I am an out of town bride from TX, and I just wanted to give my very wordy perspective oh my vendor visits.
Bloom Floral - Laurel was so nice, and quickly grasped what I was looking for. She had great suggestions, I love her modern eco-friendly view on floral design. Her prices are great and she is really easy to work with, so far she is my favorite vendor.
Simma's Bakery - After all the orgasmic reviews about this place, we felt like we were in the Twilight zone. Every single cake was dry, like terrible wedding cake dry. The frosting was most definitely not fresh. The cheesecake itself was yummy, but the chocolate cake bottom on it was dry as well. On a positive note, their cakes are so beautiful.
Creations for the Moment (Shirley)- First off it is really difficult getting ahold of Shirley and you can forget about getting a reply via email. However, if you are all about moist delicious cake with a not too sweet creamy homemade frosting, she is soooo worth it. She is very reasonably priced and we took the sample cake she made us to dinner with friends and everyone raved about it.
Sound by Design - (Paul) I love the setup of the sound system with no mirror disco ball and spotlights above the dj stand. There is no doubt in my mind they would do a good job, but I am balking at the price. They quoted an all inclusive package with uplighting for $1100 (offseason), I thought it would be uplighting for the room. However, it's just 5 led lights to light the DJ stand, any extra lights are $75/ea. We are still considering using them, but are opening it back up and looking at other vendors.
Irene's Catering - Ok you know when your Mom said if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Well.............................................
Maders Catering - Maders was pretty good, but I was not blown away by the food. I am very hard to blow away though, the FI and FMIL both liked Maders a lot. The crab cake appetizers were so good, all crabby no filler. The tasting was set up so nicely, Geri had our menu listed with our names. We had an awesome waiter, I cannot say enough about how good the service was.
Joey Buona's The space itself is terrific, but ill kept. The carpet was horribly dirty, the blinds were messed up, and there were quite a few broken chandeliers. I didn't particularly love the view of the freeway. We had dinner there and I was not impressed, the food was so heavy and not special. I just expected something closer to the authentic Italian places with amazing sauces where you can feel the love. Yes I know I am asking too much.
Black Swan - Loved the space, it is beautiful. However, there are no discounts for offseason weddings and at $2000 for the rental it was pricey for us. Due to how small it was, you almost have to do a seated service if you are having more than 150 guests. If it had been bigger we still would have booked it, but combined with the owners poor response time and concerns about the size we decided to open up our search.
Lakefront Brewery - We actually did not even visit this venue. It booked out for my April wedding before we made it to town and it had been my #1 choice from online reviews, I was so bummed. Well after not being sold on our 2 venue choices I gave them a call and was told there was only 1 Saturday left form March-Nov 2012. Had my FMIL go visit and she liked the space, only peeves were the ugly chairs and entryway. All things we could live with. So we moved our wedding date to March 24. Still haven't seen it, but I am trusting, this many brides cant be wrong.
So overall, I am very happy so far with our choices. So glad we don't have to pick out a caterer. They were so expensive and made our Black Swan venue, look less and less appealing. Glad that is out of my hands, but I can't believe me the foodie has picked a wedding venue where I have never tasted the food.
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Let me know your thoughts Wisco knotties. Agree, disagree or any suggestions especially for DJ's.