H and I were married on January 25, 2014 in the middle of a snowstorm that dumped about 6 inches of snow in Dublin. The night before the wedding I was VERY sick (throwing up every 20-30 minutes for about 6 hours) so when the alarm went off at 5:00 am I wasn't a very happy camper. I did gradually start to feel better, but between the snow and me being sick we did get behind schedule.
Here are the vendor reviews for those who were involved in our wedding. If you have questions please tag me in a post and I will respond.
Mezzo
My inlaws hosted our rehearsal dinner at Mezzo in their private dining room. The room is lovely and they will do a custom menu (pre-selected off of their normal menu) with a picture and/or custom greeting. The food was wonderful and overall the service was great, but the service at the beginning was slow. We had a group of 17 and it took almost an hour from the time we arrived before the first course was served. Food and beverage minimum for private dining on a Friday night is normally $1,200 so it is not on cheap. First course was about $7 per person, entree was about $18-20 per person and we brought in a groom's cake for dessert so I can't remember what it would have been to use their desserts. They do have a complimentary valet service which was great since parking in Dublin can be tricky and it was FREEZING that night.
The Venue at Corazon
Our ceremony and reception were both held at The Venue at Corazon (TVAC). During the course of planning we worked with two different coordinators, Rosie and Kristal, both were amazing! I relied almost exclusively on email communication once the contract was signed and most of the time I received a response within one business day. The venue is what I would describe as a rustic Italian feel (but still very elegant). Wood floors in the entryway, a water feature, wrought iron lighting, gas fireplaces, high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows in the ballroom.
Our ceremony was at 11:00 am followed by a cocktail hour and reception starting at 12:30 pm. Everyone was impressed with the food, we did a plated lunch with choice of chicken, meatloaf or pork chops with sides of scalloped potatoes and green beans. For the cocktail hour we had chips & dips and veggie trays.
The biggest issue we had with the issue is that their liquor license didn't get approved and a week before the wedding we were left scrambling for a plan b. They could serve the alcohol they just couldn't SELL it. They offered us two possible solutions 1) we buy what we want and bring it in or 2) they buy what we want and charge us an 18% convenience fee. After 12 hours of trying to figure out what to do I called Kristal and she was able to work with me (and waived the convenience fee) and we went with option 2. We ended up buying way too much wine and a little too much beer, but we only ran out of the Jameson.
Kristal was the DOC and helped make sure everything ran smoothly. The staff set up all of our decor and I thought they would pack everything up for us but they just gathered our stuff and we had to pack it up.
Overall I would give TVAC 4.5/5 stars. The venue is beautiful, the food was great and the staff wonderful. They lost the 1/2 star because we had to pack up our own decorations after the reception.
Vita Salon (at Corazon)
One of the selling points for TVAC was the on-site salon and spa allowing us to plan to get ready at the venue without a bunch of car trips (and planning a winter wedding with a morning ceremony this was a major concern). The salon has only been open a few months and they are definitely still working the kinks out.
Trying to get in touch with the salon was an exercise in patience at the beginning. Long hold times while they tracked down the manager, dropped calls, and voice mail boxes was the experience I had for weeks. Eventually I had greater success and I found out that they had a new bridal package for TVAC brides. $80 for hair AND makeup for the bride and any bridal party members. The bride would also get two complimentary hair trials (which I used).
The first hair trial was a near disaster. I'm not sure if my hair wasn't quite long enough to do what I wanted and/or they didn't know how to do it, but I left pretty disappointed and had to move to a plan b. The second trial was much better and I had more confidence in their abilities.
On the wedding day we arrived 20 minutes late (remember I was sick and it was snowing hard). Lisa (make-up) and Joni (second stylist) were already there but Amy (my hair stylist) arrived 10-15 minutes after we did. I didn't panic but I was concerned. There were four of us getting our hair and make-up done. Me, my MOH, my Mom and my MIL. They were done in a decent amount of time, but they didn't finish my hair and make-up until almost 10:00, over an hour later than it was supposed to take. We lost an hour of pictures because our first look was supposed to be at 9:00.
My make-up looked great but my hair was just okay. It barely resembled the second trial and it was PLASTERED with hair spray so that it looked hard (think of a hair-spray helmet). I had to have H help me get the pins out of my hair and I had to wash and condition it twice to get the gunk out. I couldn't even get a comb through it...
Overall I give them a 3.5/5 stars. Their slow pace made me miss an hour of pictures (we only had time for 15 minutes of pictures before guests started arriving) and my hair wasn't what I wanted and there was no time to fix it. The price was great and my make-up was wonderful.
David's Bridal (Easton)
I went shopping on a Wednesday early afternoon and had the store almost to ourselves. The consultant was okay, but she kept getting pulled away to deal with walk-in customers so I was left waiting in dresses for longer than necessary waiting on her. I tried on three dresses and loved all three. I ended up going with the last one and it was on sale for $250 (my budget was $500). At a later date I went back and bought a lace bolero jacket because I couldn't find one I liked as much anywhere else.
I ordered the dress that day and it was in the store less than a week later.
Overall I give them 4.5/5 stars. The service wasn't super, but it wasn't horrible.
Alterations: Linda Hammond
Linda comes highly recommended on these boards and she did the alterations for my cousin's wedding several years ago so she was the only seamstress I talked to. She was personable and responsive, the only drawback is that when she asked me if I wanted to have her steam my dress (I did) she didn't tell me there was an additional charge. I should have asked but she should have mentioned it. It was an extra $60 that I wasn't expecting.
She made my strapless dress into a sweetheart neckline, let out the side seams, hemmed the skirt and shortened the sleeves on my lace bolero jacket, slightly took in the sleeves of the jacket, steamed the dress, and shortened the straps on my rehearsal dinner dress. Total cost was $260.
My dress was satin, no embellishments but some ruching.
Overall I give her 4.5/5 stars.
Buckeye Entertainment
From the start music was not one of my priorities. With a daytime wedding I didn't expect people would want do dance, but I didn't want to DIY everything either. Buckeye Entertainment was the only DJ I met with and Byron is amazing (along with their prices). Byron was always quick to respond to emails and their online system to request songs was easy to use.
Originally my friend was going to play live music for the ceremony, but she got really sick and was unable to come. She let me know on Friday so I was able to put Byron on standby, and he handled everything without a problem.
He played a great selection of music and got people to dance!!!!
Overall I give Buckeye Entertainment 5/5 stars. Byron was one of my favorite vendors.
Madison House Designs
I met with two florists, Flowerman and Madison House Designs. I wanted pretty flowers, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something so few people will remember. Lynette's quote was almost identical to the Flowerman quote for their DIY service so for me it was a no-brainer. My bridal party consisted of my sister (who has three kids under three) and my MIL has some hip issues and wouldn't be able to stand on a concrete floor for hours (and they don't allow chairs in the warehouse) so DIY wasn't really an option for me.
Overall I was pleased with the flowers but there were some minor customer service issues that did annoy me.
1) It would sometimes take a full week to get an email response from Lynette. In her defense I could have picked up the phone and called, but a week to get back to a client is hard for me to accept.
2) A month or so before the wedding I did want to add an arch and she didn't have what I wanted (a simple arch draped with fabric with a spray of flowers). I expected her to get an arch and charge me a rental fee, but instead I had to go buy the arch, buy the fabric, assemble the arch and then deliver the materials to her. Since I wanted something so standard I would have thought she would have made the business investment so she could then use it to generate more income down the road since she does other rentals. When we were tearing down after the ceremony we found out the arch had been broken while in her possession and taped together. The damage prevented us from being able to resell it afterwards since we had to throw it out.
3) 95% of the flowers were BEAUTIFUL, but the two wrist corsages were too big, too floppy and the flowers were a bit wilted. Andy's bout had two flowers that looked like they had frozen (slightly browned edges) and/or wilted.
On the plus side, she was FABULOUS about working with my budget and helping get quotes for the arch addition as I was working through options. My bouquet, the centerpieces, the MOH bouquet and the arch turned out amazing.
Overall I would give her a 4/5 stars. The wilted flowers and damaged arch are just two things that I can't look past.
Bess' Cakery
We went to three different bakeries before deciding to go with Bess's Cakery. Bess runs the business out of her home and her prices are about $3.50 per serving and she will give you EITHER a free top tier on the wedding cake or a coupon for a free (fresh) 6" inch cake for your first anniversary.
Bess was great to work with and the cake was delicious and the cake looked a lot like the inspiration picture I gave her. My only complaint is that the texture on the cake was done with a thicker icing tip than I was expecting.
Overall I give Bess 5/5 stars.
That's So Sweet
We did a gourmet S'mores bar as a second dessert option at the wedding. I was willing to do it myself, but when I mentioned the idea to TVAC Rosie mentioned that one of their preferred vendors does a S'mores bar. SOLD!
For $4.50 per person they will bring in three types of graham crackers, assorted chocolates and three/four different flavored of homemade marshmallows (we did mint, peanut butter, vanilla and raspberry), plates, napkins and the open flames to roast the marshmallows. They decorated the table to match the decor of the rest of the wedding and everything looked and tasted amazing! It was a big hit with our guests.
Overall I give 5/5 stars.
Amy Rebecca Photography
This is a preliminary review as I am still waiting on our wedding photos, so I won't put the final rating in now. Amy and her husband Max (her second shooter) were AMAZING. She showed up and started working before her contracted start time and was wonderful about trying to get as many of our pictures done in the time we had left (remember we lost an hour of first look/family pictures due to the slow hair & makeup). Amy would come up to me periodically and we would go through the shot list to make sure we were capturing the "must have" pictures to see where we were and what was left and what we could just forget about.
They also did our engagement pictures which turned out beautiful (I'm my own worst critic and I loved them). We had a two hour shoot at Inniswood Metro Gardens and ended up with about 85 pictures that Amy deemed "good". Out of those I liked about 50 and had 10-15 that I LOVED. We used her pictures to make a photo guestbook that turned out amazing.
By the time they left the wedding I felt like we were friends. She was one of my favorite vendors!
UPDATE: We received our online proofs today (just two weeks after the wedding) and Amy and Max did a wonderful job of capturing the day! I cried when I saw the pictures of me dancing with my Dad at the reception (just as we were crying as we danced). They definitely get 5/5 stars!
Prodigy Cinema
Video was one of the things that I wanted but was worried I wasn't able to afford (or justify the expense of). I looked at dozens (felt like hundreds) of websites trying to find a cheap videographer that had videos that didn't look like complete crap. Nathan's site was the only one where I could watch videos of complete strangers and get pulled into the story.
He and his second shooter showed up on time and went right to work. They were pretty much unnoticeable during the ceremony, I only noticed them once and my Mom didn't even know they were there.
Update: Nathan HAND DELIVERED our DVD to me at work today (02/14/14) since he knew my parents were in town and I was hoping to be able to show it to them. That is absolutely above and beyond anything I expected for customer service. H and I will be watching it tonight and will finalize the review afterwards.
Update #2: I took a late lunch hour to watch our DVD (I couldn't wait until I got home). I sat in the break room at work and cried during the short film and ceremony sections and smiled and laughed through the rest. They did an AMAZING job and it was worth every penny we paid (and it wasn't that much all things considered).
Overall I give Prodigy Cinema 5/5 stars.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Overall I had a spectacular group of vendors and my complaints are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Everyone did their job and showed up in the middle of a snowstorm to make our wedding beautiful and I really appreciate that.