we literally had a picture-perfect day and our wedding was like something out of a fairytale. we had the BEST time, and i had to tell all you ladies about our vendors so you can get great ones for your big days too!!!
ceremony/reception: Club Hillbrook, chagrin falls. A
let me put it to you this way: if you are looking for an outdoor ceremony/reception area, THIS IS YOUR PLACE. the reception area is outside, but completely covered (it's a pavillion) so you dont have to worry about rain. this place is literally drop-dead gorgeous and guests were telling us all night how it was the prettiest wedding they had ever been to. club hillbrook is a tudor mansion in the middle of a wooded area so the trees are HUGE and it's very secluded and awesome. literally endless photo oppourtunities. just. stunning. the staff is also very, very, helpful. i worked mostly with janet and melanie and they are both very sweet. the only bad thing is you have to make sure you triple check your final invoice because we kept finding quite a few errors in the amounts of things (# of chairs, napkins, etc), and their decoration fee to hang things up was $25/hour/person (when they only told us it would be $25/hour) which is a ridiculous amount of money per person. GORGEOUS though and absolutely fabulous food! haha
photographer: RAD Photographer. A+++++++++
rob and jackie (husband and wife team) are two of my favorite people EVER! not only do they take absolutely stunning photos, but they are SO incredibly nice and easy to talk to!!! rob had us (and the bridal party) cracking up all day, and their attention to detail is phenomenal. they captured our day beautifully, and since i'm a HUGE DIY bride, i'm so happy with all the detail shots they got of everything i made!!! it really helps tell the story of our day. absolutely the best photographers ever.
here is a link to our photos so you can see for yourself!
scrollbar is on the bottom, just scroll to the right
DJ: the DJ Crew. A+++++++++
we had john (one of the owners) and andrew as our two DJs and they had the party going all night!!! guests kept telling us how awesome they were and how much fun they were having dancing to all the songs! not only are these guys AMAZING DJs, but they will help you with other things you need too! they got me drinks, they made sure everything was coordinated with our other vendors, and they really just wanted to make sure our special day was as special as it could be! they were just completely awesome, and so great to have be there on our wedding day!
day-of coordinator: Heidzillas. A+++++++++
heidi is simply nothing short of AMAZING! i'll be honest...i'm a huge OCD perfectionist, okay? haha...i want everything PERFECT. we had a 2 year engagement so i had a lot of time to work on a TON of DIY detail projects. by the time the wedding finally came, i wanted things to look just like the vision i had pictured in my head. i asked heidi to be there with me on our wedding day because i know she is a perfectionist too, and she doesnt let anything just slide by. she fixes anything that needs to be fixed, and makes sure you have the time of your life! she was SO awesome in setting everything up just right, and her "emergency kit" she brings with her is everything you could possibly ever think you might need! my bridesmaid's jaws dropped when they saw it! haha! luckily, everything went fine, so we didn't end up needing it, but man would she have had me covered if we did need anything! haha, okay i'm going on and on, but really...heidi was just so incredible as a wedding coordinator as well as just amazing as a person. so friendly, and she truly wants your special day to be the absolute best it can be. i highly recommend her x1000!!!
beverage: Colonial Beverage. A+
the only reason they didn't get as many "+" symbols as other vendors is only because i didn't personally work with them, i just saw the results. my father-in-law worked with them to get all the alcohol, and he RAVED about them. club hillbrook asks you to bring in all alcohol you will need, and colonial beverage is the BEST choice. basically, you tell them how much of everything you want (and they even catered to our "specialty drink" menu which had weird things on it like fu-ki cherry wine from japan) and they deliver it all for you, and pick it all up for you too! AND they dont charge you if you didn't use it!!! so, say you want 20 bottles of pinot noir. they drop all 20 bottles off, and when you only end up using 15 of those bottles, they only charge you for 15 of them and take the other 5 bottles back to their store! YOU CAN'T LOSE! it was amazing.
dress shop: Annabelle Bridal, solon. A+
i bought my dress from them back in november of 2008 for our july 10th, 2010 wedding and they stored it for me THE ENTIRE TIME at no charge. it was great because i didn't have to worry about it! the two older ladies who work there are SUPER nice, and when i was trying on dresses they ranked them from most favorite to least favorite with me. i never felt pressured to buy anything, they just genuinely seemed to care which dress looked best on me.
photobooth: the RAD booth. A++++
if you are on the fence about if you should get a photobooth for your wedding or not, OMG GET ONE. it was the BEST idea. guests freaking LOVED it. even the older people went in, and had a BLAST with it. my mom and i had been buying props throughout the engagement (like random $1 ones from the target dollar section) and they were a HUGE HIT. everyone kept telling us how much fun it was and the hilarious photos that print out are amazing fun memories. with the RAD booth you also get copies of all the photos on a disk and they provide a scrapbook so your guests can glue one of the 2 copies that print out into the scrapbook and write fun notes in there for you. it was hilarious looking through it after the wedding!!! so seriously, if you are unsure about getting a photobooth, GET ONE, and i highly recommend the RAD booth!!!
rehearsal dinner: Flemming's, chagrin falls. A+++
absolutely amazing. the food was to DIE for, and the service was incredible. everyone said it was the best meal they've ever had haha...we had our own private room, and our own menu (that my in-laws picked out). also on the menu they personalized it by printing out "best wishes jacqui + erik" at the top! too cute!
tux rentals: Mayatux Mayapparel, fairlawn. A
330.869.9604
okay, so as i said earlier....i'm an OCD perfectionist haha...our colors were light pink and espresso, so i wanted brown tuxes since my BMs had brown dresses with pink accents. i hate the look of mixing brown with black, so that was out. they HAD to be dark brown tuxes. your typical shops like men's warehouse and american commodore only had 1 brown tux, and it was a light brown (which looked copper in the sun) and had tiny pinstripes. no way. it definitely looked "60's colored brown" if that makes sense haha...so i made a few phone calls looking for a specific tux: the "after six" brown tux. it's a much darker brown and exactly what i was looking for. there were only 2 places in ohio that sold it, and LUCKILY one of them is in fairlawn!!! we live in kent, so we drove over there super quick to check them out. LOVED them, and knew this was the place. it also made me feel better to have all the tuxes in one location because he had all the sizes there, and could switch out a jacket or something if it was the wrong size come wedding day. i know tux places are NOTORIOUS for screwing sizes up, so this was perfect! everything went great. the guy who owns the place is super nice, but also a super cornball hahaha...so watch for his jokes, but we got all our tuxes and they were PERFECT for our wedding day!
hair stylist: angie swigonski, located in the Loxx Hair Lounge, north olmsted. A+++++++++
216.387.0648, aswigonski@gmail.com
angie is phenomenal. she has been doing my hair for i'd say 10 years now, and i trust her 100%! sometimes when i would go in to get my hair cut, i would just say, "oh, do whatever. i trust you" and you KNOW how important it is to have a hair stylist who you trust!!! you really hold onto them! haha which is exactly what i did throughout all these years. she came out to hillbrook to do my bridesmaid's and my hair, and we all looked FABULOUS. i wanted mine really simple (straight and down), but she put special products in it to keep it frizz/curly-free since our whole wedding was outdoors in july! and everything worked WONDERS! my hair is natually curly/wavy, and it stayed stick straight the whole night. amazing. exactly what i wanted
and my bridesmaid's hair styles were so perfect too! truly does amazing work with hair and i would recommend her to anyone!!!