North Carolina-Outer Banks

Vendor Reviews

Hi brides to be, wanted to give you guys some vendor reviews from our wedding April 21.  
Ceremony: We had our ceremony out back of The First Colony Inn.  It was beautiful and did not need much in the means of flowers and decorations. We were lucky that it did not rain. Our backup plan if it did rain was to have it at our reception site.

Reception: Jennette's Pier. It was perfect. I can not think of a better setting for our wedding. We had about 130 guests, we invited about 150 and there was plenty of space. We had a relatively large dance floor and two bars set up. One inside and the other outside on the back deck. 

Food: Kelly's Restaraunt.  It was by far awesome.  Everyone at the wedding raved about how good the food was and it was great to work with them. Mary Ann was great to work with.  They seemed to be one of the only places on the OBX that did not nickle and dime us when it came to catering. She gave us a estimate and that included everything from set up, to break down to the taxes and tips and everything which was nice.  

Cake: When we looked for cakes, the place was called Arglyes. (we were engaged for 23 months) IT is now I think Icing on the Cake. It was delish, another thing that our guest raved about.  I was not wanting to spend a lot of money on a cake, so we told her that we needed a cake for about 90, and we STILL had left over cake.  Would get a cake from her again. 

Photographer: Matt Lusk photograpy. I can not be happier with him and his work. Our pictures turned out AMAZING!!!  He also did our engagement pictures as well.  Great to work with, was on time, and from what I asked from our friends and family, he and his wife seemed to "stay out of the way" and got the pictures without taking the focus off of the ceremony/reception.  Here is the link to his blog and some of the pictures are on that. 

Flowers: we used Harris Teeter at the 91/2 or 10 mp. His name was John and he was great. Again, bc Jenette's Pier is so pretty, we didnt use a lot of flowers. He did a great job and the flowers were exactly what I wanted. 

Wedding Coordinator: I ended up winning half off a wedding package at the Bridal Expo and it was one of the best things that had happened to us. We used Brenda Zigler of To Have and To Hold and she rocked.  She totally had it together the day before during the rehersal dinner and the day of.  She was great at getting everything together and made sure that no one called me the day of the ceremony, that if there was any problems they called her.  She was great! Highly recommend her.

We did all the decorations ourselves. Since we had almost two full years to plan, we had time to accumulate things.  
Hope this helps. Sorry its so long. Happy planning to you all!!!
Mrs. Lauren Barry

Re: Vendor Reviews

  • ftdr2bftdr2b member
    First Comment
    Forgot a few:
    Ocean Atlantic Rentals: awesome. would use them again

    Rehersal dinner: Pamlico Jacks. So good. We used their downstairs dining area due to some of the older guests.  We had a piano man come in a play after dinner. The food was great and the view with the sunset over the sound was fantastic.

    Oasis hotel: My husband and I stayed there the night of our wedding. Super Fancy!

    *We had our guest say in the Surfside Inn and Comfort Inn South. I would not recommend the Comfort Inn South.  A lot of our guests had a horrible time trying to book a room and they would not let any of our guests check in early. The one plus to the hotel is that is is super close to the pier.  Surfside Inn was a much better hotel for people as far as customer service goes.
    Mrs. Lauren Barry
  • ftdr2bftdr2b member
    First Comment
    sorry one more

    Hair and make up: hairoics. FANTASTIC! The girls were awesome. They had me and my four bridesmaids done in about two hours.  The let us bring in snacks and champagne. Would recommend them not only for that reason but my mom has been going to them for years and they seem to be one of the few places on the outer banks that doesnt go out of business. 
    Mrs. Lauren Barry
  • Thanks for posting this, its very helpful! Im having my reception on the deck at Pamlico Jack's in August. He said he's going to have the Greg Shelton Band play that night. Do you think that would be a good venue for a reception party of 20? He also said he was going to section off part of hte deck for us, but I couldn't find any pictures of the deck. Do you think there will be enough room for dancing? 
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • edited May 2012
    Where you had your hair and makeup done-- where is that located?

    Gorgeous pictures, by the way. You looked beautiful. What were the fish in the one picture?
  • Lauren,

    We are also using Matt but we have not met him yet.  Its very funny that you posted this because I saw your pictures and fell in love with Matt's style.  I feel like I know you, as many times as I looked at your pictures.  They turned out just beautifully!!  Thanks for posting the information.  It is so useful to hear from brides that have already used vendors.
  • Matt Lusk ROCKS!  Can't wait to have him and wifey photograph our wedding and TTD session in 3 1/2 months!
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • Thanks for the post!  I'm getting married and having the reception at Jennette's Pier and was planning on having my guests stay at Comfort Inn South since it's so close.  I've been having trouble getting a manager on the phone (since I was told I need a manager to block rooms for me).  Now I'll give Surfside Inn a call.
  • I'm also a Jennette's bride (Sept 2013). I'm so excited, it's BEAUTIFUL! How did you play up the tall ceilings? I'd love to see some pictures. Any advice on things I should look out for? I also heard awful things about Comfort Inn. We are actually trying to rent one of the beach houses right next the comfort inn but have to wait until this september to confirm that...so annoying!

    Congrats!!!! :)
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