My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

I wanted a really simple, holiday dinner gathering type feeling to our wedding….even though we were going to have almost 300 guests. So we tried to make everything simple, yet elegant….nothing too extravagant or over the top. We had been to several platinum type weddings before our own and even though it was jaw droppingly gorgeous…it would have been sooo not us if we went that route, since we’re both very low maintenance people. We actually originally just wanted a simple afternoon barbeque at a farm or some equally rustic venue. But with that many guests, the whole port-a-potty situation would have been bad…and it would have been so difficult to coordinate everything with the tent setup, etc (we were both studying for our boards at the same time, so we didn’t have too much free time).

I think we were both satisfied with the end result. It was quite crazy that day and the few days before, but we were able to enjoy ourselves! We had a lot of people tell us that they thought the ceremony was beautiful and that it was a very classy wedding.

***Weather: A-
Under normal circumstances, weather in the 40’s would probably get an F…but after seeing that the weather in the days leading up to the weather was in the 20’s, I embraced the 40’s with open arms. I wouldn’t have minded a little snow, but I didn’t want rain or blizzard/icy conditions. We got highs in the mid-40’s, and mostly sunny with some clouds! Not too bad for the middle of winter. We even got to take portrait shots outdoors!

***Ceremony/Reception Hall: Westbury Manor A+
I had 3 criteria when looking for my reception hall: Fireplace, no marble and no tiled ceilings. I knew I was going to have a large guestlist and wanted to maintain an intimate feel in a large space. I kind of wanted a big family, holiday dinner feel to the wedding. WM was perfect for that….the Manor Room could fit up to 340, but still felt like someone’s house.

Our maitre’d, Ian, ran the whole show for us. He was the biggest help EVER and so awesome in dealing with our rather demanding families. He lined us up…told us what to do…took care of everything for us. We had so many compliments on how smoothly the ceremony went (never rehearsed, except for a quick walk in organized by Ian)…and how well the day went. Our reception schedule did go out the window, but only because the table visits took much longer than expected and we ran an hour behind. But making the table visits was really important to us, so we gladly sacrificed an hour of dancing to go around and say thanks to everyone.

The place looked GORGEOUS with all the Christmas décor still up. We had a bunch of stuff to set up on the tables…and my placecards were pretty challenging to set up…and everything was set up exactly like I asked.

I had my ceremony there as well and I didn’t want the large arch structure they normally use for their ceremonies…and asked if they could replace that with two small columns of flowers in the front (they provided the floral decor for the ceremony). I told them they could just replicate the flowers they use in the aisles (which was made up of less expensive flowers). On the day of, I was pleasantly surprised to see two gorgeous floral arrangements up front consisting of orchids!

The food was actually really good (and I normally hate wedding food). Everyone was awed by the amount of food there was….and by the numerous entrée selections. I had the sea bass and it was SOOOOOOOO good. It tasted like real restaurant food. My dad (who is huge fish lover and REALLY picky about how fish is cooked) also had the sea bass and agreed that it was fresh and cooked very well. I also heard that the duck was very good as well as the filet mignon (I had people tell me it was the best wedding steak they’ve ever had).

***Invite Letterpress: Demilo Design A+
I love letterpress, but never did I think I would be able to afford it. One day, DH came home with the letterpressed invite of one of his co-workers. She had found an invite designer who does letterpress…and is available for custom work. I already had a friend design the invite, so all I had to do was email the picture over to her for a quote. It was surprisingly low and since she knew I was on a budget, she laid out all the options for a range of prices. She even suggested ways I could cut costs. The paper she used was thick and really made my design stand out. She had all the invites to me within a week!


***Florist: LA Blossom A+
I totally <3 Laurie….she went above and beyond on the day of. I had a really strict floral budget. I needed 3 bouquets, 3 corsages and 22 centerpieces for $1500. She didn’t even flinch when I told her….she immediately started emailing me ideas of what we could do in that price range. I also changed my mind a million times about things and she just rolled with it. Plus, she has this amazing, bubbly personality that will just make you smile when you meet her.

I wanted lily of the valley for my bouquet and knew it would be hard to find in the winter. It wasn’t a problem for her….she had them shipped in from Europe and they looked GORGEOUS (and smelled good too). They lasted all day without browning or wilting and still looked good the next day…..no easy feat for delicate white flowers.

We decided to go with potted cyclamen plants for centerpieces. I found these great ceramic urns at www.jamaligardens.com for about $5 a piece and had them shipped to Laurie. She ordered the plants and placed two on each table. On the day of, she sprinkled rose petals down the middle of each table even though it wasn’t in our contract. She just threw that in. I had Westbury Manor set up 12 votives per table for that nice glow and the room looked amazing. Every single plant was snatched up and taken home by the end of the wedding….I didn’t even get one for myself. For those girls on a budget, don’t underestimate the potted plant!!!! All it takes is an amazing vase to make it look great! (And four months later, some of my guests STILL have the plants, alive and thriving!)

I had also asked her to fill the gap in my wedding cake with red carnations. Laurie actually went in and did a mix of carnation and roses…and then sprinkled the table with rose petals. On the dais table, she had sprinked rose petals AND placed several cymbidium orchid blooms around the border (we hadn’t contracted her to do anything with the dais table…it was all thrown in).

***Photographer: Angelica Glass A+
I don’t think I need to say anything about Angelica that people don’t already know. I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves. She is amazingly talented and so much fun to be around. Since photography is a big hobby of mine, finding the perfect photog was our number 1 priority. We skimped on other areas to be sure we got the photog we wanted. I’ll just let her photos speak for themselves!

Previous to the wedding, we had done e-pics with her at Gantry State Park. I had also taken boudoir pics with her as a present for DH (which he loved)!

We had hired a second shooter through her since our wedding was so big. She brought Josh Lynn with her, who was equally as amazing and fun!

***Hair (for myself and my mom): Stacy Pitt A+
This girl can do hair…..even typical, stick straight asian hair like mine. She is also SUPER sweet and will make sure you look your best. I did two trials with her. During the first one, I walked in with no idea what I wanted. I just knew I wanted my hair up. She spent over 2 hours trying different styles on me trying to figure out what would be best. She looked at my dress and hairpiece and went from there. We ended up with a vintage curled bang in the front and a more modern wrapped bun in the back (I thought I wanted a mix of modern and vintage). The week before the wedding, I decided to change the back to a formal, traditional chignon. She squeezed another trial in the day before the wedding….trimmed my bangs and did a full out do for me to see. Then she only charged me for part of the price of a full price because she didn’t consider it a full out trial.

On the day off, she was on time and got started and was able to tag team with my makeup artist (whom she’s never worked with before) to get my mom and I done on time. I LOVED my hair sooooo much. She knew what I wanted before I even knew! And I have to say that my hair is VERY difficult to work with….it doesn’t even stay in a ponytail because my hair is so slippery. She did my bangs over repeatedly on the morning of because it wouldn’t lay the way she wanted it to. She made sure it was perfect before she left. My hair stayed the whole night without any problems. Oh, and her prices can’t be beat.

***Makeup (for myself and mom): Lois Lam A+
I wanted to look natural and glowing on my wedding day. Most of all, I wanted to look like myself….not a clown version of myself. I heard of Lois through recommendations on www.weddingbee.com and when I looked at her portfolio, I saw the it was exactly the look I was going for. I found her quite late in the planning process and didn’t have time for a trial. I sent her a few pictures of what I wanted and she nailed it. My makeup lasted the whole night….even through our bowling after party. She used a mix of mostly Sephora brand foundation (which I will definitely try now because it looked so natural) and MAC makeup. She asked for a photo of myself so she could figure out which shades to use and how to contour my face best.

I had a lot of trouble finding a makeup artist that could do asian features well. Sachiko was on vacation and I had already booked Sissi for my girls. My original makeup artist choice didn’t work out and I was almost to the point of just doing my makeup myself.

And her business etiquette is outstanding. I had actually accidentally overpaid her…I forgot I had left her a deposit in my rush of writing out payment checks…and wrote her check out for the full amount. She emailed me right away and pointed out that I made a mistake and reimbursed me the difference. If she hadn’t told me, I would have never even realized.

***Makeup & hair (for the bridesmaids): Sissi Chan A+
Sissi did my hair and makeup for my e-pics, so I already knew she would do a great job with my girls. She showed up early and got started right away. My girls looked amazing and their hair stayed curly the entire day. My girls hadn’t done a trial with her….and Sissi was wonderful in asking them exactly what they wanted. She is also super cute and fun to have around!

***Hairpiece: Regina B. A+
I looked all over for a vintage looking hair comb to wear above my chignon. I didn’t really like anything I saw. Finally one day, I stumbled across Regina B’s website and LOVED her stuff. Everything is handmade and SO delicate looking. It was exactly what I was looking for. I was even happier to see that she was based in NY. Since I was in Philly, I started off working with her through email…showing her my dress, my hair etc. The next time I came to NY, I stopped by her showroom to pick out my piece. I narrowed it down to a few, but I couldn’t find THE ONE. Then she went out back to her work area and showed me a hair comb that she was just working on. It wasn’t on her line yet, so it wasn’t on her website. It was perfect! I ordered it and a few weeks later, it was mine! She was awesome to work with and so willing to throw out suggestions.

***Dress: Rivini - purchased at Sabrina Ann’s, a consignment store in Ardmore, PA A+
I had seen my dress in magazines before, but never though I would be able to afford it. I had just moved to the Philly area and found out about a consignment store nearby selling wedding dresses. I decided to check it out and walked out with my dress!!! The store was small, but very well organized….all the dresses were separated by size. I was the only one in the store at the time, so I received very personal attention.

Prior to visiting Sabrina Ann’s, I had gone to RK Bridal and Priscilla of Boston (in Boston). It felt so rushed and chaotic at RK…even though they really do have a large selection of moderately priced dresses. And I found the people at Priscilla of Boston to be totally stuck up and snobby….especially after I told them I was only interested in the Watters line. Bottom line: don’t be afraid to think out of the box when looking for your dress!!!

***Alterations: Athena’s (located in Upper Darby, PA) A+
My dress was about 2-3 sizes too big on me since it wasn’t ordered to size. The train was originally SUPER long (cathedral length)…way too long and heavy for me. It really needed a lot of work. But Athena worked miracles….she’s an independent seamstress who works out of her basement…but she knows her stuff!

She took it in to fit perfectly…sewed in all sorts of doo dah’s so that it would stay up (padding…tabs to fit over the bra, etc). She also chopped off about 1.5 feet off the train and reshaped it to make it narrower (which included taking the beading off the end and reattaching it). She put in a 5 point bustle…hemmed it and then went to work on my veil. I originally bought a cathedral length veil to go with the train….but after we cut the train, she shortened the veil….then sewed Velcro on to my hair comb and veil so that I could just rip off the veil after the ceremony.

The dress fit perfectly….it ended up being just a tad loose on the wedding day….but only because I lost a little weight from stress and not sleeping the week before. It was still secure enough to protect the goods ;)

***Donation Cards: Overnight Prints. A+
We donated to the American Cancer Society and had a tree planted for each guest (The Arbor Day Foundation) in lieu of favors. I basically used their business card template….put my design on one side and my “in lieu of” wording on the other. The quality was good and the shipment came very fast!

***Cake Toper: Save-on-Crafts
I had a bird theme running throughout the wedding... and I saw this pair of “bride and groom” doves on www.save-on-crafts.com when I was looking for something else. I don’t actually know what it’s actual purpose was…some sort of decoration I guess. But it was $3 and totally cute…and it was light enough just to stick on the cake! It was perfect!

***Online Wedding Account: Flickr A+
We didn't want to have to have to hunt down our friends for the pics they took during the wedding. So we set up a wedding photo account at www.flickr.com and included instructions in our program on how to view and upload pics onto the account. We upgraded to the pro account so that there's an unlimited # of uploads. I LOVE flickr because you can download the pics in it's original size. You're not limited to that shrunken down low-res version that a lot of other sites put up. They also make it really easy for you to organize the photos into sets and collections. So as soon as I saw that someone uploaded pics, I would put them into the appropriate sets, so that people could view the pics easier. Right now, we have over 1000 pics from friends and family!!!

***After Party: Sheridan Lanes (AMF Bowl) A
Since our reception ended at 6 PM, we wanted to have an after party. We had a pretty large guest list, and we wanted a “kids only” party afterward so that we could really spend time with our friends and cousins. We looked at several bowling alleys, including Jillians and Strike. Those two were so ridiculously expensive…it was like paying for another wedding to rent out lanes…plus they didn’t have enough lanes, since we were expecting around 50 people to go. We decided to just go with your regular, local bowling alley. We found Sheridan Lanes, which was only 5 minutes away from WM and they were so accommodating and reasonably priced.

We ended up reserving 9 lanes for 2 hours…and the people there were nice enough to make sure we got the most for our buck. Our guests arrived first since DH and I still had to wrap things up at WM. So they took care of giving out rental shoes etc…and didn’t turn on the lanes until everyone got their shoes and got set up in their lanes, etc. (they wanted to make sure we got in 2 full hours of bowling….and that we didn’t waste those 2 hours with rentals and punching our names in the system). So even though only 50 people responded yes to our evite, somehow we ended up with about 80 people there!!!! Luckily, they had set us up with a more secluded section of the bowling alley, so everyone just hung out and lounged around. Most people ended up sharing turns, so multiple people bowled under one name. And some people didn’t bowl at all…they just hung out and talked and pigged out on bowling alley food.

Oh yeah…and we were all still decked out in our wedding garb (including myself), so we were quite the sight! I had multiple other bowlers come over to congratulate me….it was really nice. And I think we cleared out all their food….there were platters of buffalo wings and onion rings everywhere. It was carnage!

DH and I didn’t really get to bowl that much at all….we were so tired by then and I think it was more enjoyable for us to watch all our guests having fun. It was a really great way to end the night and everyone LOVED it.

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I had a lot of friends help out and act as my “vendors”, which saved me a lot of money and really made the wedding feel more personal. I won’t give a grade to any of these because my friends and family did such a big favor by helping out.

***Jewelry Design: I really lucked out on this one. My dad is a jeweler in the diamond district, so he designed and made all the jewelry for myself and my BM’s. The only thing we paid for was our wedding bands. He helped DH and I get our rings for a REALLY fantastic price through his wholesaler connections. He handpicked every single diamond in my wedding band…the diamonds are really of exceptional quality….they are are all so blindingly white!

For my DOJ, my dad made a triple strand cultured pearl necklace for me (he specializes in pearls) and added a white gold clasp with diamonds in it…and also made a matching triple strand bracelet with an identical clasp. He also created my earrings, which were a cluster of diamonds with a single diamond and a pearl drop. They were ALL gorgeous.

For the BM’s DOJ, he made a single stranded freshwater pearl necklace with a matching pearl drop earring.

***Graphic Design: My friend AK, who is a graphic designer by occupation helped me design all the paper stuff, invites, programs, table numbers, etc. I had a good idea of what I wanted but didn’t have the computer knowledge to do it myself. I basically told her what I wanted, showed her TONS of pictures and she made it happen. I originally had a different theme in mind, but once I saw the design she came up with for the invites, I LOVED it and made that my theme. I always wanted a monogram theme, but I don’t really like how our initials looked together hahahaha. So that design became our monogram and we used it everywhere.

She really embraced my ideas of keeping things simple and everything she did with me was simple, yet stunning. Even the people at Westbury Manor loved the designs. I guess they had seen my programs when they were setting stuff up and they went to ask my dad who designed them. My dad pointed AK out and they went over to ask her for her business card.

***String Quartet: Friends X 4. I had a VERY young string quartet…the oldest one of the bunch was 21! Hahahaha! These four kiddos go to my church and we all grew up together (I remember some of them being born….kind of scary). But age means nothing when you have talent. The lead violinist went to Julliard, the other two violininst attend LaGuardia HS (for music) and the cellist is one of those child prodigy types. They play for basically every church wedding, so they’re actually pretty experienced and have a large repertoire already built up. They were excellent as usual. DH had never heard them play before…and when we were outside lined up ready to go in, he thought he was listening to music played through the WM sound system. He didn’t realize it was the quartet because they sounded so good.

***Officiant: My officiant, ML, has been my church Youth Group pastor for the past 5 years. It made the ceremony much more personal because she actually knew us. She even travelled down here to philly from NY to have a pre-marital counseling session with us.

I actually enjoyed the ceremony portion more than the reception, which was surprising to me. DH and I both felt like it was just the two of us in that room. Even though most of the planning goes into the reception…DON’T overlook the ceremony…it’s really something special!

***Videographer: We didn’t hire a videographer because we knew we would never watch to video. Our friend, CT, is an amateaur short filmmaker and has pretty decent equipment. We asked him to tape our ceremony and any of the important reception events.

***DJ’s: Friends X 2. These guys went to college with DH and we’ve known them for almost 10 years. They used to DJ parties at clubs and we used to go every weekend to party with them and hang out in the DJ booth. They recently began focusing their time on weddings, so we asked if they could do our wedding. They gave us a really good price and threw in lights for free.

We did end up having a few issues with them…I guess more like miscommunications. It was partly our fault because we hadn’t partied with them in a while and expected the same type of music we had heard from them before. We didn’t realize they had switched completely to doing weddings only…and their repertoire became more mainstream, top 40’s stuff, which we didn’t want. We didn’t give them a song list aside from the special events. So a lot of stuff we thought they were going to play, they didn’t play. Oh well…the dance floor was packed anyway…I guess that’s all that matters!

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Since I have issues uploading pics, you can see a summary of my pro pics in my knottie bio:

WEDDING PICTURES

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Loved your review!! Your wedding sounded like a blast! Especially the bowling!!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

great review...your pics came out awesome

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review and pictures!!!!!!!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review. You made a gorgeous bride.

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review! You looked amazing! And your cousins pictures are really beautiful.

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

awesome review!!!!

=D

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

You have excellent taste. Your wedding was beautiful! Congrats!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Jen, GREAT GREAT review. Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review and pictures! Congrats!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Thanks for sharing. A bowling after party, now I am really thinking outside the box. The pics were beautiful. I love the way you think. Thanks again.

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review!!!!!!! Thanks

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Everything looked perfect. Great review

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

You are so bad *** bowling in your dress! Awesome review!!!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

I just looked at your wedding pics again because they are awesome! I didn't realize your cousin took many of the pictures- they really look great!!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great review!!! Looks like you had a great time. I loved the bowling after party. i think I might steal that idea since we both like to bowl and out reception ends at 5pm.

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

I love this!!

Re: My Jan 5, 2008 wedding review: Westbury Manor, Angelica Glass, LA Blossom, Stacy Pitt, Lois Lam, Sissi Chan, Regina B, Sheridan Lanes

Great Review congrats!