Dress: Bridal Garden: Rating D
I wouldn’t step foot back in this store and I’d never recommend a bride to do so either. The dresses here are beautiful, but you can find any of their dresses at Kleinfeld’s, where you’d have a much more pleasant experience with better customer service! I had several encounters here which made me give this store such a low rating. If you want more details, PM me. Basically, go elsewhere. These people are impossible.
Venue: Artesano Iron Works Gallery, Manayunk: Rating A
This venue is absolutely beautiful and modern – everything we wanted! Our guests absolutely loved the space as much as we did and the atmosphere was just perfect for our reception! The people here were pleasant to work with and answered all of the questions we had along the way. The price to rent the space is one of the highest I’ve ever seen and they charge you extra to use their candelabras and curtains, which is the only reason we didn’t give Artesano an A+.
Ceremony Site: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Philadelphia: Rating A-
Beautiful church, amazing location! The coordinator here went above and beyond to help us along the way with all of the questions we had. The church is magnificent and was exactly what we were looking for. The altar is incredible! I gave St. John’s an A- because it looked like the floors hadn’t been swept in quite awhile. It definitely needed a cleaning!
Rehearsal Dinner: Continental, Philadelphia: Rating A++
Trendy, fabulous and perfect! We had the “Chocolate Room” in the back of the original Continental and it couldn’t have been better. We did a family-style dinner and they just kept bringing out course after course after course! I was full after the appetizers and there was still 8 more courses to go! The food was incredible and the cocktails were also incredible – as always! The service was above and beyond and we really had a flawless evening! I’d recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for something a little different than the typical rehearsal dinner. Awesome.
Transportation: Trolley for Bridal Party: American Trolley Tours (Choo Choo Trolley): Rating A
The trolley was bright red (they had a lot of different types of trolleys to choose from) and we really wanted the bright red as opposed to the maroon – so adorable and great for pictures! It was spacious and fit about 25-30 of us very well. The driver was on time, which was something I was nervous about! We also asked them to hang white paper wedding bells inside and when we hopped on after the ceremony, there they were! I’d recommend this company to anyone (even though I do think their prices are a bit out of control!)
Transportation: Coach Buses for Guests: THG Transport, Inc.: Rating A
I don’t think there were any issues with this company. They arrived on time and took our guests where they needed to go and stayed until the end of the reception and took us all back. I didn’t deal with them myself on the actual wedding day, but I didn’t hear of anything going wrong, so my assumption is that everything went as planned with regards to their services. They were also one of the least expensive companies I found and they were very willing to beat any competitor’s prices. That was extremely important to us!
Photographer: Cindy Patrick: Rating A+++
By far my favorite vendor of the day – absolutely the BEST! She is kind, funny, and gives off such a positive energy that is so contagious! We had such a fun time with her – so much in fact, that we missed our cocktail hour to continue taking photos (which we SWORE we would not do!) She was on the same page as us with regards to what kind of photos we wanted and she was willing to try anything to get the perfect shot! She had us all over Philly to get everything we wanted! We loved her and our whole bridal party loved her. We haven’t gotten our photos back, but we are so confident in her work and her abilities that we know she won’t let us down. She was well worth every penny! Love her!
Videographer: Kenneth Stillman: Rating A++
In the running for top vendors!! To all the Ken Stillman haters out there – you are completely screwing yourself by listening to everyone who has negative things to say about him!! His sister was our videographer of the day and she was awesome – as was the editor who created our BIG Video show in just a few hours… I didn’t even know she was there all day – completely non-intrusive, which was so important to us. Ken was very responsive to all of our calls and emails during the planning process – and when he changed his package to include the BIG Video show, it brought our price down. Instead of trying to take advantage of us like other wedding vendors do, he told us about the change and we got our $ back! Our BIG Video show was the highlight of our wedding and having it to show everyone at the wedding and after the wedding was worth every penny. In my honest opinion, he should charge more for what he does! His editor is incredible and I can’t believe how hard he worked to have our video done by 11pm. Our guests loved it and everyone continues to rave about it. They can’t stop watching it and neither can we! We will get our full video back within 9 months or so. HIGHLY recommend Ken Stillman! Worth. Every. Penny.
Caterer: Sage Catering: Rating A
I would have given them an A+ had they not run out of lemonade (a mixer for one of our signature drinks) and club soda (who runs out of club?!). The catering manager acted as a wedding planner (which saved us big bucks) and was there for us every step of the way. I would email him alllll the time and he’d be there to bounce ideas around with and I really appreciated that he was there for us at any moment! We went for a tasting and the food was incredible! They have such a unique menu to choose from and they were familiar with “stations” which is what we had at our wedding. Everyone absolutely loved the food (and unfortunately everyone is right – we couldn’t eat at our wedding! It wasn’t because we were too busy… it was that we were so amped up on adrenaline we just weren’t hungry)… at least we had the tasting..and a private tasting too – with wine! They also took care of all of our rentals of tables, linens, etc. which was such a huge benefit as well since our venue didn’t provide anything but the space itself! Food, excellent. Service, top notch. And did I mention that our wedding was set up exactly as I envisioned it?! Thank you, Sage for a job well done! YUM.
Band: CTO Park Central: Rating C+
I can’t say the band wasn’t good because they were awesome, HOWEVER, we were very specific in the type of music we wanted played and they basically ignored it and did their own thing. They also forgot I was supposed to dance with my stepfather so I had to remind them and it was very awkward. They also ignored the song we selected for the bridal party to be announced to and chose the absolute worst song imaginable (in our opinion – anything but Black Eyed Peas!!)… I don’t understand why we filled out the request form if they weren’t going to pay any attention to it. They also kept us outside waiting for about 30 minutes to be announced. I am not sure what the hold up was, but since we missed our cocktail hour, we were dying to just get inside already and see everyone!! They also asked everyone to take their seats when the stations opened, but we told them we were having a “stations-cocktail” concept and only had 75% seating, so asking everyone to take their seats didn’t make any sense and it was supposed to be a “quiet opening” to avoid lines… Now I can’t completely bash this band because they were fabulous aside from this other stuff… They had so much energy and the young crowd had the best time ever dancing to their music! I just wish they mixed it up a little more with some older music that is more our style (typical wedding songs!)…
DJ: DJ’s Available: Rating B
He was only there an hour, so he showed up and did his thing, which we appreciate. On their website you can go on and select your own playlist. Why he played songs that we didn’t select is beyond me… Beiber? Why did he play Beiber? I don’t understand why we created our playlist which he promised he’d stick to and then he played other stuff that we don’t like. We had fun and honestly I was pretty toasted at this point so I’m just going off what my husband tells me. I guess he wasn’t happy with Beiber.
Baker: Sweet Eats Bakery: Rating A+
We aren’t huge “sweets” people, so we didn’t care much about the cake – but I did want to ensure it was simple, but modern. She nailed it! It was exactly as we discussed and we were really pleased with the way it turned out. It was better than I envisioned it. Sweet Eats has been our family bakery for years for birthday cakes, so I knew it would be tasty… and of course it was! They did different flavors for different tiers and they were all fabulous.
Baker: Groom’s Cake: Green Eggs and Cakes: Rating A+
Johnny loved his groom’s cake soooo much! She did an Xbox cake with a Red Baron pepperoni pizza box on top and it looked exactly like the actual thing! She had it delivered and set up on time and she was really fun to talk to and work with. She is super creative and was willing to try anything I asked (I had some other ideas besides the Xbox cake). Highly recommended!
Florist: Bouquets: Mum’s the Word Marlton: Rating A++
I freaking love Maria – what can I say?! She is sooo positive and happy and you can’t help but love her! She was also patient with me and had to do about 3 mock ups for me because I kept changing my mind (and she didn’t even charge me). On the actual day of the wedding, I was so insanely happy with my flowers! My bouquet as well as my bridal party’s bouquets – (and the bouts!!) were all perfect and so pretty. She’s awesome.
Florist: Centerpieces/Set Up: April Robin Florist Haddon Heights: Rating A+
She nailed it! We had a vision and she perfected it. Our centerpieces were beautiful, set up exactly as we discussed – and she delivered everythingggg for us on the day of the wedding, which really took away a lot of stress for us. She did mocks for us beforehand to make sure we were on the same page and really took the time to make sure we were happy with everything. She also did the centerpieces for the rehearsal dinner and it was also PERFECT!
Tuxes: Men’s Wearhouse: Rating A
No problems here! The guys tuxes looked great, everyone got exactly what they ordered, everything fit and the prices were unbeatable! Our groomsmen were happy with the low cost. J