Vendor Reviews ~ July 25, 2010
The wedding was wonderful! It was great to see everything come together and I really have no complaints. There are a few things that I would have done differently…I would have had the wedding on a Saturday night instead of Sunday night. I was thinking in terms of my out of town guests and forgot about the locals that had to go to work the next day. I would have stressed promptness to my hairdresser, bought more chocolate for the candy bar (it went a lot faster than I thought and was more popular than the non-chocolate candies) and used a different pen for the guest book (the Sharpie pen still smeared). Nothing too bad, however!!
Wedding Gown – La Belle Reve: A-
I went to 4 bridal salons and found “the dress” at the 3rd salon, La Belle Reve. They had the designer that I was looking for, Casablanca, and Ashley was so helpful. She wasn’t too pushy, but gave me some great suggestions, too. Going back for the fittings was easy, too. I had a meltdown at one of the fittings, but Ashley and the seamstress really calmed me down. The only downside with the salon is the cost of alterations. The actual cost of the dress was actually less than I expected, but I could have saved money on alterations elsewhere. Ultimately, I was so happy with the final result that it didn’t matter.
Officiant – Annemarie Juhlian: A+
We met with Annemarie months ago and we really liked her personality. She is very bubbly, but so heartfelt in her delivery. We had pages of homework to do so that she could learn more about the two of us and she pulled out the most poignant pieces to craft a ceremony that hit upon everything that was important to us. We had a lot of out of town guests, so it was important that she made the ceremony very welcoming. Throughout the process, Annemarie was so good about responding to emails and taking care of the details. She really took control of the action about 30 minutes before the ceremony so that everyone knew what they were doing.
Flowers/Décor – Aria Style: A-
I met with John Gardner and had no doubts that I wanted him to do our flowers. I brought him some pictures of what I liked and described the “feel” of the wedding. We went through some flower books to pick out what I liked and decided on décor items like a fabric drape behind the ceremony and some uplights. I had complete confidence in what he was going to come up with. The execution the day of was beautiful and I am very pleased with their work. They did a great job of making the bouquets elegant with a variety of flower textures. They also added bling to the bouquets which matched the bridesmaids’ dresses perfectly! I also loved that they repurposed the ceremony flowers, uplights and hurricane candles for the reception. I was disappointed, however, that one of the bridesmaid’s bouquets did not have calla lilies and I had wished that the ceremony flowers had more purple, but I added them late in the game, so I didn’t really make my wishes known. I also marked them down because they are quite pricey and aren’t very good at responding to email. I didn’t have a lot of questions along the way, but I prefer to ask most questions in email and felt that I needed to call them to get the answers that I needed.
Cake – Cake’s by Crème de la Crème: A
The hotel recommended this bakery and I saw some of their photos and was inspired by one of their cakes. We went for a tasting and loved their cake. We went with Strawberries and Cream and Chocolate Lover Truffle Torte and both were amazing! We did a 3 tier square cake with European buttercream icing. The only drawback with this bakery was their email response. I felt like it was difficult to get answers from them without asking the same questions over and over. While I didn’t feel as close to this vendor as some of the others, the finished product made it all worth it!
Hair – Niko, Gene Juarez: A-
Niko is my regular stylist at the Downtown Gene Juarez. He came to the hotel to do my hair and talked me into extensions. I got so many compliments on my hair and I was very happy that I went with his advice. My only complaint is that Niko showed up late and wound up starting 30 minutes later than scheduled. From what I can tell, there was no reason for his lateness and he didn’t apologize for being late. I am an overplanner so I had planned some pad in the schedule, but I lost my “breathing room” that I had hoped to have. In hindsight, I wish I had given him an earlier start time because I had a sixth sense that something like this was going to happen. Although it wasn’t the smoothest morning, everything wound up staying on schedule and I really loved my hairdo!
Make-up – Jenny Verador: A-
My hairstylist recommended Jenny and I thought she was great! I really wanted a natural look, but would pop in pictures and she accomplished exactly what I was looking for! My eye makeup caused raccoon eyes pretty early after she was done, so I was disappointed in how it held up. Overall, I was happy with the look she gave me, though.
DJ – Your Song DJ, Chris Graves: A+
I am so happy that we found Chris to be our DJ. I had no idea how to research DJ’s, but we knew as soon as we met Chris that he was perfect for us. He just has a coolness about him and I knew that there was no fear of having a “cheesy” DJ. Our tastes in music are similar and he was very excited to be playing a variety of music genres. We wanted Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, disco, 80’s and current hits. He took charge of the reception, but didn’t overpower the action. He read the crowd perfectly and played a great mix of music!
Venue – Pan Pacific Hotel: A+
This is a beautiful hotel and a well-designed banquet space. The entire 2nd floor was ours to use for the whole day. The girls got ready in one room and the guys another. We had the ceremony in the Cascade Room and then our guests flowed to cocktails next to the reception space. There is also a terrace that looks out to the Space Needle which was perfect. We loved the décor of the hotel…it was an amazing backdrop for pictures. Even the stemware and silverware were gorgeous! The food was fabulous and the bridal suite overlooking the Space Needle and Lake Union was awesome!! They took care of us from the moment we arrived and had some appetizers and wine waiting for us after the ceremony. Dana Smith and her staff did an amazing job and everything went so smoothly!