I'm a little embarassed by how long my reviews are (espcially photography - see below - yikes)! Oh well, second up are vendors related to the reception and the photographer. If you want to see pics related to any reviews, go to my photog's blog at
www.jodischlosser.net and scroll down to wedding "Nancy & Justin".Reception Venue: Spazio Westport: First off, I have to give a huge A+++ to Katie, who was our coordinator at Spazio's. She was hands-down my favorite vendor to work with - she is really calm, has great suggestions, is really responsive and professional. She dealt with numerous questions like a pro, and even worked out a special tasting for my fiance and I who were planning everything from Chicago. I can't say enough great things about her!Second, I really liked Spazio's in general. My only beef with the place is that it's awful to drive up to - it's connected to a Comfort Inn! However, once you walk inside, the interior is classy (we had a harpist playing as guests entered) and you get a lot for your money (we got passed appetizers, top-tier 5 hour open bar, full meal, wedding cake, champagne toast, all table linens and chair covers, and separate rooms for cocktail hour, gifts, dancing and dinner for approximately $50/person). If you are more concerned with having a great time and inviting lots of people, and less concerned with appearances, I recommend it whole-heartedly. But I also understand why some would be turned off... it all comes down to your preferences.My score would be A: the staff was so friendly, the food was delicious, and they followed all my directions perfectly. Again, the only caveat is the location/attachment to the Comfort Inn.DJ: Complete Music: The only thing I didn't like about working with Complete Music was that they don't confirm details any earlier than one week before the wedding. So we didn't know our DJ until days before the wedding. Beyond this small thing, we LOVED our DJ - Sean. He was AWESOME and the compliments for him continue to roll in! He definitely got the party started and kept it going - he even brought props for songs like the YMCA (great pics from that!). He was super attentive - as I mentioned earlier, I got quite sick at my reception from dehydration/exhaustion - Sean continued to check in on me and when it was decided that we needed to leave about an hour early, he did an awesome "farewell" song to my husband and I. He got seriously every one of our guests to surround us on the dance floor and say goodbye; it was the only time the whole day that I cried! It was the most memorable moment of the day and I credit him entirely. I give Complete Music a great review, A+, and DJ Sean an A++. Photography: Cancelled Trotter Photography; Hired Jodi Schlosser: Planning this wedding from out of town, I had to cram a lot of appointments into each visit to St. Louis and unfortunately this meant we did not have the opportunity to meet with any photographers except Trotter in the beginning planning process. The first meeting was really nice - they went out of their way to make us comfortable and we met our photographer personally - everything seemed great so we put down a deposit. Well, when we tried to schedule our engagement session, I started to have doubts when our photographer (who previously seemed so nice and available to us) was booked up the several weekends we tried to have our session. We had to schedule a different photographer (they didn't even provide us with her name before the session!) who was fine in the sense that she was polite and professional. However, when we got the pictures back we were hugely disappointed - out of 25 shots, literally there was only one that was usable. We looked so uncomfortable and posed - the studio setting was too formal and to make matters worse, the photographer used a bright white background on many shots which made us look really pale and made my fiance's little bald spot stand out really bad! Shockingly, I didn't cancel at this point. I was stressed out with other life issues and couldn't find the time to make the situation right. But then, literally 4 weeks before the wedding I was browsing stlwed.com forums and came across a posting about Jodi Schlosser's boudoir shoots - I sent her an email to sign up for this and jokingly asked her if she was available on my wedding day. I was shocked to receive a reply that she had my date open - and after meeting with her one weekend of my bridal shower in St. Louis, we booked her right away. It sucked to cancel with Trotter - we did lose our deposit and I had to endure an uncomfortable email exchange with the representative over there - but it was completely worth it and I don't regret this decision at all. I cannot possibly overstate Jodi's amazing talent. I have received overwhelming compliments on the photos - and we've only seen the preview shots so far! She had a ton of photos ready for us 1 day after the wedding, and I was striken speechless - I truly could not wrap my head around how her laid-back and cool attitude on the day of had led us to the most amazing photos I'd ever seen! Seriously, if you can book her, do NOT hesitate. A+++++.If you can believe, I have more reviews to come!