Venue:
The Sheraton Hotel and Marina (Catalina Room)--our venue was AMAZING!
We got married in the garden terrace next to the marina and it was absolutely perfect. The planes at the nearby airport (which almost steered me away from the venue) didn't cause any disruption during our 30 minute ceremony. The site is so beautiful that we used minimum flowers, too. The reception venue was great as well. We held cocktail hour on the outdoor terrace attached to the ballroom. The staff was so accomodating there as well. Stephanie Ridgeway, the catering director, was so helpful. She not only helped us with the food, but also acted like a wedding coordinator, setting things up the day of, directing vendors on where to be and when, and giving us advice on choosing vendors (that weren't necessarily on their preferred vendors list). I was also given a day of coordinator that helped with anything from getting H and I drinks and appetizers, to pinning up my dress when the bustle broke. I especially liked it because we could go until midnight (with the option of extending the hours if we wanted to the day of) and it was indoor/outdoor since the doors to the terrace stayed open all night. All amplified music has to end at 10pm due to San Diego county laws, but I felt that I got the best of both worlds (going later and having outdoor space) with this venue.
DJ:
Ericson Adriano (Mr. A's Mobile Music)
Mr. A is quite possibly the best wedding DJ ever. He was recommended to us by Stephanie at the Sheraton. DJing is not his primary job, and he only does about one wedding per month. With that said, he devotes all of his time and energy to that one wedding making it PERFECT. He came up with all of our entrance, bouquet toss, garter toss, and cake cutting song mixes. It was great because he doesn't like to use what's overdone with wedding music and is incredibly creative and fun. He likes to meet several times with his clients and go through the wedding songs start to finish. We were worried about having a Sunday wedding, thinking that guests might leave early, but he kept the party going strong until the end of our venue time! He doesn't have a website (mostly to keep his business costs down) and he is sometimes a bit slow to respond via email (less so than via phone), but he never disappointed us. His prices were also very reasonable. I would highly recommend him!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-as-mobile-music-san-diegoFlowers:
Tessilk FlowersWhen we first met with Tess, we were overwhelmed and impressed at how much she got our vision. We were highly UNDERwhelmed with the rest of her staff. Being from out of town, we had limited visits over to San Diego before the wedding. We were told that we would see a mockup of our centerpieces, bouquets and boutineres a month before the wedding. When we got there, Tess had been out of the country, so we met with her assistant. The centerpiece was nothing like we had discussed with Tess, and there were no mockups of the bouquets and bouts. She told us to come back before we left town 2 days later to see those since they had to order the flowers. When we came back, we saw a bouquet that had about 4 flowers and not the correct flowers. We asked Tess if we could meet again a couple weeks later when she got back and she agreed. The mockups the second time around were great and we were felt more relaxed about the wedding flowers. Come wedding day, her assistants set up half of the centerpieces that we brought ourselves, but never returned our bin that we had brought them in. The centerpieces didn't have the same flowers that we discussed (though they were beautiful, some of the flowers weren't the right colors), we couldn't find the flower girl basket until about 30 seconds before the flower girl walked down the aisle, the ribbons on the mothers corsages and flower girl basket were incorrect, and the bouts had baby's breath, which I specified I wanted none of anywhere. I was not impressed at all, and would definitely NOT recommend Tessilk to anybody.
Officiant:
Reverend Don ToshachDon was amazing to work with. We were able to meet with him once and go over what we wanted in a ceremony. He sent us both questionnaires to fill out to personalize our ceremony for us. He sent us several drafts before the wedding day to make sure it was what we wanted. We had almost every guest at our wedding come up to us to compliment us on what an original, great and "real" ceremony it was. It was everything I hoped it would be, and he was so helpful with everything. He was also extremely reasonably priced, and even discounted his pricing since he was only able to come to our rehearsal for about 30 minutes (which ended up being more than enough time). I would highly recommend Rev. Don!
http://tieastrongknot.com/Ceremony Music:
Caribe Steel Drum BandAngie was such a pleasure to work with. Since we wanted a laid back, beachy outdoor feel without the beach, we really wanted steel drums. I never met Angie before the wedding, but we talked on te phone and emailed back and forth. She recommended a few songs for the ceremony that I didn't know what to have played, and she played them beautifully. We got so many compliments on the originality of having the steel drums, as well as how well she played. She lives in Long Beach, but didn't charge extra to travel down to San Diego. I would definitely recommend!
http://caribesteelband.com/Bakery:
Flour PowerThe Sheraton included the cake, but had 3 bakeries to decide between. We chose this one because their cakes sounded so delicious! We went for cake tasting, and that only confirmed what we suspected. We had a 3-tiered cake. Our bottom layer was strawberry parfait, the middle layer was pudding chiffon, and the top layer was chocolate fudge. The cake was so moist and delicious and tasted like a dessert that people would actually WANT to eat. We brought in a picture of what we liked, and they recreated it with subtle changes, making it special to us.
http://flourpower.com/Photographers:
AndrewJade PhotographyAndrew and Emily live in Phoenix, but they travel all over the United States for wedding photography. We adored them. They are such a personable couple and are so easy to act natural around. We got our pictures back within a week and a half of our wedding and they are absolutely stunning. I cannot say enough good things about this company, and would highly highly recommend them. They are also reasonably priced and their travel fee is not much (especially since Andrew is from San Diego, knows the area, and has friends to stay with when they travel there, thus keeping the costs down). They also have pictures of our wedding up on their blog if you want to see any of the details listed in the above vendors!
http://andrewjadephoto.com/Hair and Makeup:
Theresa AmundsenI found Theresa through The Knot vendors. She was great to work with. We had a slight misunderstanding in the beginning when I filled out the paperwork and wrote how many bridesmaids I had (when I should've written how many people wanted their hair and makeup actually done). She typically doesn't travel to the venue for bride-only services unless its closer to the wedding date, but she did for my wedding which was lucky for me. My hair didn't stay when she did the trial, so she did it differently on wedding day. The curls still didn't last very long, but it's probably because my hair doesn't hold a curl in any amount of humidity. The makeup was BEAUTIFUL and looked so natural. I had the foundation airbrushed. It looked like me, but a little amped up, which is exactly how I wanted it to look.
http://theresaamundsen.com/If you have any questions about the vendors, feel free to email me at
allyg303@cox.net!