My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

I don't have too many pictures yet, but I thought I'd start the review now before things fade from memory. And I'll post pictures as I get them back.

Vendors:

The location: Lotos Club.

I'll start out with the hall. This is absolutely the most amazing part of the wedding, especially since I had both the ceremony and the reception there. It's thanks to them that I could put together the wedding in under half a year without much stress.

Before looking at the Lotos Club we looked at a few other places in Manhattan -- The Asia Society, the Kitano Hotel, but all of them turned out not ideal. We wanted a place that'll have only one event at a time, a nice ballroom, and able to have the ceremony at the same place. Also the food has to be good, since the Chinese usually do not like anything except a Chinese banquet. I heard about the Lotos Club not from any of the popular wedding sites, but on the chowhound.com website, where it was mentioned a couple times for the food. This was very impressive, since the chowhound was a board full of foodies who turn their nose up at wedding food in general. So I went to take a look, and decided on it right then and there. And it's absolutely the best decision I ever made.

First of all, the architecture is amazing -- I ended up doing very simple flowers and a couple candles, since the ballroom and the library are already so beautiful. I had my ceremony in the library in front of the fire place, and then did the first dance in the ballroom across the hall.

The food is as good as everyone said -- we choose to have the food stations instead of a sit down dinner, and picked Asian fusion dishes as well as two Italian stations, and all the guests raved about it, including the relatives from China, which must be a first. The dessert was particularly good, I gobbled down two plates of the mini tarts, and I usually don't even like sweets. I read all the warnings about brides not eating at their own wedding, and managed to taste everything. My only regret is that my parent and husband didn't read the post, and they hardly ate anything. And I forgot to ask them to put some food away in a box for us. ;_;

The staff were so professional and helpful. Anna, the dining cooridator, was amazing. She doubled confirmed all the vendors and checked all the details with me, so everything went off without a hitch during the wedding day. Basically, most of the work for the wedding was done by the club, and all I did was find the other vendors and chat a little with the florist and the DJ.

I just can't say enough good things about this place. I can't imagine a better place for a small wedding. It's <$200pp, which is an amazing bargain for Manhattan.

Florist: Shields & Warrendorf.
Since Lotos club was so beautiful, I thought I could get away with spending very little on flowers. Of course I didn't account for how much 'very little' would cost in Manhattan. I first went with the house florist of the Lotos Club, who quoted me something like three times what I wanted to spend. So we then talked with Martha at Shields and Warendorf, and liked her very much. She's very sweet, and very knowledgable about the Asian traditions and the flowers and colors to use. Their quote was about twice my budget instead of three times, so we decided to go with them.

Manhattan sticker shock aside, Shields did an amazing job -- we had red and saffron floating candles on the tables, and some large red/orange arrangments for the stations. Saffron for my husband, who's Indian, and red for the Chinese side of the family. It was gorgeous, and they're definitely a very professional shop that knew what they were doing. Everything was detailed and listed in the contract, and everything was delivered and arranged well ahead. All of Martha's advice about the flower arrangments were spot on, and she even made beautiful flowers for me to wear in my hair.

But if I were doing this again I would probably have gone with the house florist, Tom Anderson, who's a very elegant chap, and had absolutely amazing taste. He was willing to adjust the price a little, and with the various add ons eventually Shields came out to be about the same price. But it would have prevented a couple confusions between the Lotos club and the florist, such as how many cocktail table we had ( the number changes 3 times), and which table was the quaintly named 'monk table'.

More to come.

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club

So far so good!! Keep it coming!!

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club

Wow, so many review here are so perfectly organized, I feel a little embarrassed. But I'm going to have to jump around a little. The pictures from various friends are starting to come in, so I'm going to review the products with the related pictures first, which makes it more fun.

Invite: C&J printing I love my invite. It's exactly what I wanted, and a perfectly combination of Chinese and Indian. It also set the tone for the whole event. Some of my guests actually called me up to tell me how beautiful it is. I know a lot of American-born Chinese think that the traditional invites are slightly tacky, but I always thought that the red & gold traditional colors can be very elegant and beautiful if done right, and much richer in symbolism. So we went with a Chinese printer recommended to me by my best friend, who just got married.

C&J printing is perhaps the largest Chinatown printer, and they have a huge selection of not just Chinese invites, but also very nice looking Western style invites. They also have unusual invites such as brocade covers and knoted closures, all of which are very reasonably priced. Mine came out to be around $2.50/set, and I only ordered 80. It's cheaper if you order more. The card stock is a very heavy and beautifully textured paper (though you might not notice it in the photo), with two types of embossing and stamping, so it's really an amazing deal. The turn around is about a week, and the service is very efficient. Unlike most other Chinese printer they also speak English, and when i was there I saw quite a few couples who are not Chinese.

In case this makes you want to jump up and get your own invite printed there, read on. On the downside, they are absolutely terrible at proofreading. I make a little allowance for the English portions, but they can't even get the Chinese part right!! I sent back the proof three times before they got it right. The good thing is that they seem to be used to it, and they didn't mind fixing it over and over again until we got it right. Also, about 20% of the invites they gave us was splotched with a weird black dot. Again they exchanged it immediately, but one wishes that they can exercise a little more quality control.

So the lesson is, if you know exactly what you want and is willing to do your own quality control, go to them for an great deal and save tons of money. If you want to be hands-off, they're not recommended at all.

A few pictures of my invite below -- It's actually a deep rich red. The first picture makes it a little too bright. we put an image of Ganesh, the Indian god of new beginnings and remover of obstacles, on the opening page, along with a traditional invocation in Sanskrit, which I love for it simplicity and power.

May we be protected together
May we be nourished together
May we work together with great vigor
May our learning enlighten us
May no obstacle arise between us.

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Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

The Dress: Custom made by Maeda Jones based on a design by Augusta Jones

Some of you will probably think I was crazy, but for the longest time I thought I wouldn't get a wedding gown. I had my Chinese dress made when I was in Beijing, and I thought I'd wear a saree for the ceremony, and then an Indian lenhga for the dancing, and maybe change to the Chinese dress for the wedding. Then it transpired that husband's family will not be able to make it due to various passport/visa problems, and there won't be anyone to help me with the traditional dress. Panic sets in. So I call and made appointments with all the salons in Manhattan 4 month before the wedding.

I went to Saks first. I generally liked everything I tried on in a mild sort of way. In particular there was an Angel Sanchez that I liked quite a bit, though in hindsight it looked like it had a bikini top. Clearly I was still recovering from Indian fashion. Even though everyone was telling me that there will be that one dress which will be magic, up until then I didn't believe them. I generally liked everything and enjoyed it all, but nothing was the one, and I was about ready to buy a Vera Wang Maid dress and have it embroidered in India.

Then I had my Kleinfield appointment. I liked that they asked about your preference first, and then let you pick the dresses off the rack yourself. I suppose this might have turned out to be inconvenient for girls who want ballgowns, but it was perfect for me, since I wanted something simple and comfortable. I browsed around, and found THE DRESS tacked in between two dress, a very unassuming little thing that looked more like a slip then a wedding dress. But when I tried on it was just magic. Everything just came together and it was the perfect dress for me. (You can see the picture on the original dress below). It was designed by Augusta Jones, who I've never heard of, and right on my price range. But there was one problem -- it had a very high back which completely restricted my arms, and I was really planning a whole evening of ballroom dancing. I tried various things, but none of it worked.

I was really bummed, until my mother reminded me that the costumer designer for her dance school was an amazing talented seamstress, and that she'll make gowns to measure. Maeda is a true artist, and a bit tempermental, but she's a genius when it comes to sewing, and I'm so honored that she agreed to make the dress. We worked on modifying the original design -- she added a little more fullness to the skirt and a bit more of a train, and most importantly of all, the low back. I bought all the material from the garment district. Along the way I learned tons of stuff about the material and the beading, and had so much fun. I always learned a thing or two about the cut, and how incredibly difficult it is to do a properly fitted cap sleeve.

Maeda's located in Winchester Virginia. If any of you happen to live in Washington DC area and need alteration services she's absolutely the best.

Pictures of the dresses below:

First, the original Augusta Jones -- I really want to put in a plug for her even though I didn't buy the dress, since she's a wonderful designer, and deserved to be better known. I checked out her website, and she had these beautiful gowns which are simple, yet always with an unexpected detail or a quirky touch. She's based in UK, and her prices are pretty reasonable considering the quality of material and workmanship that goes into the dresses. Just to duplicate the quality of material she was using in her dress I spent close to $800, with triple weight silk charmeuse and English netting and the beaded trim. And that's not even counting the 100 hours spent on it by the seamstress.

Also a picture of the dress in Maeda's workship, not fully finished. She was so meticulous she put the dress on me and pinned on all the large beading first and made sure I liked where they are before she sewed them.

And finally at my wedding.

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Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Sounds like you're not done with your review yet, but I just wanted to say that I wore an Augusta Jones dress bought at Kleinfeld and that I agree with everything you said. And the version you had custom-made came out STUNNING! She really did an amazing job!

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

I LOVE your dress! You looked great! Congratulations!

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Congratulations! You looked beautiful..

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

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Posted by teany

Sounds like you're not done with your review yet, but I just wanted to say that I wore an Augusta Jones dress bought at Kleinfeld and that I agree with everything you said. And the version you had custom-made came out STUNNING! She really did an amazing job!

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Yeah, finally another girl who knows about Augusta Jones! Your dress looks gorgeous, btw. I'm amazed more people haven't found her. The review's not finished -- I'm adding stuff slowly day by day as I get different pictures from different people. On top of it all my photographer doesn't do digital, so once I get the proofs I'll have to scan them.

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Stunning dress!!!!!
Congrats!!!!!!

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Congrat!! Beautiful gown

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

beautiful dress...

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Beautiful pics...I love your dress!

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Congratulations! You looked beautiful

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

Congratulations! You look beautiful.

Re: My Sep 30, 06 wedding at the Lotos Club / now with pictures

congrats!