Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh — The Knot Community

Handmade/Personal Bridal Belts/Garter

dugassa08 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:49:39 +0000

Hi! I am looking to have a belt made to wear with my wedding gown that matches my engagement ring. My gown is a plain ivory lace blank canvas and I love it! It is very form-fitting, sweetheart neckline, and I am really looking to add just that one special extra touch. My fiancé picked out my ring without any of my input, and I love it! Also, if possible I wanted to make a semi-matching garter belt! Does any recommend someone I can work with to get this belt/garter made? The wedding is in September, so there is plenty of time (or so I keep telling myself).

Thanks!

Dress Sale This Weekend

natashagabrielle — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:58:29 +0000

I heard part of an advertisment on the radio yesterday morning about a dress sale this weekend in Pittsburgh. Does anyone know where this is being held?

Bridesmaid Robe Alternatives?

ars100 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:30:34 +0000

Hey guys,

I like the idea of having my bridesmaids look uniform while getting ready. I like the robe idea, but I'm having a hard time finding ones I like that aren't too expensive. I was thinking about maybe getting a monogrammed pullover sweater that has the half zipper down the front. Is that enough of an opening to take off without messing up hair and make-up?

What other robe alternatives are there for getting ready?

Wedding Day Timeline

lfell — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:31:51 +0000

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have their timeline for the day of ready? I just booked our officiant and he was inquiring about what time to start the ceremony. Our wedding is on a Sunday and we have to be out of the reception area at 830pm.. the latest would be 9, but I want to do 830pm to be safe. Ceremony and reception is at the same location so we don't have to worry about people having to drive to a different place. Does anyone have any suggestions on what time we should start the ceremony? I'm thinking the ceremony will be 30-45 max. Thanks!

What to do with the dress?

jam+1231 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:03:57 +0000

Hi ladies. its been a few months since the wedding and I am trying to figure out what to do with my dress. I know i need to at least have it cleaned before i do anything else with it (ie, have it made into a christening gown or something like that) so for those of you who have had your weddings already or who already know what they will do with their dress after the wedding, do you have any recommendations for places to clean them? four seasons dry cleaners looks to be the best option for me right now, in squirrel hill. i bought my dress at michael's bridal galleria and will contact them to see what they offer for it as well. but any other thoughts are appreciated! thanks!

Budget/outdoorsy wedding

[Deleted User] — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:13:04 +0000

Does anyone have any ideas on a low budget but classy wedding venue in or around the Pittsburgh area? We are keeping the wedding to a minimum of 100 guests. Also, any ideas on ways to save money elsewhere? I don't think we want to skimp on music and photography though. Any ideas welcome;.

DJ Bill Lemon

egrasso — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:17:11 +0000

Hello Pittsburgh Area Brides and Brides-to-Be,

Has anyone out there used DJ Bill Lemon? His company is Disc Inferno and he is currently associated with Easy DJ Productions?

Any input will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Ring Sizing Recommendation

MarksFavoriteGirl — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:32:01 +0000

My boyfriend (now fiancee) proposed to me this past Thursday. My ring is absolutely beautiful, the only problem was that he got it two sizes too big for my finger!
He didn't buy it from a regular jewelry store, so I had to go somewhere else to get it sized. I had heard some good things about the "Fast Fix" in the Ross Park Mall. I was hesitant because of bad reviews that I read online, but was crazy enough to give them a try anyway.
Fortunately, I am incredibly pleased with the work they did. I got my ring back in about an hour and it looked great. It was still a little big, and they took it back the next day to size it down another half size for me for free.
I was really happy with the work that was done and highly recommend them to anyone else with a similar problem.

Date is set!

Tampgh — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:32:06 +0000

*Sigh! Huge sigh of relief. May 31 - 2014. It is a long engagement (we got engaged in November) but with the holidays and finding the perfect location for me, it took us awhile to set! And I know the next year is going to go very fast!

Alex's Flowers In Oakland- References, Feedback, Experience w?

Jessicaleigh0730 — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:40:45 +0000

Hello Ladies- I am on the hunt for the perfect florist. I recently met with Alex's Florist in Oakland, and I think they would be great to work with. Has anyone used them, known anyone who has used them or seen their work first hand? And if so, what were your first impressions of their work?

Any input would be so helpful! The florist part is proving to be difficult for me to decide.

Thank you!

Latrobe/Greensburg Wedding Indoor Wedding Ceremony Venue

skozak13 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:35:20 +0000

Any ideas for an indoor venue in the the Latrobe/Greensburg area to host a wedding ceremony? It would be beautiful to get married in an old church, but neither my fiance and I are religious and don't belong anywhere. I'm not really looking to join a church either. We need something fairly inexpensive too. We found a hall that we like, but it doesn't have anywhere to have an indoor ceremony. Are there any chapels around? Churches that will rent out to non-members? Any help is appreciated!

Armstrong Farms

hipskip01 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:23:16 +0000

Any other brides out there who picked Armstrong Farms as their venue?? Just curious how your planning is going. I feel like my todo list is never ending!

Makeup Application at Ulta

KSerafin17 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:45:48 +0000

Hello Ladies. I was considering getting my makeup done at Ulta for my e-pics. I have a makeup artist booked for the wedding, but I didnt want to spend $65 on an application from her for the e-pics when Ulta is only $30. Does anyone have any experiences with the Ulta in either Monroeville or The Waterfront for makeup application? Thanks!

21 Moments

aboyer42 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:38:50 +0000

Has anyone used them?

Day of Beauty Timeline

soccerharry — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:42:43 +0000

I'm book a seperate onsite MUA and hair person in the Strip District, and they will be doing my hair and make up alone. I'm looking at a 2pm ceremony time in the North Hills, so what time should I tell them come, and what should get done first?

Thanks!

New to the boards and want to say Hello

Cant wait to be Mrs Mike — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:00:47 +0000

My sister used this site for most of her wedding planning 5 years ago so I am looking forward to the help from all of you. Just getting started and have a ways to go but so anxious to nail some stuff down. Can't wait to post some more.

Vendor Reviews for January 26, 2013 Wedding

manjermj — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 22:34:48 +0000

Our wedding was amazing! We had a couple of small hiccups throughout the day, but overall every single thing was perfect! Here's a VERY long post with our reviews. Rehearsal Dinner - The Original Fish Market, Pat Lisanti Grade: A+ Since our out of town guests were staying at the Westin, it made the most sense to hold our rehearsal dinner here. The food was great and the staff was very nice and accommodating. We couldn't have asked for anything better. Church - Saint Paul Cathedral, Jean Hartman Grade: A We brought our own Priest, so I can't comment on how the Cathedral works with that. They do lay out all of the paperwork needed/payments made in their welcome packet. Jean ran the rehearsal flawlessly. The only hiccup was that supposedly our Priest was to contact the Diocese to fill out a few questionnaires with my husband and I. We had no idea about this, but immediately after our rehearsal Jean took us to her office and we were able to complete them there. It took about 20 mins and frustrated us since we didn't have a clue this was to be done, but it got done. The cathedral is gorgeous! Reception - Carnegie Music Hall Foyer, Eileen Twigger, Liza Reed Grade: A Before we were even engaged we knew we wanted our reception at the Music Hall. It is soooo gorgeous and grand. We toured the day after we were engaged with Eileen and booked our date. After that, Liza was our main contact. She was awesome and so organized. They made it easy. The day of the wedding was amazing. We had 2 slight hiccups with that they didn't have the lights on in the Hall of Sculptures for photos (we requested this beforehand) so we had to wait for the maintenance man to show up and then after dinner when the dancing started, they couldn't get the lights dimmed. I had to ask 4 times for them to turn down the lights until they finally got it. Other than those 2 slight issues, it was perfect and beautiful. It wowed our guests. Caterer - Parkhurst Catering, Bill Jones, Allison Hines Grade: A++ The music hall only has 1 caterer choice and they were awesome. Bill and Allison were so accommodating. My husband is stationed in California and they were more than amazing with working with our crazy schedule to arrange our tasting. The food was delicious! We wanted to have every we tasted at the wedding, but ended up with the stuffed chicken with mushroom cream sauce and beef tenderloin as our entrees. Both were mouth watering. They also do your cake as it is included in the price of catering. Alice is the baker and is so cute and sweet. We ended up with a 5 tier chocolate cake with praline filling and buttercream frosting. Photographer - Beth Insalaco, Beth and Sam Grade: TBD Beth and Sam are a husband and wife team. They were so very nice! I can't grade the, yet since we haven't seen our photos, but from what I can tell, they will be amazing. They both laid low and we barely knew they were there all day, yet they took thousands of photos! DJ - Klicker Productions, Sarah and Dan Grade: A+++ Sarah and Dan were perfect. They are very reasonably priced, made it so easy to plan with their online form and about 2 weeks before the wedding, I met with them in their home to finalize everything. The day of the wedding they were incredible. Dan does all the announcing. He kept the dance floor packed all night and even after the last song of the night, when everyone started chanting "one more song", he actually played one more song for us! Lol It made our night. Florist - K.S. Kennedy, Kerry Grade: A+++ Kerry is absolutely amazing!!!!!! He worked with my budget and created an absolute dream for our bouquets and reception center pieces. I just gave him my favorite flowers, some basic idea of what I wanted and he created it exactly how I envisioned it. So so so beautiful! Limo - A Tortorice Limousine Grade: A+ Our driver, Denny, was great! He was 15 mins early to pick up me and the girls, drove us everywhere we needed to go and made it back to pick up the boys in time and got us to the reception with time to spare. Since it was snowy and slushy, he even wiped off the door every time we got in and out to make sure no ones dresses. Shuttles - Pittsburgh Transportation Group Grade: A+ We arranged for shuttles to take hotel guests to church, then the reception then they ran a loop from the reception to the hotel from 9:30-10:30pm then made one final trip back to pick up us and the rest of the guests around 11pm. Everything ran so smoothly and the drivers were very nice and polite. Invitations - DIY, Cards and Pockets Grade: A+ Cards and pockets paper and products are great quality. We would definitely use them again. Calligrapher - LMM Calligraphy, Tracy Grade: A+ Tracy was great! Her work is beautiful. Our guests loved the invitations! Favors - Sarris Candies Grade: A+++ Great, easy to work with and reasonably price. We had 2.25 ounce milk chocolate snowflakes. yummy! Dress/alterations - Michaels Bridal, Yolanda Grade: A+ Yolanda was awesome! My dress was perfect and the alterations made it fit like a glove. She worked wonders on altering the neckline and re working the beading. Hair - Philip Pelisi Ross Park Mall Grade: A+ All of the girls and my mom got our hair done here at 10am the day of the wedding. We all had separate appointments so were in and out in the same amount of time. We all loved our hair and the price is very reasonable! Accommodations - Westin Convention Grade: A+ The Westin was great. We had no issues and everyone loved their rooms. They even handled my welcome bags perfectly.

Ceremony help!

curlgirl113 — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:45:57 +0000

Hello everybody! I'm looking for a nice place for our ceremony. FI and I aren't really interested in a church and are a little stumped. Would like it somewhere between the North hills and Pgh Mills mall, but we are open to suggestions a little outside that area. This would hopefully be September 2014, but being far in the future means we haven't chosen a venue yet... any ideas are welcome! Thanks in advance :

Wedding Planning Vendor

jhdancer — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:53:15 +0000

Hi girls! I got married in State College, but wanted to post a vendor review on this board since they are based in Pittsburgh. I used the girl who now owns Penn Events for my wedding. She was great to work with and has now made her business "official" so her prices are a lot more affordable than many other planners in the area! They do things like candy buffets but also full planning. I gave her a review to post on her new website, but wanted to share it here as well. www.penneventsllc.com

Weddings can be overwhelming for brides when you think of all of the things you need to do. Just when you think you did everything, you realize there are that many more things to do. Chelsea went above and beyond to make sure that I never had this feeling. She started by recommending great venues that could accommodate our needs with an out-of-town wedding. Once the venue was set she helped to find a way to tie all of our ideas together to create our picture perfect wedding! She even designed and created favors that would send our guests home with a keepsake from our day! Throughout the whole process, she kept us informed and provided those little insights and details I would have never thought of on my own. I can’t thank her enough for all of the work she did to make my wedding the best day of my life!

Also, if anyone has any questions about getting married in State College, feel free to ask me:)

city park wedding

jolene118 — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:19:12 +0000

My fiance and I are looking for innexpensive outdoor wedding venues in the Pittsburgh area. Ideally we'd love to have our wedding at a barn-type setting, but so far all the ones we've looked at have been a bit expensive. We havent set a budget yet exactly, but I know that it will definitely be on the low end of things. We are likely paying for it ourselves with possibly (hopefully) a little bit of help from my dad (but it probably won't be much.) So right now we are just trying to get an idea of things. We're hoping to get married in October 2013.

One of the options we were considering was to have it at one of the Pittsburgh parks - like Schenley or Mellon. My fiance and I both grew up outsde of the city and honestly have never explored the parks in Pittsburgh much. So I was wondering, does anybody have suggestions on what parks in Pittsburgh would be best? Do any of the shelters have the setup to host the reception as well? Also, I've heard that theres a lottery of some sort to reserve a park or shelter - is anyone familiar with that process?

Thank you for any input :)

Ceremony w/ guests seated at their tables?

offbeat9 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:13:26 +0000

Has anyone seen this done? My family is suggesting this so that we don't have to rent/set up a ton of extra chairs for our short outdoor ceremony. The tables at the venue are 16ft long picnic tables that I can arrange any way I want. We will have between 8-10 tables.

I like the idea because I won't have to spend money on chairs that will be used for 30 mins tops but not completely sold on it... I can't see how there will be an 'aisle' or how photos will look. Any suggestions from anyone who did this or has seen it done?

Candy Buffet

steff308 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:46:19 +0000

Hi Ladies!

I am planning a graduation party and not sure where to search for candy for a candy buffet. I did not have one at my wedding, so any suggestions would be appreciated!

Vendor Beware!

bcorvia81 — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 01:40:03 +0000

So I'm living in Virginia, but it's a possibility that I'm going to be planning my wedding in Pittsburgh (I'm from the 'Burgh, but recently moved down here). I just wondered if anyone on here has a vendor beware list in/around the Pittsburgh area? Planning a wedding from far away is going to be difficult, so I want to be sure and cover all my bases. Thanks!

Hair salons that travel on-site (Barn at Fallingwater)

meghandiann — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:53:51 +0000

Does anyone have any recommendations for hair stylists that will travel to do hair for myself and my bridesmaids?

I'm getting married at the Barn at Fallingwater in August and we're staying at Seven Springs, but they don't do hair and didn't offer any suggestions. I'm worried I may have to drive to Pittsburgh that morning and then drive back to get my hair done!

Thanks for your help!

The Standard group

hannahj0 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:14:06 +0000

Hi! I'm sure my fellow pittsburgh bridettes receieved the same email about this group. Has anyone used them??

Do you get what you pay for or do they produce what they say - good quality for a lower price? I'm from OOT so won't really get a chance to meet them at a bridal show or anything like that, but I'm really trying to find a cheaper photographer. The photos on their site look good but I understand with a group like that you don't always know who you're gonna get and what their work is actually like.

Thanks for any reviews!

Budget brides??

BonBon118 — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:45:09 +0000

I am desperately searching for a venue that isn't going to cost half our budget! We are trying to plan our wedding as cheaply as possible, because neither of us can bring ourselves to spend $24K on a wedding. But so many places are looking to get 3K for the day...good grief! I am the ultimate budget shopping queen (just bought my wedding gown new for $200--saving over 1,000!), so I can't wrap my mind around paying that much for a venue. Anyone else a budget bride, or former budget bride with tips?

Treating your girls instead of vice versa (no bach party)

offbeat9 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:46:28 +0000

Tell me if I'm being crazy!

It's been really important to me to keep my wedding costs low. I am also trying to keep it low for my friends, especially many of us are in more than 1 upcoming wedding. I've literally not followed one normal wedding tradition so I figured why stop now.

I'm not a party girl and I really wouldn't be ok with them spending a ton on a bachelorette party - which I know they will because it's been done for pretty much all of my friends. Instead of a bachelorette party, I'd really prefer host something FOR my girls... to thank them for everything and spend an evening with them before I'm hitched. I do not see this as planning my own bachelorette party because that's not what I would call it. If you were a bridesmaid, would you be upset with a bride who wanted this?

PS. I'm thinking of this as a gift, in lieu of giving them a clutch or shoes or things like that which bridesmaids get as gifts. But also in place of a bach party because it will still be an evening we hang out... which is the point of a bach party right.

Photo Booth/Florist/Transportation/Hair

ashlea30 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:32:57 +0000

Just wanted to chek and see if anyone has any experience with a few vendors. I went to a bridal show last weekend and I won a few discounts from some vendors I don't have any references on. Photo Booth - Fairytale Photo/Video Flowers - City Stems Transportation - Shamrock Limousine Hair - A Sense of Eden Salon & Spa

Wedding Dress Alterations

hethafeather86 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:38:59 +0000

Hi Ladies! I recently purchased a wedding dress from a discount shop in Boston and will be having it shipped to Pittsburgh to get the alterations done.... the only problem is I need to find a seamstress I can trust!!

Alterations should be minor - cups, bustle, and considering adding some stitched in "bling"!

Any suggestions on seamstresses would be great! I live in Shadyside but am willing to travel anywhere within the greater Pittsburgh area.

Thank you!!!

Pluma in Irwin

weightkm — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:44:51 +0000

Anybody have any experience there? We are thinking of booking for our reception. Any advice? Know of any other great venues/vendors nearby?