NYC IndieBride Vendor Blog

Suespace's dress!

2006-03-29T12:05:00.000-05:00

Here's my "didn't think I'd get anything like this" dress... from Venus Bridal, ordered through RK Bridal's No Frills program. (Hideous lace gloves NOT included.)

And above are pictures of me in the dress, as it arrived - wrinkled, and way too big. Can't wait to see how it looks once it's altered! (And steamed.)

Mmmmmmmmm... cake!

2006-02-28T10:38:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to scanning our April Reed cake. This is the drawing she did for us. The red berries will be done in sugar. And the mocha stripes are actual satin ribbon.

Pretty!

sundaygirl's greek goddess dress and DIY save-the-dates!

2006-02-14T10:33:00.000-05:00

a little bit o' Illustrator, a little bit o' cardstock, and a little bit o'ribbon. Bookmarks for all!

i love it so much, i could cry. the designer is romona keveza. i'm adding a very small bustle in the back towards the hem so during the reception the dress will be all one length.
(so i won't get my heels caught and faceplant spectacularly, drunk)

Another flower estimate...

2006-01-13T15:52:00.000-05:00

Here is our flower estimate from Nina at Ovando on Bleeker Street.

HAND-GATHERED BOUQUET OF WHITE HYDRANGEA, CALLA LILIES, AND OTHER COORDINATING BLOOMS, WITH BLUE ACCENTS. THE STEMS ARE GATHERED WITH WHITE SATIN RIBBON. - $165

TERRACOTTA-COLORED ORCHIDS WITH GREEN ACCENTS. -$10 a piece

AN ENSEMBLE OF TERRACOTTA POTS BRIMMING WITH BLUE HYDRANGEA AND HERBS, AND ACCENTED WITH POTS OF WHITE AND CREAMY BLOOMS, AND CLUSTERS OF CREAMY PILLAR CANDLES. $175 a piece

CYLINDERS LINED WITH GREEN LEAVES AND BRIMMING WITH TALL CURLY WILLOW BRANCHES, TERACOTTA ROSES, AND MAGNOLIA LEAVES, SEATED ATOP WHITE COLUMNS. $325 a piece

We're doing our own BM's bouquets of small peach calla lilies

my dress!

2005-11-29T01:19:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it took me this long to figure out how to get into this blog.
Must be on a techy roll.
I also learned more about my digital camera these past 2 days.
So here are some pictures of my dress!!
told ya it was biiiggggg! The organza looks much better in person. and presumably, it'll fit properly when it arrives! (ignore the blue bra).

the sundays' diy invites and such

2005-11-28T09:28:00.000-05:00

after a day spent with photoshop, i've come up with these.
mr. sunday loved them so we're looking to buy a laser printer some time next month. if all goes well and i don't end up wanting to tear my hair out by the end of it, i may consider starting my own business part time.

here's to that!

cheers,
sunday.

The Food!

2005-11-21T14:43:00.000-05:00

We finalized our menu this weekend - well at least final enough so we can get a good estimate on costs from out caterer. We wanted to do bbq, but my father drew the line at having traditional bbq (ribs, burgers, hot dogs) so we are doing "upscale bbq" which is really just "grill". We will, however, actually have 3 charcoal grills so the food will be freshly cooked for each guest (this is the part I am most excited about).

The Menu

hors d'oeuvres:
- Baby back ribs with whiskey glaze
- Louisiana shrimp - grilled
- Chicken satay
- and, because mr. amareluz relented on my dad's request to have food for "people who don't like hot dogs and hamburgers", mini hot dogs served in mini buns (not pigs in a blanket) served from an old fashioned hot dog cart.

- vegetable crudite
- cheese platters with fruit and bread, proscuitto, salamis, olives

main course (people can have as much of all of them as they like):
- grilled beef with smoked garlic sauce, bbq onions and some sort of potato
- grilled salmon with moroccan spices, cous cous with apricots, pine nuts and baby shrimp
- grilled veggie kebobs with salad
something else tbd. - caterer wants pasta, I'm not sure.

Dessert:
- Devils food cake cupcakes with passionfruit ganache filling and passionfruit buttercream
- Lemon cupcakes with lemon filling and lemon buttercream
- Toasted pecan cupcakes with orange marmalade filling and vanilla buttercream

Oh and our caterers are Showstoppers, Inc. They don't have a website that I can find to post - I was directed to them via a friend. Really great to work with and from what i can tell, reasonable prices!

sundaygirl finds photographer & cake maker

2005-11-16T11:12:00.000-05:00

A big hooray for the talented and reasonably priced Mr. Henry Chan!
We've booked him for a full 8 hours - no undie shots, please!! - and we're quite happy.

Also booked for us is April Reed, who is designing a gorgeous cake with hand-made winterberries encircling the bottom tier! Her flavors are really great, too. We're loving the almond pound cake with lemon buttercream and roasted apricot & muscat wine filling. She is a pleasure to work with, too. Very easy going, creative, organized, and passionate about what she does!

We also interviewed an officiant, Kim Kirkley, who was so friendly and professional and warm. We're probably going to book her as well, but we're meeting with one more officiant in two weeks and then we'll decide. Kim's fee is $750.

xo,
sunday

music. check!

2005-11-13T23:41:00.000-05:00

Deciding on music for the night was one of our toughest decisions. Neither of us are very comfortable dancing and we knew we didn't want to be the center of attention on the dance floor. We also knew that we wanted the music to set the mood of a jazz club or something similarly relaxed - no huge pressure to get up and join a conga line. I think we've succeeded with Double Down. They charge $3600 for four hours of music which is comperable to the other live bands I've talked to. Their guitar player will also be playing jazz and classical guitar during our cocktails/ceremony.

Hermia's vintage modern dress

2005-11-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

Well, as I posted over at Kvetch, I found my fantastic dress this weekend at The Bridal Garden. First of all, I can't believe the dress—it's nothing like anything I'd tried on before, with a very, very simple front and an ornate back. It was originally over $5000 and thanks to the magic of The Bridal Garden I'm getting %75 off, though I do have to get it dry cleaned on top of the alterations (it is way too big in front). Still, I get a high end Italian dress in gorgeous silk for less than the dresses I liked at RK Bridal!
It will be fun to find a necklace to complement the scoop neck and simple front, and I'm thinking I'll wear goldish-toned shoes since the color is in the way off white zone, close to peach. The photos don't show the color well (and they show totally different colors!) but it is the least white dress I tried. I was surprised that the seamstress had a veil handy with the right color edging to pick up the dress color instead of clashing.

Farmer's Almanac Weather for 2006 (from Gigi)

2005-11-07T13:06:00.000-05:00

I was looking at our wedding dates on the blog this morning, and realized that the Farmer's almanac, extremely-good-for-freaking-out-about-things-we-can't-controll weather information didn't get it's own post, and I think it deserves one.

Many thanks to Gigi for sharing!!

Old Farmer's Almanac 2006 (only goes up through October)
Atlantic Corridor (Boston -> Hartford -> NY -> Philly -> Baltimore -> D.C. -> Richmond)

For the months we've listed...

January 2006:
Temp 26 degrees. (7 deg below avg.)
precip. 4" (0.5 " above avg)
1-8 Sunny, seasonable.
9-12 Seasonable, snow north, rain south.
13-20 Heavy snow, bitter cold.
21 - 25 Sunny, very cold.
26 - 31 Heavy snow, cold.

February 2006:
Temp. 40 degrees (7 degrees above avg.)
precip. 4" (0.5" below avg. north, 2" above south)
1-6 RAin and snow, seasonable.
7-11 Mild, showers.
12-16 Rain, then sunny.
17 - 21 WArm, rain.
22-24 Showers.
25 - 28 Sunny, warm.

March 2006:
Temp. 42 degrees (1 degree below avg.)
precip. 5" (1" above avg.)
1-5 Warm, then cold, rain to snow.
6-9 Mild, snow north, rain south.
10-14 Chilly rain.
15-18 Chilly, heavy rain.
19-24 Sunny, mild.
25 - 31 Chilly, rain, then sunny.

June 2006:
Temp. 70.5 (0.5 degrees below avg.)
precip. 3" (0.5" below avg. , 1" below south)
1-8 Warm, humid, scattered t-storms.
9-13 Sunny, cool nights.
14-21 Seasonable, t-storms.
22-24 Sunny, warm.
25 - 30 T-storms, then cooler.

July 2006:
Temp. 76.5 (1 degree below avg. north, 2 above south)
precip. 4" (1" above avg. north, 1" below south)
1-6 T-storms, then sunny, comfortable.
7-11 Warm, t-storms.
12-22 Hot, humid, sunny, then t-storms.
23-31 Seasonable, t-storms, then sunny.

August 2006:
Temp. 78 (4 degrees above avg.)
Precip. 3" (1" below avg)
1-5 Sunny, hot, humid.
6-12 T-sotrms, then sunny, seasonable.
13-22 Warm, t-storms.
23-31 HOt, humid, t-storms.

Sept. 2006:
Temp. 70 (3 degrees above avg)
precip. 4" (3" above avg. east, 2" below west)
1-7 Sunny, hot.
8-12 Rain, then sunny, cool.
13-17 Hurricane threat.
18-21 Hot, rain north.
22-25 Sunny, cool.
26-30 Heavy rain, chilly.

October 2006:
Temp. 60 (4 degrees above avg.)
Precip. 2.5" (1" below avg.)
1-7 SUnny, warm.
8-11 Rain, then sunny, cool.
12-16 Hurricane threat.
17-23 Sunny, seasonable.
24 - 31 Very warm, showers.

Someone to occupy my mother...

2005-11-06T22:40:00.000-05:00

I'm booking Elaine DeLuca as our day-of wedding coordinator. Her price is in the mid-range of what I've seen, $1200, and seems to offer all of the services we need. She will confirm all of our vendors, make sure set-up is on track, have an assistant at the hotel with us, etc. Best of all, on the day of she will be the main decision maker - no chance that my mother will bother the vendors with last minute requests!

Flowers Part III: Quotes II

2005-11-06T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here's my flower proposal (I'm using Barbara's Flowers in Harlem - friend connection), although I just gave her an out in case she is too overwhelmed (I have a sense she is) so if she backs out I'll be out looking again!

My bouquet: $150 (hand tied bouquet in vibrant shades of purple, yellow, indigo and fuscia)
Groom bout: $15
Moms something: $15
Dads bouts: $10

12 centerpieces: $85 each (a collection of riverstones and moss in a clear glass cylinder with garden blossoms to complement the color palette)

Ceremony - to put in the middle of the circle in the garden visible in my location post: $500 (2 large cylinders will be filled with blooming branches and garden blossoms). We'll also use these in the reception tent.

Entrance Path (this is a rather desolate walk up so I thought we needed something): $600 (10 large galvanized pales of cascading garden blossoms). We'll use these at the entrances to the barge too.

The whole thing comes to about $2700 with set up and everything. Much more than I was looking to spend on flowers (I thought that since I have an "executive committee" as opposed to bridesmaids, this was one area I could save money on), but I know the space is a little unfinished so I think I need to find the money and I'd rather have flowers than fabric sashes on the path (recommended to me by several people!).

Location, location...

2005-11-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

When we started looking for a spot, we only knew 3 things about what we wanted - it had to be in Brooklyn, it had to allow us to have outdoor grilling, and it had to be reasonably priced. Luckily or unluckily, these criteria narrowed down our choices to 3 places: the Tobacco Warehouse in dumbo, a loft with rooftop access in Williamsburg, and the Brooklyn Waterfront Museum in Red Hook. We went with the "museum" - it's a renovated barge from 1918 that used to transport coffee across the Hudson. The barge is docked in the NYC harbour now with views of the Verrazano, the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. The ceremony is going to be at 7pm; the sun will go down around 8:30pm so guests should get some great views...

There is a garden right next to the barge that we'll use for the ceremony (it looks so bleak in these pics but come spring, the garden will be filled with lots of flowers):

Then we'll put a tent down the pier for dinner:

And finally cupcakes and dancing on the barge:

Flowers, Part III: Quotes

2005-11-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

I thought this would be a good place to store the information I shared on our thread about our flower quote from Spitz & Peck. I'm also including the three quotes itslaurie shared that she gleaned from a Long Island board. One thing that I'd note is that the type of flowers you want to use make a big impact on how much you'll pay.

I just pulled out the proposal from our florist, and here's what they've proposed for about $4855 plus tax:

For the ceremony:
* decorate aisle with 8 nosegays of flowers
* drape aisle with low garlands
* provide white runner to line the aisle (apparently, the venue doesn't do this, the florist does. weird.)

We're not paying for any chuppah decoration, because we're using a tallis and poles (with people holding the poles), but from what I understand, this can drive the price up quite a bit. If you've ever seen a chuppah covered in flowers, you'll know what I mean. Or, you can refer back to the showpieces on Spitz & Peck's website, just for fun.

For the simple cocktail hour:
* 2 3" square vases w/ floating gerberas for table
* greens and flowers for passing trays

For the ballroom/ongoing cocktail reception w/ 20 tables of various sizes and food stations:
* 5 tables: 4" square vases w/ flowers of our choice and lemon leaves
* 5 tables: 6" square vases w/ flowers of our choice and lemon leaves
* 10 tables: 8" square vases w/ flowers of our choice and lemon leaves
* all tables to have 3 votive candles
* vary tables by flower type
* Buffet Stations: 5 tall vases w/ fresh fruit and flowers

"Personals" (aka, bouquets, etc.):
* bride's tight cuff o' flowers to be named later
* 2 female attendants: tight cuffs o' flowers to be named later, a little smaller than bride's
* wristlet corsages for 8 women (chuppah holders and readers)
* wristlet corsages for 2 mothers and 3 grandmothers* bouts for 5 men (chuppah holders and readers)
* bout w/ spray for the groom

There ya go. As I said, I am going to try to bring this down a bit, but I don't feel like this is insane given the number of tables, chuppah holders and readers, etc. at our wedding. And I also know that I'm a bit stuck being a little gauged, because I have no choice but to use Spitz & Peck w/ our venue.

From another Long Island board:

$2300K
1 my BOK roses & calla lillies
1 MOH Bok roses4 BM bok roses
1 Kissing Ball Roses
1 Groom Bout Calla lillie
8 GM bouts rose5 bout -roses (fathers & grandfathers & godfathers)
1 Corsage
2 carry bok for moms (roses & tulips)
16 low centerpieces with roses & tulips

$1,450
15 low centerpieces with 4 mini versions of the centerpiece all around it (roses, tulips, hydrangea, lisianthus, genester, sweet pea)
my bo-k (roses, stephanotis w/pearl center, lisianthus, hydrangea)
4 BM bo-k
6 boutonnieres
2 mom corsages

$899
1 Bridal Bouquet – 25 roses
3 Bridesmaids Bouquets- 12 roses each bouquet
2 Mother corsages – Rose
2 Father boutonnieres – Rose
1 Groom Boutonniere- Rose
3 Groomsmen Boutonnieres- Rose
1 Flower Girl Basket – Rose Petals
1 Ring Bearer Boutonniere- Small Rose
14 Centerpieces – Each contain a dozen roses and mixed flowers

Dance to the Music (Lowey's band)

2005-11-03T15:27:00.000-05:00

We have picked our band...
http://www.ronniegesser.com/

Ronnie Gesser music. They will do a 7 piece band (can do 8 with an extra horn, or less if your budget requires) and they sing a wide range of standards, motown, contemporary. Cost is $800 per band member. They will play 4 hours of continuous music.

He doesn't advertise (yet) and relies on word of mouth. A friend of mine attended a wedding where they played and she absolutely loved them...and I trust her totally! I contacted that bride and she couldn't say enough positive things.

I met with Ronnie, who is the bandleader and who sings the standard stuff. He was so personable and not "salesy" at all. He made me comfortable and really seemed to understand exactly what we wanted. He also gave me some good advice I will pass along: make sure you meet with your bandleader once before your wedding so that they know you and get a feel for how you want your day to go, and what is your style musically as well as socially.

Ronnie is also hooking us up with a string trio (actually violin, cello & flute) for our cocktail hour, at $250 per musician - which I think is a good rate.

Overall, I am pleased to have one more vendor taken care of!

Sundaygirl's Cake Love

2005-11-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

I have a complete and total aversion to traditional wedding cakes, and by traditional, I mean, floofy, flowery, gaudy tiers of calamity and so I have found (I believe) the one woman to "get me" in terms of cakes.

The wonderful April Reed

She was really great in responding to emails and I am setting up a tasting/meeting with her sometime next week.

Mr. Sunday and I are leaning towards something lemon-y with raspberries. YUM!

And as a PS, my favorite photo of Mr. Sunday and I. We were really having a great time that night. It was our fourth date.

Suespaces's Places (and People)

2005-11-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

Hey all... I initially posted this under the "nycindieweddings" handle, but now that I have my own, I thought I'd repost it so it will be easier for me to update in the future. (I can't seem to log in as "nycindieweddings" to delete the old one, sorry...) I wrote this as a way to help people who are looking into these places get some details like price, etc., so sorry if it seems a little dry and factual at times.

The wedding is October 8, 2006. Here's what we have so far:

Ceremony spot:Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River, Long Island (south shore Suffolk County)
http://www.bayardcuttingarboretum.com/
It's a beautiful spot with winding paths, flowers, trees, a pond, geese, etc. Lots of bridal parties take pictures there, but we decided to do the ceremony there. There's no fee right now, but this might change after 4/1/06. There is a photography permit fee that I think is $50. And it costs $6 a car to get in. They don't allow much - no recorded music, no big bands, no altars that go on the ground, only 25 chairs (we might stretch this to mean "25 benches" which they said is okay). So it's a lot of extra work and hassle, but it's such a beautiful, natural spot, we thought it was worth it. We want a simple ceremony anyway - we plan to have one musician, and four people holding up our huppah off the ground. Our reception is only a five minute drive down the road.

Reception spot:Timber Point Country Club in Great River, Long Island
http://www.lessing.com/timberpoint.htm
We're doing a Sunday brunch, and we got a great deal - even with extras (omelette station, chocolate fountain), it's about $58 a person before tax and tip. Cake by Black Forest Bakery is included. It's a lovely place, very homey feel - there's a fireplace in the foyer and another on the dance floor (we're going to put family pictures on the mantle), a beautiful wooden dance floor on one side of the room (I don't love when they're in the center, so that worked for me, but others may not like it), and a big brick patio outside that overlooks the golf course and a pond in the distance, where you can have cocktail hour. There's also an indoor cocktail hour room, where our buffet tables will be set up. Small bridal suite is upstairs. The room holds about 200 (we're having around 130), although that many would be very tight in the cocktail room. There's only one event at a time.

DJ: A Starry Night Elegant DJ
We're using Gabriela. They had a great price ($1,200 for four hours) and great reputation from people all over the online wedding boards. I admit, we didn't even meet with Gabriela - their price, reputation, and philosophy of weddings were enough for us to book them.

Florist: Flowers by Burton (www.flowersbyburton.com)
Sort of a wedding factory - all they do is weddings, they're not open to the public. But they had a great price (we're paying around $500 for all our bouquets, bouts and corsages, regardless of what flowers we use) and gave us a great presentation with lots of ideas.

Photographer: Kenny Pang (www.kennypang.com)
Yay, we chose one! Kenny was warm and funny, and we really liked his work - he has a beautiful, spontaneous style and his posed shots are also really lovely. He has great rates and packages, although I think he's raising them at the end of of 2005/start of 2006. For $2,600 we're getting 8 hours of his time, approx. 400 4x6 proofs in an album with some in black/white and some in color, all digital pictures he takes in jpeg form on a CD 3 months after the wedding, and online proofing for our family to view/order pictures. For $300 more, we can have a second shooter, which we haven't decided on yet.

Officiant: Rabbi Renee Feller (www.rabbireneefeller.com )
She was the only rabbi we met with. In retrospect, maybe we should have met with others, but we sat and talked to her for two hours and just felt we really liked her and really connected. She's very warm and open to working with the ceremony to fit your own beliefs and preferences. Her fee is a little high - $850 - but we'll meet with her around four times this year, and she's traveling from NYC about 90 minutes to get to our ceremony.

Website: www.sueandjason2006.com
We did this through eweddings.com. It's pretty easy to use, although if you want to change the ugly standard font, you have to add a lot of html coding. It cost about $80 for one year and $139 for two years. I love our site. :)

Amareluz's Color Inspiration

2005-10-31T19:41:00.000-05:00

My whole family is from England. I was born there and spent every summer there as a child - I so wanted to go to Disneyland like all the other kids but no, I HAD to go to Europe...so i thought it would be fitting to include something English. It certainly wasn't going to be the food but flowers they do ok with. The town that my family is from - 95% of them still live there - is in the Lake District (Keswick). Every summer they hang these flower baskets on all the lamp-posts:

We took this pic this past summer when we went on the "everyone gets to meet and approve of" mr. amareluz trip. I think it will work out nicely - I love bright colors! And this particular basket is hanging outside of my 100 year old grandfather's home...

Flowers, part II: For a Good Laugh

2005-10-31T14:21:00.000-05:00

As I've mentioned before, we have to use Spitz & Peck for flowers. If you want a really good laugh, check out their website. Needless to say, we will be using FAR less flora for our wedding.

Flowers!

2005-10-31T12:34:00.000-05:00

I don't think there's a flower/florist post yet, so I figured I'll start one, since I'm excited that I just booked this vendor. We're going with Flowers by Burton (www.flowersbyburton.com) in Melville, Long Island. They quote you one price for everything, regardless of what flowers you use (as long as they're in season). For one bride bouquet, five bridesmaid bouquets, six bouttoneires, and three corsages, they quoted me $490 plus $50 delivery and tax. Not too bad, I thought. And I don't need to decide what flowers we'll actually have until a couple of months before the wedding. I have some pictures of what I want, especially a gorgeous picture of a yellow/orange/red calla lily bouquet from InStyle Weddings - I bought the magazine just so I could rip out that picture. If I can post it later, I will. We're doing fall colors, and mostly callas, because I love them. I can't have flowers at home because my cat will either eat the leaves and throw up or knock over the vase to get to the water, so I'm very excited about getting to look at pretty flowers all day, despite my occasional "why do I even need a bouquet" attitude.

Edited to add: I'm gonna try to post the picture of the bouquet I love. I like everything except the wrap around the stem (no bow and I want to see the stems) and I'm going to probably have red berries instead of the uh.. red peppers they used.

Lowey's Photographer - The Cousins

2005-10-29T16:45:00.000-04:00

We have just decided on our photographer after meeting with the Cousins today.
Since I haven't figured out how to link through words, here is the site:
http://www.cousinsphotography.com/

Paul & Kim Cousins are a married couple who work out of there home in Huntington. They came very highly recommended from my FSIL, whose many friends also used them. We were really impressed with their work that we saw, and with their proposal. They do both traditional and photojournalist style photography.

Basic cost is $3450 for both of them for 8 hours, or $2450 for just one of them, for the same amount of time. You can pay more if you want them to do albums for you or other stuff. But, most importantly, you get all your negatives! DVD, too for the digital work. Plus they are really laid back and seem easy to work with.

I will update this post after our big day, since I am one of the early birds!

Trina Magna's Dress

2005-10-29T04:34:00.000-04:00

...or at least my favorite part of it. If you want a sheath and don't have a lot of paticence for bridal dress shopping, I couldn't recommend the dresses and the service at the Nicole Miller boutique any more highly.

St. Bart's (aka Lowey's ceremony site)

2005-10-28T14:30:00.000-04:00

Our March 4th winter wedding will be here at St Bart's at Park and 51st Street. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze into the side chapel (shown at right and below).
Although they are able to do the reception there too, we are opting not to, but may use the caterer Sage Events for another luncheon or dinner: http://www.cafestbarts.com/events/events.html

We are required to use their florist for the ceremony: "CoCo & T" of Bronxville. Depending on how our consultation with them goes, we may use them for the ceremony also. I will post all vendor developments in time!

Hermia's other vendors, such as they are

2005-10-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

Ok, I seem to have been deeply unorganized about this, but here are my other vendors so far. The wedding is 8/26/06.

Reception: Posted here.

Music: Posted here.

Invites: My mom works with a designer who has offered to do the design for us for free (!!!! This is like an $800 savings!), and then my mom is going to help us get the printing from one of the vendors she works with. So I need to pull it together and start working on ideas w/ Alex… Though her website doesn’t show it, she has done some great wedding packages, very modern and cool.

Photos: My friend Josh agreed to shoot the wedding. I’m a tiny bit nervous because he hasn’t done much wedding photography, but he’s a strong photojournalist and he is going to spend the next year shooting the photos for the “V0ws” column in the NYTimes, so he’ll have some time to practice shooting fluffy dresses before it’s my turn! I wonder if I’m making a mistake, but it’s a huge savings…

Flowers: Again, calling in a favor, maybe. My old roommate is a florist, but she moved to Florida. I need to talk to her about whether she could do the flowers and whether she’s willing to. If not, I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do!

I want to do everything in cream/dark brown w/ light green accents—as autumnal as late summer can be… Long tables with chocolate colored runners down them. I like the options for bridesmaids’ dresses in “espresso” silk at J. Crew. As for my dress, I went to Kleinfeld a couple weeks ago and was frustrated by how few dresses that aren’t strapless there are! I fell in love with a Monique Lhullier about three times my budget (the photo is sort of like it, but it had a wide sash at the natural waist), and am going to check out Selia Yang and The Bridal Garden when my MOH is in town next weekend.

can't help myself...

2005-10-28T02:28:00.000-04:00

I love that (weather permitting) we'll be getting married on this dock. It should also be lighter out, since we're getting married at 7:00 p.m. in late July.

Teany's vendors

2005-10-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

Our vendors are mix from Long Island and NYC. Most, I think, aside from the caterer, will travel around the tri-state area.

Photographer -- Natasha Staszak: One of the first vendors we booked. She has a beautiful photojournalistic style but does just as well with posed shots. We loved her portfolio, and she's very sweet and low-key. Here is a photo from our engagement shoot with her this past spring.

Caterer -- Food and Co.: One of Wolffer's preferred caterers. They also act as a day-of coordinator for the rentals and vendors. They've done many weddings there, so they know what they're doing. We also checked out Art of Eating but they were a tad pricey ($90 for food alone! And it wasn't that much.)

Band -- Lapis Luna: We knew we wanted an eliment of live music, preferably jazz, and they fit the bill. The lead singer has a beautiful voice and they have played many different venues in NYC. They are also willing to negotiate on price. They are playing before and during the ceremony, during cocktail hour and for an hour during the meal. We hope people dance to them!

DJ -- A Starry Night: I share this vendor with several other Indiebrides, who recommended them to me. Non-cheesey, and Gabriela seems very reliable.

Florist: We're using someone in the city that Mr. Teany's stepmother knows. The name is Wilbert or Wilburt, and I can't find a Website for him. I'll update with more when we finally meet with him, which will probably be next month.

Dress -- Kleinfeld: Great service so far. I found something different than the norm at the price I was looking to pay.

Still searching for: Hair place (though it will be out east), videographer (meeting next month with Timeless Treasures, a Long Island guy recommended by my photographer, next month.

Teany's ceremony/reception location: Love at first sight.

2005-10-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

Mr. Teany and I first visited Wolffer Estate back in the summer of 2001 on a wine tasting tour with friends. Though neither of us were seriously thinking marriage at that point, we both apparently filed this place away in the back of our minds as a wonderful place to have a wedding. After we got engaged, I don't remember who brought it up first (probably me), but it was pretty much our No. 1 choice. Then we took my parents there and they were convinced as well. They take periodic visits there to show relatives and buy wine... I think they've been there more times than I have so far!

The Views that made the Magnas swoon...

2005-10-27T21:04:00.000-04:00

at our venue.

these are some views of Manhattan and the bridge from the from the place

ok, I'm going to have to play with blogger a bit more to get more visuals in... but it will happen!

Some thoughts on form for our blog

2005-10-27T19:49:00.000-04:00

Hermia and I are going to try to make the subcategories work on this blog, but until then, especially since you can't seem to put pictures in comments (unless someone has worked that out? please share!), just post away. If we need to clean it up later, we will!

So close to a non-dorky picture...

2005-10-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

The boy and I have been together a year and are yet to have a picture taken of us that is acceptable for public display. Part of the problem is that he looks way better being sullen and serious than he does smiling. I now have hope though that our engagement pictures will be decent because today a friend sent me this picture of us. Not fantastic, but not completely embarassing.

Hermia's reception spot

2005-10-27T18:04:00.000-04:00

deseversky
Originally uploaded by Hermia7.

(I think we decided on Kvetch to list our vendors separately? Here goes...) We're getting married at a church (I posted it in a comments field), and the reception is here.
Lots of photos here...
The house is lovely—though it looks HUGE in this photo, that’s the wide side. Those doors are along the long wall of the ballroom, where dinner will be. The house was built for some member of the Du Pont family back in the 20s, I think, and it was named Templeton. Now it is owned by the NY Institute of Technology, and called the De Seversky Center—not nearly as poetic! The chef is supposed to be quite good, and we get the whole house for the event, so we can put cocktails in whichever of the other rooms/terraces we like, etc. I plan to get a photo of the whole group taken on those steps.

What's playing? Music choices

2005-10-27T17:07:00.000-04:00

I'll kick it off—we're using Empyreal Strings, which does everything from string quartets to 20-piece groups. B (my fiancé) went to the HS for the Performing Arts in NYC and a friend from school is a viola player for the group. Anyway, we're having his friend's string quartet for the ceremony (plus, possibly, his college trumpet teacher if he'll come!) and then the quartet will play the first two hours of the reception (so cocktails + first dance, etc). During the reception a 7 or 8 piece band is taking over, I think it's keyboard, bass, guitar/vocal, drums, trumpet, sax & a singer. Or something. Anyway, we got a pretty amazing deal, I think—$6500 for everything, though I thinkwe got a bit of a nepotism discount?

Ceremony Locations

2005-10-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

If you're getting married somewhere other than where you're having your reception, use this post to discuss!

FYI II: making the links work for us

2005-10-27T11:13:00.000-04:00

I started the Reception Sites post, and then linked my earlier post about my venue to that post.

Will this do the trick of keeping things in order, or an I hallucinating?

Reception Locations

2005-10-27T10:29:00.000-04:00

Let's talk Reception Locations in the comments to this thread. Since we're all settlled on a place, I'll start off: we're getting married at Waters Edge in Long Island City, right on the water just south of the Queensborough bridge. I love the place, and left a picture of it earlier. I'll post some more when I get a chance.

One blogger concern: can you post pictures in comments?

NYC IndieBride Cupcake Party

2005-10-27T07:17:00.000-04:00

and YUM, those were good...

When we're gettin' hitched, part the second

2005-10-27T07:10:00.000-04:00

as always, let me know if this list needs alteration!

Knitgirl: 9/18/05
orloff: January 2006
borogove: 2/25/06
eliduckwalker: 3/19/06
lowey: March 2006
teany: 6/4/06
franskins: 6/4/06
Annie Lee: 6/10/06
Amareluz: 6/10/06
Stolichnora: 6/17/06
Gigi: 6/18/06
Trina Magna: 7/27/06
envirochk: 8/12/06
itslaurie: 8/19/06
hermia: 8/26/06 (maybe)
iserga: 9/9/06
sundaygirl: 10/1/06
Suespace: 10/8/06
mplsgirl: 12/21/06
hippiebride: October 2006

MplsKate's Caterer

2005-10-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

We are going with James Catering, the in-house caterer for the Westside Loft. I did research some other possibilities including The Raging Skillet, and Marcey Brownstein Catering. James Catering just came in with the best price (see their website!) including being very flexible and enthusiastic. My parents went to a tasting with James Catering and "LOVED" the food and presentation.

Chef Rossi at The Raging Skillet was also extremely attentive and quick to return emails but we couldn't turn down the in-house choice. Marcey Brownstein also got back to me quickly by email and phone but quoted us around $200 per person for what James Catering can offer for less than $140 per person.

PSA: Allowing Comments on Posts!

2005-10-26T15:35:00.000-04:00

I just noticed that the default is set such that one cannon comment on posts-- which sort of defeats the point, no?!

So, on the bottom right corner of the post screen, make sure you click "yes" to "Allow New Comments on This Post." That allows us to talk more specifically about everyone's posts without having to create new ones. Make sense? Sound good?

Also, I enabled the word verification thing for this forum, because blog-mail sucks. I'm sorry for the extra seconds it takes to post with this feature, but I have the feeling it'll make us happier in the long run.

my fantasy favors for the end of the night

2005-10-26T15:21:00.000-04:00

yes, this is completely stollen from MSW, but I think I can bring it in for a decent price and since there are many "legendary" family recipies for cookies from all our mutt-heritages, I an somewhat in love with the idea.

We'd obviously use our own wedding colors (I really can't believe I have wedding colors), and I think the biggest upshot to the whole plan is that it'll keep my father busy in the kitchen for at least three days leading up to the event. Plus, who wouldn't want a couple of cookies to take home at the end of the evening!

You all know her, and love her

2005-10-26T15:20:00.000-04:00

Our photographer is going to be Angelica Glass. Her package is amazingly reasonable and include engagement pictures. Plus, she put up with my mom's ranting about how according to her contract she could edit pig's heads on us and put us in MAD magazine. Don't ask...

MplsKate's Dress

2005-10-26T15:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry... I can't think of catchy titles...

I got my wedding dress at Bridal Reflections in Carle Place. They were extremely friendly and helpful, especially considering we showed up without an appointment on a Saturday morning. Their dresses are priced in the higher range (probably $1,000 and up). My assistant (Lorriane?) was so helpful in finding dresses that worked with my body shape, plus she gave me her honest opinion of everything I tried on. Alterations are a great deal - they cap at $250 so if you need little it's cheap, if you need a lot, it's $250.

When We're Gettin' Hitched, legally or otherwise

2005-10-26T12:47:00.000-04:00

New York Area Indie Bride Wedding Dates:
(update by franskins 12:26pm 10/25)

Knitgirl: 9/18/05
orloff: January 2006
borogove: 2/25/06
eliduckwalker: 3/19/06
lowey: March 2006
teany: 6/4/06
franskins: 6/4/06
Annie Lee: 6/10/06
Stolichnora: 6/17/06
Amareluz: 6/10/06
Gigi: 6/18/06
Trina Magna: 7/27/06
envirochk: 8/12/06
itslaurie: 8/19/06
hermia: 8/26/06 (maybe)
iserga: 9/9/06
sundaygirl: 10/1/06
Suespace: 10/8/06
mplsgirl: 10/21/06
hippiebride: October 2006

I'm starting to think of a good time for all of us to have a collective shower... if y'all are into it.

the sundays are getting wedded

2005-10-26T12:36:00.000-04:00

October 1, 2006

ceremony: banchet flowers

reception: '91'

caterer: the upper crust

Marie, who is my event planner at '91' is really sweet and helpful. I haven't met with the on-site designer, Dan, yet but his work in that space is beautiful and creative. I'll come back to review how the tasting went, but we haven't picked a menu yet.

As far as price goes, there is no site fee if you have the ceremony and the reception at '91,' but there is a $2,500 fee to use the flower shop (banchet) across the street. You get it for three hours, which comes out to one hour for set up and then you have extra time for pictures. The flowers come with the space so there is no extra fee to decorate.

Suespace's Places and People

2005-10-26T12:26:00.000-04:00

The wedding is October 8, 2006. Here's what we have so far:

Ceremony spot:
Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River, Long Island (south shore Suffolk County)
http://www.bayardcuttingarboretum.com/
It's a beautiful spot with winding paths, flowers, trees, a pond, geese, etc. Lots of bridal parties take pictures there, but we decided to do the ceremony there. There's no fee right now, but this might change after 4/1/06. There is a photography permit fee that I think is $50. And it costs $6 a car to get in. They don't allow much - no recorded music, no big bands, no altars that go on the ground, only 25 chairs (we might stretch this to mean "25 benches" which they said is okay). So it's a lot of extra work and hassle, but it's such a beautiful, natural spot, we thought it was worth it. We want a simple ceremony anyway - we plan to have one musician, and four people holding up our huppah off the ground. Our reception is only a three minute drive down the road.

Reception spot:
Timber Point Country Club in Great River, Long Island
http://www.lessing.com/timberpoint.htm
We're doing a Sunday brunch, and we got a great deal - even with extras (omelette station, chocolate fountain), it's about $58 a person before tax and tip. It's a lovely place, very homey feel - there's a fireplace in the foyer and another on the dance floor, a beautiful wooden dance floor on one side of the room (I don't love when they're in the center, so that worked for me, but others may not like it), and a big brick patio outside that overlooks the golf course and a pond in the distance, where you can have cocktail hour. There's also an indoor cocktail hour room, where our buffet tables will be set up. Small bridal suite is upstairs. The room holds about 200 (we're having around 130), although that many would be very tight in the cocktail hour room. There's only one event at a time.

DJ:
A Starry Night Elegant DJ
We're using Gabriela. They had a great price ($1,200 for four hours) and great reputation from people all over the online wedding boards. I admit, we didn't even meet with Gabriela - their price, reputation, and philosophy of weddings were enough for us to book them.

Rabbi:
Rabbi Renee Feller
She was the only rabbi we met with. In retrospect, maybe we should have met with others, but we sat and talked to her for two hours and just felt we really liked her and really connected. She's very warm and open to working with the ceremony to fit your own beliefs and preferences. Her fee is a little high - $850 - but we'll meet with her around four times this year, and she's traveling from NYC about 90 minutes to get to our ceremony.

Website:
www.sueandjason2006.com
We did this through eweddings.com. It's pretty easy to use, although if you want to change the ugly standard font, you have to add a lot of html coding. It cost about $80 for one year and $139 for two years.

The Magnas Will Marry

2005-10-26T11:17:00.000-04:00

here, at Waters Edge in Long Isand City on July 27, 2007.

I'll come back and review the various vendors I've so far dealt with soon, but mostly want to get this blog up and running... which means figuring out how to do subcategories (i.e., reception sites, florists, hotel blocking tips, etc). Anyone know how to make that work on Blogger?

and, just to see if I can make this link thing work in a way that will be workable for us, I'm now linking this post to the Reception Sites post.

Iserga and mr pointy say "I'm in!"

2005-10-26T11:15:00.000-04:00

ceremony & reception: the central park boathouse- www.thecentralparkboathouse.com, Kerry is our coordinator

rehearsal dinner- cocktail party in the Tap room at the yale club- www.yaleclubnyc.com- Jamie is our coordinator

dress- bridal couture by elma #1702- bridalsbyelma.com

purchased at J special occasions in westwood nj- 201-666-6669 (nice phone # for a bridal store)- i loved this place, relaxed, nice price range, i highly recommend it for northern nj brides

DJ- Carol at A Starry Night- www.astarrynight.com

Hotel- Fitzpatrick Grandcentral- small boutique hotel with great irish pub in the basement- $229 a room

Florist- my mom! and I
Photog- Bobby Friedel a family friend
officient- my good friend and rabbi in training harry

Paper stuff- engagement invites- Card-o-mart at 111th and B-way,
STD's (probably) chelseapaper.com

Silly details
theme (so silly but true)- pictures in a frame
color scheme- french blue & terracotta
first dance- pictures in a frame- tom waits
father/daughter- copacabana

Westside Loft

2005-10-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

MplsKate and her boy are getting married at the Westside Loft at 336 W. 37th st. This is in the same building at Loft Eleven and Penthouse 15. The site fees are between $5k and $7 depending on the space and day of the week. The in-house caterer is James Catering which is very reasonable, but you can choose another caterer. Vicki and the other staff at the loft have been very happy and easy to work with. Our space fits up to 200 and the other two spaces are smaller. I highly recommend this space for people that want a loft space but don't want some place totally raw.