Weddingbee

Our wedding was just amazing. It was so much better than what I had hoped for and I am so incredibly thankful to my family, friends, and vendors for making it happen.

To start, the weather was perfect. I was so afraid that our April date would be too cold, or even rain. However, it was sunny and bright with a high of 83 degrees…the warmest day in NYC yet!

The ceremony was amazing. There was a collective gasp as I entered the chapel, and when I finally met Mr. Peony at the altar, I was surprised to see tears of joy streaming down his face. “You look so beautiful and I’m just so happy,” he said. Our pastor then proceeded to give a great sermon which even made me choke up a bit, and then we were pronounced man and wife!

We started the reception with a choreographed dance to Michael Buble’s “For Once in My Life.” (I originally wanted the Stevie Wonder version which is more fun and more “us,” but the beat was too fast for me to boogie down in my poofy dress and 4.5″ heels.)

So many people came up to us during the reception to let us know that this was the best wedding they’d ever attended. I think a friend summarized it well when she exclaimed, “it is so elegant without being stuffy at all!” The food at the Fountainhead was delicious (again, many commented that it was the best wedding food ever), our DJ kept the crowd dancing all night long, and all service provided by our vendors was top-notch. Even all the elder guests got up to shake their booties with the younger crowd!

The only thing that went wrong was the traffic, which no one had control over. See, the Pope was visiting NYC that day, so there were numerous road blocks, extra security, as well as extra traffic. In addition to the Pope, the president of South Korea was also in town, as well as the British Prime Minister, and both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. My mother said having all these VIPs in town on the day of the wedding had to be a blessing.

Due to the traffic, the charter bus was 30 minutes late in picking up the guests (driving into the city), and 30 minutes late in arriving at the destination (driving out of the city). Since almost 50 guests were on this bus, I decided to push back the ceremony start time. I felt sorry for the rest of the guests who had arrived separately, on time, and had to wait for the rest of the guests to arrive.

The only other thing that was affected by the late start was the quartet: we had only booked them for two hours (1 for the ceremony, 1 for the cocktail hour). I had the choice of having them stay and paying them overtime, but we decided not to… and the staff at the Fountainhead accommodated the change by streaming classical music into the atrium, where the cocktail hour was held.

Other than those two problems caused by the traffic, everything else was PERFECT. I can’t express just how smoothly and beautifully everything played out. It really felt like a fairy tale wedding.

All pictures are courtesy of our photographer, Danny Weiss… these are part of the sneak peak that he sent us earlier this week. As soon as we receive the rest, I’ll do my vendor reviews!