Some tips:
We were on a major budget and being that we wanted a wedding in NYC, it was so hard to stay on track. We compromised and ending up holding the ceremony and reception in an Italian restaurant that had an outdoor courtyard and ballroom for 100 guests. We did the first look in a beautiful park in the Bronx and had the whole grounds to ourself for photos.
I planned the whole wedding myself but did hire someone to do decor and also a day of coordinator. It gave me such a peace of mind to fully enjoy the day.
Don’t stress last minute cancellations of guests like I did. The important people will be there. We were on a tight budget and only had room for 100 people exactly so when people dropped out the week of, I kept thinking that seat could have gone to someone else LOL. But in the end we had 99 seats filled!
