VENDOR REVIEWS We got married on July 18th and the day went absolutely perfect. Below are my vendor reviews, let me know if you have any questions or want contact information for any of the vendors. Invitations, Programs and Stationary - Nicole at Cornhusker Beverage and Bridal. Nicole was a joy to work with. She is very creative, and custom designed pieces for us that were better than anything I could find in a book. I highly recommend her. Dress – Suburban Bridal. I found the staff here to be friendly for the most part. I was a little nervous to order my dress through them since I had read some negative things about them on the boards. They do have a great dress selection there though. Just be prepared that they may try to get you to order a dress by telling you they are submitting an order the next day, and you will get a discount if you order before then. They told me that, but the next time I came back they still hadn’t placed an order. They also would not allow me to take pictures of the dress I was considering, and they wouldn’t tell me who the designer was because they said it was “special for their store.” I did end up ordering my Pronovias dress there (which they told me it was after I purchased it), and it came in in about 5 months (they told me to expect 6-9 months). I also got my veil through them. Bridesmaid Dresses – Ann Taylor. I found the short, espresso brown dresses on the Ann Taylor website on clearance- they were about $40 each, marked down from $198. It was a great deal! I think the dresses go on clearance towards the end of each dress season. I bought the dresses online at the end of last September. The only negative thing was that the dresses could not be returned since they were on clearance. We just ordered a size bigger if we weren’t sure, and then the girls had them tailored. The girls all loved the dresses and several said they will wear the dresses again. I also got the girls metallic jewelry from The Limited and shoes from DSW to complete their look. Tuxes – Randalls Tip Top Tux at Westroads. They were great to work with. Everything came in the way we ordered it, everyone’s tuxes fit, and no one was missing anything. The tuxes were even ready to be picked up at the store a few days early. Rehearsal Dinner – Sullivan’s Steakhouse. Our dinner was in the wine cellar in the basement. It was perfect! They had round tables set up for about 65 people. When we took the escalators down to the wine cellar, they had waitresses standing all around ready to hand you a glass of wine. The service was fantastic the whole evening. We worked with Scarlet there to get everything ready. She was great about answering questions. Church – St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church. We did our marriage preparation with Fr. Mike Swanton there. He is really entertaining and made the whole process really easy. We received a lot of compliments on what a great job he did making the ceremony fun for everyone, and how great his homily was. St. Wenc has plenty of room in the basement to get ready in. The only negative thing was that there is no “wedding coordinator” there to work with- you basically just arrange everything with the priest. Hair – Creative Hair Design. Stacy did my hair and Renee did my makeup. I LOVED my hair and got so many compliments on it. Stacy teaches updo classes and she really knows what she is doing. I would highly recommend her to anyone. My 5 bridesmaids and my mom also all had their hair and makeup done. Everyone was thrilled with the way their hair and makeup turned out, except for one bridesmaid who changed her hair a tiny bit after we left. CHD had a special deal where if you have 6 people get their hair and makeup done, then the bride’s is free. They also had a champagne breakfast for us and gift bags for everyone. We were out of the salon in an hour and a half. Photography- Paula Moser Photography. Paula did our engagement shoot, our photo guestbook, and our Save the Dates. I was impressed with everything she did for us. I can’t wait to see the pictures from the wedding because I know she did an amazing job. She is super easy to work with, makes you feel very comfortable with her, has creative picture ideas, and really makes sure you are getting what you want. Her prices are very reasonable as well and she’s very easy to get a hold of. She was one of my favorite vendors. Reception – Holland Performing Arts Center. We loved having our reception at the Holland! It is modern and fun. We had our cocktail hour out in the 2nd floor lobby area. Then our guests moved into the recital hall on the 2nd floor for dinner. We got to use the big glass staircase for family pictures, and also got some shots in the auditorium on the stage. Our guests were really impressed with this venue. (We had 310 people- that’s about the max that fit in the recital hall for dinner). Georgia is the event coordinator there and she did a superb job. She took care of every little thing that day; I wasn’t worried about a thing with her running the show. Catering – Guckenheimer. They are the Holland’s catering company, so there wasn’t a choice here. But the appetizers and dinner was great. We bought our own wine from Cornhusker Beverage and had Guckenheimer serve that though. Flowers – Frank Piccolo at Mulhalls. I loved Frank’s work- just like everybody else on the boards! I went to 3 florists and Frank had the best prices, and he was the most creative. I was very happy with the finished products. The bouquets and centerpieces were particularly great. Cake – Ed LeFebvre at Cupcake Island. Yum! We just had regular vanilla cake with buttercream frosting, but it was so good! I took Ed a picture of a cake that I liked and he recreated it perfectly. Ed also made a Husker “N” out of rice krispies for the groom’s cake (because he doesn’t like cake) and he did some chocolate covered strawberries. It was all delicious! He also made an anniversary cake for us and delivered it with the rest of the goodies. Music – The Confidentials. They made the reception! I was a little nervous about them going into the event because they are pretty laid back and I wanted to know everything would go perfectly. Things went very smoothly. We had Stan come earlier in the night to act as our emcee, and the entire band started at 8. They played great songs that everyone danced to. They took a few short breaks, but we had given them songs on an ipod to use during that time. They brought so much energy to the night! Jewelry – Borsheims. We got our rings and my wedding day jewelry at Borsheims. They polished my engagement ring and got it back to it original color (it’s white gold) for me the week of our wedding- for free. Favors – My dad. He is quite the baker and made 650 cookies for favors. He has these M&M pudding jell-o cookies that are to die for We got plastic bags from Michaels, put the cookies in, and then attached the recipe and a little note about my dad’s “famous cookies” in our family. It went over great- and hardly anyone left them behind. Alterations – I used the seamstress at Suburban Bridal. I was happy with her work, although I think I could have had it done cheaper elsewhere. The bridesmaids all went to Tina in Countryside Village. Also a bit pricey, but she does good work. Linens – AAA Rents. I went to AAA after being less than impressed with the service at United Rentals. I worked with Ann Pitscha at AAA and she was a big help. They did not have some varieties of the table linens in large enough quantities for me (about 32 tables), but the linen I wanted most they did have, so it worked out perfectly. The drop off/pick up at the Holland went exactly as planned. Videographer - Occasions by Shari. Shari’s prices are great. She did our slideshow video that we showed at the rehearsal dinner and it was just what we wanted. She also did our videography. I think the video will turn out fabulous. She was a bit more “vocal” than our photographer was- telling us what to do, and arranging some posed shots. I think I will be glad she did that when I see the finished product though. Bridal luncheon - Ryan’s Bistro. Yum! I had never been here before- it is off 176th and Center. They have great salads, sandwiches, and wraps. They even made all 12 of us free bananas foster for dessert. So good! Manicures/Pedicures - UA Nails at Westroads. They did a great job- but they were pretty slow. I had appointments for 6 people, but they don’t really stick by the appointment time. If you go here make sure you have extra time. Cocktail hour musicians – Melody Malec and Leslie Hill. They played the harp and flute together during our cocktail hour, and also during dinner. Two thumbs up. Ceremony musicians – Rick Jacobi and Rob Chesire. Both were fabulous. Rick is an organist at our church and does weddings all the time, so he is familiar with Catholic weddings and offered lots of ideas for music. Rob was our soloist. He was fabulous. He sang The Prayer- my favorite. Calligrapher – Denise Mack did the calligraphy on our invitations. I think they were about $.75 each. Transportation – VIP Limo. We had the limobus for 2 hours with all of our wedding party and significant others (about 30 people). The bus is great- it has TVs, lights, champagne, a pole, the works! And the AC was really nice! The bus is outrageously expensive though- but it was worth it to us. AV Rentals – Modern Sound did the equipment (projector, speakers, screen) for our slideshow that we did at our rehearsal dinner. Everything went great with them. Lodging: Hilton Garden Inn Downtown/Old Market. We worked with Linda there. The rate was $109 per night. We liked the location of this hotel because it was only one block from our reception site. The rooms were great there, and the staff gave out our gift bags to the guests as they checked in. We also had a brunch on the 2nd floor of the hotel in the conference room on Sunday morning. The food and service were great! A few other little things: Hairpiece: I got more compliments on this little hairpiece than I would have ever imagined. People in the church said they could see it sparkling from up on the altar. It’s actually a brooch that I cut the back off of and glued a clip onto:
http://beautiful-bridal.com/main/crystalbrooch.html Koozies:
http://www.kustomkoozies.com/ Garters: I ordered the Husker garters, so cute:
http://www.gartersbykristi.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65_74_430&products_id=1454 Honeymoon: Westin Villas in Maui, Hawaii on Ka’anapali beach. FABULOUS! Loved Maui, and the hotel was amazing. *Also: Outdoor photo locations (because I asked people for help with this) – Regency Lake, Happy Hollow Country Club and Gene Leahy Mall (at sunset). We’ll see how they turn out, but I they worked out perfectly.