Hi All – I don’t post on here very often, but I believe I got most of my vendors from other Knotties’ recommendations. I was planning my wedding from Atlanta so I had to put a lot of trust in them. My DH and I got married on September 5th in Annapolis. I can’t say I’m disappointed with any of them – sorry if my vendors seems too good to be true…but they were! If you have any questions, email me at: Lesley.carter@gmail.com. Good Luck and Happy Knotting! Also, I used vendors from DC, Baltimore and Annapolis so I’m going to post on all 3 boards. USNA Chapel Claire, Chaplain Callaham and the rest of the group at the USNA Chapel were so great to work with and were always available for every question (and there were a lot of them!). I highly recommend (if you qualify – sorry, not many do) choosing the Chapel for your wedding ceremony. Grade: A+ Navy – Marine Corps Memorial Stadium – Martin/Bo Brooks Catering Navy – Marine Corps Memorial Stadiums is available for anyone’s use (not just military). It is a first class facility and Cheryl is the perfect Event Manager. Cheryl and her staff were so great to work with. They took care of everything and we didn’t have to worry about anything. I also recommend renting the Flag Bridge for Cocktail Hour – Our guests are still raving about it. The food is outstanding – my dad is still talking about the appetizers and my DH LOVED the crabcake – and he is a Maryland Crabcake Snob. Grade: A+ Entertain Me Event Planning – Heidi Kern Heidi and her team were absolutely awesome. They were there the whole day helping set up the reception with all my “details”, helping at the ceremony – filling me in on what was going on, and directing the reception so we (me, my DH, or my parents) didn’t have to worry about a thing and could have a great time. Heidi even hung out with the late night crew as we were waiting for the bus to come back and take us downtown. I can’t recommend her enough. Grade: A+ Mindy Whalen Mindy was absolutely fabulous – so nice and talented. She did my hair and my 5 bridesmaids and made us all look perfect for our different looks instead of doing the same hairstyle on everyone – which I’ve seen before at other weddings. I would highly recommend Mindy. Grade: A+ Megan Rackers – Baltimore Bridal Hair and Makeup Megan was awesome! I can’t tell you how nice and luxurious it is to have hair and makeup experts come to you on you wedding day and Megan did such a great job. Again, she did such a great job making everyone look beautiful (I mean…more beautiful than they already are). Megan also was able to squeeze in my mom and my DH’s mom at the end when they decided last minute to get their makeup done. I highly recommend Megan! Grade: A+ Rob Holley/Melissa Arroyo Rob and Melissa were great. Photography was my biggest splurge and I wanted some beautiful shots. Rob did a great job and I had my photos back within a week. Amazing. Melissa (or Missy) was his second shooter and was with the boys while getting ready and did the Groomsman shots. They raved about her and she was great. I highly recommend Rob and/or Missy for your wedding. Grade: A Mike Sidrak – Gifted Video Mike at Gifted Video was such a pleasure to work with. He has to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We went back and forth about hiring a videographer due to the added expense, but after dealing with several vendors in the DC/Annapolis/Baltimore area, we found Mike who was so great to work with and had great rates. We haven’t seen the final version yet, but I can’t wait. Our reception was so much fun that I’m so glad we got it on film. Pre-Final Product Grade: A+ (will update review once we receive the dvds). DJ Rockin’ Ron I found DJ Rockin’ Ron on the Baltimore Board. He started out a little slow (I think due to our having cocktail hour and the reception on 2 different floors), but was great the rest of the night. He handled my many requests without skipping a beat and played great music to keep everyone on the dance floor all night long. Grade: A Cache Fleur – Carolyn Bruckner I cannot say enough good things about Carolyn. She was so great. When we met with her, I explained what I was looking for and she nailed it. When the bouquets showed up at the hotel – they were exactly what I wanted! And when we got the preview of the reception room – I was blown away with the beautiful flowers. I highly Carolyn – she was great to work with and is extremely reasonable if you’re looking for beautiful flowers on a budget. Grade: A+ Historical Chocolates Barbara and her team at Historical Chocolates were great. We received many, many complements on our favors – USNA Chapel shaped chocolates. We got them in milk chocolate, white chocolate and dark chocolate. Grade: A+ Treasure Island We used Treasure Island in Downtown Annapolis for our tux rentals for the 3 groomsman not wearing uniforms. They were great from day number one. Highly recommend! Grade: A+ Federal House – Rehearsal Dinner After a LONG search for a Rehearsal Dinner venue in Annapolis (that didn’t want to charge us the same prices as a wedding reception), we settled on the Federal House (formally Griffins). We were a little worried about the food after the tasting, but everything turned out wonderful. The room is a bit small and will only hold about 55-ish people, but it works - the ambience is great and feels nice and cozy. The food and drinks were great – we had to kick out guest out of the room to the downstairs bar to start the rest of the night. Location in Downtown Annapolis is great for guests who want to enjoy nightlife in Annapolis. Grade: A+ Allison Barnhill Designs Allison was great! She designed our pocketfold wedding invitation. They turned out beautiful. I highly recommend working with her and her team. I can’t tell you how many complements I received about them. I probably could have done it myself cheaper, but the price difference would not have been worth the stress of doing it myself and my quality would not have been as great. Use Allison! Grade: A+ Towne Transport/Annapolis Bus Company Towne Transport handles many events at the Academy is a veteran in handling wedding events. Due to the USNA restrictions, we had to bus our guests to the Chapel, to the Reception and back to their hotels. Everything ran beautiful and on time. The bus driver even swung by Downtown Annapolis to drop us off so we could continue the celebration. Highly Recommend! Grade A+