I think the most helpful part of these boards were the vendor reviews when I was lost in the sea of wedding planning, so I'm so excited to share my experiences with everyone else. I had an amazing wedding day and some WONDERFUL vendors so I hope this helps someone out there!
I also have some wedding stuff for sale including my dress, I'm not sure if i will try to sell online on these boards or go to the past brides garage sale at Amber Springs in July, thoughts?
Anywho, here you go!
VENUE: AMBER SPRINGS - STONEBROOK HALL (A)
When we signed up for this venue, it hadn't even been financed...(yeah really)... but it turned out to be the most beautiful buildings of all of the springs locations (IMHO). They do a lot of work to make sure the landscaping is perfect and everything is very well maintained. They also give you so much freedom. You get to have the space from 8 am until midnight. I absolutely loved it. The only downside is that you have to bring in all outside vendors which can actually turn out to be more expensive if you want quality. The other thing is that you have to set up all the tables and chairs yourself, this wasn't a problem for us because I had the most amazing groom, groomsmen and family to help!
FLORIST/WEDDING DESIGNER - TAMARA MENGES DESIGNS (A+++++++++)
I cannot give Tamara enough praise for the work she did on our wedding. She can accommodate any budget and work with your vision to give you exactly what you want. She took my shabby chic/rustic/vintage theme and went with it. The florals couldn't have been more perfect, I did not want any roses but wanted flaky ranuculus, peonies etc. and she nailed it. I even added a color at our last meeting and she threw it in like it was always in the plan. The day of she went over all the bouquets and changed whatever I wanted. She is gifted, creative and works harder than any other vendor we had. She is out of Beaumont but wants to grow her business in Houston, she didn't even charge us a travel fee or require a hotel room. She drove to Houston three times for us and would have come as many times as we asked! She also collects vintage antiques and other props for photo shoots/weddings etc. and brought all kinds of stuff that added to our day including old doors, windows, barnwood podiums, tables, and even spray painted a chandelier to match our colors!! She also made us a surprise element that we absolutely loved. She saw it on my pinterest page and recreated it.
PHOTOGRAPHER - JAKE HOLT (AUSTIN, TX) (A++)
Jake is amazingly talented and I knew that right away after we got our engagement pictures back. He was expensive but not the most expensive choice we had and give you all the rights to the image files. We are truly impressed with his skill and work ethic. He brought an assistant with him to the wedding and they did a great job getting the shots we wanted. (we have only seen a sneak peak so far but love every one of them!). I would recommend jake to anyone planning their wedding!!! He is super nice and funny as well which makes for a great situation.
VIDEOGRAPHER - DUSTIN STELLY (STELLY WEDDINGS - AUSTIN, TX) (A)
So far I am giving Dustin an A but that is subject to change when we see the final product. He is a cinematic style videographer who recently went on his own. Based on the couple of small clips he showed me i think we will love the video. He works very hard to set up good shots the day of and values making sure your video turns out perfect so he can grow his business. He no doubt will be one of the best in the industry soon!
CAKE - DREAM CAKES INC. - EDIT FARRIS (WOODLANDS, TX) (A+++)
Funny story, I originally found a cake lady on craigslist because I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on some fancy cake i wouldn't even get to eat. Well... after no responses to emails and much encouragement from friends I fired her and found Edit. We went for a cake tasting (which we weren't going to do based on time constraints) and fell in love! We had no idea cake could taste so good!!!! (I am not a sweets person at all). She make a kitchen cake and a three tier bridal of exactly what I wanted and a grooms cake (white sox jersey). She uses 4 layers of cake with 3 layers of filling. We had 3 cake flavors and 3 filling flavors on the wedding and grooms cake for about $600. Anyway, it was the cheapest i found and the best tasting cake I've ever had in my life. Couldn't be happier with her!!
CATERING - ALL STAR CATERING - CONROE, TX (A++)
Don at allstar and his wife run the business and seriously have a great business. The food was so great (BBQ) we had guests commenting all night on how good it was (seriously...) and the staff (that i did see) did a great job. I of course was busy during most of the meal and didn't see a whole lot (missed cocktail hour completely) but did not hear one complaint or notice that anything went wrong. The bartenders were reportedly very friendly and did a great job withour signature drink. They will do whatever is asked. We had a few random requests and they handled everything perfectly. Would recommend them hands down.
DJ - DJ DAVE (A-)
DJ Dave did a great job with everything. He had the timing right for all of our ceremony songs, has a great website to pick all of your songs and plan the event, and everything we requested went perfect at the reception. The reason I gave an A- was a mother-in-law incident, she went behind our backs to plan this whole song and dance production... can't go into all the details, but took about 20-30 minutes away from our receptoin and groom and I would have never approved what she did. Anyway, DJ dave and his wife thought it was a great idea and went along with her request without telling us. As far as I am concerned, we were the ones paying them, so they should have run it by us so we could have avoided the disaster
. Besides that, DJ Dave is very easy to work with, has a great "look" for his booth and really does a great job getting the party going and keeping it going.
DRESS - VENTURA'S BRIDAL - HOUSTON, TX (A)
Bought, altered and cleaned/pressed my dress here. They did a great job, no complaints.
CHINA/FLATWARE - LINDSEY'S WHIMSEY'S - CONROE, TX (A+++)
I love that Lindsey has this rental service. She has mismatched antique china/flatware/glassware. We used her china for dinner and dessert plates, flatware and mason jars for all of the drinks. She was super easy to work with and VERY reasonably priced. No drama involved, she works as well so super happy with having her as a vendor.
LINENS - ELEGANT BEGINNINGS - HUMBLE, TX (A+)
We worked with Krystal Peay here and can give her credit for catching my vision and showing me somthing I hadn't thought of for linens. We used gray lace table overlays and runners on top of ivory underlays. We had tons of comments on how pretty the linens were. Elegant beginnings is so easy to work with, delivered and picked up on time and didn't have to much of a delivery/set up fee. We were over budget when we started and they worked with us to get within our budget and still get the look we wanted.
HAIR/MAKEUP - HAIR BY LIZ (A+++)
I was nervous about the hair/makeup aspect because I had been in weddings where it just didn't quite turn out or look right. Liz did an INCREDIBLE job on EVERYONE in my wedding. Seriously, you have to use her. She is also the most affordable that I found (that does airbrush). She is super super fast too and comes to you whereever you are.
On top of all that we had plenty of DIY projects that me, my husband, sister and mom took on that made the event/day truly special. I loved seeing little touches of things we had made. Below is the sneek peak from Jake from our wedding. Enjoy!