Becky & Jason's Fairy Tale wedding 9/3/11 on Long Island - *complete*

[bambi0921]

Hi there! I'm another at-home Disney bride signing on for your PJ! I love everything so far! Your dress is gorgeous on you! The color is perfect. And I'm so excited about your blog! What a cool idea! Looking forward to following along!

 

[librarygeek]

Hi there! I'm another at-home Disney bride signing on for your PJ! I love everything so far! Your dress is gorgeous on you! The color is perfect. And I'm so excited about your blog! What a cool idea! Looking forward to following along!

Yay, I'm so happy to hear from other at-home Disney brides! Let me know if you decide to start a Planning Journal

 

[librarygeek]

Save the Dates

Once we had the date settled on, we had to send out the STDs. (Actually, this is a little out of order since we visited the reception hall and booked it before the STDs, but I'll detail the reception hall adventure later). I wanted something simple with an elegant fairy tale theme. I also just wanted to do a postcard (postage is cheaper), nothing fancy. I thought about printing my own but I checked out VistaPrint, and their prices are so good that it probably would've cost me as much if not more to do it myself in paper and printing ink. So here's the design I chose:

I was really pleased, it was basically the look I was going for. The only bad thing was that about 20 of the postcards had a black dotted line (a cutting line?) visible along the top of the back. I could've complained, and they probably would have sent new ones, but it would've taken some time and I just didn't feel like dealing with it. I had ordered extras anyway, and I just sent any with black lines to Jason's guy friends - I figured they wouldn't really notice anyway

Up next: reception hall and ceremony location details!

 

[Bickimook2]

Congratz on your engagement. We are staying at PORFQ and doing the deluxe dining plan as well! OH and did I mention that your first two days itenerary are identical to mine, lol. We are arriving midday and going to Narcosseess and doing MK and Cindy's for dinner the next I guess great minds think alike I love your save the dates they turned out really nice, I can't wait to hear more of your plans.

 

[sw33t_angel]

Love your save the dates! Very elegant! I have been toying with the idea of doing a postcard save the date instead of the magnets, but I just don't want people to lose them, and with a magnet it tends to stick around longer- but that's just me

Haha... love how you send the black line ones to the guys...

 

[librarygeek]

Love your save the dates! Very elegant! I have been toying with the idea of doing a postcard save the date instead of the magnets, but I just don't want people to lose them, and with a magnet it tends to stick around longer- but that's just me

Haha... love how you send the black line ones to the guys...

Thanks! Vistaprint designs also are available as a magnet for a bit more money. I really wanted magnets at first but just couldn't justify spending the money. I've been to some friends and family's houses and most of them have it on their fridge held up with another regular fridge magnet anyway!

 

[KristiLyn]

Aww I love your save the dates! They have such a romantic feel to them!

 

[librarygeek]

Aww I love your save the dates! They have such a romantic feel to them!

Thanks! I feel like they really sum up how I want the feel of my wedding to be. I'm trying to make it a simple, romantic, fairy tale theme, with hints of Disney but not overtly so. Trying to capture that look for everything else now...

 

[bellebride116]

Save the Dates

Once we had the date settled on, we had to send out the STDs. (Actually, this is a little out of order since we visited the reception hall and booked it before the STDs, but I'll detail the reception hall adventure later). I wanted something simple with an elegant fairy tale theme. I also just wanted to do a postcard (postage is cheaper), nothing fancy. I thought about printing my own but I checked out VistaPrint, and their prices are so good that it probably would've cost me as much if not more to do it myself in paper and printing ink. So here's the design I chose:

I was really pleased, it was basically the look I was going for. The only bad thing was that about 20 of the postcards had a black dotted line (a cutting line?) visible along the top of the back. I could've complained, and they probably would have sent new ones, but it would've taken some time and I just didn't feel like dealing with it. I had ordered extras anyway, and I just sent any with black lines to Jason's guy friends - I figured they wouldn't really notice anyway

Up next: reception hall and ceremony location details!

LOVE this!

 

[librarygeek]

Reception Hall

It was an interesting adventure trying to find a reception hall, since we were looking for something relatively affordable for about 100 people. Most places were just waaaaay out of our price range. However, we found one nice place in Pennsylvania. It was actually the back room of a restaurant but it was a really big room. It had all wood paneling, which was pretty. It felt a bit more rustic than romantic fairy tale, but still nice. The downside was that we sampled some of the food and it was just okay. Nothing too amazing. And there wasn't a huge selection, so it basically would've been a buffet with two or three entree choices and a few sides. Only apps would have been cheese and crackers and fruit trays. But like I said, we were on a budget and I doubted we would find anything better.

And then my dad got in contact with a friend of his who is a caterer on Long Island and has a hall. Turns out his wedding package was just barely in our price range, and there are a TON of options for food! The inside of the hall is pretty too. The outside is eh, but then I can't be picky! I love the chandeliers. For some reason the walls look yellow-ish in these photos - they're not, they're an off white, very pretty.

Eventually we have to make a decision on the menu. Here are our options:

I welcome your thoughts on any recommendations you might have for food! There are a lot of options, especially with entrees. It's nice that we get five or six choices, especially since DF's family has quite a few vegetarians, and my family members are big meat eaters. The only requirement is that we HAVE to have mozzarella sticks are one of our apps, because my brother is the pickiest eater in the world and that's basically the only thing on the entire menu that he would eat. But it's fine with me! We haven't tasted any of the food yet, it's a bit difficult since I live three hours away, but we are hoping to set one up within the next few months.

Let me know what you think!

Up next: ceremony location and centerpieces

 

[Bickimook2]

Yummy, yummy is all sounds so wonderfully good. I have always been a fan of the Swedish meatballs and the fried mozzarella sounds good too. I love the reception hall those chandeliers are absolutely gorgeous!

 

[amazingact21]

Your reception hall looks very nice. I agree about the chandeliers; they add to the room. Definitely gives it that "wedding" feel.
I like all the Italian dishes on the entree selections, but that's my favorite type of food, and if I had my way I'd choose from just that category. Although the steak teriyaki sounds delicious, as well.
You've got some tough choices ahead!

 

[librarygeek]

Your reception hall looks very nice. I agree about the chandeliers; they add to the room. Definitely gives it that "wedding" feel.
I like all the Italian dishes on the entree selections, but that's my favorite type of food, and if I had my way I'd choose from just that category. Although the steak teriyaki sounds delicious, as well.
You've got some tough choices ahead!

Haha I know, if I was picking a buffet just for me, I'd have almost all pasta dishes! And there are certainly a lot of them on this menu. So I'm trying not to pick more than 2 pasta dishes. I'm going to go with one chicken dish and one steak, two pasta dishes, and probably the mussels because I wanted a fish option (I'm surprised there's no salmon or anything!). And then something else... I'm sure it will be good whatever I pick!

 

[geek+nerd]

So many yummy choices! Like you, I'd probably end up with all the Italian dishes. What do you think about including the eggplant parm and the bow tie pasta dish for the vegetarians? At least they'd have two options. Are there any hard core vegans? They might be trickier to feed, but I think that bow tie pasta dish would work.

 

[geek+nerd]

Scratch the bow tie suggestion. That has eggplant, too. What about the eggplant parm and pasta primavera then?

 

[librarygeek]

Scratch the bow tie suggestion. That has eggplant, too. What about the eggplant parm and pasta primavera then?

Those were the two veg options that I was considering, actually. I love Pasta Primavera Now I'm hungry!

 

[librarygeek]

Ceremony Location

Ah, the story of the ceremony location. Once we booked the reception hall on Long Island I was really happy because I could have the ceremony at one of my family's two churches. There was the church that I grew up in and attended until I was 18. And then there's the church that my parents switched to after we got a not so great pastor in our original church. I've attended a bunch of times home during the summer and holidays, so I feel at home in both places.

I decided that I wanted to have the ceremony in my original church, where I grew up. That was meaningful to me, even though it's small (it would just barely fit the amount of people that we were having) and rather plain and simple. There was a brand new pastor that I had never met so Jason and I went to meet with him about the wedding. And it was a huge disappointment. The pastor was very big into a wedding being about a "church family," and seemed to imply that since we didn't attend this church regularly it wasn't right of us to get married here. I want to add that I'm United Methodist, which typically is a pretty open religion, usually not strict about this sort of thing at all. He kept questioning why we weren't getting married in a church closer to where we currently live, didn't seem to understand the concept of "it's my hometown." It was frustrating because he made me feel like an outsider when I was at that church way longer than he's been. And he was requiring us to come to 4-6 counseling sessions. I understand that's required sometimes, but when Jason and I are both a 3 hour drive away it's not the most convenient thing.

Anyway, we decided to check things out at the church my parents currently attend. The pastor there is a really cool guy and was fine with marrying us, and he's only requiring one counseling session, which is a huge relief. The tolls to get onto Long Island are so ridiculous that I can't make trips there as often as I would like! I think this may be better overall - I like the pastor, and church is beautiful, both inside and out. The only downfalls are that it's a big church, so I'm worried it will look a little empty since we're only having about 100 people (it holds around 300). And there's no center aisle, which I hate but there's nothing I can do about it. Here's the outside of the church:

I wish I had a picture of the inside, but I don't. It's pretty inside too though. And they have beautiful candle holders / candelabras that I can use, which is a relief because I'm not planning to spend a lot on flowers.

 

[KristiLyn]

Wow!! That church is beautiful!!

 

[Bickimook2]

Look's very majestic and Disneylike, absolutely perfect, yeah for finding a ceremony location

 

[sw33t_angel]

Sorry about the other church in your "hometown" definitely don't want to have someone do your ceremony who doesn't even want you to get married there.

That church is beautiful!! It probably will work out better in the end being your parent's church and pastor is seems much nicer!