Getting Married on Long Island Wedding Advice » In the News

Meet David Tutera on Long Island this Saturday IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:53:09 +0000

Stylish entertaining expert David Tutera of WE tv joins Tanger Outlets at The Arches in Commack for a Romance & Style Event on Saturday, February 4th beginning at 2:00pm.

Spend an afternoon with David inside a specially designed space at Tanger Outlets at The Arches as David Tutera shares his insight and expertise not only for wedding planning but also for setting a romantic environment on Valentine’s Day for all couples. Whether you are a Long Island bride-to-be, or just enjoy the wisdom and innovation of David’s entertaining ideas, this event is for you! Admission to the Style & Romance event is free. David will also be available to sign his books and meet shoppers after the event.

Visit Tanger Outlets at The Arches Facebook page now through January 31st and Enter to Win VIP tickets to the event! VIP ticket holders will meet David at an exclusive pre-event reception and receive VIP seating at the Style & Romance Event. Winners will be announced on February 1st.

No Hamptons Wedding for Aretha IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:17:15 +0000

We were that close to a royal wedding when the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, announced her engagement last month and said she was looking at the Hamptons as a possible locale. Sadly, the wedding has been called off.

In a statement released yesterday, Franklin said, “Will and I have decided we were moving a little too fast, and there were a number of things that had not been thought through thoroughly. There will be no wedding at this time,” Franklin said. “We will not comment on it any further because of the very personal and sensitive nature of it. We appreciate all of the many well wishes from friends.”

Let’s give the lady some r-e-s-p-e-c-t, please.

US Postal Service Issues Wedding Stamp IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:29:56 +0000

We love late-breaking wedding news on a Friday afternoon and this is (really) just in: The Postal Service is issuing a 65-cent Wedding Cake stamp that goes on sale today. The stamp, an image of a three-tier wedding cake topped with white flowers and green stems, is issued in sheets of 20.

“Sure to add a touch of beauty and romance to wedding correspondence, the Wedding Cake stamp, first introduced in 2009, is a timeless addition to the U.S. Postal Service’s Weddings series,” said U.S. Postal Service Stamp Services Manager Stephen Kearney. “Often the centerpiece of a wedding reception, the cake has been a wedding tradition for many generations.” The stamps are available at Post Offices nationwide, online at usps.com and by phone at 800-782-6724.

Pastry chef Peter Brett of Washington, DC, created and designed the cake photographed by Renée Comet of Washington, DC.

Save the Date, Jan. 29, Kleinfeld, Martha Stewart and More IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:10:18 +0000

Long Island brides-to-be — 2012 is the year to get inspired! And here’s how:

You are invited to attend and see for yourself the 100+ vendor showcase, fabulous Kleinfeld catwalk fashion show and hear amazing speakers — Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings, the ever-fabulous Dennis Basso, Sylvia Weinstock and celebrity guests (recent bride Carolina Bermudez of Z100′s Elvis Duran Morning Show is one)! As always there will be great food to taste, drinks to indulge in and 101 bridal experiences. Not to mention a $3,000 bridal gown and $2,000 tuxedo raffle by Kleinfeld, and fabulous gift bags for everyone else.

The date is Sunday, January 29, 10-4pm (coming up!)

The place is the luxurious New York Palace Hotel right behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 455 Madison Avenue (enter through the lovely courtyard between 50th and 51st Streets)

Tickets are $75 for one, $125 for two. To register, click here.

Wedding Night Sex IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:59:43 +0000

Have you given any thought to your wedding night – not the reception or after-party, but your, er…, first night as husband and wife? If not, take a look below at this HuffingtonPost.com article by Michael S. Broder, PhD. It’s an interesting read…

A New Perspective On Wedding Night Sex

The wedding bells have rung, the bouquet has been tossed, and the cake was cut. Now what? Every couple has a picture perfect image of what their wedding night is going to be like. The groom is going to whisk the bride away from the reception and carry her across the threshold to a candle lit room with rose petals scattered across the bed and Barry White playing in the background. But is that really what it’s like?

For some, yes, the wedding night is a magical moment that you will always remember. You will be able to fall in love all over again every time you think back to your first night as a married couple. For others however, it doesn’t quite go that way. For some couples the night may end in pure exhaustion. This one day may have just taken a year of planning, maybe more. Perhaps it was full of laughing, crying, and the occasional disagreement. Neither party got a good night’s sleep the night before due to excitement, nervousness, and anticipation for the big day. Then, you wake up extra early and your adrenaline immediately kicks in. Both the bride and groom have multiple tasks and activities to do before the wedding. Then finally, you tie the knot; but now, there’s a night full of dancing, laughter, and mingling. Once the guests finally go home, there’s nothing you would rather do than fall into bed and dream of your future together, not having the famous wedding night sex. That’s okay and one scenario.

Others use the “I do” and that special kiss at the end of the ceremony as a symbol to finally relax and let loose. You get to the reception and start to socialize, drink, and dance. As you celebrate, every toast is finished with a sip of champagne, the beers are cold and crisp, and the shots are going down smoothly. As the reception comes to a close you realize you’re just a little too drunk to be closing out this joyous occasion with sex. Again, that’s another scenario and still okay.

So, how do you still make your wedding night memorable even without the sex? In the end, no one will ever know what you did on your wedding night, that’s why it is yours. Do whatever makes the two of you happy. Enjoy your excitement about officially having the rest of your lives together. Focus on the fact that it is your first night in the next chapter of your life — after all, it’s the marriage that’s really important, the wedding is just a ceremony and party — and that for the rest of the chapters you’ll have a partner in crime. But no matter what, make your wedding night your own.

If you want the wedding night sex, realize that a little planning is in order. Don’t become overwhelmed by the multiple tasks you wake up to the morning of your wedding day. Instead, utilize your wedding party to help you out. If you can afford it, get a wedding planner to take care of those last minute details. Don’t worry about the little things, odds are they will fall into place or people won’t notice. Plus, they will just stress you out and, in the end, become stressors that you don’t need on your special day. Once you’re at the reception, try not to become overwhelmed by the amount of guests you think you have to entertain. You don’t have to! You may have paid thousands of dollars for a DJ/band, alcohol, a good venue with good food and plenty of dance space. Not to mention the time you spent on configuring a seating chart so that your guests could eat with people they know and like. Let your spent time and money entertain them. On a side note, you should be able to enjoy what your money paid for as well! If you’re really worried about seeing all the guests, be sure to visit the elderly guests you may not see on the dance floor; the other guests will most likely make it a point to find you.

Now, the cameras are off, the guests have gone home, and it’s just the two of you. There is no need to have to pose or act a certain way. You have no pressure or expectations for what you do on your wedding night, except your own. If you’ve taken the advice given above and you are energetic and sober enough to enjoy sex, then by all means do it! However, if you do find yourself being tired or too drunk, just be real with one another. Laugh about moments you may have had in your past and imagine what it’s going to be like in the future. Share your likes and dislikes with one another, maybe even plan on doing some of those likes the next morning when you’re both well rested and sober. In reality, your wedding night is only one night of many thousands. You might have that mind-blowing sex you thought you’d have on your wedding night or you might not. Either way, enjoy the day; but never forget that what’s really important is your life together as a couple — a team — hopefully for the rest of your lives!

Divorced NY Groom Sues Wedding Photographer… IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:00:27 +0000

To be filed under: RIDICULONK. As seen in The New York Times –

Years Later, Lawsuit Seeks to Recreate a Wedding

By JOSEPH BERGER

Of all the many things that make up a wedding, few are more important than the photographs. Long after the last of the cake has grown stale and the tossed bouquet has wilted, the photos endure, stirring memories and providing vivid proof that the day of one’s dreams took place.

So it is not particularly surprising that one groom, disappointed with his wedding photos, decided to sue. The photographers had missed the last dance and the bouquet toss, the groom, Todd J. Remis of Manhattan, said.

But what is striking, said the studio that took the pictures, is that Mr. Remis’s wedding took place in 2003 and he waited six years to sue. And not only has Mr. Remis demanded to be repaid the $4,100 cost of the photography, he also wants $48,000 to recreate the entire wedding and fly the principals to New York so the celebration can be re-shot by another photographer.

Re-enacting the wedding may pose a particular challenge, the studio pointed out, because the couple divorced and the bride is believed to have moved back to her native Latvia.

Although Justice Doris Ling-Cohan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan dismissed most of the grounds for the lawsuit, like the “infliction of emotional distress,” she has allowed the case to proceed to determine whether there was indeed a breach of contract. But she displayed a good deal of amusement about the lawsuit’s purpose in an opinion in January that quoted lyrics from the Barbra Streisand classic “The Way We Were.”

“This is a case in which it appears that the ‘misty watercolor memories’ and the ‘scattered pictures of the smiles … left behind’ at the wedding were more important than the real thing,” the judge wrote. “Although the marriage did not last, plaintiff’s fury over the quality of the photographs and video continued on.”

Mr. Remis is suing H & H Photographers, a 65-year-old studio known fondly among thousands of former and current Bronx residents because it chronicled their weddings, bar mitzvahs and communions.

One of the two founders, Curt Fried, escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna in September 1939 as a 15-year-old and was drafted into the United States Army, where he learned to shoot pictures assisting cameramen along the legendary Burma Road supply line to China during World War II. Mr. Fried recalled that in the late 1940s, Arthur Fellig, the celebrated street photographer known as Weegee, twice sought work at the studio when he needed money, but was turned down because he did not own a suit.

In November 2003, Mr. Remis, an equity research analyst, and his fiancée, Milena Grzibovska, stepped into the H & H studio, which was then in Riverdale, met with Mr. Fried and signed a contract to have photographs and videotape taken of their wedding the next month — on Dec. 28 — for $4,100.

It was a small party, with fewer than 40 guests, at Castle on the Hudson in Tarrytown. Photographs show a cheerful bride and groom surrounded by delighted relatives, including Ms. Grzibovska’s mother, Irina, and her sister Alina, who traveled from Latvia.

But a month after the wedding, when Mr. Remis returned to the studio to look over the proofs, he complained that the three-person crew had missed the last 15 minutes — the last dance and the bouquet toss. He noted in a deposition last July that the employees at H & H did not respond in a courtly fashion.

“I remember being yelled at more than I have ever been yelled at before,” Mr. Remis said.

In his lawsuit, he also complained that the photographs were “unacceptable as to color, lighting, poses, positioning” and that a video, which he had expected to record the wedding’s six hours, was only two hours long.

“I need to have the wedding recreated exactly as it was so that the remaining 15 percent of the wedding that was not shot can be shot,” he testified.

Mr. Fried, now 87, chuckles at this idea: “He wants to fly his ex-wife back and he doesn’t even know where she lives.”

Mr. Remis, who said at his deposition that he has not been employed since 2008, and his lawyer, Frederick R. McGowen, did not return messages left on their phones. Ms. Grzibovska did not respond to a message left through her Facebook page. The next court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Mr. Fried said Mr. Remis left the studio in 2004 with 400 proofs — essentially small photographs used for selecting a few dozen photographs for the album; Mr. Remis claims “the office kept everything.” But a 2004 magazine published by Mr. Remis’s alma mater, Bowdoin College, which is also online, displays a photograph of the bride and groom in a feature on alumni weddings. Mr. Fried said it was a photograph his firm took.

The couple separated around 2008 and their divorce, which Mr. Remis contends was amicable, was finalized in 2010. Mr. Remis sued in 2009, just before the statute of limitation was about to expire, according to Mr. Fried.

Mr. Remis testified that he wanted photographs of the wedding, even if it ended in divorce and even if Mr. Fried contended he already had them.

“It was unfortunate in its circumstances,” he said, “but we are very much happy with the wedding event and we would like to have it documented for eternity, for us and our families.”

Mr. Fried retired in 2004 and turned his half of the business over to his son Dan, who now operates the studio with Lawrence Gillet, a son of the other founder, from a loft in Irvington, in Westchester County.

Dan Fried said that the costs of defending the lawsuit had already matched the amount sought by Mr. Remis and that it was hurting his business’s bottom line. He said the case was “an abuse of the legal system.”

Mr. Remis’s lawyer works for Goodwin Procter, where Mr. Remis’s father, Shepard M. Remis, is a litigation partner. The younger Mr. Remis has testified that he is paying his lawyer himself.

Curt and Dan Fried are paying their lawyer, Peter Wessel, themselves, they said, and the costs — $50,000 — the time the suit has taken and the distress have taken a toll.

“I had a good life, thank God,” Curt Fried said, “and at the end of my life this hits me in the face.”

“Bride’s Year Ahead” Review IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:13:22 +0000

My new book, “The Bride’s Year Ahead” was just reviewed by brideonbudget.blogspot.com. Yey and thank you, BoaB!

Just to clarify one point: what I advise in the book early on is to create your initial guest list — right away — so that this can be a round number for you to go by when you begin shopping for venues. It doesn’t mean you have to write out your invitations early on…

BoaB is giving away a copy of the book for free, and you still have time to leave a comment here, to receive your own! Just make sure you are commenter #10…

And, brides, please like us on Facebook! We’d love to see you there and hear your comments about getting married on Long Island…

“I Do Over,” on WE tv Tonight! IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:20:16 +0000

Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. So what’s a couple to do when their dream wedding turns out to be a fabulous disaster?! WE tv’s original series, I DO OVER, premieres tonight, Sunday, November 13 at 10pm, with six one-hour episodes, as part of WE tv’s “WEDDING SUNDAY” lineup.

On this show, couples who’ve experienced disastrous weddings receive a do-over as celebrity event designer, Diann Valentine, along with Celebrations.com (which I write for!) surprise them with the perfect wedding day they missed out on the first time. Having designed elegant ceremonies for celebrities including Toni Braxton, Martin Lawrence, Usher and more, Diann knows what it takes to turn a treasured wedding day into a glamorous fantasy.

But this do-over fairytale wouldn’t be complete without a fairy godfather. Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and Celebrations.com, helps Diann bring an extra special touch to these ‘re-do’ celebrations. Jim dispatches Celebrations’ experts to lend modern expertise and create unique signature designs for each wedding including an over-the-top candy lounge, signature cocktails, masterful floral design, and surprises the couples will not see coming. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM also provides the couples with unmatched floral decadence for the big day. Here’s a sneak peek:

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11/11/11 — Look Who’s Getting Married on Long Island IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:46:46 +0000

11/11/11 is the 1 day to get married! Take a look at who is getting married on Long Island today — from Newsday.

By LAUREN R. HARRISON

Photo credit: Allison Davis O’Keefe | Eric Nouel and Elizabeth Ramizer’s card box is monogrammed

with their upcoming wedding date 11-11-11. Since childhood 11-11 proved a lucky number for the bride. (November 5, 2011)

What’s luck got to do, got to do with it?

A lot, say couples who are getting married across Long Island tomorrow on what some believe to be the most auspicious day of the year: 11/11/11.

“I’m really superstitious,” says Ariana Rinaudo, a Melville native. She grew up making wishes when the clock struck 11:11. Picking her wedding date at Fox Hollow in Woodbury was a no-brainer.

“Our anniversary every year will be good luck,” Rinaudo, 28, says of marrying fiance Dawone Briggins, 33, of Astoria. “And it’s actually a cool story for the kids when we have them.”

More than 24,000 couples across the country are getting hitched tomorrow, according to The Knot Wedding Network, a huge bump from the 1,700 or so marrying on other Fridays this month. On Long Island, some catering venues were booked up to 21 / 2 years in advance. Representatives from Fox Hollow, Miller Place Inn and Oheka Castle in Huntington say they received about 50 calls inquiring about availability for 11/11/11.

“Any time you get dates such as that — 10/10/10, 11/11/11 — especially when they fall on a weekend date, the response is overwhelming,” says David Gerin, Fox Hollow’s director of banquet sales. Lessings, a Great River restaurant and catering company that works with about a dozen wedding venues, has five weddings tomorrow.

At Camelot Specialty Limos in New Hyde Park, the company’s fleet of 26 cars is entirely sold out. “It’s extra busy because it’s 11/11/11,” says co-owner Joseph Palumbo, who dubs it the “wedding jackpot” effect. “When you go to the casino and you hit three of the same numbers — with the exception of 6/6/6 — it usually ends well,” he says.

Preparing to celebrate

Massapequa bride-to-be Kristen Kolbe chose tomorrow’s date to honor her parents, who were wed on Nov. 11 33 years ago, as well as military veterans in her family. The rarity of the date, which won’t occur again for another 100 years, is “even better.”

“It may be just a number to some people, but it’s something you’ll never forget,” says Kolbe, 31, who will marry John Lipani, 39, of Massapequa at Bourne Mansion in Oakdale. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Still, nuptial planning seemed to make the walk down the aisle even longer for 11/11/11 brides. Elizabeth Ramirez of Flushing had to contact a dozen reception venues before securing the Venetian Yacht Club in Babylon. “I almost thought I wasn’t going to get married on that date,” says Ramirez, 27.

All the more reason to incorporate a whole lot of 11s in the festivities. “It’s all over pretty much everything, really,” says Ramirez’s fiance, Eric Nouel, 30, of Forest Hills.

The date is emblazoned atop the dinner menus, a card drop box and a plaque for the couple’s sweetheart table and is attached to favors. At 11:11 p.m., the DJ will invite guests to make a wish for the newlyweds, all the while sipping the night’s signature drink, natch — a “wishtini.”

“Getting married on 11/11, it’s a wish come true,” says Nouel.

Fellow groom Dawone Briggins says the number 1 was his basketball jersey number in high school and “11″ is his soon-to-be father-in-law’s favorite number.

“It’s kind of surreal for us to have our wedding on this day,” he says, adding there’s a special perk for husbands-to-be: “It’s also not an anniversary you could forget.”

Bridal Reflections Gives Away Wedding Gowns IN THE NEWS

Claudia G. Copquin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:24:26 +0000

Did you happen to catch our friends at Bridal Reflections on TV this week? Bridal Reflections was on CBS 2 NY news with a segment on their military gown program with Brides Across America. Bridal Reflections gave away free wedding gowns to military brides, including this beautiful bride-to-be from Long Island! How great is that??

And by the way, save the following dates for upcoming trunk shows in two of their locations — Carle Place and Massapqeua. Be sure to call ahead for an appointment!

Carle Place, 80 Westbury Ave, Carle Place, NY 11514, 516.742.7788

Nov. 11-13, Simone Carvalli

Nov. 18-20, Ramona Keveza

Nov. 30, Boutique de Voile

Massapequa, 3 Broadway, Massapequa, NY 11758, 516.795.2222

Nov. 11-13, James Clifford

Nov. 17, Boutique de Voile

Nov. 18-20, Winnie Couture