All of your questions are finally answered..here! For everyone asking me about my amazing vendors and details about the wedding, I've compiled everything into one post. Read through some of the amazing people we had on our team to make our vision come true on our big day.
Kevin and I have visited Oak Mill bakery before so there was no question who we'd go to for our wedding cake. They were busy since it was wedding season but the staff was great going over the menu with us when they had various cake testings. After going over our theme, they were great with offering suggestions within our theme and budget. We ended up getting a 3-tier cake with a cake topper I purchased from Etsy; with a heavy cake topper, they supported it great for the hours the cake had to look beautiful in the reception hall. As far as day-of logistics, they were professional with making sure our vendor received it in time and with no issues.
When it came to choosing a decorator, there was no question we were going with Divine Design and Events with Maha leading the way. I had gone through her Instagram page (@divinedesignsandevents) and she embodied the vision of what I wanted the feel for the wedding. While some people have different vendors for the decorations and flowers, Maha was an option that streamlined everything together including my flowers from the ceremony to the reception, the back drop for the reception hall including decorating the smaller tables such as the cake and sweetheart table. After meeting with Maha, I was able to show her what I wanted and she was inspired to make the look come to life. Additionally, she was great with being flexible with the price tag and letting us know what our options are. It's one the daunting tasks on our wedding to-do list and her team handled it flawlessly and brought our vision to life that day.
Can I get a Hallelujah for Drury Lane? #doyouknowthemuffinman
Deciding on a venue was a difficult when there are different criteria you're comparing. For our budget, number of people and considering my entire family was flying in from out of state, Drury Lane was able to meet a lot of our criteria. The first criteria was a venue that was able to host about 600 people in one of their halls that was already elegant as an establishment. You would be surprised how many venues we turned down because of their dated carpets, stained linens or ugly chairs. We were assigned a coordinator (Leslie, you rock!) that helped us walk through the space, informed us everything we needed to know and broke information down within the appropriate time frame. Luckily a lot of our vendors had worked with Drury Lane before so they knew what time they would be allowed in get in the day of or prior to set up. They have a room allocated for your event; I had dropped by a few times the day before the wedding to drop off our small items for the card and thank you table.
Leslie also set up our food tasting with our families; the tasting included 6 people including the couple. We ended up going with both of our parents. With their menu, we were able to pick and choose the different items we wanted (i.e. Soup, salad, main course, etc). They were flexible with us also choosing outside vendors where with other venues that would not be an options. We were able to bring our own alcohol, bring appetizers from India House and our cake from Oak Mill Bakery. We brought in our alcohol from a wholesale location and the remaining alcohol was returned to us the next morning.
Appetizers: Swedish Meatballs, Vegetable Tempura (Sweet & Sour sauce)
Main Menu: Cream of Mushroom soup, Cucumber Dil salad, Raspberry sorbet, with your choice of main menu (10 oz. NY Strip Steak, Stuffed Chicken or Fresh Filet of Salmon) and Peach Melba.
Momentz Productions | DJ Jay Funk & DJ Marquee
Being that my husband is a huge Bulls fan, the one request he had was getting the official DJ for the Bulls and Benny the Bull. DJ JayFunk (@jayfunk55) and Mark Erpelo, DJ Marquee, were a vital part of keeping the energy up and going at the reception. Prior to the wedding, we gave them a list of songs to play. We had a few Indian songs in there and they killed it with mixing it into the other songs. I would highly recommend them for any wedding!
My husband and I love magic so there was no question we were going to get a magician for our wedding. We wanted a someone who was able to do 2-minute engaged magic tricks with our guest during the cocktail hour of our wedding. Out of the different vendors we spoke to, Mark was the clear winner. He was flexible with his tricks to make it fit our event, he was able to engage different age groups and very friendly.
He entertained our guest during cocktail hour and then the bridal party. Seeing the amazed, jaw-dropping faces of our bridesmaids and groomsmen knew we had a real winner.
There's no question which magician you need for your next event, it's Mark Presley. We can't wait for our next party so we can hire him again!
Photos and videos are a crucial part of your wedding; it's what you look at 10, 20 years down the road so we wanted a great team to be covering our event. After speaking with Robert on the phone, Kevin and I knew we wanted his team to cover the wedding. We wanted the photo and video team to be a part of the same company and the REM-team worked so well together to cover all of the angles and the important parts of the ceremony. It was great knowing that they've done South Indian weddings before and have worked at the Chicago Syro Cathedral before. During our photo shoot at The Wilder Mansion, they were great working with each subject to make sure the collective photos came out great. They worked diligently after the wedding to make sure we got our photos and videos in a timely fashion and always kept us updated with their progress.
Breathe.
It's one thing the bride and groom's family rarely do on wedding day. However, we had Sherin and Jibu, Sheribu, by our side on our big day. Planning a wedding from New Jersey wasn't the easiest but knowing I had Sherin helping me with my bridal to-do list and answer all of my questions was a great sigh of relief. They had also worked with a lot of our vendor and at the locations we chose as well that made the preparation even more efficient. Kevin and I wanted our family present to enjoy our big day and Sheribu was there to take care of the issues behind-the-scenes. Flying into wedding weekend, I didn't feel stressed and it's something I hope every couple would feel prior to their wedding. If you're getting a coordinator for the big day, I would give Sheribu Event Management a call.
Etsy Shop Items Below
Custom Table Numbers
Vendor Amber May Designs
Click here to visit her Etsy shop.
Rustic Unity Candle Holder
Etsy Shop: Down in the Boondocks Click here to visit their Etsy shop.
Floral Ring Bearer Box
Etsy Shop: Serenity Click here to visit their Etsy shop.
Cake Topper
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