My Shoes - dyed champagne with shoe clips from Absolutely Audrey

My Shoes - dyed champagne

DIY programs using graphics from Invitations

Bridesmaid's bouquets - black callas, black magic roses, green hydrangea, hypericum berries and fiddlehead ferns

We saw each other before the ceremony!

Back of my dress

My sister (MOH) putting on my bracelet

Groom's tie - and our invitation inspiration

Close-up of the Groom & Groomsmen's ties (from Sarar)

Vintage Checker Cab from FilmCars

Making it official...signing the marraige license!

Time to get married!

Gold place card holders & DIY escort cards (using graphics from invitations)

Altar decoration - 4 arrangements on gold pillars

Ceremony Room (Lounge) Ceiling

Lighting the Unity Candle

My bouquet

My bouquet was wrapped in ivory lace from my Grandmother

Place setting with Menu Cards from An Invitation Studio

Table Set-up

Centerpiece Non-Pro Pic (one that my DOC's were able to fix!)

Room Set-up

Room Set-up

First Dance

First Dance - so much for our dance lessons...

Listening to the best man's speech

Dessert!

Time to Dance!

Midnight Snack - NYC pretzels (cart from Pushcart Parties)

Midnight Snack - NYC pretzels (cart from Pushcart Parties)

Invitations: Diane Lamendola – An Invitation Studio www.aninvitationstudio.com
Save the Dates – EXCELLENT!
Invitations – EXCELLENT!
Menus & Table Numbers – EXCELLENT!
Working with Diane was so easy and so much fun. She’s unbelievably talented. I LOVED our save the dates and our invitations – they were gorgeous and totally unique. Diane based the invite design on the groom’s tie (a gold and ivory paisley) and we loved them so much we based the whole look of the wedding on them. All I did during our initial meeting was talk to her about the ‘feel’ and look we wanted…and she came back with a ton of amazing options. She is hands down the best vendor I worked with and I would recommend her to anyone looking to go the custom route. Call her!!! She’s busy and books up fast – for a very good reason!

Save the Date - Front


Save the Date - Middle


Save the Date - Hotel Info.


Save the Date - All Pieces (non-pro pic)


Invitation Suite


Invite - Front Cover


Menu

Wedding Gown & Veil: Vera Wang Bridal www.verawang.com
Purchase – VERY GOOD (Bridal Consultant: Lori Santoro)
Lori is a pro. She knows what she’s doing, wasn’t pushy, didn’t rush us and had great suggestions on ways to have the gowns altered to flatter your body (reduce some of the crinoline, cut the back down a little more, etc.). She made the experience everything it is supposed to be…and put up with my loud and opinionated ‘entourage’!
Alterations – GOOD (Seamstress: Joanna)
I had 4 fittings and my dress was perfect by the final fitting.  My fitter Joanna, was great. The downside is that Vera Wang nickel and dimes you for everything...they charged me an additional $120 to remove the train of the dress (on top of $595). In addition, I paid to have my dress delivered the day before the wedding, and the delivery guy was 2 hours late and had been smoking in the car the entire time. The garment bags holding the dress smelled awful and my dress and veil needed to be aired out overnight. Vera Wang did refund the delivery fee, but I still find their approach to customer service to be poor.

Bridesmaid Dresses: Vera Wang Maids www.verawang.com
Purchase – BELOW AVERAGE
I had 10 bridesmaids…so I went in with just my MOH and decided on a fabric, length and color ahead of time. I then made 2 different appointments (so that I had no more than 5 girls trying on dresses at a time). Each time we went, the place was total chaos. Everyone has an attitude, from the woman at the front desk to the salespeople. Despite making a 2 hour appointment ahead of time, we were rushed through the process. Our salesperson had an assistant measure some of the girls, and then re-measured them to find most of them had been measured incorrectly. She also incorrectly marked down a 10% discount (instead of 15%) – and proceeded to argue with one of my bridesmaids. While the store is nice and the selection is great for the price…the customer service is AWFUL.
Dresses – VERY GOOD
The girls looked great and most of them didn’t need extensive alterations. They held up throughout the night and the color photographed really well. I think they’re a good deal for the price…but I would probably buy them through a salon other than the Vera Wang store.


   
Wedding Day Vendors
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Venue: Yale Club www.yaleclubweddings.org
Planning – EXCELLENT (Banquet Manager: Jaime)
Day of – EXCELLENT
Jaime was such a pleasure to deal with. She made the entire planning process stress-free and easy. She’s extremely responsive, always got back to me quickly and she really knows her stuff. I think the Yale Club has a really reasonable rate for Manhattan AND for what they offer (in terms of food, liquor and space). On the day of the event, they totally delivered. Food was plentiful and delicious (the number one rave we received), the service was excellent and the staff was super-professional. The staff went out of their way to help us from the Thursday before the wedding when we dropped off all of our things (welcome bags, pictures, candles, ceremony items, place cards, menus, etc.) to the morning after brunch. I HIGHLY recommend the Yale Club…it’s a beautiful space and they really are top-notch. Definitely ask for Jaime…your banquet manager is a huge part of the planning process and a great one will help to make your day great.

Hotel Rooms:  Yale Club www.yaleclubweddings.org 
Reservations - BELOW AVERAGE
Rooms - GOOD
Value - VERY GOOD
The only issue I had with the Yale Club was with the reservation staff (we had reserved 25 rooms for the weekend). Many of my guests were told we did not have a room block, many were treated rudely and more than one reservation was “lost”. The rooms themselves are small, but clean and very nicely decorated…and the suites are a great deal for NYC.

Day of Coordinator – DiamondGold Weddings (Shari & Beth) www.diamondgoldweddings.com/
EXCELLENT!!!
Two words: HIRE THEM. Shari and Beth were the first people to arrive in the bridal suite that morning (at 8:30am) and the last people to leave that night (after midnight!). Bottom line – they are true professionals and handled absolutely everything perfectly…from the nightmare with my florist (everything he sent was wrong) to an overzealous guest getting in the photographer’s way. I’m sure there were a million little things that went wrong but Shari and Beth just handled them – I didn’t even have to know about them. When I first started planning I wasn’t sure I’d have the budget for a DOC…but trust me when I say they are probably the most important vendor you can hire. So many questions come up on the day of the wedding, and as a bride (or mother of the bride) you don’t want to have to deal with them. I was literally able to live in a “happy bridal bubble” the entire day and focus on the fact that I was getting married.
I’m extremely organized and detail oriented but I really wanted to be able to enjoy my wedding day without having to be in charge. Hiring Beth and Shari enabled me to do just that. They knew exactly how things were supposed to go and they made sure they did! I read a ton of great reviews on them before I hired them and I have to say they not only live up to the hype but they surpass it. They are worth every penny and more!!!

Hair – Maria D’Leon, Nelson D'Leon Designs http://www.nelsondleon.com/ - EXCELLENT
Maria is the nicest woman in the world and the only person who has ever done my hair where I’ve LOVED it. They are the best in the bridal business for a reason! Maria is a true perfectionist and will literally transform you. She can do anything! I had clip in extensions and they were a PERFECT match. My hair stayed curled all night. She also tweezed my eyebrows and I haven’t stopped getting compliments on them since… If you can afford to splurge (and if you are going to splurge, why not on the way you look? THAT’s what you’ll see in pictures) call Maria! I wasted a ton of money on less expensive trials for no reason.

Makeup – Laura Nadeau http://www.bubbleandlo.com/
EXCELLENT!!!
I love Laura! I found her on weddingbee.com and loved the look of her work. When I went for my trial I was thrilled. My eyes had never looked so big or bright. She knew exactly what I wanted and did it better than anyone had before. I went back to have her do my makeup for my engagement pictures and AGAIN I was thrilled. On the day of the wedding, Laura made me look (and feel) like a model! She’s extremely talented and such a calming person to be around on your wedding day. Laura worked her wonders on me, my bridal party, my aunt and mom – and everyone looked phenomenal (and everyone went for a different “look”). My mom has difficult skin and makeup never stays on her eyes – Laura went out of her way to make sure her eyelashes would stay on and checked up on her all day long (and even after the wedding)! She’s EXTREMELY talented, so much fun and such a calming person to be around on your wedding day. If I had a good enough excuse to have my makeup done by Laura all the time, I would!!! I highly, highly recommend booking her!

Photographer – Angelica Glass http://www.angelicaglass.com/
EXCELLENT…unbelievably talented +++
Angelica’s work speaks for itself. Her pictures are gorgeous, unique, timeless, insert-any-fabulous-adjective-here. When we saw our preview pictures from the wedding I almost fell off my chair. I simply can not wait to see the rest…I am in awe of her and the work she does! Not to mention that on top of all her talent – Angelica is a great, super-nice, FUN person to be around. I spent more time with her than any other vendor on my wedding day and she was a blast to be with! We could not ask for a better photographer and I want her to capture every single important event in my life from now on!

Videographer – Ray from Timeless Treasures http://www.timelesstreasuresvideo.com/
EXCELLENT, pending video
Ray was recommended by Angelica – they work together often. Ray was great to deal with during the planning process, he’s a genuinely nice guy. On the day of, he (and his 2nd camera man Glenn) seemed to just fade into the background. Most of the time we didn’t even know they were there…but when you looked , there they were, capturing everything. That’s exactly the kind of videographer we wanted – and if our video looks anything like the previews on his website we’ll be thrilled!

Props – Film Cars http://www.filmcars.com/
EXCELLENT
Peter is one of the kindest people I’ve ever come across. We rented the vintage checker cab for 2 hours to take pictures in front of the Yale Club (you can no longer use the car for transportation purposes). He was so, so, so easy to deal with while planning and the checker cab is the perfect backdrop for NYC pictures. He was EARLY and the car was spectacular (and spotless!). When we found out we couldn’t use the checker cab to drive around the city – he immediately helped us find a limo company that could. Great guy, really cool cars!

Transportation – Bermuda Limousine http://www.bermudalimo.com/
EXCELLENT
I worked with Billy during the planning process. It was simple, quick and reasonably priced. We rented a Lincoln Navigator for 3.5 hours to drive us and our photog. around the city for pictures. When it arrived, the truck was brand new, the driver was on time and he knew his way around the city. I’d recommend them for day of transportation without hesitation.

Band: Manhattan City Music http://www.manhattancitymusic.com/
VERY GOOD
Overall, they played what we wanted, sounded good and kept the dance floor packed. Victor is a nice guy and on the day of the wedding made sure we were happy with how things were going all throughout the night. We had a 9 piece band and had 2 musicians for the ceremony and cocktail hour. The only issue we had was that for the first half hour of the reception they had problems with the cordless mics and there was a ton of feedback (loud banging noises) that everyone noticed and commented on. A good friend is a professional musician and plays with wedding bands in NYC all the time and said it was something easily corrected. We felt it took them too long to fix the issues, especially for a band that is a preferred vendor at the Yale Club and plays there pretty often.

Lighting: Luminous Designs  http://www.luminousld.com/
EXCELLENT
They are based on LI. I worked with Daniel and he was very responsive, reasonably priced and I had heard good things about them. Before our discussion – he went online to download the floorplans for the ballroom and was able to give me a quote very quickly. He provided up-lighting on the columns in the ballroom and pin spots on our centerpieces. It was the best décor decision we made. The lighting transformed the space - the room absolutely glowed. We had originally booked lighting through our florist and I’m SO GLAD we decided to outsource to a professional. I would recommend Luminous Designs to anyone. Use some of your floral budget for lighting – it makes everything look better, bigger, more beautiful!

Florist: Fleurs De Florissima http://www.fleursdeflorissima.com/
Planning – WAY BELOW AVERAGE
Throughout the planning process - they were terrible at getting back to me. I'd send email after email, leave repeated messages and not hear back from them. The day of my trial (a month before the wedding) I still had not received the revised contract (after numerous requests over 3 months!). I doubted them all the way through – and my instincts were right...
Day of – WAY, WAY BELOW AVERAGE
On the morning of the Wedding, my first phone call of the day was from Aubert saying he didn't like the boutonnières I picked because they were too big. (A fiddlehead fern - with 3 or 4 hypericum berries at the base). I told him it was okay to just use a “few” berries wrapped, because the last thing I wanted was big boutonnières (we had talked about that several times). The only thing I specifically didn't want were roses (as we had discussed). When the bouts arrived they were giant roses with berries at the base. They were huge...and falling apart. My day of coordinators talked to them and they promised to send the correct ones later on (THEY NEVER DID). Next up - I'm on the rooftop taking pictures and I look over and see an arrangement sitting out (the centerpiece off of the base). Let's just say it was FILLED with bright green hydrangeas (not antique green with the rust tips), had MUMS?!?! (a cheap filler!) and not one single hypericum berry (my contract specified lots of them). My contract stated wine and gold orchids, dahlias, baccarat roses, antique green hydrangea (used sparingly) and green hanging amaranthus. It also stated that there was to be NO FILLER, and that the base of the arrangements were to have lush baccarat rose petals and flower heads (that didn’t happen b/c they had to use the roses to replace the mums!). Thankfully, I had really great day of coordinators who had pictures from my trial and my contract and they got on the phone with them immediately. Without them, the flowers would not have looked 1/10th as good as they did in the end! Other little (or not so little) things that were wrong:
- I specified in the contract that the girls' bouquets were to be wrapped in black grosgrain ribbon, they came in satin (I specifically asked for something NOT shiny).
- The groom’s boutonnière was a black calla to be wrapped in gold satin ribbon…and to be SMALL. The one that arrived was giant, wrapped in white tulle with metallic gold trim (my dress was a very dark ivory).
- My mom's bouquet was wrong, and we had sent Aubert an exact picture of what she wanted.
- The clear clarinet vases we rented from them were upside-down on the tables and had NO water in them. Just empty glass on the table. AND, the vases were not all the same - there were 6 tables in the back corner with diff. clear vases (straight…some plain, some with etchings?, and not clarinet) - also not filled with water (and dusty!).
- There was both PINK and green hanging amaranthus (my contract stated green only).
- My cake was supposed to have a few red roses on it and petals at the base. It had about 35 bright red spray roses randomly checkered throughout it. It was awful – it looked like mini-roses had vomited on the front of the cake. Even my husband commented on how awful it looked.
There is so much more but I've gone on long enough! Thankfully, on the day of the wedding, I was able to let it go and really just enjoyed the day…but that doesn’t make it okay or right. I hear so many stories of florists not following through and it’s extremely frustrating b/c there’s so little recourse you can take. My advice – thoroughly research your florist. Read reviews and talk to other brides who have used them (it’s helpful to hear from people with similar budgets to you). Most importantly – go with your instincts…if you’re worried about them, you’re probably right!


   
Rehearsal Dinner
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Venue: Cascina Ristorante http://www.cascina.com/ - EXCELLENT
We had almost 50 people in the upstairs private room and served a family-style meal. The service was great and the food was delicious. It was a fun, relaxed atmosphere and a great way to spend time with our family and bridal party before the wedding insanity officially kicked off!

Place-card set up (after most of the pumpkin place cards were already gone!)

Funkins - carved a few days before...

Table set-up

Toast to our Bridal Party!

and finally...dinner!

   
Bridal Shower
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Venue: The Chart House http://www.chart-house.com/ - EXCELLENT
My mom threw my shower in the smaller of the two private rooms on the 2nd floor in August 2007.  It was a beautiful day, the view is unbeatable and the service was great.  There were about 50 guests and we had plenty of room.  I'd highly rec. holding an event at the Chart House!

Place Cards & Favors - personalized note cards

Table set-up

10 Bridesmaids & a Flowergirl - the BEST Bridal Party!

Cake: Carlo's Bakery http://www.carlosbakery.com/ - EXCELLENT
Does it get any better than a Jimmy Choo cake?!?! Their cakes are expensive but it was definitely the hit of the party (and tasted great too)!

Jimmy Choo Cake

Jimmy Choo Cake

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 Thanks for Looking!

* Feel free to page me on the NYC board with any questions *
 
 
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