Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

I can't believe it's over! We had such an amazing day at our wedding, and I hope the same for all of you upcoming brides. I don't have many pictures since I didn't have my phone on me all day (the horror!). And I apologize in advance for the blurred out pics...hubby is a little weird about posting our pics on the big bad world wide web :p

I want to say thank you so much for all of you awesome ladies on this site. I found this site a little after I started planning, and I wished I found it sooner. Everyone is so helpful and supportive, unlike other sites. Thank you liweddings.com!

My only regret of the day is that I didn't have enough time to enjoy the food or band. I honestly just wanted to be a guest at my own wedding!

North Ritz Club: A+++++++++++++++++++++++

Amazing!! We absolutely love this venue and received so many compliments on their service and food. To start, we love that they only do one wedding at a time. Every staff member is dedicated to your wedding, since it’s the only one. We signed with Michael, and he never came off as pushy or too slick or trying to get us to upgrade. In fact, we upgraded cocktail hour at the last minute, and they threw in some extra stations! He was always available to answer our questions, of which I had many!

Nick and a woman (can't remember her name...starts with a D) were the two that I worked with mostly as we got closer to the wedding. So nice and courteous! I called so many times the week leading up to our wedding with minor changes to the tables and never once did they sound frustrated or annoyed.

George was our Maitre D’. We met with him about 2 months prior to go over the timeline and our menu selections. Really friendly and efficient!

On the day of, we had a bridal attendant, Marcella, who was fabulous! She was pretty much anywhere that I was and always asking if I needed anything! One of my bridesmaids showed her how to bustle my dress (two bustles), and she did it several times (kept falling down), and then finally just asked if she could safety pin them in place (thank goodness!). George was always around, smiling and greeting our guests. He was very visible during our function, which is a nice touch. Everything went flawlessly thanks to the wonderful staff at the North Ritz Club!

All of our guests complimented the food and service tremendously! At cocktail hour, the hot food was hot and the cold food was cold, and everything was delicious! Dinner was just as delicious! Our cake was lovely. I gave them a picture of a simple cake with pearl drops at the bottom edge of each tier and flowers for decoration, and it turned out just how I wanted.

They packed up a bunch of entrees, two boxes of mini pastries and our cake top at the end of the night. By the time we were ready to leave, everything was neatly packed up for us. So thankful for the food, since I didn't have to cook.




Max Bridal: A++++++++

Make this your first and last bridal salon! Max Bridal is a hidden gem, and I cannot rave enough about my experiences there. Although they didn't have the exact dress I *thought* I wanted, Courtney (amazingly patient and knowledgeable and nice and honest) and Amy (one of their managers - all of the above adjectives too!) found some similar styles for me to try on.

Since I was open to trying all different styles, they started pulling some fit and flare dresses that I never thought I could wear, and I found my gown! I had another appointment later that day at another bridal salon, and I never felt pressured by anyone at Max Bridal to purchase the dress that I knew was the one! It's not even worth mentioning how disappointing my other bridal salon experience was (I found out at my appointment there that they actually had the dress that I originally thought I wanted, even when they said they didn’t have it when I called to make my appointment).

I love how Max Bridal only takes one appointment at time. They let you take pictures, which is super important! I thought I loved one dress when I had it on, but when I looked at the pictures, I really didn't like it at all! They also have a comfy couch for seating for your family and friends (which the other bridal salon did not). It is a smaller salon, but they have so many gowns, so don't let that deter you from making an appointment here!

I also had my bridesmaids purchase their dresses here, and Jillian was so patient with my indecisiveness about picking out 4 different colors for the same dress for my girls. I honestly think I spent more time picking out the colors for my bridesmaids than picking out my own gown!

My dress fitting appointments with Ines were great as well. She was always on time and did a great job! Ines is nice and honest...I trusted her when she said my gown should be a touch tighter just below my butt (I didn't want it), but she was right, and I looked AMAZING on my wedding day!





Code Bleu: A+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Love, love, love! Absolutely AMAZING. Don’t even consider another band…seriously! We received so many compliments on Code Bleu. “Where did you find them?” “They sound just like the radio.” They played almost every song that we asked for and just went with the overall theme of the songs/artists that we told them we liked.

Marisa is the person we dealt with payment and minor housekeeping type issues after booking the band. She’s very nice and was very prompt with emails.

Sean is the main contact person prior to the wedding and goes over the worksheet we got to fill in our music choices. He’s great! Easy-going and has tons of experience, so will tell you what songs work and don’t work for specific things.

Donna is Sean’s wife, and she was our point person at the venue. She double checked the pronunciation of all the names and how we wanted certain things announced. Also very nice and calm, which is very helpful in the chaos of 270 guests!

Code Bleu is so awesome! I can’t praise them enough. They sounded amazing! The packed the dance floor all night, and best of all, they looked like they were having a ton of fun too! My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to dance as much as I wanted. I really hope that we attend a wedding where Code Bleu is playing because I will dance the night away!


Bella Flowers: A+++++

This was the first florist I met with and it was a match made in heaven! I met with Ronnie, and he totally got my vision. It was as if I didn’t even need to finish my thoughts, and he knew what I wanted. Our centerpieces were beautiful, lovely and huge! And my bouquet of peonies was just what I imagined. All of the bouquets and other flowers being delivered to where I was getting ready all arrived on time.

It was very easy to work with Ronnie, and I highly recommend meeting with him. He never pressured me to upsell me (ie: all high centerpieces versus half high and half low – which is what I had). Cristina, the owner, called me right after the new year to see if I had any questions or any changes; I thought that was a really nice gesture.

I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth here. The price quoted by Bella was almost exactly what another highly recommended vendor on this site quoted.

The pic of our centerpiece is from the trial.




Ricky Cheung Photography: A++++++++++

This was one of the vendors I was most concerned with. This is the only record we will have of our wedding in years to come since we chose not to have videography. And you’re spending the whole day with this person! Thankfully, Ricky is AMAZING!! I found him on theknot.com, and just loved his website. He provided some background information on himself, and as cheesey as it sounds, it felt like I got to know him a bit, and I already felt comfortable with him. Some people are just able to convey emotion and friendliness through their words, and he’s one of them. He was the 1st photog we met with, and I knew I wanted to book with him on the spot!

Ricky is knowledgable and calm, and I loved his style of photography. We booked our engagement session through him, and I’m so glad we did one. We almost didn’t do one to try to save money, but I’m glad we had the facetime with the camera since we’re one of those couples that needs a lot of direction on posing. We are not naturals in front of the camera, and it helped us to get to know Ricky and his style and also helped us to get comfortable in front of the camera. Our engagement pictures turned out great, and we got some great fall foliage shots since we shot at the beginning of November but it was cold!

I can’t stress enough how great it was working with him. I had a mini panic attack a week and a half before the wedding when I realized that we needed to go off-site for 1st look photos. Ricky called me and we spoke about it. We worked on the timeline, and I rescheduled everything (hair, makeup, limos, venue arrival time), and it was so worth the aggravation! I’m sure our pics will look amazing!

We booked a 2nd shooter (Federico) through him, and he was also great. I cannot wait to see our pics! They were awesome to work with on the big day. They took so many pictures…honestly cannot be an easy job, especially since he was essentially with us for 12 hours!

I was really impressed with the albums he brought for us to see. I was against getting an album at first, but he does such an amazing job, that I just had to have one for us! I’m going to make parent albums myself once we get our pics back.

Although we don't have our pics back yet, I'm confident that they are awesome!


Erica Does Makeup: A++++++++++++

AMAZING!! Love Erica (Makeup) & Crystal (Hair). Although we had to start early (5:30am - yikes!!), it was well worth it! My makeup and hair lasted all day. I can't believe I wore the fake eyelashes all day (included in cost), especially when I was sure I would be ripping them off after we took pictures. I loved my makeup trial but not so crazy about the hair, so I booked another hair trial, and I'm so glad that I did. I also cut my hair shorter (mid back) with lots of layers, and that helped achieve the look I wanted (after discussing with Crystal).

We all had airbrush makeup done (love it...doesn't feel like you're wearing any makeup, and this is coming from someone who doesn't usually wear makeup). I loved the look of the eyelashes (I didn't recognize myself after the trial! :D) but they felt weird the day of the trial, and I was convinced that I could only last in them until after pictures on my wedding day. But I kept them on all day, and I'm so happy that I did!

Crystal did my hair, and it was gorgeous and stayed up all day. I had a few loose pieces in loose waves on both sides of my face that I was convinced the curls would fall out (my hair is fine and never keeps curls) but it didn't! Everyone complimented both hair and makeup. All of my girls also got their hair and makeup done by both Erica and Crystal, and they all looked beautiful! They're both young and down to earth, and we had a great time chatting and laughing, starting at 530am! HIGHLY recommend Erica Does Makeup!!!


The Modern Photobooth: A+++++

Can you tell that I love photobooths by my username? :D This one is an open air one (or closed) and fits a bunch of people. Awesome backgrounds to choose from. Great props. We visited Kevin's office before booking, and he let us try out the photobooth. Love that this one is different in that you get a remote to control how many pictures are taken. And if you take a series of 2, 4 or 6 pics, it shows up on the same 4x6.

Everyone in the pic gets a copy of the pic, which was important to me. I hate fighting over who gets the picture when I'm in a picture with others. Super easy to work with Kevin. And the two attendants were on time and were working hard the whole night. This is a pricier photobooth, but what really made me pick this one is that you get an album with a printout of the first 100 or so pictures (how ever many pics the album can hold) and it serves as a guestbook too (although not many choose to write in it...no worries since I really wouldn't go back and read a bunch of signatures in a traditional guest book), and the coolest thing is that you get a link to a stop motion movie of all of the pictures in order.

Lots of fun to watch that! And everyone can go to the gallery and download their pics too. Overall, even though it's pricey, I definitely feel like I got my money's worth.


Trans Star Executive: A++

The limo was clean and on time and the driver knew where to go. This was the vendor that I cared least about since we only needed to be brought to The Planting Fields for 1st look photos and then the venue. It was easy to work with Trans Star, and they had the best pricing. I made some major changes a week prior, and they didn’t blink an eye. I’m also using them for transportation to/from the airport for an upcoming trip.


Wedding Paper Divas: A++

I found a postcard STD that my then FH and I liked. I had a 30% off coupon, which helped a lot! But later found out that you can often buy deals on guilt.com for WPD. Good quality, fast service. I like how when you make the changes, you can see them automatically on the screen before buying.



Minted.com: A+++

Love the quality of our invites (standard card stock). We picked a more fun, quirky invite that everyone loved, and we added a picture of us on the back of the invite. Also bought the matching TY cards. You can also see changes instantaneously on your screen, but some of my text didn't show up completely in the boxes, and I had to wait for the emailed proofs to double check everything. So it ended taking a bit longer to approve of the final version because we went back and forth a few times. But the emailed proofs came pretty quick...roughly 24 hours after submission.

The invites came with a sheet of vellum to go on top of the invite....very old-school. A nice touch! And I love that they printed our recipients' addresses for free! But make sure you go through each person's name and addresses. We had some long names, and the design I chose cut off their names, so I had to choose a different one. One minor complaint....I wish that on the checkout page, there was an option to buy more envelopes. Apparently somewhere prior to the checkout page, there is an option to add envelopes, but I didn't see that, and it didn't occur to me until I was putting together the invitation that I might have needed extra (but I didn't end up needing extra).

When the invites came, the box was huge (or so I thought for just invites), but they box it up really nice to make sure everything is in pristine condition). Overall, extremely happy with the quality of the invites, and I would definitely purchase from again, but they're on the pricey side. Somehow, I got a unicorn of a coupon (30% off), which I haven't seen again.


FebruaryDesign on Etsy: A++

I purchased a custom stamp for our invites, and this Etsy seller was great! My special requests were quickly responded to, and I got a proof prior to shipping of the stamp. The quality was great, and the seller was efficient and professional.


Weddingfactorydirect.com: A++

I ordered my hair piece from there. Love the quality. Good prices. Shipped quickly but needed to be home to sign for the package, which I thought was odd, since they weren’t that expensive. The person who did my hair commented that the quality of the hair piece was very good too.




Bridal Reflections Massapequa: B

We purchased my mom’s dress here. The dress was beautiful and nothing like I’ve seen in any stores. You don’t need an appointment here. Everything is organized by color. They have 2 dressing rooms and 1 person to help, if you need it. They did measure her, and they make you sign a piece of paper that states the measurements are correct. They said she was in-between sizes in the bust, so we got the bigger one. We chose not to use them for alterations since it’s a little inconvenient to get there for us. Turns out the dress was like 2 sizes too big. Also, it wasn’t a petite sized dress, so it needed quite a bit of work, but looked amazing after it was finished!


Alterations Unlimited by Gina (Deer Park): A++

Based off reviews on this site, we took my mom’s dress here to get it altered since it was much closer to my parents'. The storefront is definitely old-school from about 30 years ago, but Gina has 2-3 people working all the times, it seems. And their back room is jammed with dresses and other clothing that they have worked on. You can see bags from Kleinfeld and RK Bridal containing wedding and other special occasion dresses. Gina definitely knows what she is doing. She starting cutting my mom’s dress with a gigantic pair of shears just by eye. You know that’s mastery! My mom looked amazing in her dress! I would definitely bring back anything special occasion that needed to be worked on. BTW, cash only.


Bonaventure Tuxedoes: A

This was the 3rd and last tux place we went to. I spent so much time of picking out the tuxes (then FH didn’t really care that much…I know, I’m lucky!). Who knew it would be so difficult picking a tux? I definitely wanted a dark, charcoal gray tux, and most places only have 1 choice. But this place had two. We booked with no issues. Andrew is the owner, and he’s very nice.

There was some confusion on the day of pickup that the best man and groomsmen had no ties. Originally we said we were going to buy them ties to try to match the bridesmaid, but I changed my mind. Had a conversation with Andrew about 2 weeks prior to pickup, and he forgot. But thankfully he had ties in stock, so crisis averted. It probably was my only really stressful moment (other than needing to find a 1st look photo location a week and a half prior to the wedding).


Gantry State Park: Engagement Photos

This is a state park in Long Island City with great views of the East side of Manhattan. Although I believe you technically need a photography permit, our photog has shot here several times and he never needed one, so we winged it, and went without. Parking is a pain because it’s street parking. I’m sure you can find a lot, but we managed to find street parking. There’s lots of interesting places to take pics, so I highly recommend it. On one end of the park, there are public restrooms, so that’s always a good thing. We spent about 2 hours there and no one ever bothered us. We also saw two bridal parties taking pictures there too.


The Planting Fields Arboretum: 1st look pictures

This was a last minute addition, and I’m so glad we did it. It’s $100 plus $8 per vehicle, including limos, but busses are a lot more. We got married on Memorial Day, and the permit application states that they limit permits on holidays, so that added to the stress. I went there, and the woman at the toll booth was very nonchalant…didn’t really care about the date. She seemed more concerned about the number of cars because then I could pay for all of them. I didn’t know how many cars we would have at the time, so I only paid for one. And I made the check out in advance because I thought it would save time, but the name of the permit app is wrong, so had to tear up that check. Good think I had my check book with me (which I never carry!).

It states you have 2 hours, but we were never bothered by a staff member. We even got there a little early. You have to specify what time you will get there and hubby's limo got there first a bit early. He said they didn’t care.

The grounds are beautiful! So many different shots and backgrounds you can have. It’s one of the cheaper places to take pics, so I definitely recommend it. I went on a weekday to check it out, and there were 3 bridal parties taking their pictures there. On our wedding day, there was only a couple taking engagement pics, and boy did they come prepared…a picnic basket, blanket, a huge picture frame. They also had some poor friend/relative carrying all of that for them!

Anyways…highly recommend going there to take pics. But I made sure that all of my girls brought flip flops to wear (and myself too!). I had to keep changing in and out of my shoes, but it’s pretty much impossible to walk in gravel and grass in heels. And plus, we did these pics first, and I knew my poor feet wouldn’t last in heels for too long if I started out walking around in my heels.


Here are our programs. I found a blog online that offered their program in Microsoft Word (free), and I made some changes. Then I found another blog online that explained how to make a crossword in Microsoft Excel.




And here is our ring bearer 'pillow.' I wanted something that I could keep and didn't want a traditional pillow. I got this online at build a bear and they personalized it too.



I really hope all of the pics load. If not, I'll repost with all of the pics. Good luck to everyone with their planning and their big day!

Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

Congrats!! Your day sounds awesome. I cannot wait to see pictures!

Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

Congrats! Great review! =)

Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

woohoo sounds amazing!

Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

Happy everything went well!! You got lucky with Gantry park . my old friend when she got married we tried to wing it and we got stopped lol

Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

Sounds perfect! Congrats!!!

Re: Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Mint

This post was so helpful!!! I am getting married at the North Ritz Club in May 2017!!! Just curious...what stations did they throw in for you?? Thank you so much again for all of your helpful posts! =]

Re: Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Mint

This post was so helpful!!! I am getting married at the North Ritz Club in May 2017!!! Just curious...what stations did they throw in for you?? Thank you so much again for all of your helpful posts! =]

Re: Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Mint

I sent you FM.

RE:Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

Good for you, everything went well with your wedding! Looks like you had the best time of your life. 

RE:Our fabulous May wedding! North Ritz Club, Max Bridal, Code Bleu, Bella Flowers, Ricky Cheung Photography, Erica Does Makeup, The Modern Photobooth, Trans Star Executive, Wedding Paper Divas, Minted

It sounds perfect...