It's taken me about a month to get all my thoughts together in order to post this.
Some background - we got married in Lake Placid, NY which is about 2 hours from where we live. Easy enough to get to to investigate options, but did mean that most of the planning was over the phone.
1. BM and GM - our friends were amazing with dealing with my OCD for this wedding. I did ask that the girls chose a basic black dress cocktail length and in satin (they could chose from their to get something that they would wear again and in their budget), and picked their own shoes which I paid to be dyed the shade of green I wanted. Guys work black suits (what many of them already owned, although my BIL had to rent one). My mom got green ties for the guys while she was living in China for a steal.
Our attire - I bought a Marisa 815 dress for $1550 from OurWeddingDay.com. The one I tried on in a salon was priced at $2100. DH's aunt altered it for me, and even after getting 6 different strapless bras, it was still loose enough on top and you could see the edge of my bra. My mom was determined that I should wear a veil even though I didn't really care. I borrowed on from my MOH (my something borrowed), and every time DH put his arm around me durring pictures, it would tug on the veil. During the ceremony when he hugged me after we did rings, it completely came out and I just handed it off to MOH and then never wore it again. As a gift for DH I bought him a custom suit (he's big and tall), which then ripped in the pants while he was dancing. I was so annoyed, although I don't think anyone noticed. The tailor did fix them after the wedding.
Getting ready - We had our nails done at K nails in Lake Placid. I set an appointment up with them for all the girls and my mother 6 weeks in advance and confirmed a few days before the wedding. I was so annoyed when we got there and they we just taking 4 other people and starting them right when our appointment was supposed to be. Be warned if you're working with a place that also does walk in appointments. we barely had time to eat lunch before our rehearsal and that made for a much more stressful morning. We had hair/make-up done at the Whiteface Lodge. They were doing another wedding party right after us, so they pushed us way up in the morning so that we had to wait around with finished hair and make-up. The lady who did my hair also was really rushed and kept talking about the bride she had to go to next. I didn't really care about that person, for $150, I wanted her to focus on me.
Pictures - we did pictures before the ceremony, but even with giving ourselves and hour and a half, I feel like there are pictures that I wanted that we didn't have time for. It didn't help that getting our wedding party to focus was like herding cats. DH was also so nervous that he was not paying attention to directions.
Ceremony - our ceremony and reception were at the Lake Placid Golf House (owned by the Crowne Plaza). They set up our ketubah early, which ended up getting knocked down from some wind and the glass frame broke. The wind also resulted in the flame/embers from our unity candle almost catching the table cloth on fire! I couldn't see it happening, but just kept seeing my mom fussing with stuff on the table. OUr aisle runner was also not really rolled out well in comparison to the aisle, so the monogram was too far back. A lot of the positoning of people had to change on the fly due to how windy it was and our chuppah was a bit precarious.
Reception - I think the only thing here that was an issue was that the DJ didn't play the right ending song (elite sounds entertainment). The room was beautiful, the food fantastic and the dance floor was packed all night. DH did step on my dress when we were intrduced and pulled out the bustle, so I had to carry the dress all night.
Like everyone says, it went by in the flash of an eye. I was pleased that we had time to eat and visit every table. We also both danced up a storm and even though I saw every glitch, I don't think anyone else noticed. OUr families are still talking about how beautiful it was. Look for another post in DIY with all my DIY details (I am hoping our professional photographer got images of all those things).