Day of Coordinator: Timeless Events, LLC (Milwaukee, WI) - A
It gave us a lot of peace-of-mind to have Kristin and her colleague (can't remember her name) on our wedding day. We had things pretty well planned out already, but she helped a lot with lighting candles, tracking down flowers, and making sure things were going smoothly at the reception.
Reception Venue: Geneva National Golf Club (Lake Geneva, WI) - B
The venue was beautiful and we had a great time at the wedding so there aren't too many complaints about the actual venue. Just some of the things I noticed were: (1) I felt the chicken we were served was slightly dry. Other people said it was great though so maybe it was just me. (2) We ordered milk shooters and cookies for a late night snack, but they put the shooters next to the coffee table, which was nowhere near the cookies. Nobody used them, but they did give us a refund for this mix-up. (3) We had asked for pizzas to be brought out for a late night snack, and they brought out some types we didn't order. I believe we got a refund for this too. (4) There was some confusion I guess with where they were directing people since there was a smaller wedding going on in another area of the club. Other than those few things though, they were really easy to work with and were ok at responding to our phone calls during the planning process.
Photographer: Parisi Photography (Twin Lakes, WI) - A+
Cate and Nick are just a really fun pair of photographers to work with. They are not too "artsy" and give you some great, classic shots that will stand the test of time. They were so much fun to work with, and really helped make our day enjoyable. They even helped me deal with my MIL's certain photography demands, and really kept the focus on my H and me.
DJ: Sounds by Design (Milwaukee, WI) - A++
Ben was just awesome. He played music that kept the dance floor packed all night. He had no problems coming up to me and asking how things were going and if the song selection was ok, etc. When I told him that I wanted to keep things more current or had certain requests, he accomodated them right away. We wanted to keep the party going all night!! My H and I went to Indiana and we wanted to do an alumni picture...he even found our fight song to play for us during the picture quickly!
Florist: Frontier Flowers of Fontanta (Fontana, WI) - B-
I really really wanted to give her an A+++. However, this was probably the only thing that my mom and I had to stress about on the actual day of our wedding and so I cannot ignore it. First of all, the flowers were beyond beautiful. If it were based on how happy I was with the flowers alone, it would be an A+++. And Renee was awesome leading up to the wedding. She did a mock-up for us, responded to our changes...she was great. Unfortunately, there were some service difficulties on the day of that stressed us out. She dropped the flowers off at the church without staying to make sure everyone knew what went to who (you'd think it would be easy to tell but a bunch of boutonnieres and MOB/G and GMOB/G can all look pretty confusing when there are only small differences between all of them). We couldn't even find the bridesmaids bouquets until the prelude had started for the ceremony!! It was just incredibly stressful. We had also paid for the church arrangements to be moved to the reception...my parents ended up having to do it themselves. My parents showed up to the reception location and at 20 minutes until the cocktail hour, the cocktail area centerpieces were still being worked on and the ballroom was still being worked on. My mom had to actually direct people to start setting things up. I know she was offering some sort of refund to my parents, but I was pretty disappointed with this news. The only thing that I directly noticed was the missing flowers, but when you're about to walk down the aisle...that's pretty stressful!!
Wedding Dress: Bella Bianca Bridal (Oakbrook, IL) - A++
I love this bridal salon. All the girls are wonderful there and they always made me feel special and beautiful while picking out my dress and during my fittings. Their alterations person, Brenda, is amazing. I just couldn't have been happier with my experience here.
Bridesmaids Dresses: David's Bridal - B-
I mean the dresses turned out fine, but you definitely lack the 1 on 1 attention here during the try-on phase. The also only called like one of my girls when all the dresses were in. It was kind of confusing.
Tuxes: Men's Wearhouse - B+
They were just ok. I'm glad I didn't listen to the guy who said that since I was wearing an "ivory" dress, my H had to wear their version of an "ivory" shirt, which is basically yellow. Trust yourself on how white your dress is because our pictures looked amazing and my dress did not look "dirty" like the guy said. They did do a good job checking in with me on who was left to get fitted.
Invitations: Noteworthy Notes (Chicago, IL) - A+
Kristen was our designer and she was so helpful. She even met with us twice because we were so picky. Finally, she custom-designed something to fit our exact specifications and we could not have been happier. They were absolutely stunning!
Limo: Churchill Limos (Milwaukee, WI) - A
We didn't get our requested driver, but our replacement was very nice. The stretch Lexus SUV we rented was clean and really cool on the inside! He was really good about staying in contact with our photographers so we could drive to different locations and get a variety of pictures. He even helped me with my dress at some of the locations so it wouldn't get too muddy (it had rained just during our ceremony), and made sure we had a great time.
Cake: Simma's Bakery (Milwaukee, WI) - A
We got the cheesecake, and it was delcious!! Everyone commented that it was so good and a unique choice for a wedding cake. It was also a beautiful cake that was exactly what we had designed. They were great to work with during the planning process too.
Make-up: Blush by Brittany (Milwaukee, WI) - A-
If it were solely based on how my make-up looked, it would be an A+. My make-up looked great and lasted all day. My mom's was a little disappointing. We tried to make a few changes so she wouldn't look so "done-up" and she didn't quite get it. But my mother still looked beautiful, I could just tell she didn't quite feel like herself.
Hair: Jasmine Salon (Lake Geneva, WI) - A
All of the girls' hair looked great, and the stylists were all very nice. I wasn't happy with my hair at my first trial so my stylist was so nice about having me come back and do a second one (which I loved). They let us set up breakfast and mimosas in the back, and really started off the wedding day nicely.
Photobooth: Picture This! Photobooths (Milwaukee, WI) - A+
The photobooth was a lot of fun! People had a great time with all of the props and then decorating their own page for the guestbook we got. I was surprised by all of the supplies they brought for our guests to decorate their own page...tons of stickers, papers, scissors...everything. It was quite the display!! It was one of our favorite things to look at the next day. They even put the whole book together for us. It was perfect.