A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: Friends, Family, and Fun

So...yeah...recaps...umm, where were we? Oh yeah, that's right. I last left you with some detail shots, our movie trailer, and our awesome first dance!

After we came off the incredible high of our first dance, we sat down to grab a quick bite and toast to a fabulous evening. My incredibly awesome Maid of Honor gave the first toast and warmed all of our hearts.

I love how luxe our chair bows look. And I try not to look at those damn red cups.

My Mom gave a very sweet and funny toast, as well, where she mentioned how we when got engaged she had asked us to wait a couple of years to get married and, as it turns out, we were getting married nearly two years to the day that Mr. Star asked her for her blessing to propose. Haha.

We opened up the floor to any of our friends and family who wanted to speak for a minute, and some of our people gave lovely and heartfelt toasts.

And Mr. Star's wonderful Dad closed out the toasts by saying how proud he was of us and how moving our ceremony was to him.

We were so happy to be married (and happy to be sitting down for a brief moment):

But we quickly scarfed down a few bites and then made the rounds to squeeze all of our loved ones and show off our rings, of course.

Even in the spotlight, we found an intimate moment or two...

And our families took the time to create new family bonds together. My little sister fell in love with Mr. Star's youngest brother after what a chivalrous gentleman he was to her all night, even going so far as to dance on his knees to be at her level:

And we each spent a few moments with our own families, as well. Baby Sister Star was on her best and cutest behavior.

And you would never know from this picture how much Mr. Star's Momma loves him, right?

We got to cut into our (delicious!) cake and got one of those classic we're-cutting-the-cake-together-as-a-symbol-of-our-new-lifetime-partnership shots:

But this picture is really more "us," complete with me making a goofy face and my little sister standing just out of arm's reach, waiting for the very first slice of cake to come off of that table. In all fairness, we'd been bribing her through non-kid-friendly tasks like getting her hair curled all day with the promise of cake.

My brand-new husband gave me a dollop of frosting on my nose as a wedding gift. I was amused that he had the guts to do it (knowing how particular I am about my makeup!), and I love how proud of himself he looks in this picture:

That bite of cake was the only wedding cake I got that night, although I hear it was mighty tasty. Our frozen top tier had better be good or I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Only five months and thirteen days to go...not that I'm counting or anything.

We even stole away from the party for a few minutes to grab some gorgeous shots up on the terrace. What a killer view, no?

We could've gotten more shots, but I was anxious to get back to the party because everyone was having so much fun. Just wait until you see the dancing shots and you'll understand why. We have my husband doing the worm captured on camera. Not to mention, my new Father-in-Law doing a backflip. No joke.

*All photos by John Martin Photography*

The Star Wedding Recaps:

One Last Not-So Debaucherous Night

We're Pros at Rehearsing, But I'm No Director

Dinner in Havana

The Girls Get Their Hair Done and The Boys Wash The Dog

Getting Accessorized

We Tackle the Beast

I May Be Biased, But...I Have the Prettiest Ladies Ever

Takin' It to the Streets!

The Boys Goof Off (and Set Up, Too!)

Taxi Time

It's Almost Time For Our Lives To Change Forever

My Big Break

Gathered in a Place of Magic -- Ceremony Part I

The Circle of Love -- Ceremony Part II

Oh, The Places You'll Go! -- Ceremony Part III

The Promises and The Bling -- Ceremony Part IV

Our Peeps

You Can't Rain On My Parade!

Subway Saga

Next Stop -- Grand Central Station!

We Had The Time of Our Lives

We're Movie "Stars"!

Gratuitous Detail Shots

I Now Pronounce You...Mr. and Mrs. Star...Officially!

Unlike most couples, who either maintain their individual last names after the wedding or have their common surname bestowed upon them nearly instantly by their marriage license, our shared last name was six months in the making. And our new last name was bestowed upon us by a surly county clerk in a dingy office. But that's beside the point.

I wrote about our unique name change decision before, so I won't bore you with how incredibly awesome my husband is again, but I just wanted to thank you all for your support and well-wishes and announce that we have completed the many steps to officially change our names together!

After the hours of trying to figure out what paperwork we needed, the four trips downtown to the civil court, the hundreds of dollars in fees, a publication in The Irish Echo newspaper, and at least a migraine or two, we finally get to start right where brides who change their names on their marriage certificate start the day after their honeymoon -- with trips to the DMV, Social Security Card funtimes, and sit-downs with the bank manager.

Sure, it's been a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what, but worth it? You betcha. We both walked around with giddy grins on all day yesterday and even felt the urge to go out to a celebratory brunch! We finally feel like our marriage is "complete," so to speak.

Care to share your name change headaches to help make us feel better?

Oohing and Aahing my way through my first runway show -- St. Pucchi!

This past weekend, Mrs. D'Orsay and I had the honor of representing Weddingbee at the New York bridal market St. Pucchi runway show. We had a blast sipping on our mimosas and getting tempted into planning vow renewals by the fabulous dresses. Despite the fact that Mr. Star and I live three blocks from Bryant Park, this was my first ever runway show and I might just be hooked. Check out this eye candy and you'll see why!

This collection was allll about Romance and Drama, which is totally my thing, in case you hadn't guessed. These gowns were not built for the practical bride, but rather for the one who truly believes in pain and beauty being bedfellows. I'm one of those crazies, which is why I had both a stunning wedding dress and was barely able to walk the day after our wedding, but I digress. Here are some of the trends I noticed from the show:

1. Lace or ruffles and bling on the same dress. Usually, a wedding dress either falls into the "sweet and romantic and lacy" category or the "bling it up" category, but not both. There was a whole lot of crossover in this show, which was very interesting to see because it was so unexpected. Check out these gorgeous lacy dresses that also feature some bling:

(Photo Credit to AisleDash)

And this dress, which was my personal favorite from the show, features a decadently beaded top half and a bottom cascading with soft ruffles. Love it!

(Photo scanned from the St. Pucchi press kit we were given at the show)

2. Tulle used in unexpected ways. I think by now everyone expects to see tulle in wedding dress designs, so there's no big shocker there, but I liked the innovative ways that tulle was incorporated into the St. Pucchi dresses. Take this dress, for example, which has tiers of mini "tulle puffs," which is the best way I can describe them (hey, I'm no fashion pro here):

(Photo by Patrick Ryan Photography)

And this dress features layers of folded over and pinned up tulle, which I think makes for an interesting texture:

(Photo by Patrick Ryan Photography)

Both of those dresses had bling on them, too. This was not a show for the lovers of simplicity :)

3. Corsets, corsets, corsets! There were sheer corsets, there were opaque corsets, there were lace up corsets, there were...okay, you get the point. Lots of corsets in this show, which I love for creating or emphasizing beautiful hourglass figures. I'm not the biggest fan of sheer corsets in wedding dresses myself, but I do love a good rocker chick who can pull one off.

(Featuring my sad photography skills)

4. Highly detailed gowns. Every gown in this show was worked! Not overworked, but worked. There was beading, there was extraordinarily intricate lace, and there were stunning details everywhere. Just take a look at this beading:

(Hey, did you know how hard it is to photograph white gowns on the runway? Me neither)

5. Lots of dropped waists. There were many gowns that featured dropped waist silhouettes. Gorgeous, but maybe a bit tough to pull off?

(Photo by Patrick Ryan Photography)

6. Floral detailing. There were some pretty incredible floral details and the cool thing was that they weren't all the same. There was lace and embroidery with floral themes:

(Photo by Patrick Ryan Photography)

There were whole crystal and fabric flowers on the strap and running down the side of this dress:

(Photo by me)

There were dainty rosettes on the entirety of this gown:

(Photo by Patrick Ryan Photography)

Flowers showed up everywhere, but no two sets of floral details were the same.

7. The influence of bygone eras. The first thing we saw when we walked into the salon was this dress:

(Photo by my iPhone)

This and a couple of other dresses with similar silhouettes screamed Marie Antoinette to me. But in a good way.

8. The Fairytale motif. We saw a couple of dresses that really made me feel like I had been instantly transported into the middle of a fairytale. Even the model was made up to look soft and fairy-like:

(Unprofessional photography by moi)

9. Very dramatic trumpets. Many of the dresses in the collection were trumpet-shaped. Not just trumped-shaped, though, we're talking very, very fitted and then a dramatic flair into a chapel train. Very pretty and very dramatic. Sorry I don't have a picture that shows this better.

(Photo obviously by me)

10. Accessory trend: headband bling. Each and every one of the models had a killer headband worked into her updo and they were fabulous. I guess the headband trend is here to stay for another year!

(More by me, I was snapping away!)

I hope you loved seeing these gorgeous dresses as much as I did. We've only been married six months and I already fell in love with about three new wedding dresses at this show!

Cheap City Chic

One of the other things I wanted to write about before my brief time here is up is to level with you all for a minute about us and our city wedding. You see, I had my heart set on having a city wedding. Not just a city wedding, but a Manhattan wedding. Because, quite frankly, I thought I might die if I didn't get some pictures like this:

Trouble is, everything is more expensize in Manhattan. Everything. You don't believe me? I bought a 1 lb bag of bread flour from the grocery store the other day that cost $7. Case in point. And you know what else is involved in that picture up there? A very, very way-out-of-my-budget gown.

So we had to get a little creative in thinking of ways to cut costs to get both our Manhattan wedding and my dream dress (that Mr. Star was 1000% supportive of, I'll have you know -- he's a keeper). I thought I'd share some of our ideas with you, in the hopes that those of you planning a metropolitan wedding on a normal-sized budget might get some inspiration and begin to believe again that it IS possible! I sometimes found it hard to get ideas because we didn't exactly have what many would consider a shoestring budget thanks to the generous help from our parents, but it sure seemed that way a lot of the time with the crazy vendor quotes we got ($15k for catering for 80 people, not including alcohol?!?).

One of the more typical ways we chose to save was the have the wedding on a sunday night. The sunday night of Columbus Day Weekend, to be exact. Sure, we were that bride and groom who "forced" people to spend their holiday weekend with us, but I think everyone involved would say it was worth it and besides, Columbus Day isn't a real holiday, right? Riiiight...

(photo credit)

We also chose to have our ceremony in a very unconventional spot. Rather than being charged thousands of dollars for a "wedding ceremony venue," we managed to nap a fabulous and unique location -- our theater -- for a couple of hundred dollars. A steal. This would work equally well with the NYC Parks if you wanted an outdoor wedding (they only charge a very small permit fee, even for Bryant Park!), or any number of other unexpected indoor venues. The sky's the limit as far as creative locations go!

We really chose our vendors carefully and got some great deals. Our incredible photographer was a friendor who has fabulous and affordable rates. Our DOC (mandatory for me!) was just starting her company up and I found her offering low introductory rates here on the WB Classifieds so she could build her portfolio. Our DJ was also a talented friendor who gifted (gifted!!) his wonderful work to us as a wedding gift. If you are lucky enough to have people like this in your life, take advantage of all the help you can get! And as I've mentioned before, we found our videographer on craigslist and she was also offering very affordable introductory rates to build her portfolio, plus we asked for the gift of videography from some family members who were brave enough to ask us what we wanted! :) I say, never hesitate to take a chance on vendors who are just starting out. When you meet with people, you can tell if they're up to the challenge!

Be flexible with your expectations in areas where you're okay with compromising. I didn't want to compromise on having a wedding in Manhattan or on my dress, so I was flexible with my other expectations. Like, no limo. Good god, do you know how much it costs to rent a limo in Manhattan? Take a taxi. Or the subway. If you really want to have an affordable city wedding, you can't have everything. You can either have a five-course plated dinner OR a couture gown. Sometimes, you're just going to have to compromise, so decide what is not negotiable to you and go from there!

(photo credit)

We also added a LOT of DIY details to cut down on labor costs -- invitations, my veils, our centerpieces...the list goes on. Anything I thought I could make myself (and there are some truly incredible tutorials and inspiration ideas here on WB!) that would be more unique because of it or save us money, I did! Can you say dress money?

A lot of brides getting married in smaller towns lament the lack of options they have when purchasing wedding supplies (I'm pretty sure Mrs. Mary Jane mentioned this), and no doubt, that must be very frusterating. We don't have that problem here in NYC, but we do have another one: a gazillion very over-priced stores with wedding supplies! Sure, I love Papyrus and Kate's Paperie and M&J Trim as much as anyone else, but if I was going to be DIYing projects to save us money, shopping for supplies at those stores wasn't gonna cut it. To combat this, I did a LOT of poking around in hole-in-the-wall garment district shops (one of my favorites is Carnival Trim on 38th between 5th and 6th, if you're wondering!). I also ordered a lot of supplies online from places like Etsy and Ebay. I know it seems counter-intuitive to order a spool of purple ribbon when you literally live right above a store that sells ribbon, but when you can get 100 yards of it for $10, you start to understand why!

We even managed to have an incredible dream honeymoon on top of everything with some creative ideas and more help from our loved ones. We had originally intended on a Mediterranean cruise, but then found out that my parents had bought a worldwide timeshare membership that allowed us to buy a week at a time in any of their affiliated resorts worldwide, which are all five-star resorts. So we were a little flexible and changed our cruise into one week outside of Athens and one week in Santorini and got both for a little over a thousand dollars. Do you know anyone with a timeshare membership? Hit them up!! We also used skymiles to fly over there (thanks, Doc!), which also required us to be flexible, but hello? Free flights. Did I mention be flexible?

Anyways, I hope a couple of these tips are helpful. You CAN have a big city wedding on a small town budget if you're creative and flexible.

What are your best big city cost-cutting tips?

*All wedding photos by John Martin Photography*