Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Sorry it's taken so long! Here's what I have so far...I'll try to finish it before our baby arrives!

Liweddings.com
Thank you so much for starting this site and to all the girls who make it actually organic. The fact that I could post and receive information on all my ideas and concerns not only helped me through the planning, but also saved me several thousand dollars in planning for the big day.

Mother Nature
I had always pictured my wedding day as beautifully sunny with blue skies and no signs of rain. DH and I had realized that the weather would be something we couldn’t do anything about, but I couldn’t help checking weather.com like a maniac ten days before the wedding. I woke up the morning of the 23rd and saw clouds outside, then I saw the cold rain coming down and I went into a very crabby mood. My mom and I took my dog down to the bay to try to tire him out, and it started pouring while we were walking home. I was cranky, but I knew that if it rained in the morning, it should clear up by mid-afternoon. I wanted to walk to the church, but if it rained I’d have to take the limo and I didn’t want to wrinkle the dress or give up my plans….Rich Hoffman from News12 was my favorite weather person because he kept saying the weekend would be sunny by 1pm on Saturday.

When we were getting our hair done it was pouring and we had the giant golf umbrellas out and ready to use. While we were getting our make up done at my house, we could see the rain coming down in sheets, but when the photographers arrived at my house around 1:30, the clouds were dissipating and the roads were drying up. When the time came to walk to the church the limo wanted to shuttle us over, but I just started walking with my girls before someone could talk me out of it. I just needed it to be dry for about 10 minutes until I got to the church – and it was.
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When we left the ceremony, it started to sprinkle again so we had to quickly get in the limo and the van (more on that later), so we had no receiving line and no pictures of us in front of the church. We quickly drove over to the Arboretum before it started to rain again, and no joke (this gives me the shivers when I write it), as soon as the photographers set us up under our favorite tree (where DH and I had gone on one of our first dates), the sun started shining, and I mean shining. I started to cry because I felt like all the people who couldn’t make it to our big day physically were there with us emotionally. And the day stayed beautiful from that point on. We were very blessed.
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Engagement Ring: Scott Kay at Kay Cameron Jewelers, Sayville
We spent an afternoon at Kay Cameron Jewelers in Sayville on New Year’s Eve 2005 and this ring was the last one the jeweler showed us and I fell in love with it. I didn’t think it would be the ring we would actually get, but it gave us both an idea of what type and what cut I liked. Three months later DH surprised me on a business trip in Europe and proposed in Zurich. And that’s how it all began….

Wedding Bands: David S. Diamonds in Manhattan

Save the Dates: Vistaprint.com
The day DH had proposed we walked around Zurich and enjoyed the spring air. We took lots of pictures of ourselves with our digital camera and one of them came out beautiful with fantastic colors and the moment was captured. We decided to load the photo to Vistaprint and send postcards to our friends and family to announce the wedding. If I had known then what I know now about MS Publisher, I think we could have done a much better job, but Vistaprint gave us 100 glossy postcards for FREE – couldn’t beat that!

Engagement Party: Brunch at The Riverview in Oakdale
Because we had been together for nearly four years and we were having a short engagement (5 months) we tried to avoid an engagement party, but DH is the first child in his family to get married so his parents wanted to celebrate. We had a wonderful, informal brunch with immediate family.

Bridal Shower Harbor Crab, Patchogue
I’m originally from the Albany area and I love the water. DH and I take the ferry to Davis Park during the summer, and our spoiled dog gets walked to the bay almost everyday for his run. It was appropriate for my shower to be on the water, so they decided on Harbor Crab. It was in the upstairs room overlooking the bay and it was wonderfully intimate. We had about 50 people, and the entrees were fantastic. My BMs did a great job planning and preparing for it!

Dress: Lazaro from Paradise Bridal in Patchogue (Paulina the Bridal Consultant)
This is the first dress I tried on at the first Bridal Salon I visited! I told myself I didn’t want strapless, I didn’t want anything too gaudy/beaded and look at what I fell in love with! I had heard some unpleasant things about the alterations at Paradise so I didn’t think I would actually buy a dress there but I fell in love with my gown! I couldn’t take it off! The price was hard to swallow and I did shop around trying to find a knock-off but the quality wasn’t the same as Lazaro. I went to Bridal Reflections in Massapequa to try to distract myself and the first dress the consultant put me in was the SAME GOWN. I also tried Gownfind.com and other websites, but no one carried this particular Lazaro. Paulina at Paradise hit the lowest price first, and she gave me an extra 10% off because I went in during a trunk show for Lazaro. I ordered the gown, it came in when they said it would. Before it came in, Paulina let me come in to visit the sample gown and she let me try on veils that weren’t from Paradise. I had a good experience with Paulina, but I didn’t trust the seamstresses.
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Dress Alterations: A woman named Nevis in Kings Park
A co-worker of mine had hired Nevis for her wedding dress two years ago and she raved about how good she was and how flexible she is with her timing of appointments. As soon as I picked up my dress from the salon, I brought it with my shoes to Nevis and we began working on it. We had some trouble with the bustle because it was a cathedral, attached train with only one seam down the back, but I think she did a fantastic job. I even had her change it after we had spent nearly two hours deciding one bustle. Nevis was patient and kind, and she did it exactly how I wanted her to do it. She put cups in to the dress and she actually took the chest and waist in a little too much but the day of the wedding it fit me perfectly. I highly, highly recommend Nevis. She’s a sweet woman and she doesn’t understand why I wanted to pay her double what she charged me (FM me if you’d like more information).
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Veils: Handmade by my mother’s friend
I had tried on a cathedral-length veil when I fell in love with my dress the first time I put it on, and I knew I wanted one. I also wanted a chapel-length one with rhinestone trim/banding but I couldn’t budget it. My mother’s friend who had made several of my prom dresses, my mom’s wedding gown, the bridesmaids’ dresses for my brother’s wedding, etc. volunteered to make my veils for me. I ordered diamond white tulle from a website from LIW, and ordered 12yards of rhinestone banding from a wholesaler in the fashion district. I went to Michael’s and bought several hair combs for her to attach the material to, and I showed her pictures of what I wanted, and they came out exactly how I wanted them. She made the double-layer chapel-length one permanently attached to the comb and I was able to flip one layer over as my blusher instead of having another piece of tulle. The cathedral length veil was detachable with Velcro and she used fishing line to trim the cathedral-length piece. The veil that could have cost more than $300 ended up costing about $50.
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Wedding Jewelry: Potluck and a wonderful husband!
I bought my tiara at Joann Fabric for $15. It was very flexible and comfortable to wear all day, which was a concern because apparently I have a larger than average sized head. My earrings were my something “borrowed” – they were my sister’s wedding earrings. I had shopped all over creation looking for a necklace and/or a bracelet that wouldn’t clash with my dress, and I finally had settled on only wearing a simple bracelet (from Target actually) but my lovely DH surprised me by dropping off a gift to me the morning of the wedding. When I got back from having my hair done, he had stopped at our house to leave me a Kay Cameron bag and it was a custom-made Amethyst and diamond necklace which perfectly went with my dress. It was one of the most wonderful gifts I will ever receive.
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Wedding Purse(s): Handmade by mom – she made me four!

Shoes: Bride’s Secret – Buy two different pair!
Just like my jewelry, I didn’t want shoes that were too plain but I didn’t want shoes that distracted from the cumber bund (sp?) on my dress either. I was at Macys and I found an interesting pair that were similar to my gown, but I honestly thought that they were ugly – I tried them on and decided to take them home to try them with my gown. When I went to pay for them, the clerk said they were 70% off! I paid $15 for this great pair of shoes that went perfectly with my dress when I got home.
However, with the size of the heel and the lack of support I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to last all day in the original shoes. I went to Payless and bought a pair of plain white dyeable shoes and changed into them just before the cocktail hour. Any blisters that had developed from Pair #1 were completely protected from Pair #2’s evil doings. Also, while at the Arboretum taking pictures, I stepped in goose droppings several times, so I’m happy I was able to get out of the messy shoes… I spent $30 on shoes and I was comfortable all evening long.
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Tuxedos: Paradise Bridal in Patchogue
Because I had spent so much money on my dress, Paradise supposedly gave us a deal on the tuxedos. We had four groomsmen, and all three father-figures wore tuxedos so we qualified for the groom to be free. The problem was the hours of operation – only three of the eight people needing to be fitted were local, and pick up and drop off times are not really convenient at all. But a tuxedo is a tuxedo, right?

Photographer: Drew Anthony and Pedro Sousa, Eye Scar Photography, Port Jefferson Station, NY
I give Drew and Pedro *****. They are phenomenal! I hope you can see that in the photos they took! Here’s the long story of it, though:
I had splurged on my wedding gown with the notion that I would scrimp and save in other areas, but we ended up splurging on the photographer as well. Because we were on a tight budget and a tight timeline, our options were limited. The photographers in Sayville were all booked, and the ones in the Bayport area were too expensive for us. We asked DH’s good friend who is a photographer and a graphic artist whom he would recommend and he encouraged us to not save money on the photographer. He gave us the priceless advice that we are always going to be thankful for! He recommended some friends of his, who were already booked for our date. They recommended someone else, who also was booked for our date. The third referral was Drew, and he let us know that he would meet with us, but he’s very selective and only does 10-12 weddings per year. He interviews the couple to find out what they’re like and what their interests are, then he decides if he will do the job and determines the pricing for the event. EXCLUSIVE! He usually does corporate photography, in addition to catalog and runway work, but look at his wedding work! DH and I went to his studio in Port Jeff one night and we talked for several hours – it was like hanging out with a friend of the family. He’s very calm yet assertive and I would like to call him a closet wedding planner. We had several meetings with him – the first where we discussed what we were interested in, then he called us to tell us the price and DH and I had to mull over the costs. After seeing Drew’s other wedding books and getting to know his personality, we knew we would beg borrow or steal to get him to do our wedding. We sat on the decision for several weeks, until Drew politely called to say he had been offered another event for the same date as our wedding, and we realized we needed to sign the contract if we wanted him. When we look at it now, we know we got a bargain.
Drew and Pedro showed up at my house where the girls were getting ready at 1:30pm…they walked to the church with us, went to the arboretum with us, went back to the Blue Point Fishing Dock (completely opposite direction!) then came to the country club. They were down with whatever we wanted, without any complaints about sand, sun, rain, or insects either! Their only concern was for their equipment and they let us know up front that they won’t shoot in the rain. (Thank God it had stopped raining!) Also, Drew was somewhat of a wedding coordinator because he has awesome people skills. He let me know very politely that the limo driver was trying to slow the clock to charge me overtime (which we had discussed beforehand). Because of Drew we saved several hundred dollars by making sure we stuck to a schedule.
Drew and Pedro stayed at the reception until the very end…when people had changed into shorts and t-shirts to go out bar-hopping after midnight. They were outstanding and I highly recommend them to any LIW bride. Friends of ours who got married this past June booked them and were wonderfully satisfied as well.
Also, we received more than 1400 proofs! AMAZING. FM me if you’d like his information. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Drew and Pedro.
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Reception
Florists: M&F Florists in Islip for centerpieces
Flowers by Rosemarie for all others
M&F Florists works with the West Sayville Country Club for the centerpieces for the tables. They didn’t have a spectacular selection, but I needed to try to stick to the budget (especially if I went so far over with the dress and the photographer). DH and I spent 10 minutes leafing through their photo albums in Islip and I was having a Bridezilla day (my only one, I must say), and the woman who worked with us snapped me right back into place and got us to make a decision within 5 minutes. I told her my colors and I told her the time of year of the wedding, she made a suggestion, and I said fine. EASY!
Plus, the centerpieces arrived in time, were assembled beautifully, were very simple but classy, and they lasted for several weeks after the wedding. They even included a ring of green sponge around the rims of the vases so that people who took them home would not have to worry about the water spilling out. They were perfect.

Rosemarie is a very creative florist who works out of her home in Sayville. She’s a little pushy, but that’s because she does her job very well. I love gerber daisies and I wanted the colors purple and green. Rosemarie worked with DH and I for two meetings and she incorporated almost all of our ideas. We asked her to include fresh sage from our garden at home in all floral arrangements – a few days before the wedding I brought over some sage plants, she planted them in her backyard to keep them fresh, and she incorporated them nicely into each boutonnière, corsage, and bouquet. She listened to the politics of my family and accounted for the potential problems that could come out if FMIL’s chest corsage was bigger than my stepmothers’ wrist corsage. Plus she threw in two extra of all pieces, hydrangeas for the cake, rose petals to decorate the tables at the reception. She also did the pew bows.
The unbelievable part about it is that my floral budget was less than $600….can you believe that???
Also, Rosemarie was the most supportive vendor of my idea to walk to the church. She was encouraging and she let me know that if I wanted someone to walk with me, she’d show up to join the party.


Limousine Company (and other Transportation)
DH and I didn’t want to do limos for our transportation, but we lost that battle. We wanted to make our wedding unique and full of character, so we decided we would take his 1982 VW Westphalia camper van from the church to the reception. He bought the baby blue camper from a friend at a party several years ago for $300, and he sank a bunch of money into it before it would even run. I found it very appropriate – it’s blue, we live in Blue Point, we could pile a lot of our friends and family in it, we could put beer in the fridge and in the sink with ice…we even had a vase on the kitchen counter for me to put my flowers in. The morning of the wedding DH went out and bought white linens for the interior and decked it out bridal suite style. DH’s best man drove with the MOH sitting shotgun from the church to the arboretum, then MOH switched with DH’s sister for the rest of the photos.

Serenity Limousine
I would only give Marie a C+ for their service. As mentioned earlier, I didn’t really want a limo, but I realized the whole bridal party wouldn’t fit in the van, so we agreed we’d get a stretch limo for the bridal party. I had paid too much money for my dress, so I went to Paradise Bridal for the tuxes hoping for a discount and I went to Serenity for a discount because they’re in the same storefront as Paradise. Marie said she was giving me a deal, but her price was comparable to all others in the area…Whenever I told her that I didn’t want a limo to take me from my house to the church, she would literally yell at me, “You can’t walk to the church! No bride of ours is walking to the church.”




Makeup: Dollface A+++++
I loved my make up! Stacey did two make up trials, and I loved the second trial so I felt very comfortable with the make up choices for the day of the wedding. She arrived at my house and did the entire wedding party. She did a fantastic job on all of us, and because she’s one of my good friends, she came to the wedding. I remember dancing on the dancefloor and she came up to me several times to say, Let’s go powder your nose! I couldn’t have hired a more professional, friendly make up artist.


Still to come:
Invitations
Menu
Cake
Favors
Table Settings
Place cards
Signature Drinks
Church
Pre- Cana
DJ
Organist
Soloist
Rehearsal Dinner
Dance Lessons
Honeymoon
BM/GM gifts
Bachelorette Party
Bachelor Party
Maitre D’s

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Congrats!!!!!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

thanks for posting. congrats to you!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

yay! As a WSCC, I totally appreciate your review. Thanks!!!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Congratulations!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

Yay another WSCC BRIDE
WSCC ROCKS !!!
I agree at M&F flowers .. really tacky selection but its total worth to upgrade and customize yourself !!! they did do a great job for us also..

Love that tree photograph!!! Great composition!

Message edited 9/13/2007 7:00:44 PM.

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

oooh love your pics! we just met with drew anthony the other day!!

Re: Finally! 9/23/06 Wedding Review WSCC, Drew Anthony Photography, Lazaro, Paradise Bridal, Our Lady of the Snow, Rosemarie, M&F Florist, Arboretum, Rolling Pin Bakery, los more!

OMG, do you have that florist RoseMarie's phone number??

I have been trying to track her down since I first heard of her, and I can't seem to find her number anywhere!!
If you could help me out that would be great!!

Thank you so much
Steph