Location:
The Bolger Center: I could not have chosen a better location. Seriously. If you can grab this place, get on top of it before they realize what a gem they have and start raising the prices. For starters, the grounds are beautiful, and if you have a wedding of under 170 people you can easily fit into the Stained Glass Hall which is absolutely GORGEOUS.
For seconds, there is no room fee. There IS a minimum, which means that you have to have a certain amount of guests (the minimum depends on which room you use). But it's not a bad minimum at all, and the Bolger Center covers EVERYTHING. The tasting, the tables, the linens, the glassware, the silverware, the top shelf open bar, the cocktail hour, the reception, the salad & entree courses, your choice of gold or silver chargers under the plates (SO classy), set-up, clean-up, a bridal suite before the ceremony to change in and a fantastic honeymoon suite... and not only that, but it can (if you want) include the ceremony and the changeover of the room from ceremony to reception.
We jumped on that as soon as we realized that we paid the same price, whether we had the ceremony there or not. The Stained Glass Hall used to be a sanctuary so it's the perfect place for a ceremony, and it also is a GREAT reception room. Also, the food is fantatic. We got rave reviews from all of our friends and family afterwards about the food, the service, the drinks, etc. I worried about absolutely NOTHING on the day of (although, I do suggest hiring a day-of coordinator to help with this). A couple of times the staff checked with me to make sure I was having a good time, and I was having a BLAST.
During the planning process there were times when I wished they'd return my emails faster, but I know I was just being an impatient bride. They always answered my questions within a week, and by the time we were 3-4 months out they were answering them within 48 hours, and the closer we got to the day of the faster they answered any questions I had as my wedding became more a priority.
Ceremony set up:
This is a pretty good close-up of what the table set up looked like (You have to provide your own flowers if you want flower centerpieces), you can see the gorgeous linens they provided and the glassware and the gold chargers that we chose:
Having everything in one place was such a blessing... we took photos immediately following the ceremony on gorgeous grounds. We had our own parking lot for our guests. A lot of people spent the night there so that they didn't have to drive home afterwards. But it didn't have the feel of a cheesy hotel, and it definitely didn't have the price of one!
DJ: We used Adam from Jamology, (
www.jamologyinc.com) and he was great. I met him at the Not-So-Big Bridal Boutique and we hit it off, and I just felt a good connection with him. He didn't have any online reviews that I could find but he provided me with references which I contacted and RAVED about him. They were right. He was a lot of fun, the dance floor was PACKED 80% of the time and the other 20% was still more than 1/2 full (and you were happy for the breathing room!). He didn't play anything on my DNP list and he played all the songs that I specifically marked for him!
There was one hiccup when he accidently started to play the Father/Daughter dance song instead of the First Dance song, but he had it fixed in under 30 seconds... and I'm definitely not complaining because little things happen and he had it under control, which impressed me.
Photography: We used Bella Pictures, which I did like them but I'm not sure I would use them again... On the other hand, I have nothing to compare them to. They picked a great photographer for me, and I ended up also getting a second photographer at no extra charge because he was an intern. Loved working with Bella before the wedding, loved the photographers they chose, the price was great they really worked with me to stay within our budget....
But when they set up the website with our pics, it's not all of them. It's what they consider the best of the best, and I"m not sure I agree with them. They ARE, however, sending me a DVD with ALL the pictures on it from the wedding, so if it's got all of them and they're easy for me to upload on my computer then I will withdraw all complaints and say I'd def work with them again
Altho, part of me kind of wishes I'd found the photographer on my own... he was fantastic. Listened to exactly what I wanted, had a few great ideas of his own, and was very cheerful about working with the bunch of crazies that are my friends. He took some GREAT pics, including a lot of really fantastic candids:
His name is Corey Culbreath:
http://www.creativephotoonline.com/
Our intern photographer was Sean Turner and he was also fantastic. He ended up taking some of what were my FAVORITE pictures from the wedding, although I have to admit I think it's because he was free to take candids while Corey was taking pictures of the main event... having 2 photographers was well worth it and one of the reasons that choosing Bella Pictures made me very happy:
I can highly recommend either of them as being both fun and easy to work with.
We got our programs, which were stunning (and omg it was so nice not to be doing it myself!) from The Organized Bride store in Frederick, MD. We had to travel to get up there, but it was totally worth it.
I got my dress from I Do I Do Bridals in Rockville, MD - HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend. I've had several friends get their dresses from them since then; they are extremely nice, have a great selection, budget options, and just so helpful.
I got my reception dress from Nordstroms at Tyson's Corner. At first I thought of it as a just in case dress, because I didn't really think I'd want to change out of mine... but if you're as big a dancer as I am, and you have a really heavy dress... it was so worth it. I originally thought I'd probably just have it and then wear it on our HM cruise and not at all at the reception, but I changed my mind as soon as DH and I did our first dance. In fact, I wish I'd changed before our 1st dance because my dress was dragging on the ground and kind of nulled having had dance lessons *sigh* Don't love my dress any less, but it's not a dancing dress. My reception dress, however, was: (This picture is from when I wore it on the HM cruise):
Sooo... I think that's it for our vendors. Everything else was DIY or provided through some kind of friend/family connection. Hope this helps some of you!