I posted this in so many places after the wedding but not here! What's wrong with me. So I am positing here and then I hope to revitalize this blog with some updates, including our current apartment hunting.
This is a long one so let's start at the beginning shall we?
The Planning
Ed and I picked our wedding date before we even got engaged. He thought it would be cool to get married on the day we already celebrate as our anniversary, June 11, the date we met. I jokingly pushed for Feb. 29 but I liked the June 11 idea. When we got engaged, our friend Jeanette suggested green for the bridesmaids dresses and my first reaction was "no way!" My next reaction was ... hmm ... i might like that. So green it was.
We were going to start looking for a hall when we attended a wedding for our friends Matt & Amira. We fell in love with their hall, which provided tons of food, a space to get wedded, open bar, a bridal suite, attendants and more. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding so I got to see a lot of behind the scene stuff. After the reception, we spoke to a manager about having our date open and possible prices. Next thing I knew, we were putting down a deposit and signing contracts. We never looked at any other halls.
We knew we wanted to make the wedding unique and fun so when Amira suggested we do something related to our selected color, we landed on Green Lantern and that was it, we found our theme.
How We Incorporating the Theme into the Wedding
1.
Power Battery Centerpieces (built by Ed!) in the various corp colors 2.
Favors to match each color
3.
Place and table cards that featured the lantern corps symbols
4. Green Lantern symbols on the
invites which included a
bar code sticker on the envelope featuring the green lantern oath when scanned
5.
Green Lantern sneakers for me to wear during the reception
6.
A Green Lantern Symbol ice sculpture provided by the hall as part of the package;
7. Wedding bands inscribed with "In Brightest Day ..." and "In Blackest Night ..." which are part of the green lantern oath.
All that stuff took lots of planning and thought and along the way, we made many tweeks in order to make sure the wedding was fun and geeky without being too overwhelming.
The Wedding Party
Bridesmaids
* Autumn, My sister
* Erica, My cousin
* Jeanette, Our friend
* Amanda, Our friend
* Nicole, Our friend
Groomsmen
* Mike, Ed's cousin
* Tom, Ed's cousin
* JoJo, Ed's cousin
* Baby Joe, Ed's cousin
* Louis, Ed's cousin
The Pre-Wedding Events
My friends started arriving in town about 4 days before the wedding. I was busy getting stuff done so I really only hung out one day. The lovely, Amanda spent most of her time helping me or running around with me. On Friday, I had to drop some stuff off at the hall and get the photographer, Megan, a tour of the place. Since I had booked us a hotel in LI near the hall, it only made sense to go straight to the hotel after dropping off the stuff. This meant that anyone coming with had to bring their bags and dresses. It took 3 cars (my mom's, father-in-law's and sister's) to bring me, 3 bridesmaids (the other 2 came on their own), 1 photographer, 2 makeup artists (Christina and Kassandra), my wedding dress, their dresses, the photog equipment and all the makeup supplies.
From the hall, we went to the hotel, checked in and, after eating, went to the pool. I had been looking forward to the pool for a week! After that, we went and got more food, got some liquor, hung out and I got my hair blown out for the next day. Everyone went to bed by midnight cause we had to get up at 5 am.
The Big Event
I woke the girls up at 5:15-5:30 am because we all had to be ready to leave by 9:30. We were dressing at the hall but getting 6 girls hair and makeup down would take a considerable amount of time. Miraculously, we finished right on time and were out the door and at the hall by 9:45. This also took 3 cars and luckily our wonderful friends Kevin & Maria were in the hotel next door and gave some of the girls a lift.
Got to the hall and I automatically noticed a man taping me. I panicked thinking he was taping the wrong bride and would get in trouble so I hid my face. Turns out my in-laws hired him as a gift to us! I quickly greeted him and ran off to the bridal suite to get dressed. I had two attendants that day and they helped me get into my dress. The other girls got their dresses on and both our moms arrived looking beautiful. Soon it was time to see Ed and take pictures. He was facing away from me when I came down the stairs so I managed to sneak up behind him and tap him on the shoulder. When he turned around, the look in his eyes told me that I have bought the right
dress.
One of the groomsmen came up to show me there was a large rip in his jacket and I honestly couldn't care. I told him we just wouldn't take pics from the back. Maybe I am too blasé about things. LOL. The hall is so full of awesome though that one of my attendants grabbed his coat and had it sewn back together really quick. That caused a slight delay in the pictures but we got some great ones outside and it was fun seeing people arrive as we took pictures. We took a whole slew inside and then it was time for the wedding rehearsal. I didn't realize we would have one. It's good we did though because we had a lot of kinks to work out because of the big wedding party.
Once that was done, we were whisked off to the bridal suite where we had to wait for the ceremony start time. At a few minutes to 11:30 we all lined up downstairs only to realize Ed's mom was not around! The ceremony music started and I was about to panic but then the attendants found her and she arrived moments before she and Ed's dad had to walk down the aisle.
When my dad and I were walking down the aisle, I was honestly too scared to look at the people around us. I kept my eyes focused on Ed and our friend and officiant, Graham. When Graham asked who was giving me away, my dad said "I do! The Green Lantern!" That got a laugh from everyone. Graham's sermon was amazing. First of all, he read it off his ipad which makes my geek heart swell. Second of all, he talked about the zombie apocalypse, comics, our love for each other and how amazing we were as a couple. Since Graham is a friend, he made the ceremony so personal that it was perfect. Everyone kept laughing. I can't wait to see the video of that sermon.
After the ceremony, the attendants kidnapped us back to the bridal suite. They then attacked me with table clothes and wrapped me up so I wouldn't spill food on my dress and served us a variety of things from the hot chafing stations. I didn't want to spend the entire wine hour in the suite so the attendants bustled my dress and we headed over to the wine hour room. I had a minor coughing fit in there (I was getting over a cold), but we got to greet so many people and see the ice sculpture!!
We were kidnapped again, but this time it was by Megan. She wanted to take some pictures in the reception room before everything started. This was my 1st chance to see the room all set up and it was PERFECT! The centerpieces looked so good. I hadn't seen them since before Ed brought them to his grandfather's house to spray paint. I was in love with the room and the
cake with our x-box avatars on top.
While people started filtering into the reception room, the entire wedding party was then directed back to the suite for more snacks and drinks. TMI time, I had to really go to the bathroom but it was not easy in my dress. My cousin came to the bathroom with me but I couldn't go with her there, holding my dress up. So when we started lining up to make our entrance, I was in dire straights. As soon as we got in and had our "first" dance, and then sat down for the fruit plates, I ran out and managed to go to the bathroom by myself like a big girl! lol.
The rest of the reception was made up of visiting tables, dancing our butts off and having a great time. Baby Joe's girlfriend Melanie caught the bouquet. I put on my green lantern sneakers about halfway through the wedding and caused quite a stir. My dad and I had our father/daughter dance. We sang my grandma "happy birthday" and people were bargaining for who got to take the centerpieces home.
By the time the reception was over and people were leaving, I was exhausted and my head was spinning. Everyone came over to say bye and I was being pulled every which way. Also, Megan wanted a pic of Ed and I looking exhausted (not hard by that point!) so we had to go lay across a couch and look like we were about to pass out. Once I could, I went back to the bridal suite (again) and got the hell out of my dress. I loved that thing but it was time for normal clothes!
The Music
Pre-Processional - Batman Theme by Danny Elfman
Processional - Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins
Wedding March
Recessional - Theme from Green Lantern First Flight
The Vendors
Jericho Terrace -- Outstanding. They took care of all our needs and anticipated things we hadn't even thought of. The food was excellent and I would recommend them to anyone.
Amendola Florist -- Also outstanding. Virginia did an amazing job with the flowers at a really great price. She also threw in little extra surprises like the Green Lantern comic covers she attached to the
bouquets. If you are having a wedding in Long Island, HIRE HER!
Unblinking I Photography - We hired Megan for both our engagement and wedding photos and while it's obviously too early to see the wedding photos, the engagement photos were perfect. Although based in West Virginia, Megan is willing to travel and if you can get her, then you better snap her up!
Body Rock DJ - While people had fun dancing, I wouldn't recommend the company. The DJ would abruptly cut off songs before starting a new one and only played a couple of Latin songs even though we specifically asked for a mix of Spanish and English music. Also, they did not sync the music on the montage correctly. Honestly, that annoys me more than anything.
Lotus Bridal - The women working here were great. They were always available to answer questions and I found my dress, bolero material and veil here. I did panic when it seemed like I wasn't going to have time to order the material for my bolero but they made sure I had what I needed and always knew exactly who I was when I called.
