Hi all,
I have been married a month now, and I figured it's about time I put up my vendor reviews! I'm not going to do things like put a hundred pluses behind the letter grade because what does that really mean anyway? One plus should be enough
Ceremony/Reption/Food: Ceresville Mansion - A+
Aside from being a georgeous site, they really have this wedding thing down to a science. They are super organized and you literally don't have to worry about anything. They have thier own day of coordinator, people to direct guests, their own sound system, the bride gets an assistant for the day, they provide you with snaks/drinks before the ceremony, etc. etc. My assistant was helpful when I asked her to do things (got us plates of food, get the sewing kit, get my other pair of shoes) and checking in on me a few times when I was trying to scarf down a few bites of food! She also helped pack up cars with presents, flowers, vases, guest book, etc. All in all it went very smoothly and I was thrilled with everything. Oh yeah, the food (what little I had) was SO good. I wish they had a restaurant. The only blip was the coordinator I had initially suddenly stopped working there and I was assigned a new coordinator. That was no problem, but the initial coordinator had not told me about a fee for bringing in some of your own food, so they tried to charge me for that. When I explained to them I had never been told of the charge (it's a pretty hefty charge), they agreed to let it go.
Dresses: Netbride.com - A+
I ordered my dress and my bridesmaid dresses from here and everything was perfect, on time, and matched a lower price I found online. They don't have every designer but if they have it, it's worth it to order from them. I think my dress cost 1/2 as much.
Flowers: Occasional Flowers - A
I met with Terri not knowing a thing about flowers, and at first I thought her $800 quote was too high. OMG, I had no idea how much flowers cost. After looking around, I ran back to her and she did a great job. I had cala lilies, hydrangeas and roses. The flowers and centerpieces were just as I had imagined... my bouquet was on the small side though, but flowers were not a priority for me, so if it saved me money I was OK with it. The small centerpiece vases I got to keep, and the tall ones I had to return to her. She actually will pick them up herself from wherever the reception is the next day.
Hair & Makeup: Faces by Teri - A
Teri is a really busy lady, and a bit hard to get a hold of, BUT her prices cannot be beat and she and her hair girl made all of us look georgeous
DJ: DJ Dariush - B
Being Iranian, my dad instisted that we have an Iranian DJ... Our initial meeting with him went fine... the problem came a week before the wedding as I was contacting all my vendords one last time and he starts asking me about the site's sound system and how I would need to rent another sound system because if the reception and ceremony are in 2 different places, he has to be able to see me in order to play the songs at the correct time, etc. I had him speak to Ceresville, and they told him that they give cues when to play the next song, but he really had a problem with this and threw a big fuss. I pretty much told him if all the other DJs can do it, then he will do it too. In the end it was fine, and he appologized, but it was just pretty stressful. He had never been to the site and he didn't know how they ran things there (which I thought he should have gone to check it out). I later found out that he had forgotten the music, but sent someone back to his house to get it. He did play all the songs I requested and everyone had a great time, so I guess that's all that matters.
Photography: Windsor Photography & Design - A+
I absolutely LOVE my photographer Beth. She is really fun and easy to get along with. She and her assistant were all over the place the whole time taking pictures. You can tell she really loves what she does and it shows in her work. She took charge with the organized photos when she needed to and the rest of the time was completely inobtrusive. She also went above and beyond getting me napkins when I started to cry (from happiness!) and asking how I was doing, etc.
Shoes: Cinderealla of Boston: A
I know this is not that usefull for most people, but I wear a size 4 shoe, so this website is awesome if you wear size 2-5!
Shoe Repair: The Shoe Hospital: A
I wanted to get my shoes dyed orange, but the guy at the Shoe Hospital (yes, it's really called that), wouldn't do it without a practice swatch of fabric. I didn't have any, so I wasn't able to dye it
He did however make the straps that went across my foot on the shoes fit perfectly
Invitations: DIY
My fiance designed our invites on PhotoShop and we had them printed at FedEx Office. The first FedEx Office we went to (Gaithersburg) couldn't cut in a straight line (WTF!?), so we actually had to do it twice
We went to a different one (Rockville) and they did a fine job. It still came out way cheaper than ordering them from somewhere I think. We got envelopes from Staples. I printed out the addresses on my printer. Invites were not a high priority for me. Only my mother complained, haha.
Favors: Michaels - A
We got those photo coasters from Michaels and I used them both as favors and Table place cards. So I printed out the person's name on a square paper with a design I did and had what table they were sitting on on there too. I think it worked out fine. I used the 40% coupons from Michaels/AC Moore, so it took forever to accumulate 100 of them.
Officiant: Rev. Ron Reaves - A+
Rev. Ron did a fabulous job. We are not particularly religious so we found Rev. Ron online and he seemed nice enough and was the least expensive of all the people I looked into, so we booked him. We had 2 meetings with him - one initially to get an idea of who we are and what kind of wedding we wanted, and another one a month before the wedding to review and finalize. He emailed us sample ceremonies and he wrote everything out. On the day of, he had the printed ceremony he read from in a little leather book, so it looked very nice and professional. His deliver was great and he made us feel totally comfortable.
Guestbook: MyPublisher.com - A
I thought it would be cute to have a photobook of us put together for people to sign as our guestbook. It was pretty easy to design, but the printing had a few issues. I kept getting these emails that they were unable to print the photobook. It happened 3 times. I had to call thier tech support, and they finally figured out that I had used a font that was not compatible with thier program. So I had to change the font, but I found one of theirs I liked, and after that it was no problem. The book was great, and everyone had a kick at seeing pictures of us throughout our relationship.
Cake: Kirsten's Cakery - A+
I found a design online that I liked, and Kirsten was able to make it using my colors. We had 3 layers and each layer was a different flavor. The cake tasted really yummy, and we had a TON of extra cake to take home with us. She also gives you a free anniversary cake a year after so you don't have to freeze anything!
Ok, hopefully I didn't forget anything. If you have any questions just ask!