers are exquisite—each hand made from feathers. She takes 3-4 weeks to complete, but wow, I loved the look!
Jewerly: Nadri at Bloomingdale’s
Um, I took so long to decide on jewelry. I actually bought it 2 days before. I wanted to see the finished bolero and hair accessory before deciding. I originally wanted bigger earring but decided that they might be too much to look at with the high neck bolero and later in the night, the flower. I went to the Nadri section at Bloomingale’s and tried on different earrings. The earrings I chose were gorgeous and really worked with the overall look. I loved the bracelet, too. So delicate!
Purse and Garter: Vogue, in Walt Whitman Mall
I stumbled in this new bridal and purse store in the mall and saw a pretty, beaded Carlos Felini bag. I also picked a garter with blue in it (my something blue). The woman there was nice and gave me 10% off my total order.
Shoes: Manolo Blahnik, Bergorf Goodman
No, I didn’t spend a ton on of money these. I had quite a few gift certificates to BG from work vendors (nice perk, I know). I still spent more than I would usually spend, but I’ll dye them black now and wear them to death. Oh, and yes they were comfy all day.
MOB Dress
Omnibus in Babylon
Searching for my mom’s dress was difficult. She’s one picky mama. Then she saw this dress in an ad in Martha Stewart Weddings and knew it was the one. Omnibus ordered for her and luckily she loved it! It was a great color.
Tuxedos: Tuxedo Park, Carle Place
A++++++++
The tuxes were a little pricier than we expected, but they were gorgeous. DH really loved their styles and selections of ties. The service was great. When the guys picked them up, they had to try everything on. Anything that wasn’t quite right was tailored on the spot.
handsome boy!
(Day of)
Weather B+
All week it was supposed to be sunny and high 58, but 2 days before the wedding we found out about hurricane Noel. He was coming up the coast fast and promised to bring rain, high wind, power outages, and flooding. Lucikly, it only rained a little in the am. We had wind and it was chilly, but I think my adrenaline took over because it didn’t seem to bother me. It started to clear and we got the most amazing sunset, too. I’ll give Mother Nature a B+ because it definitely could’ve been worse.
Makeup: Laura Geller, Laura Geller Makeup Studio
A++++++++++++++++++++++
I work in the beauty industry and know Laura for a long time and she offered to do my makeup. She’s awesome and such a great person. She has a product line which she sells on QVC and Sephora. She doesn’t do weddings anymore, but has a full staff that does. Karen did the BMs. She was so sweet and the girls looked great.
Hair: Denine Smith, Warren Tricomi, 57th street location, NYC
A++++++++++++++++++
I had a hard time finding a stylist and style I liked. After many trials, a colleague suggested Denine. She nailed my original look. But when I found out that we would have high winds, I had to rethink my style. I showed her a pic the morning of and we’ll her work speaks for itself.
Church
St. Francis of Assisi, Greenlawn
I won’t rate a church, but I will say they were very easy to work with. They put us in the book months before we even met with the priest. We also did pre-cana through them. The music director, cantor, and organist were all very nice and were okay sharing the spotlight with the string trio I hired.
Church music
Capriccio Ensemble String Trio
A++++++
After calling around for quotes, I found Natalie to be one of the more reasonable ones out there. I booked her based on all the positive reviews and her excellent demo. The day of, the trio sounded beautiful. As my dad and I walked down the aisle to Canon in D, I was moved to tears.
Aisle runner: Lorilis.com
A-
Lisa turned this around super-fast and the runner was beautiful, but it was a little short (my fault, not hers). I asked the church for the aisle length; they told me 50’, but it actually was a little longer. My DOC and her team started the runner it a little higher up, so most people didn’t notice. The monogram was beautiful, but it was supposed to be in brown ink, not black.
Modern Wedding Photography, Denise Chastain
A++++++
We’re very happy with Denise’s work. When we met with her we both loved that her pictures were very happy-looking. Her albums really tell the story of the day. Her photojournalism-style shots are great and her portraits were natural looking. My favorite line was when she told our bridal party “we’re not at the prom” so they would loosen up a little. She was a lot of fun to work with and when we got to the reception, we hardly saw her, but she didn’t miss a beat. (All pics taken by her are marked with “Modern Wedding Photography.”)
Also, check out our slideshow at
www.modwedphoto.com/kristatom 
Pedestals
A-
I had a hard time with this grade. I love their work and enjoyed working with Marcella. My personal flowers were gorgeous. I loved my bouquet and the BMs callalillies were amazing. The CPs were extraordinary. We got a mix of high and low both with red jamestori and orange-y mokara orchids arranged to look like the trees outside. They were perfect. I gave the minus b/c I wasn’t thrilled with the church flowers. They were supposed to be black magic roses with red jamestori orchids and branches. I even gave Marcella a picture. I got black magic roses and a whole lot of greenery (which I didn’t want) but no orchids and no branches. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to Marcella about it, but I know my DOC told her I wasn’t happy so I’m a little surprised I didn’t get a call or email.
Wild Rose Video
Pending video
I won’t grade them until I see the finish product. I think they do amazing stuff, but I wasn’t thrilled with the videographer who stayed for our reception. He was a nice guy, but wasn’t exactly unobtrusive (the reason we hired them). Hopefully the finished product is as good as the rest of their work, but we were a little surprised by the day-of service. But again, I know they do beautiful work, so if you’re booked with them, I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.
Limos: All Star
A+
We got a Rolls Royce and a 12-14-passenger limo for bridal party. They were on time (actually early!) and very clean. Debbie at All Star is easy to work with, too.
Crest Hollow Country Club
A+++++++++++++++++++++++
I was so very happy with the service we received at Crest Hollow. The room, the food, everything was perfect.
I had a lot of personal details and very definite décor ideas and was worried that because they’re a multi-event hall, some of my ideas would fall through the cracks. Our banquet manager Janet told me to give clear, written instruction to the Maitre D, Ralph—I gave him 3 pages hand written with diagrams (yeah I’m nuts). Ralph followed them perfectly, down to the way the napkins were folded. My fall colors worked so well with the colors of the room, especially with the burgundy and gold chairs (so glad I didn’t cover them). The room looked beautiful when we walked in. Our guests raved about the food. One of our family friends, who is a real foodie, told us it was the best Tilapia he ever ate. The cocktail hour was gorgeous, too. The mashed potato bar was a big hit! For dessert we picked the Haagen-Daz truffle…another huge hit. We got the cake from an outside vendor (below). I wasn’t thrilled that CHCC wouldn’t make our chocolate cake, but they threw in some extras elsewhere, so that made up for some of it.
cocktail hour
Cake: Fiorello Dolce, Huntington
A++++++++++
I was determined to have a chocolate ganache cake. CHCC wouldn’t do it, so we looked into other places. We’ve had amazing pastries by Gerard at Fiorello Dolce, so we decided to try him for cakes. He’s one of the bakers for the Harbor Club. Gerard made us a little sample of our cake with choc mousse filling and canolli cream with chocolate chips. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. Decorated with the orchids, it delivered the “wow” affect and wow, was it good!
Music: Bravura Entertainment
A++++++++++++++
We had a 3-piece jazz trio at our CH, which added so much class. For the reception, we had a DJ and Tony as MC. They were great. The right mix of music—everyone was happy and dancing all night. I highly recommend Bravura.
ETA: Dance Lessons
Ballroom Long Island, John
A+++++++++
I can't believe I forgot to add this! I won 2 free lessons at the bridal extravaganza. I took me MONTHS to convince DH to take lessons. He finally agreed about 8 weeks before the wedding. Well, we went from 2 lessons to 6 and learned the 'nightclub fox trot' to our song 'Everything by Michael Buble' and some swing. It was so much fun! And John is a great teacher. DH actually liked the lessons and says he wants to take more. Note: Be sure to scuff up the bottoms of your shoes. I didn't and I felt like I might slip while dancing.
Décor
Table overlays: Table WeAr
A+++++
I knew the CHCC had deep red linens, so I had a vision of layering them with chocolate brown overlays (despite some funny looks I got from people). I searched high and low for a good price and a reputable company. Donna was very sweet and accommodating. Plus, she dropped everything off and picked it up the following day. The colors looked great together.
Chargers: Linens and Things
A+
I really wanted gold charger plates. I thought it would complete the look and give the room a little extra pizzazz. I was supposed to get them through another LIW bride, but when that fell through I started looking into plan B. I found boxes of 12 at LNT for $19.99. That’s $1.66 a plate—the cheapest I found. I kept collecting the 20% coupons so they even a little cheaper.
The band around the napkins were a little surprise from DOC. The guests had napkins folded with menus tucked in.
Amber candles votive holders, Cudge.net
A+
They arrived very quickly and the price was right. They looked great on the tables!
Other candles on “sweetheart table.”
Michaels and Lee’s Art Shop
I found the tall red goblets on sale at Michaels and then the small mosaic candles at Lee’s Art Shop. They made the table look so pretty.
Favors: Caramel, Chocolate, and Candy apples from Bon Bon Chocolatier in Huntington
A+++++++
Once we decided on a fall wedding, I knew I wanted candy apples. I did some online research and considered buying in bulk and packaging myself, but a friend recommend Bon Bon.
They were pricier than we planned on, but not bad—$3.25 an apple, wrapped in cellophane tied with burgundy red ribbon.
Once we tasted a sample, there was no turning back. They’re made fresh the day of and come from local LI apple growers.
Day of Coordinator: Laura, LA Productions
A++++++++++++
My friends and family, and especially DH, thought a DOC was a little frivolous, but I wanted someone to ensure all my details and decorative items were set up right and most of all, I wanted to enjoy my wedding and let someone else answer questions. Well, that’s exactly what happened. She took care of everything and I didn’t even know just how much until I returned from my honeymoon. She put out many fires from stopping an elderly woman (non-wedding guest) from stealing my tissue boxes at the church (ha!) to rearranging the flowers on the cake. She also left very fun surprises on our table that just completed the look. My mom was so grateful to have her. She was so nervous in the a.m., she couldn’t even get me in my dress. Laura did it and had my mom fake the shot. Haha.
DIYS
Ribbon wands, mini tissue boxes, and menus, and unity candle
Our church wouldn’t allow rose petals, so I decided to do ribbon wands in chocolate and burgundy. FM me for directions. They were simple to make
I was going to do cry packs, but I saw these little boxes in part of the Martha Stewart Craft Collection. I got them in brown and white. They’re meant for treats like peanut brittle, but I thought they made nice tissue boxes. I peeled the plastic off the little circle, and stuffed them with tissue. I made the little “For Your Tears of Joy” tags from Gartner Studio.
I couldn’t find a unity candle I liked so I made my own. I went to Kate’s Paperie and got this pretty velum paper.
Wishbowl, bought vase at Tuesday Morning in Greenlawn.
I bought place cards to match my invites from whiteaisle.com, but because I wanted to do the little escort envelopes, I cut the cards in half and used half for escort cards and half for wishbowl. I just forgot to bring instructions, so a lot of people didn’t know what to do.
Our MC made an announcement, but we still got some funny “wishes” like “I wish for bigger b00bs!” lol.
Stationery: Invites, place cards, table numbers, and programs, whiteaisle.com.
A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At first, I wanted letterpress invitations, but I couldn’t justify the cost. What I really like about them is the soft, cotton-like paper they’re often printed on. Whiteaisle.com offers flat printing on this paper. We got a few samples and both liked the “lily design.” Rebecca was easy to work with and responded to my emailed almost immediately. The invitations were a hit. We decided to use this motif throughout the wedding. I loved the programs. To mix them up a little, we did the motif in burgundy.
Escort cards: whiteaisle.com and Lee’s Art Shop
Calligraphy: Wendy Trout A++++++++++++++
I liked the look of the little envelopes as escort cards, so as I explained above, I cut tented cards with our motif in half and used that as the card. Lee’s Art Shop carries the same paper brand that whiteaisle uses, so I bought the mini envelopes. Wendy, who did an amazing job on our invitation envelopes, did the escort cards, too. She put the guests name and then inside the table they were seated at. Wendy’s prices were great and she was super-quick with
both jobs.
Cardbox: Lee’s Art Shop
I originally bought a really pretty hatbox on Ebay, but I decided it was too small, plus I didn’t want to cut it.
I found this large box at Lee’s buried under many other boxes. It was perfect. DH cut the slit, and I covered it with ribbon.
Honeymoon-Hawaii
Grand Hyatt Kauai A+++++++++++
Grand Hyatt Maui A++++++++++++
Hawaii truly was a paradise. The weather was perfect, the food was awesome, and the hotels were beautiful (especially the Kauai property). We did so many activities: zip-lining, snorkeling, hiking, biking down the volcano, boat cruises, luau, etc. We had a blast. I promise to upload pics soon!
ETA: Hawaii pics!
Me in zip line gear:
Me doing zipline (so much fun!):
At Luau. It's the last night. Can you tell by our burns?
ETA: Thank you pics! We went through pictage since that is where our photographer posts our pics. They came pretty quickly and we got lots of compliments. Here's a proof. Hopefully it works.
