My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long--Updated (9/19) with Pics!

Wedding Review – Vanderbilt Mansion, August 7, 2004
Wow! It really was the most incredible day in our lives. We originally wanted to get married in October, but due to scheduling conflicts we chose to marry in August. On my wedding day it was in the low seventies and I think it went down into the high sixties. The air was crisp and the sky was blue with a few clouds. All day long my family kept telling me that I had gotten my October wedding after all.

Besides the weather, the day was just amazing. By the time of the rehearsal dinner on Friday night I was feeling so relaxed and let go of attempting to control everything. Fact is you won’t be able to orchestrate every minute or moment. I just had fun and laughed a lot. I smiled so much that my cheeks still hurt. And though I know that everything didn’t go exactly the way it was suppose to or things were forgotten or changed, my wedding was absolutely perfect. So much of it has to do with our wonderful friends and family who love us and we love. They fed off our love and happiness and made our wedding day. We were also so ecstatic to be finally getting married. We have been together for eight years and to get married was the ultimate symbol of our love and commitment to our relationship. I hope that all of the brides on LIW have the wonderful experience that I have had and remember to just enjoy every minute of your wedding day.

I also want to thank everyone on the LIW Boards. Your reviews, questions and suggestions that you have posted on over the last year were incredibly helpful and really added to my planning process. I particularly want to thank all of the Vanderbilt Mansion brides—past, present and future, for sharing your experiences. From your detailed reviews to your proofs to your words of advice, I can’t thank you enough!

With all of that said, here is my review:

Invitations, Favors, Programs and other odds and ends – 10
We ordered our invitations from www.nowandforever.com and were very pleased with the quality. We originally were going to design our own but we ran out of time and realized that we wanted very simple invitations. Nowandforever.com had what we were looking for and the prices were very reasonable. My husband and I also ordered through their website stirrers and cocktails napkins detailed with our names in red and silver. Through different websites we ordered our cameras and found fans to provide to guests in case it was hot outside—which proved not to be the case.

I really have my mom to thank for many of the other details and items for the wedding. She helped me to put together all of our favors—Jordan almonds tied up in gauze with red and silver ribbon; designing and printing our red table cards; painting baskets and decorating them with ribbons and cloth flowers for holding programs; fans and rose petals and putting together the rose petal packets for tossing. Everything turned out beautifully! I am very lucky to have a mother who had both the time and the talent to help me create these little details that added to our wedding.

My husband and I designed our own programs. We based our program on a template that we found online and from there he (husband is an architect and artist) created a program that was perfect. We included in our program an insert with all of the readings and part of our vows. We read two very short poems to each other before we recited our vows. We also put on the back of the program a note of thanks to both our families and friends. Throughout the night everyone complimented us on the program and the inclusion of the readings. They really liked the fact that they could follow along.

Hair – Michelle at Marc Josef’s in Port Washington - 10
Michelle has been cutting my hair on and off for the last four years so I knew that she would do a fantastic job on my hair. I have incredibly straight hair that slips out of everything, including simple ponytails. Michelle put my hair up in a really cool updo that was twisted and mirrored the design of my dress. I really loved my hair, but she blew me away with my bridesmaids. My four bridesmaids went in on Saturday and gave her four different hairdos for her to do (I allowed my bridesmaids to choose how they wanted to wear their hair). Within three and half hours, Michelle did each girl’s hair to perfection and their hair stayed set for the entire ceremony and the reception. My bridesmaids all received compliments on their hair and they all loved how they looked. Michelle is very nice and down-to-earth and if you are on the North Shore I highly recommend her. Once I have proofs I will post pictures and if anyone is interested in her contact information please forum mail me.

Makeup- Lynn - 10
Michelle referred me to Lynn. Lynn’s approach to makeup is to create a very natural look. My trial was so great that I booked her on the spot and wished that I could hire her to do my makeup on a regular basis. Lynn does not do airbrushing but my makeup stayed on the entire night. I only had to reapply my lipstick. Lynn not only made me look beautiful, but she also made me feel beautiful. She also did my mother’s makeup and she looked gorgeous as well. I will post proofs when they are available and if you are interested in her contact information please forum mail me.

Dress-Bridal Garden-9 Madame Paulette’s-10
I’ve mentioned the Bridal Garden on the boards before and I will sing their praises again. The Bridal Garden is in New York City and benefits the Children’s Aid Society. All the dresses they sell are either previously worn or are sample dresses and other dresses donated by brides, various designers and bridal salons. The dresses there are in a variety of conditions and many need to be professionally cleaned and altered. I found the selection to be incredible and tried on dresses I would have never tried on otherwise. My dress was designed by Ulla Maija and was one of their sample dresses from a few years back. I was able to negotiate the price with the Bridal Garden and I also supported a great organization in the process. The Bridal Garden does provide free alterations and a recommended cleaner, but a designer friend of mine and other brides on LIW mentioned Madame Paulette’s for professionally cleaning. Madame Paulette’s did an incredible job cleaning and pressing my dress. The dress was almost golden and shining. Their seamstress Stephanie was very attentive to the necessary alterations: taking my dress in; adding falsies and the French bustle. She was always friendly and full of great advice. Madame Paulette’s was well worth the price we paid and I plan on taking my dress back to them to be cleaned and preserved. My dress shimmered on the day of the wedding and I am still receiving compliments.

Bridesmaids Dresses- H&S Bridal - 8
H & S Bridal is located in the Bridal Building in New York City. Ana is one of the owners and the seamstress that my bridesmaids worked with. H & S Bridal had by far the best prices on the Dessy Dresses that I chose for the bridesmaids to wear. They were also accommodating to my out of town bridesmaids not charging for mailing to one of them the dress and allowing me other bridesmaid to come in two days before the wedding for alterations. The reason I am giving them an eight is because Ana wasn’t always very good at getting back in touch with my out of town bridesmaid who was waiting for her dress and even though she does excellent alterations my bridesmaids have some very hysterical stories and anecdotes that may not be funny to everyone else. I do recommend checking H & S Bridal and FM me if you would like more information.

Veil – Bascia-10
I found Bascia through a recommendation on LIW and simultaneously a good friend of mine. My friend is getting married in October and had heard about Bascia as well. After one visit, she immediately chose her to design her headpiece and veil. She was so happy and raved about Bascia. Bascia is in New York City and works out of her apartment. After one appointment and conversation she was able to design exactly what I wanted for my hair and a very simple veil. When I picked up the hair pieces and the veil, I found that the ivory veil was too light for my dress. Bascia found darker tulle and made a new veil that went perfectly with my dress. I really appreciated her attention to detail. Please FM me if you have any questions or would like her phone number.

Groomsmen Tuxedos- Men’s Warehouse – 8
We chose the Men’s Warehouse because of their national locations. My husband’s groomsmen, family and our ushers were coming from all over the place, so we wanted to it to be easy for them to pick up and drop off their tuxedos. This is a major plus because you can both pick up and drop of the tuxes from any Men’s Warehouse. We chose a Kenneth Cole tux that looked great on all of the guys, including our fathers, and particularly my husband. We are giving them an eight because the selection is good but not great for rentals and they told us a light wool blend would be fine for August. If it hadn’t been 70 degrees out my husband and everyone else would have sweated to death in those tuxes.

Flowers – Flowers by Burtons – 8
We went to see Mike at Burton’s two days before the wedding to see a sample centerpiece and I felt so much better. In the end my flowers were exactly what I wanted. I loved the centerpieces, our ceremony flowers, bridesmaids’ bouquets, the groomsmen boutonnières and most of all my bouquet. They were exquisite. Burtons put the rose petals in the fountain and on our tables as requested. The one snafu we had was that they forgot the flowers that my mom was going to carry! There was a flower arrangement that we think was suppose to be for her, but it was nothing like what we had ordered. They did give us some extra boutonnières, which were raspberry calla lilies, so we attached them to her purse and it looked beautiful, At the end of the night, we told each table that if anyone wanted to they could take home their centerpieces. Every single centerpiece was taken home.

Officiant- Craig Fee-10
We met our officiant Craig Fee through my mother. My husband and I met with him seven times leading up to the ceremony and we feel as though he has become a friend of ours. Craig helped us to create a beautiful ceremony that fitted us to a tee. It was very personal and really conveyed to our friends, family and guests just how special and meaningful it was for us to have them there with us. Everyone complimented both Craig and us on our ceremony.

Reception – The Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling College – 10
I don’t know even where to begin! I realized that I decided to use a 1-10 system, but the Vanderbilt Mansion and Lovin Oven Catering deserves a higher ranking. From the moment we walked into the Vanderbilt Mansion we were taken care of. The bridal suite was incredible. They set up food, water and champagne for my bridesmaids, my mother and I and we were able to get ready in full comfort. Our bridal attendant, Karen, was amazing. She ran through the processional with everyone; answered all of our questions; helped with ensuring that my husband and I didn’t see each other prior to the wedding when we were doing pictures and then prior to the ceremony and during the cocktail hour and the reception making sure we had everything we needed. Maryanne was also there making sure everything was going smoothly and our maitre d Suzanne was great. Everything ran so smoothly. We didn’t have to worry about anything.

Our guests were greeted with champagne, frozen drinks, sparking water and fruit kebabs and everyone really liked that as a start to the wedding. The cocktail hour looked amazing. People couldn’t believe the food and the drinks. We managed to attend the last twenty minutes of the cocktail hour—which made me very happy because I planned for not attending at all in order to do photographs, but we didn’t get to eat that much because we were talking to people; I had to get my bustle done (Karen the bridal attendant and Suzanne helped me out with this) and refresh the lipstick. Karen offered to do a plate for us, but we decided not to because we really wanted to enjoy the dinner.

Dinner was great! Everyone raved about the food. People are still raving about the food. Even our vegetarian friends enjoyed their entrées. Each table had their own server and we found out later that we had quite a few friends who tipped their waiters. Everyone’s glass was always filled and all of our guests took advantage of the open bar the entire night.

Our cake was also incredible, though it was only the next day that I realized that they had given us chocolate mousse instead of white chocolate mousse. Regardless, Tom at Audrey’s Bakery did a wonderful job with our cake. He designed beautiful sugar red roses that were placed on the cake and matched all of our real flowers. I am really looking forward to eating our cake top in August 2005.

At the end of the night the Vanderbilt gave us a big shopping bag filled with two complete dinners of the four entrees that were served; a couple of slices of our wedding cake and the chocolate cakes and tarts that were served with our wedding cake. We were so amazed at the amount of food they gave us. We actually packed some up and brought it with us to eat on our train trip to Montreal and for our first dinner in the city because we were getting there so late (Urgh! Amtrak!) The Vanderbilt also gave us as a gift a bottle of champagne for after the wedding that they offered to chill for us to bring back to the hotel. It was just amazing the attention to detail and making us feel so special on our wedding day.

Band – New York City Swing – Big City Swing –8
New York City Swing’s bands are incredible. Big City Swing Band was amazing. All of our guests loved the band and almost every single person was dancing. We really liked the bandleader and we met with him and talked to him on the phone. New York City Swing arranged for our flute, cello and violin trio for our ceremony and a piano player during the cocktail hour. Our trio played all of the selections we requested and I really liked their arrangement of Clair de Lune that I walked down the aisle to with my father.

I am giving New York City Swing an eight because of the following reasons. We went over our “Do Play” and “Don’t Play” lists and made specific requests for them to play lots of Stevie Wonder, whose songs are in their repertoire. At the reception, they did not play any of the Stevie Wonder songs we requested; they played songs that we requested them not to play (to be fair to them two of the songs were requested) and they played a really extended version of “Call Me Al” that shortened both of our dances with our parents. Of course the only two people who realized all of this were my husband and I. Our bandleader did check in with us to make sure that everything was going okay, so we could of said something then, but we were having such a good time and talking to all of our guests, that we just let it go. If you are going to go with New York City Swing just make sure that you really go over with them your song lists.

Transportation – Deluxe Taxis in Port Washington-9
Deluxe’s limos and town cars were extremely clean, on time and got us to the Vanderbilt and from there with no problems at all. If you are in Nassau County I highly recommend them.

Bus- H&J Transportation-8
I know that past brides have had problems with H &J Transportation. We contracted a bus to pick up our guests who were going back to New York City and drop them off at Penn Station. I put one of my bridesmaids in charge of the bus. She introduced herself to the bus driver; organized all of the guests onto the bus and basically became the point person for everything related to the bus. She told me that the bus driver was very nice; the bus was very clean and comfortable and that he took them to exactly where they were suppose to go—Penn Station. The only minor complaint was that the air conditioning was turned down halfway through the bus ride and it got a little hot. But by then everyone was dozing off or already napping that it didn’t bother too many people.

Photography – Modern Wedding Photography by Denise Chastain – Review Pending
We chose Denise because her albums were incredible. A week before the wedding I went over with her all of the photographs that we wanted taken, where and when. I found her to be very professional; our guests didn’t notice her taking lots of candid photographs and we got to go to twenty minutes of our cocktail hour, which was more than I thought we would get to experience. I will write a more detailed review once we get to see our proofs.

Ritz Carlton at Battery Park City – 10
After the wedding my husband and I went back into New York City and spent the night at the Ritz Carlton at Battery Park City. We arrived around 2:45 am and were greeted by everyone with “congratulations”; upgraded to a suite with a harbor view of the Statue of Liberty and a bottle of champagne chilling on ice. The next morning we were served breakfast in our suite and we sat in Ritz Carlton pajamas and watched boats sailing in the harbor. We joked about canceling our trip to Montreal and just staying in the suite for the rest of the week. It is an incredible hotel and I recommend to everyone if you want to do something really special spend a night at the Ritz Carlton at Battery Park City.

Montreal - 10
My husband and I are taking a three-week trip in December and January to Vietnam and Cambodia in celebration of our wedding, but we decided to take a five day trip to Montreal to get away and relax following the wedding. In Montreal we stayed at the Victorian Heritage Bed and Breakfast in the Latin Quarter. The B&B was incredible! Denis, the owner, has authentically restored the building and each room is filled with incredible antiques. We stayed in the Pink Room with a huge bed and very intimate setting. Denis was also incredibly helpful and friendly. He gave us fantastic dinner recommendations and helped us with directions to places we wanted to go to. He also made the best homemade jam that we got to eat each morning with our breakfast. Montreal was a lot of fun and if anyone is thinking of doing a romantic weekend away, I highly recommend the city and the Victorian Heritage Bed and Breakfast.

As soon as we see our proofs I will be sure to post them. Though there are lots of thank you cards to still do, its back to work soon and life post-wedding. But it also means starting a new phase of our relationship that so far is amazing. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to send me a forum mail. Good luck to one and all!

Here are some pics that one of my bridesmaid took.

August 7th Photo Album

Here is a link to some of our proofs:
Vanderbilt Mansion-August 7, 2004

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congratulations!! Everything sounds wonderful!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congratulations! So glad that you had such a wonderful day, and what fabulous luck with the weather!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

congrats...

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congratulations!! Glad to hear everything went so well! Can't wait to see pics!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congratulations! Happy to hear you had an amazing wedding and HM. Thank you for sharing your great detailed review!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Thank you! I'm in the process of resizing some photographs we've received. Here is one (I think it worked):

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

great review thanks for sharing

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Here is a picture of where the ceremony was held:

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Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I AM SOO HAPPY FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND, AND I AM GLAD YOU HAD A GREAT TIME. AFTER READING YOUR REVIEW I CAN NOT WAIT TO HAVE MY RECEPTION AT THE VANDERBILT! I AM WORKING WITH MARYANN AS WELL, AND SHE IS SO SWEET AND KIND!! HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR HONEYMON AND BEST WISHES TO NEWLYWED LIFE!!!!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Meg,

I can't wait to see pictures. Its sounds like you had a perfect day!!!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

congratulations!!! i am very excited for you and can't wait to see the pics!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

CONGRATULATIONS. I GOT TO RELIVE MY WEDDING A BIT READING YOUR POST, AS A FELLOW VANDERBILT MANSION BRIDE.
CANT WAIT TO SEE PICS.
CONGRATS AGAIN.

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

sounds wonderful! congrats!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congrats

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congratulations!! Everything sounds beautiful!!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Your day sounded beautiful. I can't wait to see pictures. Your review is great.
I am so excited for my day at the Mansion now!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

What a wonderful day! Congrats! Thanks for the great review.

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

What a great review! I'm glad everything went so well for you guys! Congrats!

Re: My August 7th Wedding Review - Vanderbilt Mansion- Very Long

Congrats it sounded really beautiful especially your ceromany where you and your husband recited a poem. I think you just gave me an idea

Congratulations again and Good Luck with everything.