Our invitation. The artwork is by my father. It depicts me and my husband on the wing of a biplane (my husband is airplane-obsessed) overlooking NYC and Romania (DH is also from Romania).
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I knew getting into my dress would be a struggle! My mother and twin sister are helping me out in the foreground. Bridesmaids in the background are more insterested in doing their makeup. Lol!
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Bridal portrait. Our photographer, Kenny Pang, was going crazy over the red wall in the apartment my parents' were renting for the week!
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I never thought I would be the type of bride that was in love with her veil, but yep, I was! I had to purchase two of the same veil because the first was stolen from my parents' house in California!
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Before hopping in the limo on route to the ceremony. I was laughing because one of my bridesmaids kept making America's Next Top Model jokes during my lil' photo shoot.
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Me and my two maids of honor and three bridesmaids. Best friends ever! I opted to have everyone carry feathered fans rather than flowers--it kept things unique and also kept the cost way down!
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Close-up of my fan. The feathers inspired me throughout the planning process. How bridey-bride does that sound?!?! Hehe!
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Sigh, my husband is so handsome! Check out his peacock feather boutonniere.
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The men. Left to right: Father-in-law and best man, my husband, and my guy's main men, Igor and Erik. I didn't notice until after we received these pictures that Igor was wearing a blue shirt! That was not part of the plan! Lol.
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Our programs. My sister and husband helped tie all the ribbons. Thanks, guys!
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Our ceremony was held at the Tillman Chapel at the United Nations. To the right is my bridesmaid, Ann, singing during the processional. She is amazing.
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The one time during the ceremony when I wasn't crying was right before I went down the aisle. Being quite the feminist, I originally didn't want to be "given away", but I am so glad I finally decided to have my dad escort me. It was a very special moment for the two of us.
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All lined up. What a wonderful moment.
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This picture just fills me with love for my husband. His eyes kill me with kindness every day.
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We always knew we would write our own vows. Here DH is reading his, a poem, and I am cry, cry, crying!
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My turn! My vows were long--that's a full, single-spaced typed page!
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My husband is Romanian Orthodox, so we incorporated Romanian Orthodox traditions into our interfaith ceremony. Here we are being crowned with the stefana.
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Circling the altar three times signified our first steps as a married couple.
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Now this is what kissing your new husband should look like!
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Sneaking out to take some pictures!
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Our fabulous bridal party! Aw yeah!
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I just love these! Definitely getting this one framed. Our photographer was going nuts over the sculpture.
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We hung birds and planes over the dance floor. To the right are our personalized napkins and coasters.
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Favors (candy eggs in nests) and centerpieces. Our centerpieces had a different color combo for every table.
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Instead of having a traditional guest book, we had guests write messages on stamped airline postcards which were later mailed to us. The cards were great fun to read--most everyone was drunk when they wrote on them!
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Our first dance was not really this tame. There was a lot of fancy footwork and spinning around at first...but we had to cut it out because my hair fell out and my dress kept falling down!
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My maids of honor delivering the most heartfelt toasts imaginable. These are truly two great women.
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Crying all through those speeches.
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Our two groomsmen, my dad, and my mother-in-law all gave beautiful, publishable speeches as well! I wish we had these on tape. They were fantastic!
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Doing a Romanian hora.
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We were such terrible cake cutters! I love it! And wow, I loved that cake! We chose a carrot cake with a pineapple creamcheese frosting. It was INCREDIBLE!!!
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Hehe, I totally remember this moment. I was just thinking, "Yum yum, happy happy, yum yum, love!"
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Were were as happy as we look. :) Still are!
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Thanking our guests. DH was remarking on how excited he was to finally have a mic in his hand that night.
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My mom and my sister fawning all over their new family member.
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HEEY! Like I said, these are two great women! Here's to the three amigas!
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Two of our friends gave us bride and groom Hello Kitties. TRULY AWESOME!
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We found these shades on the dance floor. I have no idea whose they were, and I have no idea where they are today!
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You can barely see my teenage brother on DH's left, but that night he was smiling more than I have seen him smile in years!
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Dancing with our parents to Elton John's "Blessed".
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Aww, love is in the air!
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Having fun during our post-reception photo shoot!
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As our photographer would say, "Photo kiss!"
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My husband looks smug here because he really gave it to me during that photo kiss! I'm laughing, thinking, "Woah there, DH!"
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Some modern art.
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Doesn't this look like a fragrance ad? I love it!
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Good old fashioned R-O-M-A-N-C-E.
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Gazing at our matching rings. I still gaze at them every now and then, and I've caught my husband doing it, too!
PLEASE LEAVE ME A SHOUT OUT ON MY SHOUT BOX BELOW!
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VENDOR REVIEWS
Reception Venue: Branch Nightclub and Event Space, www.branchny.com, A-
I don’t regret for a second opting to go with this modern, nontraditional venue. Some people looked at me funny when I told them our reception would be at a nightclub, but when the guests arrived at the venue they were definitely impressed. It is anything but traditional, but it has an elegance all its own. And I love the fact that none of our guests had been to a wedding there before—not a chance of that!
Since Branch is not ultra popular for weddings, the prices were outstanding. The food was excellent—sooooo yummy! Our tasting was not very impressive, but they must have been having an off-night that night because it was ten thousand times better the day of. Like I said, so good.
The staff was very friendly…my only complaint is thatduring the planning process I did not feel entirely confident in them. Whenever I would send out an email listing, oh, five or so questions, I would receive a response with just one question answered. And the answer would always be very vague. I wasn’t sure how the show would be run until about a week before the wedding, and no one ever offered up information to me—I kind of had to drag it out of people. In brief, I felt that the staff’s communication skills were lacking.
Ceremony Venue: Tillman Chapel at the United Nations, A-
This is a great inexpensive, indoor, interfaith space, and believe it or not, that combination is difficult to find in NYC. It is a little weird in that there are two aisles on either side of the pews, and this made the processional a little difficult to organize. But what could I do, ask them to rebuild the place for me? In the end, things worked out just fine. There are a lot of great spots for picture taking around the UN—our photographer was in heaven! The one complaint I have is, again, poor communication skills on the vendor’s part. My contact was a woman from the UN Church Center, and she was always very brief with me to the point where she was coming across as being rude. She also told us that there was no piano at the chapel when in fact there was. If I had not swung by one last time to check the place out we would have been lugging in our own piano for no reason. Unacceptable.
Day of Coordinator: Hollie Pena Holmes of Exquisite Affairs Productions, www.exquisiteaffairsproductions.com, A+
Hollie MADE our wedding. Without her, I don’t know what we would have done. She says we would have gotten married. I say yeah, but that’s about it. I ain’t gon’ lie, the day of was very, very stressful! If Hollie hadn’t been there I think I would have broken down. I’m sure she was a little freaked out too because things were kind of all over the place, but she never let on. She was cool as a cucumber throughout, running the show, and tossing everything into place, turning a maddening event into the most beautiful day of our lives.
I laugh whenever I think about how I was about to not hire a DOC. Seriously, I laugh. Things did go wrong throughout the day, vendors had questions, people were running a little wild…if I had to be the go-to person at my own wedding I would not have been happy. If you can AT ALL afford to hire a DOC, I say do it!
Hollie also ran our rehearsal, which I don’t think I could have done on my own. My wild bridal party would not have listened to me. She did a great job.
Finally, this woman is also just a total sweetheart. I felt throughout the process that she was genuinely there for me, that she would do anything to keep me happy and at peace. Sigh, she’s the best!
Officiant: Hilda Geico, A+
Hilda is everything brides say she is—a genuinely kind-hearted person that will create a personalized ceremony you just won’t believe. We needed a nondenominational ceremony that incorporated Romanian Orthodox traditions. Not an easy task, but she executed it with a wave of her hand. Even though she is wildly popular, her fee is more than fair and she treats every one of her clients like gold. We left her payment at home the day of and she was just peaches and cream about it. She is a truly great woman, and our guests all say they have never before seen such a beautiful, heartfelt ceremony. We have Hilda to thank for that.
Photographer: Kenny Pang, www.kennypang.com, A+
Everyone was in love with Kenny. He is a bundle of joy. I wanted to take him home with us, but I guess that wouldn’t have made for a very romantic wedding night. I think my crazy aunt actually kissed Kenny several times, that’s how much people adored him.
Even though Kenny’s fees were much higher than what we were planning on paying for a photographer (we were on an extremely low budget), as soon as DH and I saw his work we knew we couldn’t hire anyone else. He is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Check out his website and see for yourself! And don’t forget to check out our pro pics in my bio! When those pictures arrived I was beyond excited to see them. I knew they were going to be a dream.
Kenny was unobtrusive the entire time, but his joyful presence was felt. DH and I loved doing photo shoots with him. He made be feel like the most beautiful supermodel ever. We heart us some Kenny Pang!
Florist: Laura Clare Design, www.lauraclaredesign.com, C+
Okay, first of all, the flowers were stunning. 100% gorgeous. Second of all, Laura Clare stayed within our tiny flower budget and was still able to provide us with truly unique, lush arrangements that blew our guests away.
That said, not only did they fail to provide half of our ceremony arrangements, communication with this vendor was, I felt, atrocious.
I did not appreciate the following:
No one notified us when our contract arrived. We paid with a credit card and the payment was not processed for quite some time. I had to track them down and after not answering my emails for weeks they finally told me the contract had come in some time ago.
Every email and phone call went unanswered for so long, I began to wonder if they had gone out of business. The assistant working with us told me she had been sending me emails but I must not have been receiving them. Didn’t believe that for a second.
The above assistant (who I felt was rather unprofessional for reasons I won’t go into—too long) was assigned to our wedding instead of Laura herself. No one told us that was how things would be. I’m sure it was because our budget was lower than most. Any attempt to contact Laura herself was in vain. We never heard from her after our initial meeting. Yes, did try to call and email her directly several times.
I had to make any request about three times before it was ever followed up on. I never even received an email stating, “We’re working on it.” Nothing.
I could go on, but I won’t. Email me offline if you want to hear more. Like I said, the flowers they did provide were outstanding.
DJ: Mike from FM Entertainment, www.FMDJS.com, A+
The best thing about FM Entertainment is their prices—they just can’t be beat in the NYC area. We paid $650 for four hours of Disc jockeying and emceeing. Mike played everything we asked him too, and orchestrated the reception beautifully. He was a fantastic MC—great at getting the crowd going but never over-the-top, and he was kind, professional, and just plain lovely to deal with.
Transportation: Lincoln Limousines, www.lincolnlimousine,com, A+
Wow, I was shocked by what a great job these guys did, because I know most limo companies are notoriously a pain in the neck! First off, their prices are incredibly competitive. Ask them for a quote and you will see! Secondly, our stretch limo, which had to make four different trips, was always on time, always in the right spot, and the driver was a great guy—so polite and willing to help. I definitely recommend this vendor!
Bridal gown and bridesmaid dresses: RK Bridal, www.rkbridal.com, A+
I was always treated very well at RK Bridal. I know some women have had less than satisfactory seamstresses there, but my seamstress, Charlene, was kind, respectful, listened to my opinions, and did a great job fixing up my dress. I also heart Olga, who found my dress for me—she really knows her stuff! And she sure remembers her brides! Everytime I came into RK she was happy to see me. I am planning on sending her a nice note and a pic of me in the dress. I did promise her that! The prices at RK are hard to beat. Other salons were floored when they found out how much I paid for my Mori Lee gown. My bridesmaids also had a fine time picking out their Alfred Angelo dresses, and RK did a great job with their fittings. No complaints!
Hair: Stacy Pitt, www.stylesonb.com, A+
I love my girl, Stacy Pitt! Stacy does amazing things with my hair. I have never had a haridresser whose work and personality were so equally fantabulous. Yes, my hair did fall down during our first dance, but I never conveyed to Stacy that our first dance was going to be a real wild number. I mean, my hair was not the only thing falling down if you know what I mean! And after it fell, it looked even better! So Stacy really gave me two styles for the price of one. Stacy has also colored my hair—she took me from fried platinum back to my natural ash blonde faster than you can say, “Stacyalsohasagreatlunchboxcollecton”! I will continue to see Stacy about my hair, not just because she does fantastic work, but because I’ll just plain miss her if I don’t stop by once in a while!
Make-up: Me, A
Hehe, an A for effort! Actually, I was very happy with the way I did my makeup, as I always am. It was just very stressful, like some knotties warned me it would be…I didn’t listen to them. Oh well, it was a good excuse to ransack Sephora!
