Thank You Notes - Check!

I am very pleased to report that a mere 4 weeks after our wedding, our guests will be receiving their Thank You Notes! Nice teamwork, hubby!

Calling Small Dog Owners!

We have big news...we're getting a dog! Now the question is...what kind?

Here's some of our thoughts...

- As we're still in the condo with no backyard, we know we definitely want a small dog (probably less than 20 pounds?)

- Has to be good with other dogs (I have a neph-pup Maddox - he's a bull mastiff)

- Has to be good with children (for the FUTURE! but still, on the radar)

- Has to be okay being home alone for a good chunk of the day

So, my plea to you, loyal blog readers...educate me! Tell me the pros and cons of your small dog! Any pictures are always appreciated too :)

Thanks!!

Vendor Reviews!

Venue: Quidnessett Country Club

Our coordinator was Liane. She was who we met when we booked it (2 years in advance), who we worked with the whole time & who was our day of coordinator. She was on top of everything - no detail too small! She was seriously a dream to work with and I have nothing but amazing praise for her. As far as food goes, everything was absolutely delicious. People were telling us they were so full by the time the pasta came – always a good sign! They even made me a special “bride’s dish” that I LOVED. Everything was set up even better than I had imagined with all of my DIY masterpieces (haha)…I had made the centerpieces, menus, placecards, table numbers, guest book, card box, candy buffet & seeing it all come together so perfectly was such a relief!

Photographer: Zenobia Photography Studios (Jenny)

We clicked with Jenny the moment we met her! We walked in, talked for about 5 minutes and FI leans over and whispers in my ear "I know, You LOVE her" and I did...we booked her later on that day. After about 2 months of having her booked, she offered a free trash the dress session, so I did it! It was great to get to work with her before the wedding and the pictures were just stunning! She was totally accessible the whole time during planning…I'd text her/email her/FB her and she'd get back to me instantly! Perfect for the obsessive bride haha :) 2 weeks before the wedding we spoke for about an hour to map out the whole wedding day, it was SO helpful! The day of the wedding she showed up bright and early and started capturing every little detail. She followed us from the salon, to my mom's house, in the limo all day, to the State House, Waterplace Park, Goddard Park beach and then finally to Quidnessett - it was a long day and she and her assistant were on target ALL day! At the reception, she set up a laptop near the entrance to play 30 or so pictures she had taken during the day, it was a huge hit…people couldn't believe there were pictures from earlier in the day already available for viewing and amazed at how fabulous they were! Within a week of the wedding she put about 50 pictures up on Facebook and I LOVE them, I have TOTAL confidence in her work and can't wait to see the rest of my pictures & order my album!

Here’s our wedding on her blog: Our Wedding Photos And our 2 TTD Sessions: TTD 1 and TTD 2

Videographer: Wedding Stories (John)

John was another one that we clicked with as soon as we met him! We had a great first meeting with him and knew we’d book with him after that meeting. His style is exactly what we were looking for and his personality clinched the deal for us! He’s so upbeat and fun to be around, which is exactly what you want when they will be with you for your entire wedding day! He came along to one of our TTD sessions with our photog and made a fabulously fun TTD video (below) which also gave us a chance to work with him before the big day. The week of the wedding, we spoke on the phone for about 30 minutes going over every detail – it was so calming and helpful! We had booked him for 10 hours with 2 videographers….he ended up showing up with 3 videographers @ 10 a.m. and ended up having one of them stay all the way until midnight! They were not in our face at ALL; at times we forgot there were even 3 video cameras there pointing at us! I have all the confidence that our final wedding video will be absolutely amazing! Our TTD Video on his blog: TTD Video

Florist: Flowerthyme (Joy)

I loved my flowers! I had never seen anything exactly like what I wanted for either mine or my bridesmaid's bouquets so I couldn’t really provide any pictures to Flowerthyme as inspiration...I just had to describe the best I could! They nailed my vision exactly on the head, even better than I could have pictured! We got from them: bridal bouquet, 6 bridesmaids bouquets, 10 bouts, floral centerpiece at church, throwaway bouquet and pew ribbons. They were on time to deliver and set everything up, were super friendly and helped the boys put their bouts on...no complaints!

DJ: All 4 You DJ's (Glenn & Anne)

Finding a DJ was a VERY difficult task for us as DH is a club DJ and was super-critical of everyone we talked to / met with. We ended up totally clicking with Glenn & Anne and DH felt comfortable with them. They hosted a couple's night in January for their brides and grooms. We went with my parents (no charge) and had a blast! We got to see Glenn DJ, party/dance, meet other couples and meet a few vendors. We actually won a free Engagement Session from Gabrielle Marks in one of their many raffles! The day of the wedding Anne was so helpful as the emcee; she was basically a second coordinator who worked seamlessly with Liane (our QCC coordinator) and Jenny (our photographer). They even let DH spin a few tracks which was a big hit! We also got pink uplighting from All 4 You and it really added to the ambience of the room – I loved it! Our wedding on their blog: All 4 You Blog

Cake: Something Different Cake Couture (Maureen)

We loved when we met Maureen for the first time. She had tons of albums of her work and it was just the style we were looking for (Very "Ace of Cakes" if you will). We started talking about all of our crazy ideas and she took out some paper and colored pencils and drew out an amazing sketch! We booked her on the spot! My mom also contacted her for my shower cake and it was a gorgeous SHOE cake and DELICIOUS! I was psyched to get to taste one of her cakes seeing we were having a dummy cake so we had never taste-tested her stuff. Our dummy cake turned out PERFECTLY – just like the picture she had sketched for us, it was amazing to see in real life! And she also made DH and I a small real cake that we could cut and feed each other – delish!

Shower cake:

Wedding cake sketch:

Wedding cake:

Transportation: Prestige Limo

We had 14 people for a limo + our photographer + our videographer so we wanted to make sure we had enough room…we ended up booking the 26 passenger coach bus (party bus). It was PERFECT. We knew we had a long day of driving (Warwick to Warren for the boys, then Warren to Providence to Warwick for everyone) so we wanted people to be able to a. be comfortable and b. party! Both were accomplished! The limo was on time, had plenty of room for our cooler & snacks and brought us everywhere we needed to be in a timely fashion. Our driver was Wayne. We also used this company for my bachelorette party and again we had a perfect interaction. That time there were only 6 girls in a white 10-person limo and our driver, Ceaser, drove us from Warren to Newport and back and even made a few drunken stops (DD on the way to Newport & Taco Bell late night on the way home). Here are some photos from inside the wedding day limo, it was TRULY a Party bus!

Makeup: Kristin Greene

Kristin was a great joy to have around the morning of the wedding! Not only did everyone look stunning in their perfect makeup (& fake eyelashes!), but she even provides little goody bags for everyone to take with them to touch up on lipstick throughout the day! (It was even equipped with straws, which my bridesmaids all actually used!) She was so fun to have around, kept the mood light and everyone looked absolutely gorgeous!

Hair: Vanity Salon, Warren (Mara, Laura, Tammy)

We had 8 girls getting their hair done the morning of the wedding. Laura (one of the owners) sat down with me a few weeks before the wedding and made a master timeline of which hairdresser would do which girl and it really calmed me down to have everything so masterfully planned. Everyone’s hair came out beautifully & the salon even had fake hair for any of the girls that needed a little extra in their updo’s!

Seamstress: Original Designs by Rosa (Rosa Medeiros)

Rosa was an absolute SAVIOR for my dress! I got my dress at Running of the Brides and it was WAY too big…When I showed it to my great aunt that used to be a seamstress she said, “You have to find someone good to fix this, this is a LOT of work…” Well luckily Rosa was up to the challenge! After 4 or 5 trips to her, she completely transformed it to fit perfectly to me, it was a DREAM! She is such a sweetheart and I think is very reasonably priced.

Bridesmaid Dresses: David's Bridal, Warwick, RI & Manchester, CT David's Bridal

I went with 3 of my bridesmaids to the Warwick store and everything went pretty smoothly. The staff was somewhat helpful, somewhat non-responsive. I went with the other 3 bridesmaids to the store in Yonkers, NY - everything went fine there too. I preferred it when they actually just let us look for dresses ourselves and weren't hovering over us. I ended up ordering the dresses from a store near me in Manchester, CT. Everything went fine but their arrivals were a little annoying. Every time one dress came in, they'd email me and say "You have to pick it up this week". Seeing it was ~25 minutes away, this was slightly annoying to go over and over again whenever one dress came in. The dresses all came in right sizes with no problems at all. We went there because of the selection in sizes and colors, the sweet prices were an added bonus! Each girl chose their own dress with the only stipulation that they be floor length and watermelon. The girls all loved getting to pick their own style. We did not do alterations there. Dresses took about 2-3 months to come in; I didn't think that was bad at all. I also got a TTD dress and a rehearsal dinner dress there with equally smooth experiences.

Tuxes: Carl Anthony Tuxedo (Dan)

Everything went very smoothly when working with Dan on choosing the outfits for the men in our wedding. He even went as far as to special order pink paisley ties just so we could see them (And that’s what we ended up going with!) The prices were good and there weren’t any problems with anyone’s sizes. Having groomsmen all over the country, they each got fitted at a tux shop near them, sent their sizes to us, and I entered everyone’s measurements on Carl Anthony’s easy to use site. Such a breeze! The only one complaint was that the day when DH & groomsmen went to try on & pick up the tuxes, it was very crowded & it took almost 2 hours for 6 guys to get their tuxes. Normally would not be a big deal, but they literally JUST made it on time to the rehearsal, so it was a little stressful. Overall, though, the final product was very sharp, all of the guys looked great!

Paper Products: Vista Print

From VP I got: Save the Date magnets, Photo Share cards, Thank you notes and return address labels. They were all good quality, cheap, and delivered faster than they were supposed to be!

Photobooth: New England Photobooth

This was booked as a surprise to me from DH and what a FUN surprise it was!! As I did not know about this, I can only speak to my experience at the reception which was nothing but pure fun! At the end of the night when they left, they had given us a scrapbook of everyone’s pictures which they all wrote little notes near, it is such a great (and hilarious!) keepsake. According to DH, they were very easy to work with and always very responsive over email.

Here's my little cousin playing with the props DH had brought for the booth.

Rehearsal Dessert: Holly's Cookies

One of our knotties (hollygb22) also happens to be a very talented cookie-maker! She made DELICIOUS cookies for our rehearsal dinner favors, wrapped them all individually & tied them with ribbon. She made “girl” shapes (pink and white dresses) and “boy” shapes (Yankee hats and baseballs). DH was surprised and LOVED them and overall they were a big hit at the rehearsal.

Rehearsal Dinner: Jacky's Galaxie, Bristol

We had the upstairs room at Jacky’s (Fireside lounge), it had such a cozy feeling to it; I loved it the first time I saw it. Everything went smoothly during the planning process with the coordinator there. We had the International Buffet for about 25 people and they accommodated for a gluten-free meal as well as some lactose intolerant folks. The food was excellent. My only complaint is the night of the rehearsal when I showed up with everyone, the coordinator came right up to me, my bridesmaids & parents and said “We’ll have to figure some things out with the food now that you are late”. I kind of laughed figuring he was joking and said “It’s 8:03 haha”, to which he replied “You were supposed to be here at 7”. I said “I never would have said we’d be here at 7 because the church was at 7” to which he walked off. It was certainly NOT how I envisioned starting my rehearsal dinner celebration with friends and family. That’s my only complaint…Clearly it was just a miscommunication somewhere along the way but it was not handled to my liking.

B-Pics: Melissa Robotti Photography Melissa Robotti

I loved working with Melissa! Her warm personality and smile lets you warm up to her immediately upon meeting her. She makes you feel completely comfortable! The pictures came back in the promised amount of time and were all beautifully edited. A wonderful photographer who has certainly found her niche! (And DH LOVED them!)

Engagement Video: K-Lee Studios

We heard about Kevin from a DJ in CT…We heard that he makes these unbelievable music videos that people play at their receptions. As soon as we met him and saw the kind of work he did, we were hooked! We spent a year filming 2 music videos that we played at the reception and they were a HUGE hit, people were talking about the video ALL night! Highly recommended! On his page, under PortfolioàVideography, we are the first video “Jen & Jay”

Engagement Picture Photographer: Gabrielle Marks Photography

We won this at the All 4 You DJ event in January. She is a TOTAL sweetheart. She let us choose the location (we picked Narragansett Beach) and she spent a little over an hour with us, taking us to another secret cool location as well. Within a few days, there were photos on her blog and within a few weeks we had an online gallery and a CD of all of the images for FREE! Couldn't believe we got all the photos! We used them for our guestbook and they were a huge hit!

Our engagement session on her blog: Engagement Pictures

Any questions? Shoot me an email: legallybride@hotmail.com or page me on the RI board (legallybride2)