Ceremony :  St James Catholic Cathedral--A

My daughter is a member of the church and Father Nick did an awesome job with the ceremony and their wedding coordinator was very helpful.  The only drawback with St. James is that they usually have 3 weddings or more every Saturday, and you have 1 hour for the service and you must be out of the church within 30 minutes after the ceremony, but we knew this prior to booking the church.  It was beautiful, stunning and a perfect Catholic wedding.  Elizabeth Jennings (organist) and Valerie Hall (soloist) were a delight to work with and made planning the music for the service easy and their recommendations were great.  Although it is a little expensive it is a beautiful and perfect wedding ceremony location.

Reception venue:  Highland Manor—A++

Wow! What can I say about Highland Manor except that they were truly exceptional.  When we were searching for a wedding reception venue, I was overwhelmed with the costs for wedding receptions in Orlando.  My daughter did not want the typical hotel reception, so many venues were ruled out because of that.  We had narrowed it down to Art Museum, History Center, Maison Jarden, and Dubsdread.  On the recommendation of a wedding planner we checked out Highland Manor and chose it because it offered a reasonable package, could accommodate the number of guests, and we had the venue to ourselves during the reception.   It also met her criteria for a “Victorian Rustic” themed wedding.

After meeting with David and Corey, I don’t think he realized how detailed oriented Katelyn and I were, but on our final walk through he understood how important it was to the two of us (we have been doing prom for our high school for over 10 years and to her details were very important).  When we arrived for dropping off the truck full of wedding décor, table cloths, etc, I think I overwhelmed him again but when he realized how everything was organized, he was pleased and looked forward to seeing it on Saturday night but I still worried that I should have paid someone to do all the details  But alas, I couldn’t be two placed at once so I left it in David’s hands.  When we arrived at Highland Manor on Saturday at 5 p.m. for cocktail hour, I was immediately met by David and given a tour of every little detail.  IT WAS PERFECTION to the MAX.  He understood Katelyn’s vision and it was perfect.  Katelyn and Ryan arrived a few minutes after David and I were talking and she was overjoyed!  She was so excited….her vision of pink was perfect!  They even finished directional chalkboard signs that I ran out of time to do.  They  paid attention to all the details that were there and made sure they were perfect.

We booked an extra hour with Highland Manor, with the option of going an additional hour if needed.  I think the extra hour was definitely needed.  We could have easily used the additional hour, but since transportation had been arranged we decided to only go the five hours. 

We were told that Katelyn and Ryan would have their own waiter throughout the evening…..and they did.  He was so attentive to their every need, making sure they had a drink at all times….made sure they ate dinner, and even tied Katelyn sash to her dress when she needed fixed.    The packed a box of food for them for the hotel, including their wedding cake, grooms cake, cookies from their cookie bar and candy from their candy bar.  The details to them were just as important to them as they were to us.

The wedding reception food was excellent, the guests were well served and enjoyed their experience.  The bar service was excellent and the servers were outstanding.   

So now I had over 60 boxes to be loaded back into the truck, their staff boxed everything up, loaded into the truck with an hour after the end of the reception, it was ready to go.  Outstanding service, friendly and courteous staff and my husband, Katelyn and Ryan and myself could not be more pleased with Highland Manor.    I would highly recommend Highland Manor for any event.

Flowers: Flowers by Leslie                      A++

Flowers were high on Katelyn’s list, not for the church but for the reception.  With 8 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen, 3 ring bearers, 1 junior bridesmaid, and 4 flower girls, there were enough flowers for the church in every bouquet.  However for the reception, Katelyn had four different patterns that she wanted to be repeated throughout the table scape.  Lesley did an outstanding job from the first time we met with her.  We gave her a budget and Katelyn was able to have all of the flowers she desired.  Lesley made sure all of the flowers were set properly at the venue, and returned at the end of the evening to help take down all of the items.  She was a delight to work with she repaired things when there were issues with one of the candelabras.    We had three meetings prior to the wedding and then she attended our final walk through with Highland Manor.  The flowers were beautiful, fresh and lasted over a week after the wedding and that was transporting them home twice after the wedding two hours away.  Lesley worked to see Katelyn’s wedding flowers a reality and made suggestions to help with the costs as needed.  I was delighted with her work and her friendly personality made working with her a positive point in Katelyn’s wedding. 

Cake:  Irma Kaye Strickler                       A+

I used a local baker from North Florida who we had used for our older daughters wedding and for a shower cake.  The venue was two hours from her home and she delivered a cake that was tasty and beautiful,  Katelyn and Irma Kay worked for over 4 hours on the design of her cake and when Katelyn arrived at the venue the cake was exactly as she had wanted.  Her cakes of scrumptious, beautiful, and reasonably priced for a wedding cake.  I would use Irma Kay for any of my cake needs.

Apollo Chariots— A – 

We used several vehicles from Josh at Apollo Chariots. 

1.    Stretch Limo for 5 hours for transportation to church, photos and reception—the driver was polite, courteous and on time.  He made sure everyone was safe and even paid attention to the weather when the bridal party was doing photos afraid that the bride might be caught in a thunderstorm.

2.    Mini Bus for 5 hours for transportation to the church, photos and reception.  The bus was nice and was what we needed to get a large wedding party around.  One thing as MOB I should have done was to be sure there was water and snacks on the bus, since there was such a long time between events.  We did have issues with the driver of the mini bus, but after contacting Josh at Apollo Chariots after the event, he took care of us properly adjusting our costs due to the issues with the driver. 

3.    Town Car for transit for Bride and Groom from reception to hotel after the wedding.  Excellent!  The driver was professional, polite and on time.  Katelyn and Ryan said they had excellent service.

4.    Van for transport for guests/wedding party from venue back to Floridays Resort.  The driver was polite, professional and courteous.  He arrived on time and delivered all of our guests/wedding party safely home from the reception.  We booked this last minute with Josh and he worked to get us the transportation we needed with excellence.

Photographer:  Wings of Glory/Nickole Woodyard                TBD

Nickole was a pleasure to work with and we think she got some great shots.  We expect to get a copy of the prints within the next few weeks and can review her work better then.  She was very accommodating to various budgets.  I can say that she did an outstanding job with their engagement pictures.  We hope she got lots of great shots because the weather did not cooperate with us!

Elegant Entertainment--  A

We were given Joseph’s name from our photographer and after meeting with several DJ’s booked him  We were pleased with his professionalism, his ability to keep the party moving and the quality of his work.  He was friendly and worked to play what guests requested.  Katelyn and Ryan gave him an extensive list of things they wanted played and he did a great job of making it happen!

Floridays Resort:                C

When we chose Floridays Resort 18 months ago we did so after an excellent stay and great service.  I hate to say that after our week of staying there for the wedding I was disappointed in the resort.   

1.  We had several mechanical issues in our room, that require our calling numerous times to the front desk to get addressed.  One included a water leak in a closet, the closet that the bridesmaids dresses and tuxes were in!  NO ONE ever came to check the issues even after three phone calls.   One of the mens clothes were left on the floor and were soak and wet in the morning, luckily the condo had a dryer or he would not have had clothes to wear.  

2.  The other mechanical issue was the outlets in the bathrooms would not reset.  My daughter called once about 7 a.m., I called about 11 a.m., but it took my husband calling at 11 p.m. to finally get someone to address the issue.    We tried the fuse box, but it didn't work, finally they came late at night and fixed it.

3.  We had a master account set up in our names and it was not to be charged on by anyone except my husband, my daughter or myself.  My brother in law was allowed to put several charges on it.  When we questioned it at check out, the manager argued with us, and we had to have her to pull the receipts to prove that they were not our charges.  Although it was less than 100 dollars, it bothered me that anyone could have put charges on our account.   My issue is that I believe that they thought he was us for the entire visit and that really is an issue because who else could have put charges on my account.  I have booked large conventions before at other Orlando hotels and this was a great disappointment that someone else was able to charge to the master account.  

 4.  The housekeeping staff was excellent, they brought needed towels and items whenever we asked. 

5.  Our reservations were mixed up prior to our arriving however, our event planner did work with us to adjust them correctly, thank you for doing this.

6.  We asked to be in the same building and our event planner did a great job at making sure this happened.  However, the location of our room was quite noisy, guests walking behind our condo were very loud even after 10 p.m. and banged on the rails that were outside our condo.    When we stayed there before we would not have known that there were any other people in the facility.

Hope I remembered everyone!  We had very positive experiences with all of our vendors.

Bev

Ceremony and reception venue: Leu Gardens A-

We were very happy with the location- the Rose Garden was a beautiful backdrop for the ceremony and the Camellia Room was perfect for our group (80 people).  The wedding contact person (Debbie) was very responsive to our emails and phone calls.  We were lucky to book an evening wedding in May less than a year in advance, as there was a cancellation.  Call early!  The only downside is the lack of flexibility with the timing and length of the reception.  So we had an afterparty at the hotel (with snacks/subs and the leftover alcohol) which was well attended.

Caterer: Arthur’s A

Easily the best food and service we found in the Orlando region.  We splurged on food as it was a top priority—we wanted to avoid the bland chicken buffet we all know and despise.  We did hors d’oeurvres and then 3 stations which fit our style of continuous eating, dancing, mingling, etc.  Delicious, high quality food and impeccable service.  Hayli was our contact person and was personable and helpful.  Would use Arthur’s again in a heartbeat.

Flowers: Vicki from Peddles A

Flowers were not on our high priority list, so we went with a budget choice.  Surprisingly, the flowers did not look low budget AT ALL.  Vicki did a tremendous job selecting beautiful flowers that fit our style and budget. 

Cake: Publix A

We ordered the specialty cupcake tiers with a couple of layers of cake on the top tier for us to cut at the wedding.  We didn’t taste the cake unfortunately (no time!), but based on previous Publix cake experiences, we trusted it turned out fine.

We had tasted some of the higher end cupcake places in the area before booking Publix, but none impressed us more than Publix cakes!  The baker at our local Publix  was very friendly and helpful.

Photographer: Jessica Leigh A+

DJ: White Rose B

We had some communication issues when coordinating what we wanted for the reception flow.  We wanted very little party interruptions (e.g., no bouquet toss, etc) and found some resistance initially from White Rose to do this.  You need to be very persistent with them if you do not want to go the traditional wedding reception route and tell them exactly how you want it instead.  Even just getting them to not announce us in a formal fashion (we were a part of the cocktail hour and wanted to welcome our guests ourselves) was a challenge. 

That being said, the DJ played the songs we wanted, was good at keeping the dancing going, and kept us on schedule.

DOC: Kristy Rapp A

Best advice we received about wedding planning: if you can’t afford a wedding planner, get a day of coordinator.  YES.  There were so many details Kristy thought of during our initial meetings that we would have easily missed without her.  The day of our wedding we didn’t worry about a thing—she had EVERY detail covered and more.   Everything went seamlessly thanks to Kristy and her assistant.

Officiant: Renee Silverman (A Lovely Ceremony) A

We had a hard time finding an officiant initially as we were not pleased with the styles offered by the rabbis in the area.  Our family found Renee and we were so happy with her- she was refreshing.  Renee is very flexible with what you might want to include in the service.  She will provide lots of options so you can customize your ceremony to your liking.  Renee is also very warm and felt like a member of our family.  Her service was loving, light, and perfect. 

Hair/Makeup: Meghann Davis A

Meghann was AWESOME.  She went above and beyond with major attention to every detail.  Everyone looked gorgeous.  Meghann also helped to personalize the bridal gown by adding elegant beadwork to the halter part.  She is super creative and has an eye of what will look good.  Meghann knows what she is doing and does it well.

Guest accommodations/afterparty venue: DoubleTree Downtown Orlando C

We had a big issue with the reservations.  After filling 15 rooms, they wouldn’t open up another block of rooms despite their promising that they would.  Thankfully we had an email saying as much, but they made us make all the remaining reservations within 6 hours that same day including providing credit card numbers, nights of stay, etc with no changes allowed to the reservations.  It was a massive pain and stressor but thankfully, it was the only negative part of the whole planning process. 

The hotel was sufficiently nice and somewhat convenient of a location- close to Leu Gardens but not walking distance to anything interesting.  The train goes right by the hotel so if you are a light sleeper, you will have a hard time there. 

Also, security kept bothering us during the afterparty (we booked a parlor suite for this).  Once we told them that we had about 30 rooms and we were in a parlor suite- meant for parties- they left us alone.

If you have a choice, go with another hotel.

Transportation: VIP Transportation Group B

On time and professional, but the driver got lost between Leu Gardens and the hotel which was 2 miles away.  All the turning and backtracking made one of us very carsick.