Hi ladies! I'm back and, after a really long engagement, finally married! There was lots of drama leading up to and the morning of the wedding, but by mid-afternoon I managed to put out all the fires and we had an amazing weekend.
I need to note the fact that since I live in Houston but got married in Austin, some vendors come from Austin. Therefore, they are not included in this list of reviews. If you'd like to see the Austin vendor reviews, please visit the Austin local board.
If anybody has any questions, please feel free to page me on the December '10 board or PM me.
Dress: Alfred Angelo (A)I really didn't want to go to a store like this to get a dress. I didn't have anything specific in mind for a dress, but I really wanted to avoid places like AA, David's, etc. But, I was curious one day and went in, and found it. It was such a pretty dress, and since I don't wear dresses normally, I was really stunned that I found one I liked so much.
The people there were really nice. My dress wasn't overly expensive, but it was exactly what I was looking for. I didn't do alterations there or get a veil there because those prices were ridiculous, but the price for the dress was great.
Paper product design: Go Against the Grain on Etsy (A+)Laurel is amazing. I told her what our theme and colors were, and she ran with it. What she gave me back was absolutely perfect... my guests loved the invitations. We liked her so much we sent her our programs to do, and those were beautiful as well.
There were a few mistakes, but Laurel always fixed them willingly and in a timely fashion. The absolute perfection of the final product and a reasonable price is exactly why Laurel earned her A+.
Dress alterations: Beautiful U Bridal (B+)I have such a hard time giving Arlene and her crew this grade, but I do feel it is necessary.
I have been taking things to Beautiful U since January of 2006. Their prices have always been super reasonable, they have done a great job, and got the dresses and stuff out in a timely fashion. For some reason, this isn't the case with wedding gowns. They were super expensive (lets just say the cost of a bustle, a very minor hem and almost no alterations otherwise cost over 50% of what my actual dress did). I went ahead and let them do it because I knew them, and knew they would do a great job.
They tried to tell me that there was only two bustles they knew how to do. I explained that I hated both types of bustle for my style of dress, and I pulled up a ton of different bustle options on my phone and showed them one I wanted. They managed to do it, but they didn't want to. They did color code the bustle strings to make it easy for my bridal party to do, so that was awesome.
They lost my corset strap, so I had to go back to Alfred Angelo to replace it. I asked them to give me the scraps of fabric that they took off from the hem so that my florist could make a bouquet wrap, and they didn't do that either. After I had made a payment, they told me that I owed the full balance, and just little issues like that kept piling up.
Everything managed to get fixed, and I plan on taking more dresses in the future, but for my wedding dress... it was interesting.
Photographer: Thomas and Penelope Campbell (A++)Thomas is actually employed as a photojournalist, and does weddings when he can. He loves shooting weddings in a photojournalistic way to tell the actual story of the day and not just have a series of posed pictures.
He was amazing. At the reception, He set up this screen and as soon as he would take a picture, it would go to his wife Penelope's computer, she'd run it to make sure it looked good, then put it up on this other monitor that was actually large enough for everyone at the reception to see. It was so cool to see our pictures from only a few hours before up on this screen. The pictures were so amazing, they literally made people at my reception cry.
Then, he posted some teasers on facebook. My bridal party loved them. I loved them. I loved having the teasers up so quickly.
I can honestly say that pending an amazing video from the videographer, except for food, hair and makeup, Thomas was the best money I have ever spent on the wedding. If you are getting married and want a photojournalistic style, please, please PM me.
Bridesmaid dresses: Alfred Angelo (A)I had the girls pick out their own dresses, but gave them a color and length, from AA. The girls all had a fairly good experience with them, but apparently alterations gave them issues.
Tuxes: Al's (A+)The guys got their tuxes through Al's, and as far as I know, nobody had any problems with them.
Thank you guys for all the planning advice, pointers, tips, etc. over the last few years. You all made the planning so much easier, and I truly valued the vendor reviews of past brides so I wanted to go ahead and post mine.
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Not caring about missing RSVPs because there aren't any rocks!