Vendor Review - Appleton/Eau Claire

ottecl

We just had our wedding on 7/9/11 and I wanted to review our vendors in hopes of helping future brides.  We currently live in Eau Claire, but planned the wedding in Green Bay.

MUSIC MASTERS ENTERTAINMENT - Lars  - A+
Lars was amazing!  I can not say enough about this DJ.  He owns his own company and takes great pride in what he does.  He has an online planning tool that really helped us when picking songs.  His pricing was amazing, some of the best pricing we could find for a full day.  I don't think that there was a time when there wasn't someone on the dance floor.  We even got comments after the wedding about how great the dinner/dance music was.

HAVEN SALON - A+
Haven really went above and beyond!  Most of my bridesmaids and the two mothers got their hair done, and some of them got their make up done.  For the ones who opted to do their own Haven allowed us to use a couple of their stations with mirrors so they didn't all have to cram into the bathroom.
My hair stylist was Laura and she was amazing! 

LAMERS BUS LINES - D
Everything was fine with the limo bus we rented, but nothing amazing about the service.  We continuously asked this vendor to call my H with questions and they continuously called me.  The bus driver was REALLY cranky.  One time when letting me out of the limo to go to the ceremony he commented about what a terrible day it was going to be!

WEDDING PERFECT- F
Since we are out of town planning the wedding we thought that hiring a wedding planner was a great option.  We booked Denise from Wedding Perfect (Kaukauna) after talking on the phone a couple times.  We paid the full amount, not just the deposit.  Denise and I made plans to meet.  I scheduled everything around the date and time she picked - even traveling across the state!  Well she never showed up.  After I called her and left a voicemail asking where she was and if she was coming I got a phone call back with her yelling at me about how busy she was.  She had chosen to meet on Saturday.  Apparently, she already had a wedding booked that day.  She was not shy about telling me that this was not my day and she had an actually bride to meet with that day!  She was terrible.  Then to top it all off, we never heard an appology from her and had to beg and wait weeks and weeks to get HALF of the money we paid her back.

THE MARQ - B
Our original venue (Rivierview Country Club) closed shortly before our wedding so we went in search of a new venue that would hold all our guests on the date that we had already set.  The Marq was able to accomidate us, but being on the other side of the state, we booked the venue without ever seeing it.  Don't get me wrong we did see photos online!
Originally, at the Marq we were working with Alison (one of their wedding coordinators) and she was rude and disrespectful.  She actually double booked the one meeting we had with her and continupously left the room to checking in with the other bride and groom. 
After dealing with Alison we asked to switch to a different coordinator and were given Jennifer.  Jennifer was AMAZING.  I must have called this poor girl a couple dozen times and she was always incredibly nice and helpful.  I felt like she actually took a care into what we wanted for our wedding. 
The Marq allowed us to drop off decorating supplies and chair covers the day before, which was amazing.  Definitely a great place to book for your wedding!

BAY BEACH - A+
We had our ceremony at Bay Beach.  We rented a pavilion ($100) and had it for the whole day.  With rides being about 50 cents per person we were able to provide tickets to our guests, which they really enjoyed and used.  We got some great pictures on the rides!

CINDY SHAW - A++++
Cindy Shaw is the woman that took over the wedding planning when she heard about what Wedding Perfect did to us.  Cindy was amazing!  I felt so comfortable knowing that Cindy was exicuting my wedding plans.  I really can't say enough about Cindy.  She went above and beyond!

FOREVER PHOTOGRAPHY - B
Kathy from Forever Photography (Eau Claire) photographed our wedding.  She was really professional thorughout the whole process.  Unfortunately, her husband/assistant decided to round up some of our guests to go next door and get some shots (we didn't allow shots at our wedding) which my dad had to take care of.
We are just getting some photos back now and they are nothing short of amazing.  I can't wait to see the rest of them!

BRIDAL EVENT - D
I got my first dress here.  Unfortunately, I was not planning on wearing the dress after I bought it.  The service is terrible.  There weren't many friendly people there and many times you get ingored and not helped for a really long time.  I thought that they were really pushy when I was first trying on gowns.
When I went to pick up the dress (in plans of reselling it) there were pulls in the embroidery that I wanted fixed.  When I asked them to fix the pulls they just cut off all the threads, making the dress unravel even more.

BRIDAL ELEGANCE - B
I got my dress and all my bridesmaids dresses here.  I thought the service was good, but my bridesmaids all said they got really crappy service and that the sales people were actually snotty to them.
The alterations were done by Nancy and it was amazing!  The dress fit perfectly! I even had custom work done to lower the back!  It was gorgeous!

KATEE KAKES - A
Katee was great.  She made about 300 cupcakes for our wedding in different flavors.  I saw multiple guests get seconds and thirds and even take some home.

VALLEY POPCORN -A+
We had a popcorn bar at the wedding and it was a huge hit!  No one had seen it before and everyone loved it!  Carol at Valley Popcorn was amazing!  One of my favorite parts of the wedding!