Post-wedding Post!
We were married on Sunday and everything was absolutely beautiful. We had an outdoor garden brunch and it was a huge hit. Parts of the wedding were traditional, but all of it was laid-back and relaxed. The only hitch was that it rained at the end of the reception, when we were supposed to do our bride/groom pictures. However, our amazing photographer volunteered to reschedule for later next week, so I get to wear my dress again! Below the cut are some pictures (from friends and family) and vendor reviews. To refresh your memories, we got married at Rutgers Gardens in central NJ.
I'm sure I'll have more posts when the professional pictures come in!
Wedding Date: July 25, 2010
City/State/Country you live in: NJ
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): New Brunswick, NJ
Your song/First Dance song: The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)
Wedding Colors: light green, peach, yellow, light blue, ivory
Theme (if you have one): garden brunch
Number of guests: We invited 124, wound up with about 85
My makeup was done by Lee Ann Buttery, who I found on Craigslist. She did an amazing job. I never wear makeup and I wanted to look natural but photograph well. AND, the makeup held up PERFECTLY all day.
my shoes :)
the garden all set up
the program fans. I ordered the programs from Vistaprint and glued them to tongue depressors that I got from Amazon. Then I tied ribbon around them. The turned out great!
the bouquets. My florist was amazing and so so cheap! She is a teacher on maternity leave and goes into the city and get the flowers from the flower market. I sent her inspiration pictures and she did an amazing job matching them.
My littlest sister walking in. She and my other sister were the only bridesmaids.
My MOH (my sister)
My dad getting ready to walk me down the aisle
I love this picture because it looks like my husband just realized what he did! LOL
Water bottle escort cards!!!!
the centerpieces
the pavilion all set up for the reception
the rings! My husband's ring is from Simply Wood Rings and he had it commissioned. My ring is from Pacific Jewelry in The Jewelry Exchange (Woodbridge, NJ).
We live in NJ. Ya gotta play "Livin' on a Prayer" at the reception!
cake cutting
Mother-son dance to Rod Stewart's "Forever Young"
Wait a minute! The song change......to the Chicken Dance!
Getting ready to go home
Vendor Reviews
Flowers- Bridal Bouquet Design (http://bridalbouquetdesign.blogspot.com/): My flowers were amazing! They survived the heat and still look great today! Tracey was a doll to work with and I highly recommend her. I was not willing to pay $4,000 for flowers (apparently the average in NJ) and she was so far below that price that I could not believe it. She works with in-season flowers and really helped me stay below budget.
Makeup- Lee Ann Buttery: I found Lee Ann on Craigslist and I am thrilled with her. She worked with me and was willing to listen to me when I had no idea what I was talking about. I so don't do makeup and she helped me relax. She made me look natural and my makeup lasted all day long.
Day-of coordination- Debbie Page of SImply Creative Weddings (http://www.simplycreativewednj.com/): Debbie was wonderful! Rutgers Gardens is pretty hands-off and DIY. As a control freak it drove me crazy that I wouldn't be there in the morning to oversee the setup. Debbie handled everything with grace and speed. She met the limo when we got there, made sure my sister had shoes, and coordinated the walk down the aisle. She set up an impromptu receiving line after the ceremony and moved people along to the ceremony site down the road. Loved her!
Caterer- Twin Oaks: Twin Oaks is the preferred caterer at Rutgers Gardens. They also did all the linens, decorating, setup, and clean up. Everyone loved the food!
Additional food- Hansel & Griddle: Chris and I used to get wraps from Hansel & Griddle every weekend in college so we were thrilled that they were able to provide some wraps for the wedding. We were their first wedding!
Hair- Ashlee of Shine Salon: Ashlee was great! She did my hair, my mom's, and my two sisters. Beautiful job and they held up all day!
Photography- Nicole M (http://www.nicolem.com/): Nicole was so easy to work with! I hardly knew she was there but at the same time I could always grab her for pictures. I can't wait to finish my pictures with her!
Photobooth- Extreme Photobooth Rentals (http://www.extremephotobooths.com/) - About a month ago I got an email that my photobooth company was out of business, effective immediately. Needless to say, I panicked. But my contract was passed on to Extreme and Tom was great on Sunday! It was over 80 degrees so he came prepared with 3 cameras, two computers, and two printers. He switched them out whenever they got too hot. Everyone raved about the booth and it was so much fun! He went above and beyond by printing pictures for everyone who crammed in the booth, even triple and quadruple copies at times. He also gave my photographer's assistant one of his cameras and had her take reception pictures. I will get them when I get the DVD later this week. He really went above and beyond the call of duty.
Dress- David's Bridal: I had a good experience at David's Bridal. My consultant was sweet and pulled tons of dresses for me. The only problem I had was I am a street size 0/2 and there were hardly any 0/2 dresses in the store. That made it really hard to order the right size. Plus, most of their dresses only come in size 2 and above. I ended up with a 2 and it was way too big. I had it altered off-premises and the seamstress I went to did a fantastic job.
Officiant- Rev. Phil (http://www.amazingceremonies.com/fr_testimonials.cfm)- Rev. Phil was PERFECT. Let me write the ceremony from scratch and even spoke a bit in Gaelic (we got engaged in Dublin, Ireland). He also played the guitar before the ceremony and for the processional and recessional. We got so many compliments on his wonderful ceremony.
I'm sure I'll have more posts when the professional pictures come in!
Wedding Date: July 25, 2010
City/State/Country you live in: NJ
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): New Brunswick, NJ
Your song/First Dance song: The Way I Am (Ingrid Michaelson)
Wedding Colors: light green, peach, yellow, light blue, ivory
Theme (if you have one): garden brunch
Number of guests: We invited 124, wound up with about 85
My makeup was done by Lee Ann Buttery, who I found on Craigslist. She did an amazing job. I never wear makeup and I wanted to look natural but photograph well. AND, the makeup held up PERFECTLY all day.
my shoes :)
the garden all set up
the program fans. I ordered the programs from Vistaprint and glued them to tongue depressors that I got from Amazon. Then I tied ribbon around them. The turned out great!
the bouquets. My florist was amazing and so so cheap! She is a teacher on maternity leave and goes into the city and get the flowers from the flower market. I sent her inspiration pictures and she did an amazing job matching them.
My littlest sister walking in. She and my other sister were the only bridesmaids.
My MOH (my sister)
My dad getting ready to walk me down the aisle
I love this picture because it looks like my husband just realized what he did! LOL
Water bottle escort cards!!!!
the centerpieces
the pavilion all set up for the reception
the rings! My husband's ring is from Simply Wood Rings and he had it commissioned. My ring is from Pacific Jewelry in The Jewelry Exchange (Woodbridge, NJ).
We live in NJ. Ya gotta play "Livin' on a Prayer" at the reception!
cake cutting
Mother-son dance to Rod Stewart's "Forever Young"
Wait a minute! The song change......to the Chicken Dance!
Getting ready to go home
Vendor Reviews
Flowers- Bridal Bouquet Design (http://bridalbouquetdesign.blogspot.com/): My flowers were amazing! They survived the heat and still look great today! Tracey was a doll to work with and I highly recommend her. I was not willing to pay $4,000 for flowers (apparently the average in NJ) and she was so far below that price that I could not believe it. She works with in-season flowers and really helped me stay below budget.
Makeup- Lee Ann Buttery: I found Lee Ann on Craigslist and I am thrilled with her. She worked with me and was willing to listen to me when I had no idea what I was talking about. I so don't do makeup and she helped me relax. She made me look natural and my makeup lasted all day long.
Day-of coordination- Debbie Page of SImply Creative Weddings (http://www.simplycreativewednj.com/): Debbie was wonderful! Rutgers Gardens is pretty hands-off and DIY. As a control freak it drove me crazy that I wouldn't be there in the morning to oversee the setup. Debbie handled everything with grace and speed. She met the limo when we got there, made sure my sister had shoes, and coordinated the walk down the aisle. She set up an impromptu receiving line after the ceremony and moved people along to the ceremony site down the road. Loved her!
Caterer- Twin Oaks: Twin Oaks is the preferred caterer at Rutgers Gardens. They also did all the linens, decorating, setup, and clean up. Everyone loved the food!
Additional food- Hansel & Griddle: Chris and I used to get wraps from Hansel & Griddle every weekend in college so we were thrilled that they were able to provide some wraps for the wedding. We were their first wedding!
Hair- Ashlee of Shine Salon: Ashlee was great! She did my hair, my mom's, and my two sisters. Beautiful job and they held up all day!
Photography- Nicole M (http://www.nicolem.com/): Nicole was so easy to work with! I hardly knew she was there but at the same time I could always grab her for pictures. I can't wait to finish my pictures with her!
Photobooth- Extreme Photobooth Rentals (http://www.extremephotobooths.com/) - About a month ago I got an email that my photobooth company was out of business, effective immediately. Needless to say, I panicked. But my contract was passed on to Extreme and Tom was great on Sunday! It was over 80 degrees so he came prepared with 3 cameras, two computers, and two printers. He switched them out whenever they got too hot. Everyone raved about the booth and it was so much fun! He went above and beyond by printing pictures for everyone who crammed in the booth, even triple and quadruple copies at times. He also gave my photographer's assistant one of his cameras and had her take reception pictures. I will get them when I get the DVD later this week. He really went above and beyond the call of duty.
Dress- David's Bridal: I had a good experience at David's Bridal. My consultant was sweet and pulled tons of dresses for me. The only problem I had was I am a street size 0/2 and there were hardly any 0/2 dresses in the store. That made it really hard to order the right size. Plus, most of their dresses only come in size 2 and above. I ended up with a 2 and it was way too big. I had it altered off-premises and the seamstress I went to did a fantastic job.
Officiant- Rev. Phil (http://www.amazingceremonies.com/fr_testimonials.cfm)- Rev. Phil was PERFECT. Let me write the ceremony from scratch and even spoke a bit in Gaelic (we got engaged in Dublin, Ireland). He also played the guitar before the ceremony and for the processional and recessional. We got so many compliments on his wonderful ceremony.