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*

The Stars Brave the Name Change Storm Together

Wow, has it really been two whole weeks since I wrote a post? Sorry, guys! This whole "finishing up my recaps" thing has been harder than I thought. I have a couple of posts I'd like to share with you before I finish up my recaps, though, so I'm gonna take a break and work on those if that's alright with you. We cool? I promise, I'll throw in some pretty pictures to help keep it interesting :)

One of the things I wanted to share with you is our version of the whole name change debacle. I know many lovely Bee ladies before me have written on the subject, but I'm pretty sure no one has made the crazy decision we did. What can I say? We're kinda weirdos, if you haven't already gathered from our theater space ceremony, our subway ride in my designer wedding gown, or our choreographed Dirty Dancing throwback first dance.

We had a couple of factors working in our case:

1. We're complete and total saps. I mean, come on, look at us:

Because we're such saps, it was really, really important to us that we share the same last name moving forward. We're all about creating a family together (including our two furbabies -- yep, I went there!), and being able to be a true Mr. and Mrs. together was one of our priorities.

2. My name really matters to my career. Yes, I am an actress. Yes, I am a working actress. And yes, how my name sounds to people really matters. There's a reason actors take stage names, and it's not just vanity. As an actor, you're basically creating a brand to be sold -- YOU (or me, rather) -- and your name is a big part of that brand. So, my name has to sound good. And sadly, my name doesn't sound that great with Mr. Star's last name. It's a little awkward. Kind've like this picture:

Okay, maybe that picture is more than a little awkward. And I don't have any idea what we were laughing about, for the record.

3. I really want to have the same last name as my kids. This goes back to the whole "sentimental sap" thing. And I know that if it's as important as it is to me that I share a last name with my husband, that it will be even more important to me that I share a last name with my kids when there's more of this in my life:

Isn't my baby sister the cutest?

4. I wasn't that attached to my maiden name and I officially have the coolest husband ever. I had no issue giving up my maiden name to create a new family with Mr. Star and he felt that it was more important for us to share a name than for him to stick with his, sooooo....

We decided to pick a totally new last name and BOTH change our names! I know, I told you we were crazy!

Shortly after we got engaged, we discussed all of these factors and we started brainstorming all of the potential new last names we might like. We started by trying to combine our two last names and woah, that didn't work at all. So then we started looking at lists of names wherever we found them -- in friends' graduation programs, online last name databases, etc., but it felt so impersonal to just choose a random name out of nowhere. 

Finally, we decided to look back into our families' histories and put together a list of all of the last names that any of our family members went by and voila! We came across one that we both loved, that gives a hearty nod to both of our Irish heritages (O'names, anyone?), and decided to go for it!

The biggest downside to our decision is that we weren't able to both change our names via marriage certificate like you normally would, but instead have to go to civil court to do it! One day in court down, two more to go, so keep your fingers crossed for us that it all goes smoothly! Thankfully, our families and friends have been, on the whole, very supportive of our rather unconventional decision. And we love our new family identity.

Not to mention, I love telling people that we're both changing our names because it reminds me of why I love my mister oh-so-much -- he's just that awesome :)

Did you make an unconventional name change decision? Do you know of another couple that both gave up their "maiden names" like us, or are we the only weirdos?

*All photos by John Martin Photography *

A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: Gratuitous Detail Shots

I hate to say it, folks, but we're nearing the end of the Star recaps. I know, I'm sad about it, too. I have a couple more picture-heavy posts to share with you and then a few posts about our name change decision (it's cool!), what I would do diferently, and some other wrap-ups, but I'm just about out of things to say as far as our wedding goes. Hence why the recaps are slowing down. I'm dragging my feet finished them because I don't want to be done 'round these parts! :)

I would like to share a little round-up of some of our wedding details, though, because I worked terribly hard on them and so I think they deserve their own little moment in the spotlight. Because we didn't want to spring for a second-shooter and we kept our photographer pretty busy throughout the day, I've included some non-pro pictures in here, but I hope you won't mind.

That said, one piece of advice that my DOC gave me was to arrange a little pile of things that I wanted photographed by a professional and have them laid out that morning for him. It was great advice, as he was able to just grab some pretty shots of a few things that would've been otherwise undocumented.

For instance, our invitations:

I know you already saw them way-back-when, but I love that they got a little pro pic of their own!

Our programs:

And the inside:

Major thanks to the Walker Family for helping me and Momma Star assemble these three weeks before the wedding. I'm not sure we would have had programs if it weren't for their help!

And we can't forget the lovely rehearsal bouquet that Fairy Bridesmaid made for me from my bridal shower ribbons:

Isn't it awesome how the ribbons matched our wedding color scheme? Yeah, I have awesome friends and family.

Compare that to my gorgeous wedding bouquet:

My favorite part of my bouquet was a tie between the fiddlehead ferns and the anemones with black centers, AKA polka dotted flowers :)

The boutonnieres that I made with love:

Our ceremony "props" were wine, chocolate, and printed copies of the readings, our vows, and the script for my stepdad.

I also made a suprise gift for Mr. Star to wear -- drama mask cufflinks! He loved them.

(personal photo)

Over at the reception, a very fuzzy shot of our Empire State Building card box next to a bridesmaid bouquet doing double duty as reception decor:

(personal photo taken by a friend, please excuse the quality)

These bouquet holders really helped me use our flower power to the max!

I love the way this shot shows our reception decor hard at work during cocktail hour -- we were still playing photo shoot over at Grand Central!

(personal photo taken by a friend)

Our videographer was kind enough to grab a table shot before the candles burned down. 

(Photo by Skyler Miolla)

You can see our table numbers, menus titled "Eat Your Heart Out, Hollywood!", beautiful purple chair sashes, purple candy, and our mask favors hard at work up there. 

Notice the plastic cups, as well? That was our one wedding day snafu. One of the hard parts about having your reception in a loft is that you usually have to bring absolutely everything in. We rented everything in that place, down to the forks and knives. 

Well, the one big Star wedding day snafu happened because of the rental company, who forgot to bring the drinking glasses we ordered. And because I hadn't given my DOC a list of exactly what the rental company was responsible for versus what the caterer was bringing, she didn't know the glasses were missing until it was too late to do anything but grab plastic cups.

On that day, I was so head-over-heels happy that it didn't even bother me. Looking back, it is the one "what if I had...?" that tortures me. I don't like looking at the pictures with plastic cups in them (for real, right?), but we had such a fabulously incredible day and if the one big thing that went wrong was our guests didn't get glass drinking glasses, I guess I did pretty well, huh? At least it makes for some goofy pictures. Don't worry, you'll see :)

There. That was my big, dark wedding confession. Moving on.

Don't our mask favors look lovely at the place settings?

(Photo by Skyler Miolla)

And check out that purple rock and stick candy that I picked up at an old country store a few months before the wedding to dress up the tables. Of course, I had to paint polka dots on the vases for fun!

(personal photo taken by me)

And lastly (for now), check out our "guest book" wishing tree:

This picture was taken before the wedding at our apartment, but picture it covered in tags filled with happy messages from our loved ones!

(personal photo, taken by me)

I'm very proud of how our details came together, minus the plastic cup shenanigans. All I can say is I'm very glad we had a DOC so I didn't have to flip out about finding plastic cups half an hour before cocktail hour!

Engaged ladies -- what's your favorite wedding detail so far? Married ladies -- what wedding day detail haunts your dreams like my plastic cups?

*All photos by John Martin Photography, except where noted*

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"!

A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: We're Movie "Stars"!

If you're in the firm "we really don't need a videographer when we already have an awesome photographer" camp, then I totally get it. I was there. And then I saw wedding videos like Mrs. Kitten's, cried, and changed my mind, of course. SO glad I did.




I cry pretty much every time I watch it.

So now you're probably thinking, "oh, sure, Star, I'd love to get a videographer, but there's no way our budget can withstand one more assault." Well, here are my tips for bending that budget into submission. It was probably asking for it anyways.

1. Get a videographer as a gift. One of Mr. Star's close family friends asked us to tell them what we really wanted as a gift that would remind us of them whenever we used it. The perfect answer was for them to help us get a wedding video. They loved the idea, and we really do think of them and their generousity every time we watch it. Thank you, Cindy and Bill! There are almost always friends or family members or a group of guests (like your college buddies) who don't know what to get you, but want to make it memorable. Capitalize on this and they'll feel special, too.


2. Use professionals looking to break into the wedding business. We knew we couldn't afford standard NYC videographer prices, so we posted an ad on the big ol' Craigslist looking for a student or recent grad who wanted to work for us. What we weren't expecting is that we had several professionals who had done camera work in other areas like commercials or television and were looking to get into the wedding industry get in touch with us and offer to help. They wanted wedding footage for a reel, we got a pro who already knew how to make a great video. The key to this is making sure he or she has examples of their work, even if it isn't wedding-related. We could see that our videographer did nice work, despite having no wedding experience. This probably works best if you're in a metro area.


3. Cut down on coverage time and fancy extras. We only asked our videographer to film for about four hours, which covered all the important stuff for us -- the ceremony (especially our vows), the parade, and our first dance were what we really wanted captured on video. She offered to come a bit earlier and film me getting ready, which was an awesome bonus. Also, you don't need a million DVD copies or a fancy intro title if you're trying to cut costs. You can burn your own DVDs!


If you are in the NYC area and want to check out our awesome videographer, head on over here. She did such a great job for us and we couldn't be more pleased.


And promise me you'll think about the videographer bit? ;)

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