So, I will preface this by saying I gave everyone pretty much an A+ and I apologize for that, but everyone far exceeded my expectations (which were high to begin with) and we had nothing go wrong. It was the perfect day and everything was just so wonderful. I really am in awe at how great everything turned out and how much fun everyone had. I really believe that in my case and based on what I wanted from my vendors, they truly deserve these high scores.
Venue (Ceremony): All Saints’ Episcopal Church - A
This is the church where my husband was baptized and confirmed and had gone to his whole life so there was no other place we could imagine having the ceremony. It is a beautiful church, but you cannot take any photography during the ceremony and they are pretty strict about everything, which I know is true of a lot of churches and the church coordinator is not the friendliest person, but we knew all these things going into it. Reverend Mike is amazing. We loved doing our counseling with him and he did a wonderful ceremony and allowed our family friend who is also a Pastor to do a big part of the ceremony, which meant a lot to us.
Venue (Reception): Mexican American Cultural Center
I loved our venue so much. It was just our style. Unfortunately, we had the very last wedding there as it is no longer available for private events like weddings, which is too bad because it was very affordable and is just a very cool space if you don’t want the traditional wedding venue.
Day of Coordinator: Becky Sosa with Stress Free Events – A+
Becky was awesome. The place looked better than I could have ever imagined. Now, I know there have been some worries from other brides on delays in responses to emails, I only emailed her a few times with questions and got the answers I needed and found her easier to meet with and ask questions in person, so she worked really well for me. If you want someone that is more of a planner, then she might not be the best person, though, I only hired her for day of, so not sure how she is when she’s actually doing all the planning.
When it came to how she set everything up, kept the reception moving, checked on us throughout the night and making sure our vendors had what they needed and were where they needed, I was just so, so impressed. The space is large and there were a ton of moving parts and it was just perfect. We also rented uplights from Rock n Roll rentals for $100 and Becky and her staff set them up for us and it looks amazing! I had sent her a list of how I wanted everything (I had a very specific way I wanted everything that I had done set up) and she really took my vision and made it come to life. I also ended up having a ton of extra vases and flowers and she found other places to put them that made the space even better. I was so, so impressed. Her staff was amazing as well. Plus, they cleaned and put everything away perfectly.
Obviously I'm in this photo, but just a shot of how great it came together:
Caterer: Exquisite Cuisine – A+
The food was absolutely divine and the service impeccable. Liz is amazing. We had passed appetizers during cocktail hour and four stations and got so many compliments on the food. They put together a plate for my husband and I to eat in a back room and checked on us several times to make sure we were OK. The staff working with Liz were so amazing. My guests kept coming up to me to say how wonderful they were and how delicious the food was. He prices are amazing too. I cannot believe how much food we got.
A plate of the appetizers:
Bar: Wildwood Catering – A+
Josh is awesome. We were planning on just using them for bartenders and a bar package (mixers, ice, cups, limes, lemons, napkins), but when we met with him and got his prices on beer, wine and vodka, we decided to use him for everything. The bartenders he sent were great, the guests loved them and they had great service. We ran out of red wine at the beginning of dinner (oops!) and they sent the wedding coordinator to find us and see if they could open another case, which we did. It was really nice to have the extra cases there just in case we needed more. He’ll also buy back any liquor that you don’t use, which is awesome.
Rehearsal Lunch: Maudie’s Too – A+
This is one of our favorite places to eat and they did a wonderful job for the rehearsal. We had the heated patio to ourselves and a buffet and it was fun and casual, just what we wanted.
DJ: Byrne Rock - A+
We loved Byrne. He is totally chill and really fun. I had given him a long list of music to play to give him an idea of the genre we wanted and he kept the dance floor moving all night and took requests too. We had a BLAST.
Flowers (Bouquets): Rebekah Fountain with the Glass Fountain - A+
Our bouquets and one wrist corsage were absolutely gorgeous. The flowers were fresh and smelled divine. She did a great job staying in my budget and giving me suggestions on stuff (I wanted peonies, she suggested garden roses because they were cheaper and they were perfect). We had all hydrangea bouquets for the bridesmaids and they are amazingly STILL in perfect shape today (almost a week after). Rebekah also brought extra flowers with her leftover from the bouquets in case we wanted to use them for the reception and she helped me pin my grandfather’s rosary onto mine. I had also asked her about altar flowers and when she found out the church’s normal florist did them for half her cost, told me to go with them instead of her, which I really appreciated. She was really great.
You can see my bouquet in the blue vase and two of the bridesmaid bouquets in the vase on the right here:
Flowers (Centerpieces): Central Market – A+
I made all of our centerpieces and got the flowers from Central Market Westgate. They were great. I was able to go in on Wednesday right after flowers were delivered, pick out my flowers, they put them in buckets and put them in the freezer and I went back Friday morning to pick them up. On Friday, I was able to add more and replace any if they weren’t still fresh. It worked out perfectly. They also let me take them home in the buckets and told me I could return the buckets whenever. It was super helpful!
Transportation: Austin Black Car Service – A+
I wish I could remember our driver’s name because he was great. He called the day of to confirm everything. He also gave his number to one of our out of town guests that was following us to the ceremony in case they got lost. And also told us not to worry if we were a little over our time. We got an SUV limo and it was the perfect size and very nice on the inside.
Photographer: Chelsey Schrader Photography – A+ for engagement photos, haven’t received wedding photos yet
Can’t really grade because I don’t have photos back yet, but our engagement photos that she did were stunning and I can only imagine the wedding photos will be the same. She is wonderful to work with and so sweet as well.
Makeup: Maggie Bosworth with Maris Malone Calderon- A+
Maris was a little out of my price range, so I went with Maggie and am SO glad I did. She did all my bridesmaids make-up and my mom and we looked stunning. It stayed on all night. I was already impressed after my trial, but even more so after seeing my friend’s photos of how beautiful the make-up looks. Maggie is also so fun to talk to when you’re getting your make-up done. She’s just wonderful.
This is a really silly photo my flower girl took of me, but it's a good shot to show you what the make-up looked like. Individual false lashes and airbrush were included for everyone:
Groom’s Cake: Holy Cacao - A+
Our friend did our wedding cake, but my groom really wanted a UT cake for his groom’s cake. Liz at Exquisite Cuisine recommended Holy Cacao. It was AWESOME. They had someone create the longhorn out of foam, covered it in burnt orange fondant and placed burnt orange cake balls on it. It was a huge hit. We’re also not huge sweets fans so we asked if they could come up with just a plan vanilla type flavor…they ended up making it with yellow pound cake and it was delicious. I was a little worried at first because we didn’t actually do a contract even though we'd met in person and emailed all the details, but Ellen and the baker called me the week of to confirm everything and it was perfect.
Dresses: JCrew – A+
Both my dress and my bridesmaid dresses came from JCrew and they were beautiful. You can actually go into the JCrew store at Barton Springs and try on a ton of different bridesmaid dresses, which we did. The wedding coordinator there will also order wedding gowns for you to try on. We were going to do this, but the dress I wanted was back ordered so I went ahead and just went for it, and it was perfect. We also ordered our dresses during one of the 20% off sales, which gave us a great discount. Lastly, my mom brought the bridesmaid dresses, plus the flower girl dress in from Nordstrom, to JCrew the week of the wedding and they steamed all of them for us (my mom was planning on taking the flower girl dress to Nordstrom, but JCrew said they would just do it). They were great.
Alterations: Alexia Gavela- A+
They were awesome and so, so sweet. Highly recommend them. The work was amazing and extremely affordable
Printing: Quik Print – A+
They did our invitations and maps at the South Lamar location (which is now closed) and our menus, programs, photo sharing cards, escort cards and bar menus. I was panicking a bit because I didn’t have our escort cards ready until Friday, but Leah was awesome. She told me that they would have everything done when I needed it and they did. It was super affordable, especially since they provided the paper and cut everything. I was so happy with them and their great service.
Menu printed by Quik Print:
Hotel Block: Radisson Downtown – A+
They were great. The rates we got for our guests were awesome. We didn’t need to guarantee a certain number of rooms. They also upgraded us to a suite and we didn’t have to pay for parking our car there.
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So those are all the great Austin vendors I used. I also used several vendors on etsy for graphic design, my veil, my wedding belt and the sugar flowers for my cake so if you are looking for anything like that, let me know. We DIY’d a lot so there’s some other places we used for tablecloths, plates, flatware, etc. as well if you need recs. Thanks so much to this board for all your great reviews and suggestions!