Our Amazing July 3rd Atlantica Hamptons Wedding!
I had a wonderful time planning this wedding and used excel as my friend. My three recommendations are to set up a vendor contact list with a minimum of every vendor, your contact there and there phone number. This was immensely time saving and essential, especially the weekend of the wedding when I was out at my parent's house. I also found on the knot a master guest list, which is my new address book. This tracked shower gifts, wedding gifts, thank you notes, address changes, wedding responses, and was essential to the wedding planning. My third excel spreadsheet was my to-do list. I took the to do list on the knot, typed it into excel, but added a column for the month to do, who was in charge of the tasks, my husband or me and the status of the item. I constantly updated this for all the items that didn’t get done in the month they were supposed to. I added every little detail as I thought of it, which helped me remember all of my ideas.
Dancing Lessons- Arthur Murray, Bay Shore A
We took the couples dancing lesson package, this was a birthday present from the year beforehand. It included 2 private lessons and 1 group lesson/practice session. The lessons were a lot of fun, but we felt like robots dancing the way we learned in the lessons. You really need to take lessons for a few months for it to be really be useful. I would definitely consider taking more lessons in the future because I enjoyed it so much but whatever we learned went out the window the wedding night in the excitement of everything and we just danced the way we always do. Luckily my husband is a great lead!
Misc Beauty/Fitness Tips
I wanted to look my best for my wedding, so I went for monthly microdermabrasion sessions beginning in March. My skin is very sensitive and I still break out, but this helped to clear up my skin immensely. My facialist also gave me a microdermabration and seaweed facial 10 days before the wedding to really make my skin glow, and it did.
I also went to Weight Watchers and lost about 15 lbs, I probably could have lost more but in June sort of fell off the band wagon. They say that you’ll lose weight due to stress, but that didn’t happen to me. I wanted to do the Buff Bride, but I couldn’t justify the price. I wound up joining the local gym and seeing a trainer for half hour sessions 2 times a week, which helped me get into better shape and finally got me to the gym. I didn’t really lose weight with him, but noticed my bathing suits and clothes fit better. I also had my teeth whitening at the Britesmile in NYC. They had a special in May and June and a lot of people noticed. This was also a present that I asked for.
Save the Dates- www.Shutterfly.com A++
We had our engagement pictures taken in August of us walking on the beach. Then I purchased the digital photo from Verdi, uploaded the photo to shutterfly to create a notecard (there was a save the date option, and picked I picked the color, font, etc.). Then I wrote all the needed info on the top and bottom of the card. It was very easy and there was a 20% off back to school sale the week I happened to order. Everyone called to say that they loved them. I ordered seashell return address labels from www.colorfulimages.com, they were cheap and very fast.
PreCana- Diocese of Rockville Center A+ http://www.drvc.org/laity/website/min_families.shtml
Our church doesn’t do very many wedding so they don’t offer precana, so went through the Diocese of Rockville Center. My friend recommended the engaged encounter weekend. Since she said she loved it, I knew it wasn’t some sort of religious cult. The weekend was offered on a retreat in Glen Cove, right on the water. On Saturday we had a break and were able to take a walk down to the beach and hang out. It was a great source of communication and we both really got a lot out of it. I know a lot of people take the Saturday course because it’s the shortest, and they felt it was a waste of time. Here we were with 11 other couples and two leader couples. They shared stories with us and then individually and as a couple we think about each issue and discuss each situation. We ate all our meals with them and stayed over night. I would highly recommend this!
Registry- BBB and Fortunoff A+
The return policy at Bed Bath and Beyond is great and registering there was so easy. Everything from this registry was purchased except for our knives. Fortunoffs has been a pleasure to deal with and items were in stock and available. They had a special on my china, a free soup bowl and accent plate for the month before my shower so I got 8 place settings of china for my shower. They replaced all of the broken items without any issues and even sent me the bonus which was forgotten on 1 place setting. I was afraid that many people wouldn’t shop here, but based on my shower presents, everyone ordered online from them. And I looked at other stores and Fortunoff had the best selection.
Shower- Captain Bill’s, Bay Shore A
This is an amazing setting and went well with the beach theme. We had a flip flop theme 100% planned by my mother with help from the bridesmaids. I loved it and had a wonderful time. The food there is great. They did rush us a little at the end, but it had been 4 and ½ hours. We even had a flip flop cake made up by a place in Lindenhurst. It had peach filling and was delicious.
Invitations- Lion in the Sun, Huntington A+
I worked with Mary, who was extremely knowledgeable. We went with Crane’s which can be very expensive, but it was exactly what I wanted and I wanted to set the tone for the wedding. She knew exactly the correct wording, provided me with a guide to addressing envelopes and helped me select thank you notes as well.
Invitation envelopes- www.Inkspun.com A-
Bill matched the font and color of my invitations to the envelopes exactly. All of the envelopes came out perfect and were wrapped in saran wrap. The only problem was that he was a bit slow and didn’t call me back right away, but it was right around Easter so I knew that it could be a hectic time. I sent in my order and he emailed me that I would have it back in a week. When I called to check a week later, he asked if I had mailed the envelopes yet, then he said, I have it here, you should have it in 2 days. A few days later I told him that I needed it ASAP, and finally got them that week. He had them about 2 ½ weeks. Also 2 envelopes went out with the wrong address (my mistake) and I had to wait 2 more weeks to get replacements, he keeps some envelopes. From that point forward I handwrote any additional invitations because he was too slow. Luckily I had ordered some extra.
Place Cards - www.Placecards.com A++
Amazing, Cheap and Easy. I sent the list in at 10 am, made the payment at 11am, reviewed the proof at 2 pm, and received them 2 days later. I couldn’t have asked for better service, and they looked awesome.
Seashells- www.shellhorizons.com A
We put seashells on the place card table with sand and it looked great. We ordered a large white mixed bag and a bag of white small shells. We also bought baby sandollars and used glue stick to add them to the place cards. I bought playground sand from Home Depot, but it wasn’t the right thing so the florist bought the sand for us and set up the place card table.
Donation Card/ Table Cards/Church Program/ Hotel Gift Bag Letter A+
My husband did the donation and table cards. We bought paper from Pick Quick Paper for the donation and table cards, and the same paper was used for the menus. We formatted at home and did all the printing at Staples. It looked great. We bought shadowbox picture frames on clearance from Kmart a year beforehand and put the table cards in the frames and on each table. We named each table after a seashell or seafood. I used a church program template I found on LIW that was a link from someone on the knot, inputted all the info, and he printed them at Staples after adding a sand dollar motif. I bought ribbon at Patchogue Floral (Fantasyland) that matched my colors and my mother in law tied them on. For the hotel gift bag letters, I copied the directions on one side and the other side I put a timeline of all the events, including the fishing Trip, dinner after fishing, wedding BBQ and shuttle bus times, as well as a few suggested places to eat and visit.
Fishing Trip- Center Moriches, www.fishrosie.com A
My husband planned a fishing trip for all the guys on Saturday afternoon. Originally they were supposed to go out with the Shinnecock Star in Hampton Bays, but the night beforehand they called to say that their motor broke, but they found this other boat to take the guys out on. All the fishermen had lots of fun and didn’t mind the extra 20 minute drive. We had planned for the girls and other out of town guest to meet at the Top of the Wharf for drinks and dinner, where the original boat docked. We all still went to meet them and everyone loved that you could see the bay and the ocean from the same view. The food is fast, tasty and inexpensive for the Hamptons. About 35 people came and it was a good way to hang out with our guests that we didn’t see or talk to at the wedding.
Rehearsal Dinner-Indian Cove, Hampton Bays A-
We had the cocktail hour outside on the lawn and the dinner upstairs. The food was great; everyone loved the outside cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. My mother in law took about 40 pictures of my childhood and 40 from my husband’s childhood and had them made up at target into little frames and put them on each table which was really cool for everyone to see. When we got back from the honeymoon she had made the pictures up into an album for us to have to show our kids. The only bad thing was that it was really hot. We didn’t realize that they didn’t have AC upstairs. We sent them to the store to buy more fans and survived.
Girls Jewelry/Gifts- Easy Sprit Outlet, Coach Outlet and Pina A
We bought travel jewelry boxes from Easy Spirit, in which the top layer of the box came out and folded into a mini jewelry box. I bought the girls matching earrings and necklace sets from Pina in Patchogue, they looked great but kept flipping over on the girls. I wish I had bought the extenders just in case. For my maid of honor I bought her a coach wristlet from the outlets. They loved everything. I also made each of them up a welcome weekend gift bag. In it was Nautica pj’s, flip flops that matched the bridesmaid dress, hand lotion and lavender scented eye masks for our sleepover weekend. They loved them and everyone wore the PJ’s the night before the wedding. I got everything at TJ Maxx on clearance the summer beforehand.
Bridesmaid Cards- eBay seller HollyDay27 A+++
I got this recommendation from another LIW bride’s review, wish I could remember who. I emailed Holly the website for the dress and the color plus all of the girl’s names and she made up a card for each of them at a very reasonable price. I got the cards within 3 days of ordering. The girls adored the cards!
Hotels-
Best Western East End, Riverhead B
Holiday Inn East End, Riverhead B
We had 45 hotels rooms, and over 90 guests to transport from Riverhead and luckily everything worked out mostly as planned. The Best Western is nicer because they have a pool and restaurant/bar so everyone could hang out the night before and the day of the wedding. But the Best Western and the Holiday Inn people (managed by the same people) were not very responsive to our phone calls and questions. When we asked for lists of rooms, the list always included all the cancelled rooms, and they would take weeks to call back. We would have preferred to pick one hotel or the other, but they wouldn’t give us a block of 50 at either hotel. It wound up being 35 rooms at the Best Western and 10 at the Holiday Inn. We had our own shuttle bus (50 people), plus we were given 3 free from the joint hotels. The free ones showed up, but claimed they were going to Atlantis Marine World and wouldn’t let any of our guests on the bus. Finally a half hour later one bus left for Atlantica. Our bus was standing room only and some people drove. So I wouldn’t depend on the buses from the hotels, but everyone still got to the cocktail hour on time.
Bowens by the Bays, Hampton Bays A+
We had 3 cottages of people here, about 10 guests. They loved that they had a bbq grill, a hammock and a screened in porch to hang out at. They said it was a perfect vacation and our friends are thinking of going back for a long weekend. They have tennis courts and a pool. It was pricy because it was a 3night minimum, but our friends said it was worth it to stay in the Hampton’s for the entire weekend.
Inn at Quogue, Quogue A+
Some of our family members and friends wanted a higher end hotel. They loved this hotel, they loved the quaint town of Quogue and thought it was perfect. But it was too expensive to have all of our guest stay here in the summer. I would recommend it if you are getting married in the off season. Also for group blocks (at least in the summer) they ask you put 10% down, which we didn’t want to do.
We also recommended to our guest www.cyberentals.com if they wanted to rent a house or condo. Two large extended families, about 10 people each, rented a place for the week and made it there vacation and loved the website.
Transportation-
A+++Hampton Jitney- 50 passenger bus from Holiday Inn and Best Western to Atlantica. It was as clean, on time and we had no issues with them
A Elite-33 passenger bus. Recommended through Sir Oliver. We used this to take the bridal party and our parents to the reception form the church. It then returned and picked up about 30 family members in Hampton Bays. They had some trouble with the directions, even though we wrote specific ones for them, but luckily my family know the area and could direct the bus.
A- Sir Oliver-12 passenger limo- Took the groomsmen and groom’s parents to the church and then picked up the bridesmaids and came back for my parents and me. The limo driver was great, he even packed up the lunch in the frig that we had left out. The air conditioner went in the limo, but the church was air conditioned so we recovered.
Dancing Lessons- Arthur Murray, Bay Shore A
We took the couples dancing lesson package, this was a birthday present from the year beforehand. It included 2 private lessons and 1 group lesson/practice session. The lessons were a lot of fun, but we felt like robots dancing the way we learned in the lessons. You really need to take lessons for a few months for it to be really be useful. I would definitely consider taking more lessons in the future because I enjoyed it so much but whatever we learned went out the window the wedding night in the excitement of everything and we just danced the way we always do. Luckily my husband is a great lead!
Misc Beauty/Fitness Tips
I wanted to look my best for my wedding, so I went for monthly microdermabrasion sessions beginning in March. My skin is very sensitive and I still break out, but this helped to clear up my skin immensely. My facialist also gave me a microdermabration and seaweed facial 10 days before the wedding to really make my skin glow, and it did.
I also went to Weight Watchers and lost about 15 lbs, I probably could have lost more but in June sort of fell off the band wagon. They say that you’ll lose weight due to stress, but that didn’t happen to me. I wanted to do the Buff Bride, but I couldn’t justify the price. I wound up joining the local gym and seeing a trainer for half hour sessions 2 times a week, which helped me get into better shape and finally got me to the gym. I didn’t really lose weight with him, but noticed my bathing suits and clothes fit better. I also had my teeth whitening at the Britesmile in NYC. They had a special in May and June and a lot of people noticed. This was also a present that I asked for.
Save the Dates- www.Shutterfly.com A++
We had our engagement pictures taken in August of us walking on the beach. Then I purchased the digital photo from Verdi, uploaded the photo to shutterfly to create a notecard (there was a save the date option, and picked I picked the color, font, etc.). Then I wrote all the needed info on the top and bottom of the card. It was very easy and there was a 20% off back to school sale the week I happened to order. Everyone called to say that they loved them. I ordered seashell return address labels from www.colorfulimages.com, they were cheap and very fast.
PreCana- Diocese of Rockville Center A+ http://www.drvc.org/laity/website/min_families.shtml
Our church doesn’t do very many wedding so they don’t offer precana, so went through the Diocese of Rockville Center. My friend recommended the engaged encounter weekend. Since she said she loved it, I knew it wasn’t some sort of religious cult. The weekend was offered on a retreat in Glen Cove, right on the water. On Saturday we had a break and were able to take a walk down to the beach and hang out. It was a great source of communication and we both really got a lot out of it. I know a lot of people take the Saturday course because it’s the shortest, and they felt it was a waste of time. Here we were with 11 other couples and two leader couples. They shared stories with us and then individually and as a couple we think about each issue and discuss each situation. We ate all our meals with them and stayed over night. I would highly recommend this!
Registry- BBB and Fortunoff A+
The return policy at Bed Bath and Beyond is great and registering there was so easy. Everything from this registry was purchased except for our knives. Fortunoffs has been a pleasure to deal with and items were in stock and available. They had a special on my china, a free soup bowl and accent plate for the month before my shower so I got 8 place settings of china for my shower. They replaced all of the broken items without any issues and even sent me the bonus which was forgotten on 1 place setting. I was afraid that many people wouldn’t shop here, but based on my shower presents, everyone ordered online from them. And I looked at other stores and Fortunoff had the best selection.
Shower- Captain Bill’s, Bay Shore A
This is an amazing setting and went well with the beach theme. We had a flip flop theme 100% planned by my mother with help from the bridesmaids. I loved it and had a wonderful time. The food there is great. They did rush us a little at the end, but it had been 4 and ½ hours. We even had a flip flop cake made up by a place in Lindenhurst. It had peach filling and was delicious.
Invitations- Lion in the Sun, Huntington A+
I worked with Mary, who was extremely knowledgeable. We went with Crane’s which can be very expensive, but it was exactly what I wanted and I wanted to set the tone for the wedding. She knew exactly the correct wording, provided me with a guide to addressing envelopes and helped me select thank you notes as well.
Invitation envelopes- www.Inkspun.com A-
Bill matched the font and color of my invitations to the envelopes exactly. All of the envelopes came out perfect and were wrapped in saran wrap. The only problem was that he was a bit slow and didn’t call me back right away, but it was right around Easter so I knew that it could be a hectic time. I sent in my order and he emailed me that I would have it back in a week. When I called to check a week later, he asked if I had mailed the envelopes yet, then he said, I have it here, you should have it in 2 days. A few days later I told him that I needed it ASAP, and finally got them that week. He had them about 2 ½ weeks. Also 2 envelopes went out with the wrong address (my mistake) and I had to wait 2 more weeks to get replacements, he keeps some envelopes. From that point forward I handwrote any additional invitations because he was too slow. Luckily I had ordered some extra.
Place Cards - www.Placecards.com A++
Amazing, Cheap and Easy. I sent the list in at 10 am, made the payment at 11am, reviewed the proof at 2 pm, and received them 2 days later. I couldn’t have asked for better service, and they looked awesome.
Seashells- www.shellhorizons.com A
We put seashells on the place card table with sand and it looked great. We ordered a large white mixed bag and a bag of white small shells. We also bought baby sandollars and used glue stick to add them to the place cards. I bought playground sand from Home Depot, but it wasn’t the right thing so the florist bought the sand for us and set up the place card table.
Donation Card/ Table Cards/Church Program/ Hotel Gift Bag Letter A+
My husband did the donation and table cards. We bought paper from Pick Quick Paper for the donation and table cards, and the same paper was used for the menus. We formatted at home and did all the printing at Staples. It looked great. We bought shadowbox picture frames on clearance from Kmart a year beforehand and put the table cards in the frames and on each table. We named each table after a seashell or seafood. I used a church program template I found on LIW that was a link from someone on the knot, inputted all the info, and he printed them at Staples after adding a sand dollar motif. I bought ribbon at Patchogue Floral (Fantasyland) that matched my colors and my mother in law tied them on. For the hotel gift bag letters, I copied the directions on one side and the other side I put a timeline of all the events, including the fishing Trip, dinner after fishing, wedding BBQ and shuttle bus times, as well as a few suggested places to eat and visit.
Fishing Trip- Center Moriches, www.fishrosie.com A
My husband planned a fishing trip for all the guys on Saturday afternoon. Originally they were supposed to go out with the Shinnecock Star in Hampton Bays, but the night beforehand they called to say that their motor broke, but they found this other boat to take the guys out on. All the fishermen had lots of fun and didn’t mind the extra 20 minute drive. We had planned for the girls and other out of town guest to meet at the Top of the Wharf for drinks and dinner, where the original boat docked. We all still went to meet them and everyone loved that you could see the bay and the ocean from the same view. The food is fast, tasty and inexpensive for the Hamptons. About 35 people came and it was a good way to hang out with our guests that we didn’t see or talk to at the wedding.
Rehearsal Dinner-Indian Cove, Hampton Bays A-
We had the cocktail hour outside on the lawn and the dinner upstairs. The food was great; everyone loved the outside cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. My mother in law took about 40 pictures of my childhood and 40 from my husband’s childhood and had them made up at target into little frames and put them on each table which was really cool for everyone to see. When we got back from the honeymoon she had made the pictures up into an album for us to have to show our kids. The only bad thing was that it was really hot. We didn’t realize that they didn’t have AC upstairs. We sent them to the store to buy more fans and survived.
Girls Jewelry/Gifts- Easy Sprit Outlet, Coach Outlet and Pina A
We bought travel jewelry boxes from Easy Spirit, in which the top layer of the box came out and folded into a mini jewelry box. I bought the girls matching earrings and necklace sets from Pina in Patchogue, they looked great but kept flipping over on the girls. I wish I had bought the extenders just in case. For my maid of honor I bought her a coach wristlet from the outlets. They loved everything. I also made each of them up a welcome weekend gift bag. In it was Nautica pj’s, flip flops that matched the bridesmaid dress, hand lotion and lavender scented eye masks for our sleepover weekend. They loved them and everyone wore the PJ’s the night before the wedding. I got everything at TJ Maxx on clearance the summer beforehand.
Bridesmaid Cards- eBay seller HollyDay27 A+++
I got this recommendation from another LIW bride’s review, wish I could remember who. I emailed Holly the website for the dress and the color plus all of the girl’s names and she made up a card for each of them at a very reasonable price. I got the cards within 3 days of ordering. The girls adored the cards!
Hotels-
Best Western East End, Riverhead B
Holiday Inn East End, Riverhead B
We had 45 hotels rooms, and over 90 guests to transport from Riverhead and luckily everything worked out mostly as planned. The Best Western is nicer because they have a pool and restaurant/bar so everyone could hang out the night before and the day of the wedding. But the Best Western and the Holiday Inn people (managed by the same people) were not very responsive to our phone calls and questions. When we asked for lists of rooms, the list always included all the cancelled rooms, and they would take weeks to call back. We would have preferred to pick one hotel or the other, but they wouldn’t give us a block of 50 at either hotel. It wound up being 35 rooms at the Best Western and 10 at the Holiday Inn. We had our own shuttle bus (50 people), plus we were given 3 free from the joint hotels. The free ones showed up, but claimed they were going to Atlantis Marine World and wouldn’t let any of our guests on the bus. Finally a half hour later one bus left for Atlantica. Our bus was standing room only and some people drove. So I wouldn’t depend on the buses from the hotels, but everyone still got to the cocktail hour on time.
Bowens by the Bays, Hampton Bays A+
We had 3 cottages of people here, about 10 guests. They loved that they had a bbq grill, a hammock and a screened in porch to hang out at. They said it was a perfect vacation and our friends are thinking of going back for a long weekend. They have tennis courts and a pool. It was pricy because it was a 3night minimum, but our friends said it was worth it to stay in the Hampton’s for the entire weekend.
Inn at Quogue, Quogue A+
Some of our family members and friends wanted a higher end hotel. They loved this hotel, they loved the quaint town of Quogue and thought it was perfect. But it was too expensive to have all of our guest stay here in the summer. I would recommend it if you are getting married in the off season. Also for group blocks (at least in the summer) they ask you put 10% down, which we didn’t want to do.
We also recommended to our guest www.cyberentals.com if they wanted to rent a house or condo. Two large extended families, about 10 people each, rented a place for the week and made it there vacation and loved the website.
Transportation-
A+++Hampton Jitney- 50 passenger bus from Holiday Inn and Best Western to Atlantica. It was as clean, on time and we had no issues with them
A Elite-33 passenger bus. Recommended through Sir Oliver. We used this to take the bridal party and our parents to the reception form the church. It then returned and picked up about 30 family members in Hampton Bays. They had some trouble with the directions, even though we wrote specific ones for them, but luckily my family know the area and could direct the bus.
A- Sir Oliver-12 passenger limo- Took the groomsmen and groom’s parents to the church and then picked up the bridesmaids and came back for my parents and me. The limo driver was great, he even packed up the lunch in the frig that we had left out. The air conditioner went in the limo, but the church was air conditioned so we recovered.