The information on this website concerning weddings is given to you by Frank Lazzaro, owner of this online store and a former Wedding Consultant and Planner for over twenty years with his own florist business, Lazzaro's Florist of Floral Park, N.Y. (see About Us) We will also include important facts from different websites that we feel would be of a great assistance to you. All information is free and if you have any questions concerning your wedding we will try to answer to the best of our professional staff ability. Please use the contact button above and submit your question.
Don't get in too much debt over your wedding, stay within your budget!
I truly believe that a wedding should never cost more than what a family can afford. A budget wedding is what this website is all about, and in my twenty years as a wedding consultant and planner, I will demonstrate to you a more affordable package for the most important day in your life. Keep in mind that in today's crazy market, it is impossible for one person to pay for the complete wedding. Like in the "good old days" it was the bride and her family that paid for almost seventy five per cent of the wedding, those "golden days" are long gone. It takes two to tango. The first thing you must do is plan a budget and set a goal towards the date of the wedding. Remember, the winter months are very risky. I once had a wedding on Valentine's Day back in the early 1980's and it snowed eightteen inches that morning hitting Long Island with a major North Easterner. No lights at the reception either. The complete wedding was downsized to the marriage taking place in the Bride's home instead of the church. No one knew about wedding insurance which is a must during the months of September through March. One beautiful October Fall day Hurricane Helen took over Long Island on one of my wedding days and there were no lights for days. The reception at a very famous caterer in Nassau County was with candle lights and violins. My florist crew and I showed up with all the table centerpieces to a bunch of very sad waiters and staff in the reception house. Again, wedding insurance must be top priority in planning a wedding. A million things can go wrong.
Select your caterer and reception with great caution. Many of them go "belly-up" during the night and its all over for the Bride and Groom too. I will never forget the day we were ready to deliver the reception floral table centerpieces, all twenty of them to a very famous "Landmark" caterer on Long Island, when the nightmare occured. While I was calling the caterer to make sure all the tables were set up, the sherriff answered the phone and informed us not to come over, the building was taken over by county Marshalls and an auction was to take place that day for the assets. I was in a state of complete shock and so was the bride when I telephoned her at home, she had no idea of what happened. Again, heavy wedding insurance must be involved to help you financially, incase a bomb like this horror ever comes to past. Play it smart and check the credit rating of the caterer before signing on the dotted line and handing over a ten thousand dollars deposit. Check to see if there are any liens on the company with the county office of public records and know their financial background as well. Check references of other brides that got married there that year and in the past and telephone them. Request at least five people that had their reception in the same place of business that yours will be. Check, check and double check everything before you sign on the dotted line! Bring a professional business person with you when going for the first time consultation. Do not go alone to a caterer and booked the hall without some kind of professional business person to tag along with you for the ride and to read between the lines of the contract. You need to make sure, above all, that no little devils are going to pop out of the floor after you signed your life savings away on the reception. Take the contract home with you and let your attorney, accountant or a professional business person related to this field read it also. Never sign it while you are on "cloud nine" and dreaming of your fantasy wedding at that moment in dreamland. Take the contract and brouchures home and read them over and over again. Remember, getting back your deposit, is as hard as winning the jackpot lottery, so be very careful. Please don't think that I have anything against the catering business, the majority of companies are reputable good businesses and will give you the best wedding reception in the world. The problem is the handful that are "not" on your side, and just after the financial gain, so be very careful who you are doing business with when booking your wedding reception.
Recommended Processional Music - The Bridal Chorus by Wagner
Save a thousand dollars right off the top of your budget with making your own table centerpieces!
Want to save a thousand dollars right off the top from your wedding budget? Try making your own personal table centerpieces using silk flowers. If you are skilled in this field of floral designing or know a friend that can help you, use this great advantage. Inform the reception hall manager before you start doing this enjoyable but heavy task to make sure that you get written approval and that you are not charged for the "house flowers" for the reception tables. Put everything in writing and add everything up before the deposit check is signed. You must have written approval, for insurance reasons, that you and the caterer are protected just incase someone handles your floral design, drops your floral centerpiece on the floor, and a guest gets hurt on the broken pieces. It has happened at weddings when a few guests will have a few too many drinks and start playing catch ball with your silk floral centerpiece across the table, this event was once reported to me many years ago.
Expect to pay almost double for your fresh floral bouquets if you plan your wedding day on Valentine's Day, Easter or Mother's Day. The attention that a florist will give you will be interrupted with the holiday and customer's needs also. Florist are charged much more from wholesalers and growers during these times than any other time of the year. Select flowers that are in season for your best bet on a reasonable cost from your florist, or use silk fabric flowers for your wedding bouquet, that price is the same all year round. Look at national bridal magazines at the library for the latest up to date fashion in gowns and flowers. You will be surprise how many times you will change your mine planning the most beautiful day in your life. So, read books, view fashions and bouquet styles and take your time in selecting the right one.
For a more beautiful wedding, keep it simple and elegant. You will be surprise how a hand full of roses tied together with fine fabric bridal lace makes a very elegant bouquet presentation. (see photo on right). This bridal bouquet could cost you no more than twenty dollars if your purchase these pink roses at your local super market and hand tie them together yourself with bridal lace ribbon. Less is better than more. Cut back on expensive "frills" for your wedding and use substitution whenever you can. Skip the five piece wedding band and hire a great D.J. for your reception, it's more than half the price of a band and the music sounds the same. Most DJs sing also, so if you have a singer along with the DJ, that's a great thing. If you are having your wedding ceremory in a Christian church, most of the time there are flowers always on the altar. (Except during Lent, there are no flowers and everything is draped in purple). Roman Catholics cannot get married during Lent in a Catholic church with a Mass. If your wedding is in the springtime and it's after Easter Sunday, you should find beautiful pastel blooming plants and Easter Lillies all over the altar within that Easter season. There's your flowers for the church! No need to purchase any flowers for your church wedding during the month after Easter. Check with your church to make sure that there are flowers left over from Easter Sunday. Same with the Christmas Season. Getting married right after Christmas, and you will find lots of poinsettias all over the church and altar. That will save you a bundle of money on Altar flowers for your church wedding. Right before or after Thanksgiving and you have beautiful mum plants for the fall season on display in most houses of worship across America.
Church Altar decorated for Easter (click image to enlarge)
Church Altar at Christmas (click image for enlargement)
Renting a wedding bus instead of having three limos is far better money wise. Look into this and compare prices with reputable companies. Remember, and write this down on a big piece of paper and tape it on your wall, until the wedding day. CHECK REFERENCES ON LIMO COMPANIES! Check the BBB.org and make sure that there are no complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau in your state. CHECK, CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK on these companies. I have heard and experience with my past brides horror stories of limos NOT showing up at the bride's house, drivers smelling of scotch, drivers smoking a "joint" right before he picks your up, yada, yada, yada! Make sure the driver is fully experienced in driving a large vehicle. The white limousine must be immaculate clean and look as white as snow. Request a driver over twenty five years of age. Above all, make sure, and get it in writing, that the limousine is a late model of that year, and not one taken out of an antique show from 1973. Nothing can be worst that looking outside your window and seeing your limousine from the woodstock era. Have all this in writing, and check references on your driver for that day. Try to meet the driver in advance of your wedding day and know what he looks like. Check the license to make sure that your driver has one and that the license is legal and not expired. Make sure that all this is in writing and signed before putting down a deposit. Pay the limousine company with a credit card instead of a check, debit card or cash funds. God forbide If anything goes wrong, you can be protected with your credit card. Do not pay with a debit card for any major rentals towards your wedding. A debit card is cash, and getting a refund is like pulling teeth. Use a major credit card and do not make any deals with anyone telling you to pay them in cash and save ten per cent. It can come back to haunt you right before or after the wedding if anything fails to meet your satisfaction.
recommended Song for a Roman Catholic Church Wedding: Ave Maria - Bach/Gounod
Make sure that the wedding cake that was custom ordered for your wedding day and presented at your reception is the wedding cake that your guest is going to eat. It is best to order one that is very unique in design and style. Maybe canoli filling with strawberries trimmed all around your cake and tiny red roses all around the edges. Chocolate pudding filling with grapes trimmed all around your cake with tiny purple orchids. Make it very, very unique and beautiful. You want to make sure that you are getting "your cake" and not any leftover slices from the last wedding, if they run short of serving slices from your cake. It has happened in the past and wittnessed by a family friend who worked behind the scenes in the kitchen. It was reported to me years ago by someone who was a waiter at a catering hall - that left over wedding cakes stay all weekend in the cooler and used as a substitute if they run short of cake slices for the guess. Order a large big wedding cake if you know you are going to have a large guest list. Don't skimp on this treat. Everybody looks forward to the wedding cake dessert at this gala function.
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Recommended Traditional Wedding March for the Recessional
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Lazzaro's.com is an online store selling fine home and garden merchandise from our warehouse and from our affiliated retailers that has joined this website marketplace to bring our customers the very best of products. We do not have a "brick and mortar" retail outlet. All Lazzaro merchandise has the "add to cart" icon below its image, with a simple paypal shopping cart. All products are drop-shipped directly to our customer's destination requested via UPS ground. We ship only in the continuous United States. To contact us, please click on the "Contact Us" link in the store departments.
