Wedding Recap: Limousines

Let me tell you about our wedding day transportation. We had a limo pick up our bridal party and parents before the ceremony, a separate limo for our parents after the ceremony, and Chris and I had an antique car to take us to the Sand Castle.  You may remember from this post, that we had originally booked the 1929 Rolls Royce for our wedding day:

Unfortunately, on the morning of the wedding, Chris got a phone call from our limo company saying that the car we reserved was not starting, and was there a different car we would be happy with instead? Through a series of complicated phone calls: Chris calling my sister to have her ask me what I wanted; Me being really confused as to why he was asking me what car I wanted when we had already decided this; Not to mention I was completely overwhelmed with other things, so I eventually said "I don't care...just get us a car."

So we got this car instead, which was totally fine - but I do like the car we originally picked much better.

Still, it was fun driving through town with the "Here comes the bride" horn going off every few minutes. This was the only time of the day that Chris and I had to ourselves (plus our cool limo driver). We drank champagne, talked a lot to the driver, I showed Chris the engraving on his ring ("Amore Mio", which means "My love" in Italian, and was my surprise to him) and most importantly: Chris updated his Facebook status to "married"(I couldn't figure out how to do it on my blackberry).

Who's married? THIS GUY!

 

Posing in the garden at The Sand Castle

Some of my favorite shots of the day, edited: 

All in all, we were more or less "meh" in our dealings with Royalty Limousine. I didn't love dealing with them on a business level; there was no air conditioning in our limo on the way to the church; and we didn't get the car we originally wanted (though I understand these things happen).

But we were transported for all of 15 minutes total for the day, so I couldn't really be too upset with anything. Even though we didn't get the car we wanted, I was impressed that they called Chris to ask him which different one he preferred, and that they had another car available for us to use last minute. I'm very happy that worked out, because I loved having that personal time with Chris after the ceremony and before the mayhem of our reception began!

Transportation

I can now officially say that our limos are booked! After about 3 ridiculously long weeks of trying to get the contract correct, I finally sent off the signed and completed contract in the mail yesterday. Seriously: we were faxed a contract...it was illegible, I faxed a new, cleaner contract back....and never got a response. I called, he called, we played phone tag, we talked, he hand wrote and mailed a copy to me, I finally signed and mailed it back. Why oh why did that take so long??? However, I have to say that it ended up working out in our favor that nothing was signed right away.  After talking to my photographer last week, we ended up deciding not to go to the Clark Botanical Garden in between the church and the wedding for photos. It was way too rushed and had way too much potential for disaster. So, in taking that out we were able to knock the price down even more than originally decided upon so in retrospect, the fact that it took us 3 weeks to do this, kind of worked out for the better. Everything happens for a reason right?

We booked 3 cars with Royalty Limos. I'm fine with booking through Royalty, but I have to say I had a bit of a panicked moment three weeks ago when we went to meet with Camelot Limos and they were completely booked for our wedding day. As in...almost every single limo on their lot was already booked and all their antique cars were booked. For May 21, 2011!! Seriously?? I feel like I'm so on top of things and then there's 20 more brides out there more on top of things than me!! Camelot really comes highly recommended and it's clear that they certainly dominate the limo scene on Long Island. However, we had gotten a pretty fair quote already from Royalty Limo, and they are literally right next door to The Sandcastle, so I am perfectly fine to book with them. (Even though their website intro gives me a slight seizure. Check it out here.)

We booked a '29 Rolls Royce for me and Chris after the ceremony. I liked that this was black and white, and thought it looked different from most other antique cars I've seen. This will literally pick us up after the ceremony and drive us to The Sand Castle, but we'll include it in a few of our pictures. I have to say, there is a part of me that really wants to ride in the limo with all our friends after the ceremony. I mean...that's where the fun will be right? However, I know that this will literally be the only time that day that Chris and I will have just to ourselves. Right after we're married, we will have this 15 minute drive to toast with some champagne and allow ourselves to be in the moment, with just the two of us (and some random driver we've never met, haha), and I know that in the end, that will be a moment that I'll have to look back on and always remember. I have all night to party with my friends...but I'll never get that moment right after I'm married back, and I'm really excited for that.

We have a limo for our parents and other immediate family members. And a 14 passenger Lincoln Limo for our bridal party:

Unfortunately, we could not work logistics out to include all of our bridal party's significant others as I had hoped. There were too many factors to consider with that: What would they do while we take pictures? What would they do while we're getting ready at the house? Would the boyfriends/husbands/fiances of the girls be with the groomsmen or the bridesmaids as they're getting ready? What will they do? Etc. Etc., there were too many "what's?" and so we had to just put that idea to rest. Please know that we tried...

So because of booking the limos, I finally have an outline of the day. Here's how our day will work.

2:00 pm- Limo picks Chris, groomsmen, and his parents up at his parent's house  and takes them to the church.
2:30 pm- Limo swings back and picks up me, my bridesmaids, and parents at my house and takes us to church.
3:00 pm- Ceremony begins
4:30 pm- Leave church in limos after taking pictures and head to The Sand Castle
5:00 pm- Arrive at Sand Castle- take additional pictures
6:00 pm- Join Cocktail hour

I feel much better about this time-line without the botanical garden in it. I think there were some fantastic photo opportunities there, but it really isn't needed. Sand Castle has a great garden, and between there and the church, we will have plenty of places to take photos. Add one more thing done to the good old checklist.


Also: WE ARE ORDERING OUR SAVE THE DATES TODAY!

Transportation and Rehearsal Dinner

Courtesy http://www.bmwism.com

The goal of this week: Transportation!! I called Three Limosine companies yesterday: Royalty Limos, Camelot Limos, and Designer Limos. So far, Royalty gave me the best price, but Camelot wasn't able to give me pricing over the phone. They preferred we come in, look at the vehicles and sit down with a sales rep. However, they were extremely efficient and professional, so I'm not completely annoyed. We have an appointment with Camelot next Wednesday, September 8th. In addition, we are going to go see Designer Limos some night this week, and Royalty limos on Saturday.

Figuring out the logistics of the day has easily been the most complicated thing we've had to do so far! I realize that in general, I worry about everybody else all the time. I always want to make sure that everyone is accounted for, that rides are taken care of, and that nobody is left in the dark...and that's just on a normal basis! Add that to the fact that this is my own wedding day and I actually AM responsible for getting a large group of people from point A to point B (and to point C,D,E, and F in this case), and you have the makings of a panic attack!

I tried writing out the time-line of the day for you, but it was just too complicated and confusing. At the risk of losing you as readers forever, I'll spare you that for now. Part of the complication is that it is important to Chris and me that we include any dates of our bridal party in all the transportation. Most members of our bridal party are either married, engaged, or in long term relationships. Therefore, we are not only close with them, but with their significant others as well. We don't want them to be split up throughout such a large portion of the day. Though not all the kinks have been worked out with accommodating this, we are trying our hardest to make sure we can work it out, and I'm so hoping that we can. Here is a general idea of what we have had to figure out over the past few days:

a. Transporting our bridal party from the hotel, to our house, to get ready the morning of our wedding.
b. Transporting our bridal party, their dates, our parents, and us (separately), to the church.
c. Transporting our entire bridal party, their dates, our parents, and us, to the garden for pictures.
d. Transporting our entire bridal party, their dates, our parents, and us, to The Sandcastle.
e. Transporting our guests staying at the hotel to The Sandcastle.
f. Transporting all of our guests, and us, back to the hotel at the end of the night.

It might sound easy, but there are a lot of little logistical things that come with each item on the list that have made this overwhelming!

Courtesy citycafe.biz

But onto more fun things...we are going to check out the City Cafe on Friday as a possible Rehearsal dinner location!! They have bands perform there all the time, and a few different spaces within the restaurant for parties. Best of all, it's within walking distance from the hotel where most of our bridal party will be staying the night before the wedding.  I've never been there before, but Chris' parents suggested we check it out this weekend, and I'm very excited!

I finally posted my 2nd article to Examiner.com. (Only took me a month!) This is about the Long Island Bridal Extravaganza on September 20th, which I plan on attending. I'm hoping to get some good ideas, inspirations, and hopefully free swag! It's been a while since I've been to a Bridal Show, and while they can mostly be overwhelming, I feel ready to tackle another one, especially geared toward Long Island vendors. Let me know if any fellow Long Islanders, or Brides want to go with me!

Long Island Bridal Extravaganza