Rehearsal
Mama Rosa's Italian Restaurant, Rochester NY
The infamous mario bros. cake that I found from another knottie, I surprised DH with this amazing cake, everyone absolutely loved it, the flavor was almond poundcake, and it tasted even better than it looked!
The Big Day
I love how here I have this huge grin on my face, and my MOH is bawling. As you can see, our original plan of the trolley did not follow through - three days before the wedding we were out searching for a new limo service because diamonds limo chose not to tell us that the trolley is not passing DOT inspection and can't get on the road - for the past six months. NICE.
The reason I absolutely look like a nervous wreck, is because I was. I hate this picture, buts its a really good view of my ginormous bouquet. That thing was a monster.
this is it...seconds before my big moment!
you can see all the girls necklaces from this view, they all loved them, and I had bracelets made to match.
you can't see too well here, but this is when they announced us H and W and the bagpiper began, It was a surprise to my DH and he was absolutely stunned. If you are even considering a bagpiper - do it. Our guests were all crying!
........well, almost everyone :)
its the new happy couple!
all the guys int he wedding had a different color pair of socks, it made for fun pictures, this picture was taken right before our photographer had them lined up better, as soon as I get that pro shot i'll include it.
this is a great shot of what the GM wore, black tuxes with brown vests and brown and black striped ties, the guys all said that these tuxes fit better than any tux they have ever worn - I highly reccommend Vitterio's. (they also were given pocket watches as a gift you can see them in their pockets in this picture)
this is my handsome groom, you can see the bouts that we went with - we had them custom made from an etsy seller (lilfishstudios) below is a picture of all the bouts we had made including flowers for the female readers.
to the left <-- an example of what the bouts looked like for the groomsmen and male reader. To the right ---> an example of what the "corsages" looked like for the female readers, we had them made to look like the flower closest to the front of the picture.
The Reception
Our room looked AMAZING. Our flowers were unbelivable, our place settings were perfect.
It was better than I ever imagined it could be.
There were three different types of centerpieces, tall vases, lanterns surrounded by flowers, and etched hurricane vases surrounded by flowers.
To the back is the dance floor, and to the left is where the bar is located.
The Candy Buffet
I was so surprised in how much people were really into the candy buffet, and no one had even heard of it before, even the staff at eagle vale were taking pictures of it (or so I heard)
how cute is this?!
our amazing cake, we had two flavors - midnight in manhattan (chocolate cake with toffee, banana and walnuts), and yellow with raspberry and cookie. The tablecloth was custom made to match my wedding dress :)
better shot of the cake
DH collects coasters from our travels around the world, how could I not include this in our wedding day?!
a picture of us dancing, we danced to "i've seen a face" by the beatles, everyone loved that we danced to a fast song - this song was picked on friday afternoon! nothing like last minute!!
Thanks for Looking!
VENDOR REVIEWS:
Church - St. John the Evangelist Church - Greece, NY (A+)
Everything went fine for the church - no issues occurred at all. Our musican was great, he played whatever we wanted during the ceremony - we really wanted a personal ceremony and thats exactly what we got. We had a lot of flexiblity with what readings we chose and what music we had played. This was very important to us and it worked out well. Hopefully the homily was great - we heard nothing due to the torrential downpour during the ceremony - hopefully we'll hear a bit of that during the video!
Reception - Eagle Vale Golf Club - Fairport, NY (A++++)
A-mazing. Seriously. PLEASE consider eagle vale for your wedding if you have not yet chosen a reception site. The food is fabulous, the staff is SO on top of everything, very professional and very accomodating. My DH wanted to do a "pee wee herman" skit and they even got IN on the skit. The were amazing to work with from day one, always patient and flexible with our many changes. They even let us in two days early to do some set up before the wedding!
Photography - Images Unveiled
will post review when pictures come back. So far so good. We got a slideshow of our wedding a weekand a half after the wedding that really captured the day beautifully. (www.imagesunveiled.com/terrimike)
Videography - Shinyhead Productions
will post review when we recieve video.
Entertainment
Processional Music - Gatestone Bagpipers (A)
my DH was so surprised when the bagpiper began - it was a little pricy for the amount of time we had him, but the reaction on his face was priceless so it made it completely worth it - all our guests were absolutely so surprised and emotional too. That being said I think it was a good decision to have them.
Cocktail Music - Eastman School of Music (B)
August 2007 I contacted Eastman to see how I could get a hold of musicans for a short amount of time, they advised me they would put me on a message board and I would be contacted by students. Fast forward to three weeks before the wedding, we got our FIRST phone call. We wanted something to be played for cocktail hour, and then during dinner with a 30 minute or so break in between. I heard them for a total of 15 minutes. They left early and during cocktail hour asked my father if they could take a break. Seriously? Now, i've never played an instrument before, and correct me if i'm wrong, but after playing for an hour I think a 30 min. break would be sufficent. Oh well. Anyway, they left after being there for exactly two hours, and I had to run and ask the band to put on some music so that there would not be zero background sound.
Reception Music - Reporter (A+++)
Reporter did a great job, they kept everyone on the dance floor the entire night, played great music, people were absolutely LOVING this band. They even played through 2 of their three band breaks. I'm still hearing about how much they loved the music that was played at the wedding, they did a lot of fun stuff to keep the guests entertained. I highly reccommend them, they were by far the best decision that we made for entertainment for our wedding.
Stationary - Paperbride (B)
There were a lot of headaches when it came to the stationary for the wedding. I honestly don't even think that she deserves a "B." Issue after issue occurred with the invites. Her "vision" was not at all what I planned, I basically had to send her pictures of how I wanted my invites to look, everyone loved them, but that came with A LOT of work. To save ourselves $1/invite we assembled ourselves, the glue she reccommended didn't work, the pieces were cut incorrectly, she told me the incorrect amount of postage, thank goodness I didn't go out and buy the stamps as I planned, and she didn't give me enough pieces, we ended up having to drive out to Avon 3 times to get all the stuff we needed. She offered to make our menu cards for free because of the issues we had, she made them, they were all spelled incorrectly with a TON of grammar errors and then didn't give me all of them, 24 hrs before wedding I almost had to drive BACK out to Avon, but her husband met me to drop them off.
Transportation - Diamonds Limo (F)
They get an "F" because 4 days before the wedding they told us our trolley had been in the shop because it had been in the shop for the past 6 months and can't pass DOT inspection and I didn't have day of transportation, leaving me 4 days before my wedding calling all over rochester to find a limo, when I had booked them well over two years ago. They gave us a certificate for 2 hours of free limo service for our troubles, but they still get an "F."
Prestige Limo (F)
Yup, they get an "F" too. Don't use them either.
Candy
BJ's Wholesale Club (A+)
All the bulk candy came from BJ's we spend under $200 on all that candy and it lasted the whole night.
Encore Chocolates (A+)
They provided the "chocolate tower" that was our centerpiece of the candy buffet, it included all handmade chocolates, a lotus bowl (handpainted chocolate bowl) filled with chocolate covered strawberries, they customized the ribbon and we chose the chocolates that filled the tower. I heard it tasted great, we unfortunatly did not get to enjoy it, but our guests loved it.
Chair Covers - Champagne and Roses - Greece, NY (A+)
Very smooth process with them, we're still in contact because they actually want to rent/borrow some of the items that we used for our wedding. They did a great job of set up and it really tied the room together nicely.
Table Linens
Table Runners (A+)
We rented the table runners from somewhere in California for a dollar a piece. They matched the bows on the chair covers perfectly. They shipped them out Thursday before the wedding and we sent them back on the next Tuesday. Very simple!
Cake Tablecloth (A+)
We had this tablecloth custom made to match my wedding dress, it was a total not need purchase, but it really made the cake presentation amazing! We're already getting offers from people that want to purchase it, so hopefully we can find a home for it :)
Day of Beauty - Aimee Brown (A)
Considering I didn't do a trial, and the day of she had to do 5 girls hair and makeup, she did a damn good job. I didn't *love* the back of my head, but honestly, we were running late, and my photographer was at my parents house waiting for me, by that point I just didn't care. The front looked amazing! The hair stayed up all night, I got a little shiny, but that was because it was so friggin humid out!
Wedding Dress and Alterations - Peggy's Bridal Shop (A)
They did great at Peggy's always took good care of us, and we always got great service. By the end of the process they started bugging me. But I don't know if thats because I was stressed or just sick of hearing them. You can only be told you look so beautiful so many times before you just want to say "okay, yeah, its a great dress...lets MOVE ON!" I wish I went with a hoop skirt - especially with the humidity. One thing I should have done - altered my dress for flats. I ended up taking my heels off after the ceremony my feet hurt so much - I only fell once - Too bad it was during the first dance! haha!! Clumsy terri.