Shannon's (Finleys7) Planning Thread...Finally

finleys7 · May 26, 2010

So I finally had some down time to put together this planning thread. I know that all of your planning threads have helped me…so here’s to helping some future brides. Sorry it’s coming AFTER the wedding, but things got crazy at the end. Kudos to you bride who get this done before you leave.

Here we go…

After 7 years of dating and knowing all along that Joe would be my husband one day , I never thought he would be able to surprise me, when he proposed. Wellllll… November 2008 we took off for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. We got up really early, got a spot around 6 a.m. and waited for the floats. The whole parade passes by and then comes Santa . At this point, he had given me the camera because someone stepped in front of him and I had a better angle (so he told me). As soon as Santa stood up and yelled “Ho Ho Ho”, I snapped away, it was a great picture. I said while turning with the camera “Wow, look what I got” *meaning the picture* and he is down on one knee and says “Well look at what Santa got you.” I just kept screaming “Oh My god, Oh My God” and crying tears of joy. Finally realizing, we get the ring on my finger, a couple behind me grabs my camera and starts taking pictures. Before I know it we had a crowd of people circling us and clapping…it was a moment I will cherish forever, as I said “Yes” to the man of my dreams.

The Ring – Jeff Cooper Designs

After the high from getting engaged we headed home on the Railroad and went to Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters…where everyone knew and was waiting for us. We came home to a little congrats party =)

Let the planning begin –

First the Engagement Party. We did this for 70 people at a local Firehouse/banquet hall. Our favors were luggage tags, our centerpieces were three candles in sand with shells and tiger lilies. We catered and brought in kegs of Magic Hat and Blue Point =) YEAH Beer. Oh but I couldn’t drink any of it…that’s because I had surgery the day before my party. I had an emergency appendectomy and was in a wheel chair for our party. Yup! But it was still fun and the DJ was great, and everyone had a good time! We put brochures of the hotel on the bar and everyone was getting psyched.

Soon after the party, the Save The Date magnets went out. I worked with MagnetStreet.com and they were great. I changed their template around and combined two ideas into one, and they were extremely accommodating.

In the Fall of 2009, we did an engagement photo shoot in NYC all around Central Park

finleys7 · May 26, 2010

Wedding

The invitations were done by a family friend who is just starting to get into this business. She was AMAZING to work with and has a GREAT eye. Her blog site is pages from a notebook

We gave her the colors and the starfish idea and she went with it:

After 6 Bridal Shops, I found the wedding dress of my dreams, itâ€™s by Moonlight Couture. Itâ€™s taffeta and in diamond white. After the tears from my mom and sis, that was the dress.

We ended up getting the girls dresses at the same salon with 10% off and they were great. Bill Levkoff # 440 color: Glacier (like tiffany blue) â€“ taffeta knee length, strapless. They were great dresses and the girls had no problems, light weight, flowing, and WEARABLE again. All the girls have plans to wear them again!

Donâ€™t try and order from online, the colors are always off. We had a swatch and loved the color.

Online color -

Actual color â€“ My sister, our MOH

The Bridal Party

So from that picture you can see the groomsmen attire and my groom. We got the suits at studiosuits.com and they were GREAT. The material was awesome and delivered in a timely manner. The guys have on the pants of the suits, they all ordered suits, even though they were only wearing the pants..because at $99 you canâ€™t beat that. Joeâ€™s ties we got at Burlington Coat Factory as well as my dadâ€™s.

The jewelry for the girls, I got in China Town and I talked them down =) I went with the knockoff Tiffany starfish set.

I also got them Coach wristlets, silver pashminas, and silver flip flops from Old Navy

In grey/silver:

The groomsmen got Aviator sunglasses (another China town purchase), brown leather belt, and brown Reef Sandals (Fanning â€“style) from Moosejaw.com

The parents gifts were a little work, but it came together. For the Dadâ€™s we did Golf hats from the resort because they played the day before the wedding and they are both hat guys =) Plus I got custom made Handkerchiefs for them with poems. The hankies were from WEDDINGHANKIES . COM NEW BEGINNINGS. We also gave our flower girl a Hankie with an awesome poem and her initials embroidered in. The momâ€™s we did Pandora jewelry, his mom got a spacer and the flip flop charm and my mom got the bracelet and the heart charm.

We also gave starfish necklaces to our readers (we had 3) 2 poems and the Sand Ceremony

finleys7 · May 26, 2010

For the OOT bags, we put in Lip Balm (dollar tree, 2 in a pack), Starbucks coffee (3 pack), Sunscreen (from his mom, she’s a dermatologist), Facial Moisturizer (from his mom again), Rafts ($2.47 - mat floating rafts), Advil (Target), Gum (Dollar Tree, 4 pack), candles (dollar tree, 2 pack) and T-shirts. The Tote itself was from Discountmugs.com and they were GREAT too!

I put tags on each bag with their name and date of arrival so the front desk could hand them out. We bunched them all together per day also.

The FRONT of the T-shirt

And The BACK of the T-shirt (we order 75)

The table numbers were a DYI, along with the seating cards and Program Fans – If you need templates, please feel free to PM me.

We went with Maya Diseno Floral who are contracted with the hotel for the centerpieces and they were PERFECT!

The cake topper was pretty generic, we got it at Michael’s and it matched our engraved cake cutting set

Lastly the rings, mine was custom made, it’s almost like channel setting but it’s riveted and notched. His was a standard men’s band. It’s shiny white gold on the outside with brushed white gold in the middle.

And That’s All!!!

bahiabride2010 · May 26, 2010

Wonderful thanks for sharing! Love your colour choice and a good tip about ordering dresses from online...colours can be so different can't they! Congrats and enjoy the married life!

vlynnw · May 26, 2010

Everything looks beautiful, it all flows together so nicely! I love your dress I actually had tried it on and it was my second runner up.

selassie11 · May 26, 2010

Everything looks beautiful! I think I'm going to be checking Chinatown in NYC for some BM jewelry - did you like the quality of the starfish jewelry?

finleys7 · May 26, 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by selassie11

Everything looks beautiful! I think I'm going to be checking Chinatown in NYC for some BM jewelry - did you like the quality of the starfish jewelry?

Definitely. They did a good job with talking them down. Plus no shipping and handling fees from online. Plus it was a fun day =) I played tourist, even though I am from here.

When you step back and look at how much your total is for shipping and handling for all things ordered online, it's around $150 in fees. It could add up.