Weddingbee

I have been to many full mass weddings (of all religions); it always feels like I’m attending a regular church service that happens to include a wedding. We’re not religious and wanted the ceremony to be about us! We also wanted the ceremony to be fairly quick — 20 to 30 minutes max. As it turned out the ceremony was a bit too short — just under 20 minutes. I could have stayed up there forever.

Our officiant — Cantor Abelson from Temple Israel in Manhattan — asked each of us to write a paragraph explaining why we wanted marry each other. My paragraph was sweet and funny; Michael’s was amazing. I got a bit teary-eyed and giggled… a lot.

In a Jewish ceremony, the parents are supposed to stand under the Huppa along with the bridal party. My Huppa was more of an arch and no one could really stand under it. Rather moving off to the side, my parents just stood where they dropped me off, at the top of the aisle. File this one under “what the?!^?! were they thinking!” I tried to mouth “move” to my mom, but she didn’t get it … so my guests (and photographers) had to work around them to see the action.

The Cantor read a poem by Pablo Neruda and my cousin read a selection from Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go.

Exchange of the rings .. it fits!

Drinking of the wine (white, in case I spilled some!)

The Kiss

Man and wife ( I couldn’t stop giggling ;))

The invite was for 5:30; ceremony to start shortly before 6:00. Now or never …

My florist, Angie from Antheia Floral Design in Jersey City worked for hours setting up the huppa (I guess it was more like an arch). It looked like it was growing from the ground. A

In a Jewish wedding, the groom is traditionally walked down the aisle by his parents. Mr. Firefly’s father died over a decade ago and his mother died shortly before we got engaged, so his sister did the honor.

The boys took a wrong turn on their way down the aisle. The flower girl needed the help of her other aunt and chose to carry ring pillow rather than her floral pomandor (points for me to thinking ahead and ordering a third pillow!).

The anticipation …

The paparazzi …

I tried to watch on …

Showtime!

Traditionally, in a Jewish wedding, the bride and groom are supposed to see each other before the ceremony and sign the Ketubah (Jewish Marriage Contract) together. I really wanted that moment of “ahhh” when I walked down the aisle and our rabbi was flexible, so we each signed it separately. We also couldn’t find two non-related Jewish men to sign as witnesses, so a couple of my girl friends did the honor.

We purchased the Ketubah at J Levine on Fifth Avenue and 30th Street. It was great to look through the Ketubahs. The ordering process was simple (they didn’t even frown upon our pre-sunset Saturday evening wedding) and the store’s prices were comparable to various online sites. A

My brother-in-law couldn’t sign the Ketubah because he is Catholic, but he could sign the NY marriage license.

The countdown begins and the guests start arriving….

I couldn’t leave the bridal suite for fear of getting spotted…

Note to girls getting married at Battery Gardens: the “bridal suite” is just a semi-closed off area of the restaurant, that is separated from the hallway leading to the bathroom by a few screens and a large curtain that do not cover the entire opening (one screen nearly fell on my nephew when we tried moving it). I was scared that Mr. Firefly would inadvertently see me, which would have been such a bummer. You do not have complete privacy and I definitely would not suggest getting ready here.

…to be continued.

Battery Park, Downtown Manhattan.

Mr. Firefly and I were not seeing each other before the ceremony, so we we took most of our formal pictures after the ceremony. However, I did want to take a few with my parents, sister and maid of honor while things were still quiet. But boy, it was hot out there!

Bridesmaids Dresses: My sister was pregnant when I would have needed to order BM dresses. Instead of going the traditional route, I bought Laundry by Shelli Segal dresses off the rack from Lord & Taylor (I bought her 2 different sizes and returned the one that wound up being big). They were beautiful, less than $200 (with coupon) and the girls can wear them again. Don’t limit yourself to traditional BM dresses! A

My Mother’s Dress: My mother is young, so she wasn’t going for the long grey/beige dress with jacket route. Her gorgeous dress is Carmen Marc Valvo, also from Lord & Taylor. Exepensive, but beautiful and of course she’ll wear it again. NYC ladies: it seems like each deparment store carries a slightly different collection of CMV dresses (Saks and Bloomies didn’t carry my mom’s dress), so be sure to check out more than one store. A

My niece and nephew soon arrive. My nephew was amazed. He still talks about.

Flower Girl Dress: US Angels from Pearls Place. The quality was great and Pearls Place gave around a 25% discount. Netbride quoted a similar price (and responded very quickly via email), but I liked being able to talk to a live person and thought I’d support a New Orleans business. My grandmother made the dark purple sash to match the bridesmaids dresses because US Angels only had light ones. My niece is a tall 2-year old so we ordered a size 3. A

Boys Tuxedos: Ebay seller Kids Town Online. We ordered straight tie tuxes for the boys, which weren’t quite as formal as the bow-tie tuxes Kids Town offered because Mr. Firefly was originally going to wear a straight tie. He changed his mind last minute but I think everyone looked fine anyway. The boys looked adorable and the tuxes were CHEAP! Seriously, they were $25 + shipping. Not the best quality (polyester), but who cares, they’ll only wear it once. The service was incredible; I think Kids Town sent them out as soon as I ordered. Be careful when choosing a size as they do not accept returns. The size chart is accurate and we ordered true to the boys’ “street size.” A

Practice makes perfect… (didn’t go quite as smothly at show time ;)).

Checker Cab: Film Cars. The 1945 checker cab was perfect (and much roomier than today’s Ford Crown Vics ;)). Peter, the owner of Film Cars, is probably the nicest person in the world. A++

Something borrowed: There is no review for the veil because it’s not my veil. It was my sister’s veil which she bought for her wedding 6 years ago (to the day!). It was exactly the style I wanted (drop veil). The only issue was that it was diamond white instead of ivory, but the wonderful ladies at Mark Ingram assured me that you wouldn’t be able to tell in real life or photos because the tulle was so thin and really just picked up the color of whatever was beneath it.

My sister purchased the veil at Michelle Roth on 57th Street, where she got her dress as well. At that time, the store sold various brands of dresses, although I think they now only sell the Michelle and Henry Roth brands. The veil was very expensive (around $900-$1000 I think) which I think is absolutely insane. It has hand-rolled edging with hand sewn beading… yada yada yada. It was beautiful and I’m so thankful to have worn it, but I would never have spent that much money on a few yards of tulle!

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Midtown, New York City.

All photos are by Leah McCormick and as I’ve mentioned before, Leah shot in film. The digital images I’m posting here really don’t do the real photos justice. If you haven’t guessed already, I think Leah is absolutely fantastic, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. A++.

Make-up by Laura Nadeau What can I say, I don’t think I’ve ever looked better in my life. Laura is amazing. She’s hilarious, sweet, and obviously immensely talented. A++

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My photographer Leah McCormick knows that wedding photos are my form of crack, so while I was (patiently) waiting for my proofs, she sent me these photos from a recent wedding she did for a quick fix. Sooooo different from my wedding! So cool!

Leah really has no “formula” — her photos and style really depend on the spirit of the wedding itself. I posted some of Leah’s photos before here.

Hi Ladies, Sorry to go MIA (I heard I’ve been missed by my… um… avid weddingbee readers).

No I’m not on my honeymoon (came back many moons ago), just being a busy firefly with life, work, and trying (unsuccessfully) to set up wireless internet in our new apartment. I do have lots write about - I received my professional photos on Friday, I have to write-up my vendor reviews and I have tons of honeymoon photos to post! Bad me!

But it’s not like I’m shirking my duties - I’ve actually hit a bit of a technical snag. For some reason, the blogging program I’m using won’t let me upload my photographer’s photos unless I rename them; it claims they are not a proper form (they are all jpeg’s and have a .jpg extension). So I’m going to need a little bit of time to sort through the 1000 (!) photos and resave the extra good ones to share here!

Okay, okay I’ll give you a sneak peak. I’m the one in the white dress ;).

Please note: these are not digital photos, but film that has been put onto CDs. The real photos are much richer in detail then these images.

I had the hardest time figuring out what to buy Mr. Firefly as a wedding gift. My parents already bought him a Cartier Tank Francaise watch as an engagement present (he called it his “installment plan,” ;)) and although I bought him gorgeous cufflinks from Links of London, I knew that he wouldn’t get any real pleasure out of them, so I couldn’t make it his gift.

I wound up buying him a completely useless — but sentimental — gift. Our first date was drinks at the now-closed Chango on Central Park South. There were these little plastic monkeys on the bar that I couldn’t stop playing with. When we returned to Chango on our first anniversary, we took home a handful of these little monkeys.

Tiffany’s has a silver straw with a very similar little monkey… I just had to buy it! I put one of the plastic monkeys in the Tiffany’s bow and wrote “I’ve known since then” in the card. Not the most useful of gifts, but I couldn’t resist.

What did Mr. Firefly get me? Well, he’s still working on it. It’s supposed to be something extra special. I ask him for clues all the time… but he’s been tight lipped.

I’m thinking of ordering Mr. Firefly one of these custom comics by Mark Weber, whose work has run in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. The comics are frameable six-panel hand-drawn 8×11 art on 11×14 acid-free paper. Black and white is $150 and full color is $225. I think it would make a wonderful wedding gift for your fiance or even another couple you know.

… I wish I had found this before we got married!

Source: http://www.theknot.com/ NYC message boards.