My Community Bio My Posts Planning Boards Planning & Etiquette Local Wedding Talk Relationships The Dress Ceremony Ideas Reception Ideas Honeymoon Advice from Brides Take Our Poll Military Brides Newlywed Boards Love & Life Wedding Recap Your New Home Money Matters Baby Talk Family Issues Community Rules Disclaimer Feedback SEARCH THE KNOT Choose an area board content favors home store registries supplies couples Enter search term   See Site Index A-Z WHAT TO DO WHEN? Get organized with The Knot Checklist ANNOUNCE THE NEWS! Build your own wedding web page		BOARD: NEW YORK Topic:  From:      Date: 0/0/00 at 12:00 am From: kennysbride , 11/4/2003 at 12:01 am sorry it was too long, let me try again From: kennysbride , 11/4/2003 at 12:02 am I’m back and I’m married. I am no longer kenny’s bride, but instead kenny’s wife!! The wedding was wonderful. Everything went really well. There were a few glitches, but nothing major. So, here is my very long wedding vendor review, tips, and overall recap. I will get photos posted soon. Recap: I woke up very early and walked around the house with nothing to do. I had been such a lunatic for the past year planning everything, that I finally had nothing left to do but wait. It was finally time for hair and makeup. Everything was going along schedule until one of my bridesmaids, who is a pain in my butt, held us up for photos because she has so much damn hair and had them blow dry it straight and them recurl it. I swear she thought it was her wedding day. Anyway, the weather man had been forecasting showers for Sunday. I wanted to kill him. He kept saying, “The good news is he showers hold off until Sunday!!!” That was not good news! So I think I was very lucky. It drizzled all morning while I got my hair and makeup done. By the time I had to take photos at my house, it was drizzling on and off. This meant no photos with the pretty yellow tree in the backyard, but a few photos outside near the house and some inside. This was fine. As I was getting ready to leave on time at 1:30pm, I realized that two of my aunts were not dressed and one was still getting her makeup done! I wanted to kill them. I started to yell at them about how I needed to be the last one at the church and they needed to get their butts in gear and out the door. I ended up leaving before them and I was very nervous that they wouldn’t make it in time and one of them was a reader! It was just like my family to be selfish like that. So we got to the church and waited for about 15 minutes. The ceremony went great. It was fast. I don’t really remember most of it. I remember looking back at my FG and her winking at me, which I thought was the cutest thing ever. I remember my dad stepping on my veil and then Kenny stepping on my veil. I remember feeling like I couldn’t breathe in my dress and I remember not being able to get kenny’s ring on. Then we were married! We sort of had a receiving line. We stopped at the back of the church and as everyone walked out we said a quick hello. At one point I left Kenny and started walking down the receiving line to move things along faster. This seemed to work great. We took photos a park nearby. The rain had stopped completely and as we were taking our photos, the sun actually came out. It ended up being a beautiful day. We got to the reception about 30 minutes into the cocktail hour. We were tired of all the photos by then. Once the reception started, I was a little upset because I was overwhelmed with the photos and the video and felling like I had to greet everyone. So I got a drink to relax a little. This really helped. I was not drunk at any point, but I was able to have a great time. I was surprised, but I was able to make it around to all 225 people. Don’t worry about having you DH with you at all times for going around to the tables, they all just really want to see the bride anyway. :) So, before I knew it the reception was over. It was 6.5 hours, including cocktail hour. I felt this was the prefect amount of time. There was plenty of dancing time and time for all the other things you need to do. I was not as disappointed at the end of the night as I thought I’d be because I did everything I wanted to do. It was the best night of my life! I have never been so happy. From: kennysbride , 11/4/2003 at 12:03 am Wedding vendors: Photo: Peter Oberc- peteroberc.com. Peter did an unbelievable job. We have over 700 proofs. He was easy to work with. He was on time. He worked fast and was able to deal with people very easily. He got so many great shots. He got us the proofs, including all the proofs on a CD, in 2 weeks! See the photos for yourself in my bio. I would definitely recommend him. Video: Eric Model-Reelmoments.com. Eric was great. He was all over the place getting all the shots on the dance floor, without being annoying. He took Kenny and I aside for only about 10 minutes to say some things. I can’t wait to see the video. Flowers-United Floral. The flowers were wonderful. The centerpieces looked great. The cake was exactly what I wanted. Reasonably priced considering I had all roses. All the flowers arrived exactly on time. Limo-Septembre Limo. Arrived early. Very professional. The drivers had earpieces to talk to each other and my driver was very helpful at the church. We had a rolls and a 16 passenger limo. Both drivers knew how to get everywhere. DJ- Joe Shane from Mobile Music-joeshane.com. Joe was wonderful. Everyone was raving about him. He had everyone on the dance floor the entire night. He played exactly the type of music we asked for. He even brought his son to help out. He was very well mannered and I barely even noticed him, which was what we wanted. I was shocked when even my mother and grandmother, who had been hard-core wedding band pushers, complimented how well he did. My grandmother said it was just like having a band. The only thing that bothered me, which is really the villa barone’s fault, was that we told him we wanted to dance our first dance alone and someone invited everyone to dance with us. I’m not positive if it was the maitre d or Joe who did this. I think it was the maitre d. My Dress- House of Botticelli-Bronxville. It was wonderful working with these ladies, especially Carolina. They made getting my dress a great and easy experience. It arrived when they said and the seamstress did a wonderful job with the alterations. They were always very helpful. BM and FG dresses- netbride.com. Definitely use netbride! I saved my girls so much money. Their dresses were only $105 and I saw the same exact ones for over $200 in the dress shops. They arrived early and in perfect condition. The only problem I had was that I ordered their sizes according to their largest measurements and some of them had to get major alterations. If you have an A line or full skirt, you do not have to worry about the hip measurement. MOB dress- Fontana’s-Scarsdale/Eastchester. DO NOT USE FONTANAS. As many of you know, getting my mom’s dress (or should I say not getting my mom’s dress) at Fontana’s was the biggest mistake I made in the wedding process. Long story short, my mom did not get her dress. They led her on for weeks until 3 days before when they thought the wedding was and then told her the dress wasn’t coming. They then gave her a dress off the rack in their store and altered it for her. They gave her jewelry and shoes and a purse. However, my mother wanted her dress and she wanted her $350 deposit back. They did not deliver either! Then the bastards had the frigin nerve to charge MY credit card for the balance on the original dress while I was on my honeymoon!!! Do you believe these people?! They had my credit card number because I put the deposit for the original dress on it in June! So my mom went in and gave them hell and they final agreed to credit my card for the amount they fraudulently charged and they gave the deposit back, but only after my mom gave them back the dress she wore to my wedding that had been altered for her off their rack! I bet you anything that those bastards try to sell that used dress as new!!!! Please do not use Fontanas. Since we had this problem, we have heard numerous stories from people who have had similar problems. Jewelry- weddingsparkles.com and jessicaswedding.com. These were two great sites I found for the girl’s jewelry and for my own. They arrived really quickly and were reasonably priced. Hair- Tanya Michelle’s Salon in Valhalla. Rockina (sp?) did a wonderful job on my hair. It stayed up all night and was exactly what I wanted. They opened their salon just for me and my girls since the wedding was on a Sunday. The only problem was that they didn’t leave enough time. I told them everyone needed to be done by 11:30am and one of my girls did not get done until almost 12:30pm. Makeup-April Dawson. I think April did a great job with my makeup. She listened to what I had to say. However, she is a professional makeup artist and she lets you know it! She did not get along with Peter (photographer) because she was trying to tell him how to shot my photos. I think she went a little heavy on my sister’s makeup, but overall, everyone looked great. She is also a big talker, which slowed her down and one of my aunt’s didn’t have time to get her makeup done. Church- St Teresa’s of Avila-Father Gorman. The church was beautiful. Father Gorman really got you in and out of there, which was great. We had a full mass and I think it was only about 40 minutes. He got a little weird when he made me and Kenny go to confession at the rehearsal. However, I think he was nice and easy to work with overall. Reception-Villa Barone Manor, Bronx. The reception was great. The food was amazing. There were some minor glitches, such as there was supposed to be someone walking around with appetizers during the cocktail hours and there wasn’t, they didn’t follow my directions for the placecards, the maitre d had everyone join me and Kenny dancing for our first dance, when we had told the DJ we didn’t want that. However, no one noticed these things but me and Kenny. There was still tons of food during the cocktail hour and everyone keeps raving about what a great job the Villa Barone did. I would definitely recommend them. They are reasonably priced compared to some of the other reception halls, especially considering how much really good food we got. Hotel- Crowne Plaza-White Plains. I would not recommend them. The sales people were very helpful, but their reservation desk sucks! They kept telling my guests I had no more rooms available in my block, when I had tons of rooms available. Some of my guests ended up at other hotels because of this. I had to end up calling everyone I thought would need a room and tell them to call the sales people directly to book their rooms. I thought the hotel should do something to make up for this huge inconvienence, but they did not. Tuxes- Windsor Tux-Mamaroneck. They did a great job. Great to work with. All the guys looked great. From: kennysbride , 11/4/2003 at 12:04 am Tips: 1. Black magic roses will stain your dress!!! I wanted to cry when my bouquet left a few faint red marks on my dress before the ceremony. Make sure to hold the bouquet away from your dress. I ended up getting all the satins out with Oxy clean stain remover wipes. They worked great! 2. If you have a long veil, make sure no one is stepping on it before you walk away. My dad stepped on me as I was walking up to the altar with Kenny and then Kenny stepped on me during the ceremony. I ended up taking off the damn thing right after the ceremony and only leaving on the fingertip length veil. 3. Wear thigh highs or no stocking at all. It is the biggest pain in the butt to try to go to the bathroom in a huge dress. I was so glad I wore thigh highs. 4. Bring socks or slippers. My feet hurt by an hour into the reception and I wore white socks the rest of the night. 5. Put someone in charge of the photos you want taken. I had my brother’s girlfriend cross off a list as we went. It was great. You will most likely be pressed for time with your photos and you want to make sure you get all the shots you really want. You will forget about them, so you need to have them written down. 6. Type up directions from the church to the reception and the hotel to the church and reception and give them to you guests. Your guests will thank you. 7. Eat that morning. I did and I am glad. 8. Get a bigger limo than what you think you will need. A 16 passenger limo will not hold 16 people. My brother had to go with my parents because he couldn’t fit in the limo. 9. Enjoy every minute of the day. Someone told me before the wedding to stay in the moment. When you are getting you hair done, think about that, not what you have to do next. Stay in the moment and capture it. It will fly by. 10. If you can, get a car for just you and you DH or you and DH and your best man and MOH. You will want the few minutes of quiet on the ride to the reception. 11. Bring a bottle of water with you to keep in the limo. I was so thirsty. Back to NEW YORK Main

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