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 WPCNR’S THE REAL DEAL. By The Wedding Jeannie, Jeannie Uyanik of Cap and Gown Weddings. July 27, 2008: Every season we get the unique opportunity to create beautiful weddings with our amazing clients.  And although some ideas we’ve seen a million times (personalized napkins, you don’t say?!), every now and then we get hit with something that’s so incredibly unique and fun, we can’t keep it to ourselves.  So as the summer wedding season winds to a close, Elizabeth West of C&G Weddings joins us again to offer you our “Best Of” Summer 2008 wedding ideas.    

 

 

The Wedding Jeannie

Jeannie Uyanik

Wedding Planner to the World

WPCNR COLUMNISTA

 

 

5.  Nettleton Hollow

 

We all know being good to the environment while still planning amazing events is a constant struggle in the industry and especially for our “green” clients.  For their outdoor engagement party, our couple Lynn and Stephen wanted to create a natural and elegant feel without using a ton of fresh flowers that would die soon after being cut.  After doing some research, I came across the site www.nettletonhollow.com.

 

Nettleton Hollow has a beautiful array of lasting botanicals, grasses, foliage, and branches.  And considering you can reuse all of their materials, their price points are extremely fair.  The couple ended up using clusters of the coral bush branches which created a beach-like feel without it looking kitschy and overdone.  They also used these great 5’ long palm boats and filled them with fruits and dried flowers for food station décor.  It was a booming success and the couple walked away with great pieces they are now used in their apartment as a part of their everyday.

 

 

4.  Melangerie Inc

 

While this next couple’s wedding isn’t until August 23^rd, their amazing welcome bags still fall on this summer’s “best of” list.  The bride is a medical resident in psychiatry but has a super creative side so she truly enjoys everything in wedding design.  When we first started conversations of welcome bags, Tara didn’t get excited about paper bags or boxes filled with the traditional things like water and NYC maps at all. 

 

So I went on a crusade to track down NYC’s most creative duo and found Julie Tinker and Elana Dweck- the owners of Melangerie.  They specialize in custom gifting and the creation of what they call, “mélanges.”  For Tara and Greg, they created a custom NYC guide outlining the couple’s favorite spots, what they normally order, where their first date was, site of the proposal, etc and used the artwork from their Save the Date to reinforce their art deco feel and enhance consistency.  While I can’t disclose too much about the project prior to the wedding, the artists took the opportunity to customize every inch of the gift.  Check out their site for more creative ideas:  http://www.melangerienyc.com

 

 

3.  Southern Gospel

 

When trying to come up with a fun way to start her ceremony, one of our brides used a childhood story about the Pied Piper as inspiration for how to get her guests from the pre-ceremony cocktails out to the beach for the ceremony.  But instead of a flute playing peasant, she hired an amazing gospel choir to arrive at the venue on foot. 

 

They approached the house in full song and led guests out onto the beach in a parade of clapping and excitement.  When it was time for the bride to process, they started singing one of her favorite childhood songs, “This Little Light of Mine.”  The bride wanted to avoid weepy classical music and to keep the ceremony as an upbeat celebration.  Mission accomplished!

 

2.  ‘Still Live™’ by Brian Dorsey

 

One of our most fantastic NY photographers, Brian Dorsey introduced us to one of our favorite new ideas in interactive photography.  At a July 3^rd wedding at Pier Sixty in NYC, the photographer set up a live digital gallery of the photos for guests to see as they were taken.  It started with the moments before the ceremony that every guest doesn’t get to see and as the night progressed, the digital library got updated.  Guests could literally cut a rug on the dance floor and then moments later see themselves on screen as a part of this amazing rotating digital gallery on a large flat screen monitor.  Talk about instant gratification!  Check out Brian’s work at www.briandorseystudios.com

 

 

 

1.  Bridal Gowns through the Generations

 

A fantastic and extremely creative Floridian bride dreamed of wearing her grandmother’s dress as she walked down the aisle in her May wedding.  But when grandma told her she could not make any changes to the dress (and wearing it “as is” was not an option), she immediately had to come up with plan B.  And in this case, Plan B turned out to be even more incredible as Plan A!  She had a rare and unique situation where both her and her fiancé’s mother and grandmothers still had their wedding gowns.  So as a tribute to them and their beautiful dresses, she displayed them on manikins at the reception venue.  Not only did it give a peek into the family’s heritage, it offered a beautiful addition to the room’s décor.  (And grandma didn’t have to watch her gown get cut into a million pieces!). 

 

In an industry that has seen it all and done it all, it’s always nice to see when clients and vendors come up with something unique and special.  We hope that our list of favorites has inspired you to come up with your own ways to further personalize any event that you’re planning.  Enjoy the rest of the summer and here’s to a fantastic fall wedding season!  Throughout the weekends in August, we will be highlighting photos and stories from some of our most recent weddings this spring and summer. 

 

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. July 24, 2008: At a Common Council Special Meeting and Work Session tonight, the council scheduled a public hearing on the LCOR  55 Bank Street delayed and redesigned affordable housing development. LCOR representatives told the council the design showed the council earlier this month was not set in stone that the parking structure could change in design at the city request, though they were firm that the parking had to be built all in one structure.

Should the council approve the extended construction schedule (the start of each is linked to financing for each of two phases) after the public hearing August 4, LCOR would have 150 days (until approximately January 1, 2009) to deliver new site plans.

The council learned they could choose to add 30 units more to the 536-unit rental project, because previously proposed office space had been remove and  that could include 6 more units of affordable housing if they wished. The council was informed by the city that the city was paying rent on the commuter parking lot property (site of the project) that LCOR owes $5 Million on , (currently 24 days overdue).  LCOR is expected to pay between September 15 and September 30.

$5 Million to Come in September

The $5 Million payment  (second installment of a $15.5 Million purchase price) LCOR owed the city for the land roosts in escrow at the moment with New York Land Company, awaiting conveyance to the city.

Part of the newly revised plan tying start of construction to acquiring financing pushes back the remaining $4.5 Million owed by LCOR on the property until 2013, with interest based on inflation.

Councilperson Rita Malmud asked for a breakdown from LCOR and the Commissioner of Planning as to exactly when the PILOT payments going out 15 years would kick in on the project. Meanwhile, it was disclosed the city is paying the taxes on the property as part of rent for the continued operation of the parking lot.

BID Expansion on Life Support, Ready to Flat Line

In BID developments, the Council’s Rita Malmud  and Dennis Power took a dim view of the BID’s plea ti bring in an expert from Pace University to review the City Corporation Counsel (Edward Dunphy) decision that the BID Extension opt-out vote was too close to authorize BID expansion.

BID Executive Director Rick Ammirato asked the council to allow the BID to seek an outside legal opinion on whether  50.925% Opt -out Rate of business owners was below the 51% opt-out rate by enough to allow the BID to push its expansion plan through, considering that only 17% of the majority property owners opted out. 

Malmud and Power rejected this third party requested intervention. The council is being asked to pass an official rejection of the BID expansion request at the Council meeting of August 4. Ammirato said the close opt-out vote was achieved by xeroxed ballots circulated for signature and by what he termed “a whispering campaign.”

 Ammirato expressed the hope that the council would not pass the rejection, because the BID would like to go back to the affected areas of the city and redraw the expansion lines to include only those businesses who wish to join the BID. The majority of oppostion comes from South Lexington Avenue and West Post Road, he said. Otherwise, Ammirato said it would be two years before any expansion could take place. The Mayor noted the economy is tough in the city right now, and it might not be the right time to offer the expansion plan (requiring new BID assessments passed on to owners).

Windsor Terrace Spared Million Dollar Runup in  Affordable Housing Buyout Balloon

The council agreed to a compromise with Roman Partners, the developer of Windsor Terrace to waive the addtional increase in the affordable housing buyout fee that went into affect in April of this year, and will allow Roman Partners to pay their previous buyout fee  of $452,000, instead of the $1.47 Million they owned under the new buyout guidelines the council designed and passed in April. Windsor will pay the buy out they owed in 2003 at the time of approval with the previous developer.

The compromise is conditional that Roman Partners pay all building fees and permit fees by December 31 and begin construction by August 3, 2009. Similar arrangements are expected for Hale Avenue condominiums.

The council is also expected to grant extensions to Kensington Senior Living on Maple Avenue, while they wait for a HUD mortgage insurance approval on their loan with CAPMARK to finance the project. That approval is not expected before January. Another site plan extension is sought by North Street Community which is still, according to their attorney, Paul Bergins, seeking a health care partner to run the assisted living condominium and medical piece of the site.