UPDATED-With lots of Pro Pics!!! My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

I can't believe that I'm writing my review! At first I wasn't going to write one because I don't exactly post on here all that much, but it's the reviews that have helped me so much during the planning process-and of course all the great advice from everyone. Thanks liweddings.com!! Hope this won’t be too long….

So here goes:

Invitesite.com (Invitations)- B+
Had I known how much work these would be I definitely would have spent a little extra money on ones that weren’t “do it yourself.” I worked on these invites all summer long. The paper was not at all easy to work with because it's made of recycled materials so it's very fibrous. The cutting was a real pain and then gluing, tying, etc. They came our really nice, but thank god I don't work during the summer because I would have never had the time during the regular school year to do this. Here's a link to see what our invites looked like.

http://www.invitesite.com/weddings/invitations/summer_grace.html


Bluerainbowdesign.com (Favors)- A
Papermart.com- A
Driedflowers.com- A
myownlabels.com-A
We ordered coasters as our favors. For the packaging we had pillow boxes and green ribbons wrapped around them. We also got stickers that went on the back that had our names and wedding date on them. I stuck dried flower sprigs through the ribbon for a little extra something. All the companies that we used for the favors had fast shipping and the pricing was reasonable. In the end they came out great.



Dreamweddingfavors.com (Victorian chair place card holders)- A
This company is part of blue rainbow designs. I totally went overboard with the favor idea. I had the coasters and all, but then I saw these place card holders and thought that they were so cute….so I bought them. DH was like “what are you doing??” They really were great. They held the place cards, but then they also had a tea light on the seat-so then I had to buy matches so that people could light them if they wanted-ha (see below).



Foryourparty.com (matchbooks)- A
These came out great and were very cheap. They were white with green script lettering and had our names and wedding date on them. You can personalize everything. Anyway, we had these out of the tables and they looked pretty cool because the Harbor Club opened them up so that they were standing-it’s kind of hard to explain, but you can see them on my slideshow.



Ebay- moonlightweddings and zazasonestopbridalshop (cake topper, personalized toasting flutes, personalized cake knife, bird cage)- A
I highly recommend buying these types of things from ebay. Everything was brand new and personalized-also very cheap.

Oriental Trading (bubbles)- A-
I attached these to the back of our programs so that we could have bubbles flying around everywhere when leaving the church. Our church does not allow flower petals, bird seed, etc. to be thrown as we’re exiting, so this was a nice alternative. The bubble packaging looked good-they were in a small tube what a knot on top and it said on it “we tied the knot.” The bubbles themselves kind of ****** though. They were pretty much duds. Whatever-we had a few bubbles so that’s alright. They looked good and were pretty cheap.

Paperandmore.com- A
I love this company. I ordered my menu and program paper from here. The pricing is very reasonable and what I loved about them was that you can buy a sample package to look at all of the different types of paper that they have before making a big purchase.



Weddingstar.com (place cards)- B
This website has a lot of cool stuff. The thing that I didn’t like about it was that I just wanted to buy place cards and they have an automatic shipping rate starting at $9.75. I don’t think that the place cards even cost that much-that really bothers me. Anyway, they were very plain with a silver strip going around the card. I printed everyone’s names out on my printer and they came out great.

Swarovski- A
I bought my girls necklaces and earrings. I actually bought them even before I picked out the bridesmaid dresses, which was just stupid because what if I couldn’t find a dress that didn’t go with the jewelry? Luckily the dress that I fell in love with for the girls was very plain, but elegant and the jewelry went perfect.

Lord and Taylor- A
I got my jewelry from here. They really have a very nice selection. I didn’t wear a necklace because I felt like it was a little too much and it seemed to take away from my dress. So I bought earrings and a bracelet that sort of matched. They were both beautiful and not too expensive.



Zappos.com-A+
I love this website. I ordered about 10 different pairs of shoes and had a hard time choosing-but found the ones. Zappos is great because they give free overnight shipping and free returns. No problems at all sending the other shoes back.



Tiffany’s- A+
I love Tiffany’s-how do you not give them an A+? I bought our mother’s necklaces as sort of a thank you gift. I didn’t expect them to wear them on the day of because they didn’t exactly go with their dresses. I know that both of them don’t own any tiffany jewelry so I thought that this was a neat gift. They both were so supportive during the planning process; I just thought it was important to say thanks.

Bachelorette Party-A+++
Spacenk (makeup)
Lips (dinner)
My girls did such a good job! Here’s a run down of the night: we got picked up in a limo and headed out to the city. I was told not to wear any makeup because we were going to one of DH’s aunt’s stores in the city. She’s in charge of doing “startup” for a company called spacenk. There’s only 4 of them I think in the US so far- they’re very big in the UK. Anyway, to get an idea, it’s kind of like a very high end Sephora-type store. So we get there and they had a bunch of people on staff to do our makeup (there were 5 of us). They closed the store and fed us chocolate and champagne. It was very cool. DH’s aunt gave us all gift certificates so we all bought something as we were leaving. We also got a free gift as well for each of us. It was great. We all looked beautiful and it was a lot of fun. Dinner was next. The girls brought me to Lips. For those of you that don’t know, this is one of those drag queen restaurant type places. It was really funny. Basically I got picked on all night because I was wearing a “bride to be” tiara with flashing lights. The food wasn’t so bad, but who knows, we were all really drunk at this point. After dinner we headed out to some bar around the corner. I have no idea what it was called, but it was really a good time. In the end, I had a great night.

Captain Bill’s Restaurant (shower)- A+
This was one of five showers that I had! Yes, five!-one from the Long Island family, one upstate from the in-laws and three from my school district (one in each of my two buildings and the special ed department threw me a little shower as well). I feel very blessed to have such thoughtful and generous people in my life. Anyway, Captain Bills was lovely. It was just before Christmas time so the restaurant was all decorated nice for the season. The food was great, everything was just awesome. The only thing that wasn't so great was that this was a huge surprise. I was hungover from the night before, which is a rare occasion, and I almost didn't even take a shower that day. I was planning on laying in bed all day and then my sister asked if I would look around at places for her friend's shower that she had to plan. Thankfully I didn't leave the house unshowered; however, I did throw on dirty jeans and a ratty sweater. It would have been cool if maybe my family brought me a change of cloths?


The Irish Coffee Pub (rehearsal dinner)-A+
I love this place. We had a little room that was the perfect size for 30 people. The food was delicious, the service was great, and you get a lot for your money. We had yummy bread on the table, appetizer, entrée, and dessert. You can’t go wrong here.

Self Image in Amityville-A++++
I've been getting my hair done here since I was 13 and I have never had a bad experience here. My hair, as well as the girls' hair came out just beautiful. I set up a trial about 1 month prior to the wedding and was so excited with what Korena was able do. On the day of it came out even better than the first time. My bridesmaids hair was just beautiful also.



Lilette’s Bridal in Baldwin, NY (My dress, bridesmaids, MOB, veil and tiara)- A+
I had heard mixed reviews about Lilette’s prior to going there, but my cousin had recommended that I go and check them out because they had a great selection. I think that any of the negative comments that I’ve seen posted on LIW are regarding a nasty woman that works there-I think that she may even be one of the owners; however, all of the other women that work there are just lovely and I high recommend working with Gerri. When I went looking for dresses I really didn’t know what I wanted. I had an idea, but no dream dress in the back of my mind. I kind of told her what I liked and did not like in terms of style and let her do her thing. I can’t tell you how many beautiful dresses I must of tried on and she was so patient throughout the entire process. I really trusted her judgment and I don’t think that she told me things that she thought I wanted to hear. She was very honest and up front and really helped me make a decision on my dress. They have awesome seamstresses there. I hate to say this, but I don’t know that woman’s name that did my dress, but she did a phenomenal job. I was really worried about the bustle because the back of my dress is very detailed and I didn’t want any of it ruined. In the end I was so surprised at what she was able to do. The bustle was perfect and the back of my dress was nicely maintained. We also purchased the bridesmaid dresses, the MOB dress, veil and tiara here. No problems with any of them.






Men's Warehouse- A-
I have to say that I was little worried because I've heard horror stories-thankfully everything was ok. This worked well for us since so many of DH's guys were from out of state. All we had to do was register the tuxes and the guys just had to go in a get fitted. Everything worked out and everyone looked awesome.


Weather- A
The forecast called for rain all day. I told myself that I wouldn't let it bother me if the weather was bad because you can't control it; however, I prayed for sunshine and that is what we got. We so lucked out and since it was just a little bit cloudy it was even better for pictures.

St. Patrick's Church in Bay Shore- B+
What a beautiful church. I do have a couple complaints though. My DH and I met with our priest a few weeks before the wedding. I guess he was supposed to tell us all sorts of information regarding what to bring the night of the rehearsal because we get to the church and were basically yelled at for not having our marriage license and unity candle-no one told us! I just figure you bring that the day of. Anyway, this nasty woman who was coordinating everything made us feel like idiots and pretty much said there's no wedding tomorrow unless we run home and get our license. We also had several groomsmen missing (coming in from out of town) and she seemed very annoyed about that. Overall, she didn't explain things very well and we were all very confused with order and things like that the day of the wedding. Now the day of went ok. The nasty woman did get in to a little bit of a fight with my brother-in-law regarding how the groomsmen would end up at the altar just before we were starting. I wanted them up at the alter with my DH and the girls would walk down alone. She was not having this-long story short, I told my BIL to just forget it and do what she says. The ceremony was very nice. Our priest did a nice job. He did screw up a little. He told us to kiss just after we said our vows, but did not have rings yet. That kind of annoyed me. So overall, nice church, but watch out for the wedding coordinator!



Doug Bartolino (trumpeter during ceremony)- A+
Doug did an awesome job and I’m so glad that we decided to use him. When DH and I went to the church to pick out our music, they had Doug there playing along. We were so impressed-and the trumpet just added so much too. DH and had chills when we heard him, we both were like “we’re definitely have him” even though we had to pay a little extra. He was absolutely worth it.

Vanderbilt Museum (pictures)- A
I’ve always thought that this is such a beautiful place and was a little worried at how it might look during the off season. I was so happy, especially with the weather, because we were able to take the pictures outside and the grounds were just as beautiful as they always are. I was a little worried since we were late getting there. We only had a hour and I thought that we’d get there and they’d tell us “you’re only booked for 4:15-5:15, you have a half hour left.” This was not the case at all. They were very accommodating.



All Star Limo- A++++
Wow they were awesome. DH and I went a little overboard and got a Rolls Royce- that was pretty cool (it’s your wedding; you have to splurge a little) and also very nice to have alone time with DH immediately following the ceremony. It was nice to just be together for that little bit of time because for the rest of the night we were running around crazy. We had a stretch for the bridal party, which was very elegant. They were very punctual, the limos were in great condition and the drivers knew were they were going. Our driver was such a nice guy (in the Rolls). He drove us around all day and then ended up at the end of the night picking us up to take us to our hotel. He had a long day. The car from the Harbor Club to the hotel was free by the way-we just had to tip the driver.



Robinson’s Florist in Amityville-A+++
I was thrilled with what they were able to do. It’s a long story, but our original florist went out of business (and we didn’t find out until about a month and half before the wedding) and Robinson’s took the rest of their clients. I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy when I found out about this, especially over the fact that we were using a company that I had never heard of. DH and I met with Lisa, she’s their manager, and we went over everything that I wanted. I was really kind of upset and annoyed because I thought that she didn’t understand what I wanted, but on the day of the wedding I was just blown away. The bouquets were just gorgeous. My mother threw them in water at the end of the night and they lasted all week long. On the tables we had high and low centerpieces. They came out unbelievable and I am just so happy with the job that they did. I highly recommend them. Look on the slideshow and you should be able to see them in the background.


Janet King (Harpist)-A+++
I had heard Janet play at some bridal expo and thought that she was amazing. I booked her a year in advance and was so happy with how she played-she did our cocktail hour. Everyone was telling me all night long how great the harpist was. I’ve been to weddings where the cocktail hour music is just so loud you can't even hear each other speaking. With her, you had such beautiful background music. It was loud enough with everyone talking, I felt that we didn’t need any loud music blasting through the place. Anyway, it just added a little extra something to the night and I thought she was great.



Dancejock (DJ)-A++++
DH and I had met with Scott way before our wedding. I had heard awesome things about him as an emcee and not only is he an emcee, but he owns the company as well. He doesn’t do many wedding anymore so we were really excited to book with him. We got the basic package, which was everything that we needed. We met with Scott a few weeks prior to the wedding to go over everything. Basically what we told him was that we didn’t really have a preference for one type of music-I asked him to do a cool mix of everything. Dancejock did such an amazing job. Scott was great-not obnoxious or anything and he did such a good job getting people out there to dance. The music was awesome. They didn’t play your typical wedding music-you know, not those same songs that you hear over and over at every wedding. It was a great mix of music and everyone was up and dancing all night long. On another note, it turns out that my mother’s very good friend from work happened to be Scott’s cousin! We had no idea-here I was talking to this woman all year long about my wedding planning and I guess I forgot to mention who our DJ was. It was funny because they saw each other at the wedding and were like “what are you doing her?” Small world I guess.

Katie Lyman Photography-A++++++++++++
I love Katie. She is just so easy to work with and everything that she does is just so creative and beautiful. DH and I had originally booked another photographer who did photojournalism; however, he canceled on us. I was very angry about this and thought that he was very unprofessional (FM me if you want details). So we looked around and a very close friend of the family had recommended that we check Katie Lyman out. I looked at her website and saw a lot of nice work and I called her to set up an appointment. She’s based out of Brooklyn, but just so happened to be coming out here during the week and she offered to come to my house. She brought so many nice examples of albums, etc. Katie is super nice and easy to be around. It was really important that DH be comfortable with our photographer because he is not hammy at all. So anyway, we decided to use her and were even happier with our choice when we saw how our engagement pictures came out. We took them at Central Park during the fall so we were able to get some good foliage pictures. She took so many pictures in the hour that we were with her and we walked around a lot so we got a good variety of backgrounds. The engagement pictures just came out awesome. Here’s a link to my posting of a few of them:

Engagement Pics

So the day of the wedding Katie took a million pictures-not of the same picture of course. She had such good ideas and I just couldn’t wait to get my slideshow. Well I am just so happy with it and I can’t wait to get the rest of the pictures. Here it is:

Wedding Slideshow

The Harbor Club-A+++++++++++++++
Sooo happy that we chose them. Our reception was just perfect. During the whole planning process, Matthew was so wonderful to us. I would like to think that I didn’t bother him too much, but whenever I had a question about anything, he was so quick to respond (sent him quite a few emails). If you’ve never been to the Harbor Club I’ll give a little description. Basically it’s one wedding at a time-they don’t have any space for anything else. They have an upstairs and a downstairs and the cocktail hour was upstairs, dinner was downstairs. Basically the walls are all windows looking out on to the harbor. They have a nice area in the back where you can take pictures-and this place must be awesome in the summer time when you can actually go out on the balcony and deck without freezing. Matthew said that they put tables out there in the summer and people can go out during the cocktail hour or whatever. The bridal attendant (Cara) and materdei were so attentive. Cara got us plates of food during the cocktail hour since DH and I just wanted to relax for a second, which was really nice. I don’t think that I ever had to ask for a drink-glasses of wine and champagne just magically ended up in my hands as the night went on. There is nothing bad that I can say about this place. They were just amazing-they were just recently voted best place to have a wedding by Newsday!

So I hope you enjoyed my review! All the pictures posted are done by Katie Lyman.

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

I'm uploading a bunch of things to my album-I just can't figure out how to post my pictures without attaching them.

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Woo hoo-got the pictures working-thanks kslmbuggie!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!!! I loved watching that video!!! Congratulations you were a stunning!! bride

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

You looked beautiful!! Congratulations!!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

that is a beautiful wedding. congratulations!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

what a beautiful wedding!!! you were such a gorgeous bride and everything looked perfect! congrats!!!!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

congrats

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Congratulations!!! Beautiful

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

I can only see 2 pictures....the rest are red x! oh well....the review sounds great anyway! congrats!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

What beautiful pics! Congrats!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

your pictures are beautiful!! I'm getting married at the harbor club this october. it's so nice to hear good things about them. i'm also taking pictures at the vanderbilt and using dance jock as well! LOL...so I'm glad to hear you had good experiences with everyone!

If there is anything I should know beforehand, I would appreciate it. Every little piece of advice helps!! congrats to you and your DH!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Congrats! Everything looks beautiful!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Congrats, beautiful wedding!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Thank you so much for posting! There aren't many Harbor Club brides and I love reading all the details. Everything sounds amazing!! Much luck...

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

what a beautiful wedding!

i'm also a harbor club bride, and I'm using the same bridesmaid dresses! thanks for the pics!!!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Congrats! your wedding was beautiful. I'm a Harbor Club Bride also.. there aren't many of us! It's so nice to hear good things. FM any suggestions you have.

Again congrats!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

nice review!
Congrats!

Re: My March 15, 2008 wedding review at the amazing Harbor Club! Also, Katie Lyman Photography, Robinsons Florist, Janet King (Harpist), Dancejock, All Star Limo and more!

Beautiful review!