My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Being that I got engaged at 20, I was the first of my friends to get married. I had a co-worker that got married in 2007 who’s only a few years older than me, and I messaged her for advice after I got engaged. She told me about LIW, and I can never thank her enough. I don’t know how I could have planned my wedding without this site, so I just want to say that I truly enjoyed being able to share my experience with others going through the same thing.

The Proposal

DH and I had been together for a little less than 2 years when we moved in together, one week after I turned 20. We had talked about marriage here and there, but the thought always seemed very far away because we were so young. He always said that he didn’t want to propose until we lived together. We moved in together on Black Friday, set up our apartment the entire weekend, and he went back to work on Monday and I went back to school. I came home from school that night at 6:30 and he had made Hamburger Helper for dinner, had candles lit, and he had wine. If only he could have made a more romantic meal! LOL. But I had never had Hamburger Helper before in my life, and I’m a VERY picky eater… so he told me to just sit down and he had a bowl that he brought over to me with a plate on top of it to cover it. He told me that it looked disgusting but he wanted me to just eat it anyway, and he was just rambling on and on. Finally, I just lifted the plate off the bowl, and the ring was sitting in there. I was so confused, and I didn’t even realize it was an engagement ring! He was down on one knee and I started laughing and wouldn’t give him my hand! I don’t even remember what he said to me honestly, because I thought it was a joke because we’re always playing jokes on each other… He had me call my parents afterward because they knew about it and they got me to believe that it was real! Lol. The ring was from Kay Jewelers.

Save The Dates – DIY

DH is a Graphic Designer so we decided to design these ourselves… He told me to find a bunch of designs I liked and he would come up with something. This is what he ended up with…



Bridal Shower – Amici in Mt. Sinai _ A+

My bridal shower was sooo much fun! I helped plan it, so it wasn’t a surprise- haha. But that’s only because my best friend (also a BM) would be in NY that weekend (she lives in New Hampshire), so I thought it would be a lot easier to just do it that way. The food was really good though and the room was a good size for the amount of people we had, which was maybe 30-40. You wouldn’t be able to have more than like, 50 in that room, so it’s good for a smaller shower.







Bachelorette Party – Lips in NYC _ A+

There was so much drama surrounding our bachelor & bachelorette parties… and DH wound up not even having a bachelor party, so I felt horrible even going out that night, but I actually did wind up having an awesome time at Lips. It was so much fun!! Three of us wound up getting sick from drinking too much (you have to drink as much as you can when there’s a 2 hour open bar!! Lol) but aside from that, it was great! I would definitely recommend it.





Weather – A+

My mother wanted to KILL me when we booked a January wedding because she was scared to death that we would get a blizzard. When we got one in December, she called me and threatened me. Needless to say, I stalked the weather for 14 days and was SO happy to have a sunny day! Lol. We had a beautiful day and it wasn’t even too cold!

Officiant – Reverend Nick Montanino _ A+

Reverend Nick was recommended by The Watermill and I’m very glad we went with him. Within the weeks leading up to the wedding, I put the ceremony together with his wife, Irene, and she was wonderful. She listened to what I wanted and gave me very helpful suggestions. They were wonderful to work with, and the ceremony was exactly how I wanted it to be – funny, sweet, and short! Lol.



My Dress – David’s Bridal _ A+

The only reason I give them an A+ for my wedding dress is because I really didn’t have to deal with them! Lol. When I got engaged, I looked at a ton of wedding dresses online and this was literally the only one that caught my eye. No matter how many dresses I looked at, I kept going back to this one. I went to David’s Bridal and tried on 3 dresses, this one being one of them, and I bought it the same night right off the rack! My mom even did my alterations and bustle (she’s REALLY good at sewing lol) so that saved us a ton of money!





My Veil – DIY

My mom made my veil. She can do everything apparently, lol. Like I said, she’s very good at sewing. And I really didn’t want to spend a ton of money on something I would only wear for a short amount of time. I also knew that I wanted a very simple looking veil, so my mom stepped up!




My DOJ – Something Old & Borrowed!
Headpiece – Attias Fleamarket

I had a really hard time finding my DOJ because I just couldn’t figure out what would look good with my dress. Just days before my wedding, my mom pulled out her pearl necklace and we realized that it looked perfect with my dress! So I wore her necklace and her pearl studs, and that was that! They became my something old & something borrowed! I also had trouble finding my headpiece – I didn’t know what would look good with my dress. I saw this one at Attias and spent $50 on it.



Bridesmaid Dresses – David’s Bridal _ D

I had the girls choose their own dresses because I figured if they were going to be buying their own dress, let them at least be comfortable. Originally I wanted them all to be in an icy blue color, which was Capri by David’s Bridal. There wasn’t much of a selection though, so my FSIL’s changed my mind and I was going to have my BMs wear Cornflower and have just my MOH wear Capri. Two months before the wedding, my MOH and I went to get her dress and she goes into the fitting room to try it on and it was the wrong size by A LOT. She’d kill me if I put her real size on here but think that if she was a 2, they ordered a 12! Then they tell us that the dress isn’t able to be ordered in time for the wedding… Even though they messed up, there isn’t anything they can do. So we had to change her dress color to Cornflower, and she had to change her dress to an entirely different dress as well. She was crying throughout the entire time in the store and it was just a nightmare. I give them a D instead of an F only because the new dress came in a week later and because I called corporate and flipped out over this mistake and they gave me 20% off and they told me it was unacceptable, especially because the sales associate tried to blame ME because they had called me a few weeks earlier to tell me that the dress had come in, but we didn’t come in right away. And she said if we had come in earlier, maybe they could have ordered the dress in Capri and it could have come in on time. Umm, you still effed up and you CANNOT blame me for your mistake. At the end, I’m kind of glad that the girls were in the same color, and they all looked amazing.



Flower Girl Dress

Unfortunately, I have no idea where this dress was bought! Lol. If anyone wants to know, I could probably find out, but I just told her parents to get any white dress that she wanted, so they did that. And DH & I bought the blue sash at David’s Bridal for $10 to match the Bridesmaid dresses.




MOB Dress – David’s Bridal _ A+

This was actually a bridesmaid dress. You can also look at the picture of her with me up above for another shot of her in her dress. We didn’t have a problem with her dress, and it came in early. This was all done at the Lake Grove location – I’ve heard good things about the other locations, so maybe this is the only bad location…



MOG Dress

Again, I have no idea where she got her dress. Lol. I could probably find out if anyone wants to know!



My Shoes – DSW _ B+

I wanted to get shoes that I could wear again after the wedding, so I went for silver, although this picture I’m putting up is gold – it’s the only picture big enough I could find. These were pretty cheap – just 40 dollars, and for the most part they were pretty comfortable. They were beginning to hurt towards the end of the night, but that’s really it!



Tuxedos – Men’s Wearhouse _ A

I wasn’t entirely pleased with how these tuxedos looked, but DH wanted them and he didn’t really ask for anything during this entire wedding planning process so I let him have his way. Lol. I just wasn’t crazy about the pattern of the GM’s vests, but they did look nice with the BMs. We drove the poor people crazy at Men’s Wearhouse going back and forth between outfits and they were wonderful with us each time we changed our minds, so I’d definitely recommend using them. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was that they didn’t have much of a selection with the patterns of the vests. Cornflower had only ONE pattern, and that was the one we used and I didn’t like it.



Wedding Rings – Kay Jewelers _ C

I love our rings but I give them a C because of poor customer service. DH’s is engraved with “BFF 1-16-10” (we were best friends for 3 years before dating), but their customer service is ridiculous. He hasn't had his ring since we got married because he has had to have it resized twice in the last month. We’re going to avoid them from now on after we get his ring back this weekend.



Florist – J@ck & Rose _ B-

I was unsure about using them because of bad reviews but I did anyway because I won 500 dollars off my order + 25% off my order at a showcase… and you gotta save somewhere! Lol. The flowers wound up coming out very nice on the day of… I was very pleased with my bouquet and my BM bouquets. My centerpieces were also exactly what I wanted. What I wasn’t happy about was that there were supposed to be candles and rose petals on my tables with the centerpieces, and also on my cake table and place card table… and there weren’t any. There were candles on my cake table but that’s it. Also, my throw bouquet practically fell apart in my BM’s hand when she caught it. Other than that, the flowers looked great. It was just those little things that irritated me, but I really can’t complain about the rose petals and candles because they were just being thrown in for free, but it’s not right when something’s promised to you and you don’t receive it…







Invitations – DIY

DH made these as well… We sat down together and came up with so many different ideas and I think I drove him crazy! When I was at work, he got to sit in silence and he came up with our invitation, which I fell in love with.




Favors – Donation - DIY

We went back and forth about favors for a long time, but in the end, we settled on a donation. DH designed our donation card, which was in a frame at every table. We chose to donate to two organizations because DH's sister has MS and there are a two people who we are very close to that are currently battling cancer.



Camera Scavenger Hunt – DIY

We had a Camera Scavenger Hunt at each table. We had a different list at each table, and we actually got back some pretty good pictures! Not every one was good, but I definitely think we got back more good than bad!! It was a lot of fun to look at all the pictures when we got them back and see what our guests were up to! Some of the pictures were sooo funny!!



Menus – DIY

DH designed these as well.



Cardbox – AC Moore _ A+

Bought it with a 50% off coupon… Can’t beat that!



Hair & Makeup

My MIL owns her own hair salon so her employee did my hair the day of and it wasn’t how it was supposed to be… so I was a little upset, but what can you do. As for my makeup, I thought my sister did a great job!




ADA Photography - FM me if you'd like to chat because this was pulled last time.






DJ – Tommy’s Tunes _ A+++

I cannot stress enough how amazing they were!!! They had everybody dancing the ENTIRE night! I had heard wonderful things about them, and we had booked them without even hearing them. They lived up to their reviews. I HIGHLY recommend them!! They were so wonderful to work with and they actually listen to what YOU want!




Limo – Sir Oliver _ A+

We used the Pick Up/Drop Off service with Sir Oliver. The driver was very nice and he was on time when he picked DH up. The limo was also very clean. Although it was a short ride, I would recommend using them.

Ceremony & Reception Hall – Watermill Caterers _ A+

The Watermill was the first RH we visited, and we left a deposit there immediately! We visited a few others, but I instantly had my heart set on it!! Everyone at the Watermill was extremely accommodating and so wonderful to work with. We bothered them a lot, especially towards the end with a bunch of issues we had, and they let us come in each time. On the day of, they were amazing to work with. The staff was absolutely amazing! My Bridal Attendant, Alicia, was SO helpful… I can’t even put into words how amazing this girl was. I would honestly tell everyone who’s getting married there to request this girl! I wound up tipping her extra at the end of the night because she was so helpful. I actually wasn’t crazy about my own cake though, although everyone else seemed to love it! Lol. It was Cannoli and Chocolate Mousse. But honestly, everything was amazing at The Watermill… Everyone told me that everything was gorgeous and that they had the most amazing time. I’m SO happy I had my wedding there! It was perfect!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

beautiful review!!

congrats again!!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

congrats!! great review....i love the mob dress !! lol random thing to love but yeah~! and the camera scavenger hunt, very cutee~!!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

congrats!! great review

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

congrats again!!!

everything looks amazing.

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

Congrats! Great review! love the BM dress color.

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

Congrats!!! Everything looks so beautiful!!!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

great review!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver, ADA Photography...

Congrats, great review!

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

I know this is kind of late but I only just saw it... Just wanted to say great review and I cannot wait for Tommy Tunes!!! :D

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

beautiful review and pictures

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Beautiful !

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

beautiful

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

congratulations! awesome review! love the paw slippers

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Great Review!! Thanks for sharing!! Congratulations

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Congratulations! Love the pics and review.

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

Very Beautiful!!! Congrats

Re: My 01/16/10 Wedding Review- The Watermill, Tommy's Tunes, J@ck & Rose, Sir Oliver...

So pretty I love winter weddings!