Hi!
My new husband and I got married last month and I wanted to share some vendor reviews of people we've worked with. Overall, we had VERY good luck - our favorite vendors being our officiant, reception location and photographer. We would not recommend working with our florist, they were very stressful to deal with & dishonest.
Also, we had a VERY small wedding, so our ceremony/reception vendors may not work for all of you, but the rest of the reviews could be applicable, if you choose to consider them.
I hope this can help some of you who are getting married in the future!
Take care,
Kate
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Ceremony - The Sunken Garden at Como Conservatory (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Como was an absolutely breathtaking ceremony venue for our small wedding. I couldn’t have imagined our wedding anywhere else! The staff at Como were very helpful and responsive, and truly wanted us to have the day we imagined. The room was set up on time and to our specifications. The Sunken Garden looked amazing for our event, kudos to the botanists who work there!
Reception - WA Frost & Company (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
My new husband & I agree, WA Frost made our small (35 person) wedding reception absolutely memorable, seamless and magical. Talon, the event manager at WA Frost was INCREDIBLE! She was the vendor that I probably felt most confident in for our wedding day. She was very workable with our suggestions and open to answering probably a few too many of our questions. She was patient and helpful, and assured us that she would coordinate the setup of the room at our reception, so it would look amazing. Amazing it was! We booked Sophie's Room & the Fireside Room for our event and boy was that a good choice! The staff set up the room for us and it looked absolutely incredible! Dim lighting, candles & flowers everywhere and everything was set up to our specifications. The evening was completely seamless and almost all of our guests stayed until the room rental was over. We even had some pretty major food restrictions in our group that were handled perfectly! (we informed them in advance) I can honestly say, it was the best wedding reception we've ever been to! (and thankfully it was ours!)
Photographer - Amy Majors (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Amy Majors is incredible! She came highly recommended from a few friends who used her for their weddings. She did an amazing job capturing the emotions, moments and feel of our day. I can’t wait to show everyone our wedding photos, they are so lovely and enchanting! I can’t stop looking at them! Amy is worth every penny for her talent, her eye for detail, her great composition and usage of light. She is one of the few film wedding photographers on the market in Minnesota, which she knows how to manipulate beautifully! I would highly recommend using her for your wedding, or any other photography need!
Baker - Sweet Retreat (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Sweet Retreat has been a super easy vendor to work with for our wedding. Curt was our contact throughout the process & he was available to answer questions and helped the process by emailing me confirmation of my signed documents when we defined the proposal a few weeks before the wedding. Delivery is a set fee no matter how many cupcakes you buy, so it was a little unfortunate for us there since we had a very small wedding, but it was worth it in the end. Cupcakes were delivered on time and were absolutely amazing! Our guests RAVED about them! I’m very happy we worked with them for our event!
Seamstress - Amy Stariha (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Amy Stariha did a fantastic job altering my dress! Her friendly demeanor always made me feel at ease when at my dress fittings and her eye for detail really shows in her work. She’s absolutely worth every penny she charges for her services as she’s extremely experienced (she’s been an avid sewer since high school, or even younger) and unbelievably detailed. When I showed up for my first appointment, my dress was way too large in the bust, too tight in the hips & too long. I was astonished at my second fitting, her alterations already made it fit like a glove. I am so happy with how it looked on my wedding day, she did an incredible job!
Dress & Accessories - Che Bella (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
The service and selection at Che Bella is amazing! Theirs was the first shop I stopped in to search for my wedding dress and immediately, I found 3 that I LOVED. Since I felt like it shouldn’t be “that easy” to find your wedding dress, I ran around town to 10 other dress shops to see their selection. The service at other bridal shops was sometimes OK, but it was sometimes snooty and rushed, (like the Wedding Shoppe in St Paul - I would NOT recommend) and the selection at other stores was rather crappy & cheap looking. Not at Che Bella though. Their dresses were elegant, the fabric was rich and the prices were reasonable for the quality you were getting. Their staff is friendly, attentive and genuine. I was so happy, I not only bought my dress there, but my veil, sash, earrings and a lovely vintage pearl necklace. I would highly recommend them! Additionally, they REMEMBERED ME every time I came in. (even my unannounced visits!) These girls really put the “service” into customer service remembering each of their clients names & what dress they bought. Even after the wedding, I called back asked for a recommendation of where I can get my dress cleaned and they offered me a coupon for a nearby dry cleaner. Seriously, I what other business goes over and above like this for their clients? They are truly fantastic!
Officiant - Bill Albertson (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Hands down, Bill was the BEST vendor we worked with for our wedding. He’s such a cool guy and absolutely worth every penny he charges for his rates. We had the pre-marital counseling included in the package and that was SUCH a good investment. Bill meets with you once a month for a few months before your wedding and really tries to make sure that you’re ready for this big step. His caring demeanor, sense of humor and light hearted spirit really made these sessions great for us. We always walked away from them feeling more bonded as a couple and very ready to get married. Bill guided us through the process of navigating some tricky parts of the engagement and wedding planning and gave us some great feedback when we wrote our ceremony. On the day of, we were so happy to have him as our officiant. He became more than just a vendor to us, but a friend. My only recommendation is that if you book Bill, call the day before each meeting to confirm. He’s an active, busy guy (and can be a little forgetful with all of those brides & grooms!) and likes a reminder from time to time. Plus, it will help you stay on track with your day if you know he’s confirmed the meeting.
Accommodations - Saint Paul Hotel (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
The St. Paul Hotel was a lovely location to stay on our wedding night! We set up a room rate for our guests in advance and everyone as wowed by the caliber of hotel this was. The rooms were impeccable and the service spectacular. Heidi was our hotel contact throughout the process and she was extremely helpful in answering questions, keeping us up to date on who had booked under our rate reservation and very professional from the get-go. I was very happy with the service and treatment our small group of guests received from them! We will stay there again!
Ceremony Music (Harpist) - Laurie Leigh (☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆)
Laurie did a lovely job with the music at our wedding and gave good recommendations based on what type of music we were interested in. Her renditions of our chosen songs (some were the Beatles!) were absolutely gorgeous! We got SO many compliments on her great work! She was also very flexible in getting to the ceremony location a little earlier than originally expected so we could have her set up slightly ahead of schedule. I would recommend her for anyone looking for a harpist for their event. She was wonderful!!
Florist - Luna Vinca (☆)
To make a long story short, we felt that Luna Vinca wasn't totally honest with their dealings with us. Clare quoted a price for a volume of flowers, (both verbally & in our proposal) which they said they would "honor" since they made a mistake on the initial calculation. I realize that they made a large ($100) mistake on our initial proposal, but I would have given them a pass if this were dealt with differently. If they would have said there was a calculation error & we needed to re-work the proposal, that would have been totally fine. I am a very reasonable person, I absolutely make mistakes too. Instead, they chose not own up to a promise that I have in writing, but to make up for their faux pas by being sneaky & deleting flowers that we had agreed upon for our wedding. At our final meeting - 4 weeks prior to the big day - I asked for floral to be moved from one place to another, (instead of using it at the ceremony, for that same floral to instead be on a table at the reception) but they deleted it from our proposal all together and kept the price the same. I questioned this several times & was told there was no mistake. WHERE'S THE "HONOR" IN THAT? I find it extremely absurd since they order their flowers in bunches instead of per stem and it would have cost them virtually nothing to do the right thing. After that whole mishap, I was afraid to verify or modify anything else in my proposal, which is ridiculous!!! Don't let a vendor BULLY you like they did to us! End result, the work they did was just OK, (I did like my bouquet) but it came with some significant stress for me. The reception floral was not worth it... many of the arrangements were messy & not at all elegant. This could have been avoided if they simply looked at the photo I submitted with my proposal... very sloppy work on their part. Overall, I feel like a consumer should be treated the same whether you spend $1000 or $5000 on their wedding floral, which I did not experience in this situation. I could have gone without the drama, stress and frustration. I would not work with them again and I would NOT recommend any of my engaged friends to work with them.