Connecticut — The Knot Community

I can't say enough about Vicki & Erik. They are a husband wife team and are so personable and friendly. They made my husband and I feel at ease the whole time and worked with us to get any shots that we wanted. Their pictures are classic, natural and soft. For our engagement pictures they travelled from Stratford to North Stonington to take them at Jonathan Edwards Winery. They spent well over two hours with us there. For the wedding, they worked with us on our timeline and gently encouraged us to do a first look, which I'm so glad we did. We had plently of time to get the photos we wanted without feeling rushed. Vicki & Erik were definitely a splurge for us but I couldn't be happier with the work that they did!

Chad Whelan Videography - A+

I had originally decided not to do a videographer because we splurged on the photography however my husband really wanted it. I tried to find the cheapest videographer I could find. I ended up finding a package by Chad where his wife was the shooter. It was a more traditional style of videogaphy and as our wedding day came closer, I sent Chad some videos showing him what I liked. He explained to me that we really couldn't get that with the package we booked and gave us the choice to upgrade, which we ended up doing. I'm so glad we did! I was nervous going into it because I never really put much effort into a search - I really just went with the cheapest one without looking at videos to compromise with my husband. However, I couldn't be happier with the teaser that he sent us and I can't wait to see our video!

Video teaser link: https://vimeo.com/47984009

Just For You Floral Design - A+

I literally could go on all day about Jane and how much I love her. She was probably my favorite vendor to work with. I am so appreciative of everything she did for us. We changed our colors and flowers numerous times since we began working with her and she was always so kind and helpful with every request I came to her for. She was always very responsive to my countless e-mails, asking her to identify flowers and if it was possible to use them and she was great to communicate with. She was absolutely willing to work with our budget and we ended up spending more than originally planned (close to double) because I really wanted David Austin roses and because we added a second mason jar to each of our centerpieces. It was absolutely worth the extra money in my opinion! I couldn't have dreamed that our flowers would look as good as they did. She did all of our bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, shepherds hook and flowers for the ceremony, and some extra flowers for the cocktail tables and some other random tables. She also provided moss squares to go under each one of the centerpieces. At the last minute our place cards came in different than I had expected so I e-mailed her and she was able to get extra moss squares to cover the place card table. I love the way it ended up looking. I'm actually trying to think of reasons why we would have to go back and work with her again!

Dynamic Sounds Entertainment - DJ - A+ (Westchester County, NY)
Our DJ is our very close family friend's nephew. He gave us a great price and worked with us to make sure that all the music we liked was played. Everyone has said it was one of the best weddings they have ever been to and I think a lot of that is because of the music. He did a great job of getting everyone on the dance floor and played a wide range of music, from country during cocktail hour (our request), to classic rock to more modern pop songs. The only slight problem was that the speeches & dances ended up happening a little later than planned. Our coordinator asked him a few times to start them but I ended up having to request it. It is kind of my fault though because the coordinator from the barns had told him not to play any music between courses and he asked me if he could. I told him that I trusted him and that he could do whatever he wanted/thought was good. I think he was just acting upon what I had told him. As soon as I asked for the speeches and dances, they were announced right after.

Kim's Cottage Confections - A+
She did a great job! The cake tasted wondeful - we used two flavors, double chocolate & red velvet. I gave her a picture of what I wanted and she did a beautiful job of recreating it. It was perfect for our wedding. We also used her for our groom's cake and she did a great job as well!

The White Dress by the Shore - A+

I bought my Modern Trousseau dress, veil and jewelry from TWD and also had my alterations done there. I had a great experience there - from the day I bought it to my accessories appointment to my fittings. Penny did my alterations and she did an awesome job! It was a sample so she had to take it in a decent amount and it looked great. There was also a part in between where my legs were that kept looking like a dark spot (I think because there was nothing behind it). Over the course of the alterations she added extra crinoline and lining to ensure that the dark spot would go away. Also, she sewed in a monogram for me that I had bought on etsy. Although Clinton was over an hour drive for me, I'm so glad I did the alterations there and wouldn't have trusted it to anyone else.

Naomi's Salon - Hair & Make-up - A +

I used Angela for my hair and Janice for my make-up. Both were very professional and did a great job! I had two trials with Angela but ended up using a completely different hairstyle the day of and it came out great. She was great to work with. I have an extraodinary amount of thick hair so while I really wanted a classic chignon, it was just too much and ended up giving me a headache. A few days before the wedding I sent her a different hairstyle and she was able to recreate it beautifully! Despite the heat (it turned out to be about 90-95 degrees that day) it held up pretty well! Janice also did a great job. I wanted to wear make-up but not look too done up that I didn't look like myself. She did a great job of keeping it natural and classic but also looking more than what I do everyday. Both Janice & Angela were very responsive through e-mail and had great communication!

Gateway Limo- A+

They arrived on time and were very friendly and professional. We hired them to do 4 runs before the wedding from the Inn to the Barns and then for them to pick my husband and I up after our sparkler exit. They also ended up going back to the Barns after they dropped us off to pick up my parents and the rest of the bridal party even though that was not what we had contracted them to do. Thank goodness they did because the bus never returned to pick them up!

First Student - B+

We used first student as our shuttle for our guests. There was a mix-up and I'm not sure if it is due to the Inn or the bus itself but from what I understand they only ended up making one run from the Inn to the Barn before the wedding. We had 47 rooms booked at the Inn so I am sure that there were more guests who wanted to take the shuttle but ended up not being able to.

The Inn at Middletown - B+

Overall, we had a good experience with them. We had a lot of guests staying at the Inn - we had 47 rooms booked. Two things I wasn't happy about - I heard from some people that they didn't get our OOT bags. There was also one for me (I didn't know) that was never given to me when I checked in. My parents picked it up because they saw it behind the counter and it said Whitney (Bride). Also, they had me fill out a survey for them before with information regarding shuttles, etc. One question was if you had a shuttle and when does it run? I wrote that it would run from 3:30-11:30 because we had it for a block of hours. They told our guests that there was only one shuttle run and it was at 3:30 so many ended up driving to The Barns. I'm not sure whether it was the shuttles fault or the Inn's fault because from what I know the bus never returned to the Inn. The rooms were very nice though and they were helpful and accommodating.

Gray Cloud Print - Stationary - via etsy - A
http://www.etsy.com/shop/GrayCloudPrint?ref=pr_shop_more

We used Anna for all of our wedding stationary - our STDs which included an accomdations card, our invitations which included invites, response card, reception card, directions card and accommodations card, our rehearsal dinner invites, our menus, programs, favor stickers, OOT bag stickers & inserts for the OOT bags, and thank you cards. We even used her for my bridal shower invitations, favor tags & thank you cards. She did a great job! In the beginning I emailed her with an invitation suite I found in Southern Living Weddings magazine. From that inspiration, she created our custom wedding logo that we used throughout our stationary. For our invitations, I told her that I wanted our suite to have the same theme but for the cards to look different. Based on my vague description, she came up with an awesome suite! I loved them! There was a hiccup or two along the way but she always came through and corrected anything that was wrong in an extremely quick manner. She was wonderful to work with and had great communication.

Calligraphy - Rachel Carl Co. - B+
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachelCarl?ref=shop_sugg

We used Rachel for our calligraphy on our STDs & invitations as well as for our place cards. I shopped around and she had some of the best prices I found. When we first started with her I think her business was smaller and still developing. As it got closer to our wedding, she seemed to get busier and a little bit spread too thin. She did a beautiful job and I loved her calligraphy! We used white ink on kraft paper envelopes and it went perfectly with our theme. However, she did make some mistakes that caused a lot of stress. Our invitations were already late going out and when I got the envelopes back from her, I realized she forgot to do 2 pages of addresses that we gave to her. For our place cards, I wanted them to be on small, flat cards so that I could hole punch them and tie them around our honey jars for our favors. She had this as an example on her etsy site, only tied around a teacup. When they arrived (late because there was a miscommunication about when they should be returned) they were on tented cards. In the end, I'm so glad for the mistake but I love the way we ended up displaying them but it stressed me out at first. Overall, she did a great job but it did get to be hard to deal with the occasional mistakes.

Decor - The Funky Shack via etsy - A
http://www.etsy.com/shop/thefunkyshack?ref=pr_shop_more

We used The Funky Shack for a lot of our wedding decor. They were awesome, especially for a barn wedding! We got burlap runners, barn wood chalkboard table numbers, our barn wood cake stand, our barn wood and chalkboard card box, several barn wood chalkboard frames and several barn wood picture frames. They were great to communicate with and very helpful, even getting some frames with just days to go! They were willing to work with me on custom orders as she has a carpenter she uses who can make most things. I'll be selling several of the pieces from them so if anyone is interested, let me know!