The Brides' Review - My June 3, 2007 Wedding at Timber Point--Rabbi Alan Stein, Hair by Diana, High Energy, Commack Wedding Center, & SAS Designs

Pencils Posted: Jun 30, 2007 01:40 PM+

Pencils MEMBER SINCE: 12/06 TOTAL POSTS : 1963 WEDDING DATE: Jun 03, 2007

Posted: Jun 30, 2007 01:40 PM

My June 3, 2007 Wedding at Timber Point--Rabbi Alan Stein, Hair by Diana, High Energy, Commack Wedding Center, & SAS Designs

Wow, I can't believe it's over. My engagement and wedding went so fast--but then it was really fast, we got engaged on November 1, 2006, and were married June 3, 2007. We started serious wedding planning in December. One of the first things we did was visit venues. The second place we toured was Timber Point and I immediately wanted my wedding to be there. I whispered to my fiance, 'I want it. Can I have it??' and he whispered back, 'If the numbers work out.' And they did! Also, they had a date, June 3rd. Initially we were thinking of September, but when we realized we could get a good deal for June, we thought, OK, it might be a bit of a rush, but why put it off? So, Sunday, June 3rd, was the date!

Venue: The Mansion at Timber Point. They were great. All the way through the planning, my husband and I had great communication with Neal Chien, our manager. And on the day everyone was wonderful. The Maitre d' was always there, getting whatever we needed and dealing with any questions or problems that came up, from setting up the introduction (which we originally didn't want to bother with) to finding me and asking if I really minded if the DJ played the Chicken Dance for the kids (I had forbidden it under pain of death, but the kids really wanted it, and I was so happy, I relented. And those are some of the best pictures in the end.) My bridal attendant was also great, bringing me food and drinks whenever I needed it, offered to help me bustle, etc. Sadly, I don't remember either name!

I should find out. The staff was exactly what we wanted on the day--there when we needed something, but otherwise in the background. And Timber Point was beautiful on the day. I didn't bother decorating the stairs, etc., and that was fine, as they were already draped in tulle and ivy garlands! The grounds were gorgeous, and the patio were the ceremony was held was just beautiful. So many people who have seen the photos have commented on how gorgeous the vine-covered arch was. I knew when I saw it, all brown and bare, back in December that it would be special in June, and it was. The food was really good and there was plenty of it, at the cocktail hour and at dinner. The only quibbles I have are: I asked for something non-alcoholic for the ceremony, and there was wine (I don't touch alcohol.) And they sat us at a sweetheart table even though I specified the bride and groom at a table with guests on the seating plan. We didn't end up sitting there for long, but that's not the point. Other than those, it was a perfect wedding, and I highly recommend Timber Point.

Officiant: At first we weren't sure who we wanted to marry us. We knew we wanted to get married on site. Neither of us is religious. However, my husband lost his mother on this past Thanksgiving, and he knew she would have liked him to be married in a Jewish ceremony. Out of four weddings, her children had so far only had one Jewish wedding. So when my husband asked if I would mind having a rabbi marry us, I of course said OK. After doing some reading about the Jewish ceremony, I realized that I liked the symbolism of many of the elements. Then, we had to find a rabbi--not so easy when one of the couple is a gentile. We met with Rabbi Alan Stein who is a vendor here on LIW, and we really clicked with him, so we asked him to perform the ceremony. And it was wonderful. He really seemed to 'get' us and how much we love each other, and how well we're suited to one another. He also spoke briefly but movingly about my husband's mother. I'm very glad Rabbi Stein married us. A.

DJ: We didn't want a lot from a DJ. No light show, no fancy MC, no giveaways, no dancing, etc. We just wanted someone to play the music we wanted. And Ralph from High Energy gave us that at a really good price. He played the music I wanted, did a great job at the ceremony--I wanted U2's 'Beautiful Day' played at the first chorus as our recessional, and it worked perfectly. And he didn't play the music I put on the 'no play' list, although he did send the Maitre d' to ask me if it was OK to play the Chicken Dance as the kids were begging. (I said OK.) A.

Photography: We were definitely on a budget, and my husband and I aren't people who like to pose for pictures, or flip through albums. My brother-in-law is an avid amateur photographer, and is very good. Friends had asked him to shoot their wedding last year, and he did a wonderful job, so when he offered to photograph our wedding, we of course said 'yes, thank you!' He did a great job. And the price certainly was right. A.

Cakes: my mom made our main wedding cake, which was a three tier cheesecake made from a recipe in the old Martha Stewart 'Weddings' book. She made it for my sister's wedding years ago, and I always wanted one. It turned out beautifully. Timber Point includes a cake from Black Forest Bakery in the package, so I had them make us a tower of cupcakes. They were very pretty--they understood when I said I wanted pastel icing, and the flowers on top were pretty. They had suggested sugar sprinkled on top to make them sparkly, and although it looked pretty, it wasn't very nice to eat, too crunchy. The cupcakes were tasty, but a little dry. They had asked me what fillings we wanted, and we said 'fillings? These aren't Hostess cakes!' so we didn't have any. But the cupcakes were large and a bit dry, and they would have been tastier with filling. Oh well, you live and learn, right? I also had them make a chocolate and fresh strawberry grooms cake. It was decorated with his favorite team, the NY Giants. They did a great job with that, too, although I provided a lot of the non-icing decor (bought it off the Internet.) I give my mom an A+ and Black Forest a B+.

Invitations: I did my own save-the-dates, and they turned out well, but the one thing I learned was that I didn't want to do my own invitations! I shopped around a bit, but very soon decided on the Luxe invitation from White Aisle Rebecca from White Aisle was great. I found an art nouveau graphic I wanted, and Rebcca scanned it and created a great design (well, I mostly designed it myself but she put it together and made it work.) She was quite fast, the invites turned out perfectly, and I got a lot of complements on them. I liked them so much I had her make table numbers with the same design. Her prices are very reasonable--I recommend White Aisle! A.

Wedding Gown, Bridesmaid's Dresses, and other clothing.
Once we set the date, I immediately realized that I needed to order a wedding gown and bridesmaids' dresses if they were going to come in on time. Right after Christmas, my mom and I went to RK Bridal in Manhattan. I had been looking at wedding dresses online and in magazines, so I had an idea of what I wanted, and a list of style numbers. I liked RK Bridal, no one jumped on you to try to sell you anything, and you could actually touch and go through the dresses yourself, even if the huge piles of satin and tulle were a bit daunting. After trying on a bunch of gowns, I whittled it down to a beaded Casablanca satin gown, and a lace gown with a ribbon sash by Allure. But I decided on the Casablanca gown, because it was the one gown that when I put it on I immediately felt like a bride. And that's the point, right? The fact that it was several hundred cheaper than the Allure wasn't bad, either. Once I chose the gown, I had to decide where to buy it. I checked online and found some really cheap prices at places like House of Brides and Jay's, but they worried me. I emailed Casablanca, who said, in a very diplomatic way, that they didn't advise buying from a discount online vendor, that they heard horror stories from gown-less brides all time. You don't have to tell me twice, so I started calling the Casablanca official retailers in the area. I got a lot of different prices, which is odd considering I knew the MSRP. I was really turned off by some salons who bad-mouthed their competitors while trying to convince me that their very high price was a good deal. The best deal was from the Commack Wedding Center, even better than RK Bridal's in house price (not their no-frills price, I didn't want to do that, although in retrospect I could have, I didn't need alterations or a bustle) so I went with them.

Commack Wedding Center--there has been a lot of negative things said about the CWC on LIW, but I had no problems with them. They were perfectly nice to me when I came in and ordered, gave me the best price by far, and didn't try to pull any fast ones. My dress came in about ten days late, but I don't think that was their fault, they called me as soon as it arrived. Again, they were pleasant to me when I came in to try it on, and were nice enough when I realized I had to pay the balance in cash but I hadn't brought any (though I could charge it.) While I was trying my gown on, my mom talked to the salesperson, telling her about my health issues, and she always asked about my health when I came back to the store. They didn't push alterations on me, as I didn't need them, although I do think their pressing charge was ridiculous, but I didn't have any time to go somewhere else. They didn't do much for me other than order the dress and give it to me, but I'll give them an A anyway.

I had two bridemaids dresses, one by Forever Yours for the older girls, and one by Pegeen for the youngest. The flower girl wore the same Pegeen dress in the opposite color. The Forever Yours dresses came from Perfect Bridesmaids , an online shop. I didn't order them, my SiL did, but they had the best price, they came in quickly, were in good condition, and as far as I know there were no problems. The younger girl's dresses from Pegeen were gorgeous. My youngest bridesmaid is a plus-sized girl, and I knew I would have problems finding her a pretty dress that fit properly, so I looked for companies that did custom fitting. Pegeen has two levels of custom fitting. Fitting my niece was no big deal to them, and I loved the final dress. My other SiL was not used to online ordering and did have a few issues with Pegeen, but in the end the flower girl's dress was lovely too. I recommend Pegeen highly--Marj even called me personally to talk to me about the issues my SiL was having so there would be no surprises, and I was very grateful for that.Pegeen

Hair and Makeup--Initially I thought that getting our hair and makeup done by a local salon would save money, but after getting dicked around rudely by a well-regarded salon, I ended up going with more traditional wedding-day artists. A first makeup trial was a disaster, I looked like Norma Desmond from Sunset Blvd. Yikes! Then I booked Diana from Hair by Diana to do our hair, and she suggested a friend, Tina, to do our makeup. The trials were great, so I booked them. Diana and Tina showed up right on time--even though WE were late--and they did an amazing job. Unfortunately, it was a windy (my veil blew off!) and humid day and a lot of my curls fell out by the wedding. I almost never curl my hair, so I had no idea that it would react like that. However, the hair she pulled back stayed and stayed with no flyaways. Tina did a wonderful job on my makeup, I looked very natural, like me, just better, which is what I wanted. Diana did an amazing job on my niece's hair, which normally is pretty much uncontrollable, and she made my sister and mom look great. Tina also did wonderful makeup jobs on them. They were a lot of fun to be around, and I wholeheartedly recommend them. A+

Flowers: As one of my cost-cutting measures, I decided to do my own flowers. Not for everyone, I know, but even though I love flowers of all kinds, I also knew I could do this, and knew it would be a significant savings on the day. In the end, I estimate I saved over $1000. After a lot of research online, including a lot of searching on The Knot, I ordered flowers from 2G Roses, also known as Fresh Roses.com . I planned on two dozen bridal white roses for each table, and two dozen roses of varying colors for bouquets. It worked out pretty well. The problem was that the FedEx delivery was supposed to come before noon on the Friday before our wedding. It didn't. I called 2G Roses several times, and found out that the flight was delayed. Eventually the box came just after 6pm. Now, this was annoying as I had a few things to do that day, as you can imagine, and I kept having to leave to do stuff while leaving someone at the house to receive the box. Then, when I opened the box, a good number of the yellow roses were turning brown, and not just the outside petals, while the lily of the valley ($50!) for my and my sister's bouquets was also turning brown, and the leaves were yellow. They were unusable. We did manage to use many of the yellow roses, but they did look a bit battered. However, those were the kids' flowers, so I thought it would be OK (kids bash stuff around anyway, right? And they did!) Because it was after 6 on a Friday, I didn't call 2G Roses, who later told me they might have been able to send me more. I didn't think of it. But they did refund us the lily of the valley and one bunch of yellow roses. So I give them an 'A.'

Short reviews:

Shoes: I had such a hard time finding shoes! First, I'm a size 11. Then, my fiance isn't that much taller than I, and he asked me not to be taller on our wedding day. So low heels were a must. I wanted a closed toe, ivory to match my gown, and some sparkle. Finally, I found these Benjamin Adams shoes at Perfect Details Oh, I love those shoes. I got SO many compliments on them, and they were so comfortable I never was tempted to take them off and put on my adorable bridal Chuck Taylors.

Veil--bought from Kathy at Occansey Designs She gets an A+. My veil was exactly what I described, came very quickly, and was only $65--and it was only that much because I had pearls sewn on the edge. I recommend her highly.

Tiara--I bought my tiara and my bridesmaid's tiaras from Orange Blossom Tiaras who were great. They came quickly and even offered me a volume discount when I asked, although I didn't end up buying that many. A.

Florist: I didn't want to make my mom's corsage or the halos for the youngest bridesmaid and the flower girl, so I ordered them from Argyle Florist, a local shop here in Babylon. Not the cheapest, but they did a great job and the flowers were delivered on time. Thanks! A.

Moss Monograms: I had seen these at other weddings online, and decided I wanted to make them myself. I ordered the foam letters from eBay seller Hard Foam Sign Lettering and I bought moss and other stuff from Jamali Gardens. Well, I'm not patient or crafty. So I had seen items from SAS Designs here on LIW and liked them, so I asked Stephanie if she could help me. She could, and she did a wonderful job. I loved them! A.

Others--I got my vases and votive candles at a great price from Jamali Gardens My pretty pale yellow frosted votives were a steal from eBay seller Discount Crafts and Florals . I bought loads of items from Paper Source, such as my place cards. My dad did the calligraphy, and a wonderful job, I have to say, and I decorated them with little paper and rhinestone flowers from Jolee's I got on sale at Kate's Paperie. Very happy with how they turned out. I bought so much ribbon from Tinsel Trading , their ribbon store The Store Across the Street, and from M&J Trim in Manhattan. I love gorgeous ribbon--I particularly loved the wide, vintage navy blue ribbon for my bouquet.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of things, so I bet I'll come back and add on!