So the wedding and honeymoon are over
Now it's time to give you guys my reviews!
Maya Palace - I bought my Maggie Sottero dress here and worked with a wonderful woman named Angel. she was great. Very friendly and seemed to genuinely care. Also, the ladies here do not work on commission, so there is no pressure to buy from them. My dress came in on time and was beautiful. However, I was not ecstatic about the alterations. They advised that I not start alterations until a month before the wedding. I ended up feeling very rushed and anxious on the days leading up to the wedding on account of last minute alterations. So I would say, definitely start alterations like 2 months beforehand. Also at my first appt, the alterations woman, Helen, didn't even ask me what I wanted to have done to the dress. She just assumed she knew what I wanted, told me what she was going to do, and didn't ask my opinion about anything. I felt incredibly rushed through the appt because other brides [who didn't have appointments!] were waiting for her. At the second appointment, I knew I had to be more vocal about what I wanted. So I told her exactly what I wanted done. Sometimes she made it seem like I was asking her to do too much and would sigh. My dress ended up being beautiful, but I had my final fitting the day before my wedding because it took that long to get it right... it was very nerve-wracking. However, the price was awesome. I paid $75 for a hem, a bustle, and for the hip area to be taken in by about 1.5 inches.
Feast - We catered our dinner with Feast. Our reception was at a private home in a gated community. We had given the gate code to the catering director ahead of time and had her give the servers/bartender my sister's phone number so that they could call at a specific time to say that they were in the house and getting set up. Well, guess they didn't have the gate code because they called my sister twice - while we were in the middle of our ceremony at a different location! Luckily, I didn't even hear her phone ring. The guests raved about the hors d'oeurves we had served. The bartender was excellent. The servers were friendly. However, we were told that the servers would wear all black and assumed that meant appropriate attire like a button-down shirt. Never assume. One of the servers wore a tank top to my semi-formal wedding. Not cool. Dinner was a little late on account of us... but only by about 15 minutes. However, the grilled vegetables were served ice-cold. People didn't even want to eat them. I also have a tomato intolerance, which I told the catering director in our very first meeting. Guess what was on the grilled vegatable platter? tomatoes. so I didn't even get to eat any for fear that the juices from the tomatoes had mixed with the other vegatables. We also had ordered salmon as one of our main entrees, but were never informed that it was a cold salmon. We expected hot. And of course our guests assumed that the salmon had just been mistakenly served cold like the vegatables. The chicken entree we ordered, however, was excellent. It was still warm and very tasty. I wish we would have just served chicken and saved ourselves an bunch of money. I talked to the owner of Feast about these issues after the event and he credited me for $100 for the vegatable platter and is sending us a coupon to eat at Feast for free. He was incredibly nice and helpful and definitely made me feel better about the situation. The food quality was amazing, so I guess my advice would be to make sure you get specifics about everything in writing. Don't assume anything.
Men's Warhouse - got the tuxes here. everything went great.
Dolli Photography -
http://www.hellodolli.com/home.html Haven't gotten all the pics back yet, though we did get a couple of "preview" pics. Awesome. The pics are awesome and the photographer is awesome. She was on time and made us feel very comfortable the whole time. While she is younger, in her 20's, she acted very professionally and made me feel like she has been doing this for a long time. Can't wait to see the pics!
DJ James Bell - Friendly and professional. Being a DJ is very much a side job for this guy. So his price was incredible. My husband and guests raved about him. I thought he did pretty well too especially for the price. If you want his phone number, email me at nephthys13@hotmail.com
Ambrosia - Amazing cake. We met with her twice to decide on what we wanted. Very friendly and helpful woman. The cake looked awesome and tasted amazing. It was expensive. $200 for a pretty simple three-tier cake to feed 50 people. But I would pay it again without hesitating.
Arizona Party Rentals - Awesome. We worked with Leia. She used to be a wedding planner and has tons of experience. She helped us create or reception space and gave us ideas and feedback on our ideas. Our wedding would not have been so amazing without this lady's help. We rented everything from china and glassware to tables and linens from here. On the day of the wedding, which was a Sunday, we were setting up for the reception when we realized that we had increased the size of the tables by 2 feet [at our last appt a week earlier] but had not changed the size of the linens! So we frantically called AZ party rentals, but they are closed on Sundays! We left a message and then sent people out to buy linens at a fabric store. It just so happened though that owner went into the store for something and happened to check the messages. He called us and we were able to go pick up the linens that we needed. It was amazing. Rave review for these people.
Beauty Brands Salon - Had hair and nails done here. It took nearly three hours to get mani/pedi's done which was def more time that I had scheduled for it and put me a little behind schedule the day before the wedding, but the ladies were very friendly and did a good job. My french mani started chipping the day after the wedding, but the regular polish on my toes lasted for a couple weeks. Had my hair done by Stephanie Smith. She was very nice and did a fantastic job. Prices here are also awesome.