Venue: The Chapel at Ana Villa We got great prices because we booked only 4 months before the wedding. We did morning/brunch time slot on Saturday. It was very beautiful. They are definitely a wedding business and since they can do 4 weddings per day, you don't really feel special or like they pay much attention to you- which was something I didn't like. You are just one of a million other brides they are working with. Another thing I didn't like was the very short timeline for the morning reception. We only had 8:30AM - 2:00 PM to setup, pictures, ceremony, reception, and tear-down. It was TOO RUSHED! I didn't have time to say hi to my guests or really take it all in. Wish we had a few more hours.
Caterer: Bread Winners Cafe
They were very very helpful during the planning process. They assign you someone who works with you the whole time and we did probably 10 different edits to the menu until it was finalized. They were very patient with me and answered all my questions quickly. The food was amazing, especially the pies! We got so many compliments. I have no regrets about using them! Definitely worth spending a little extra!
Florist: Mia Fiori
She doesn't usually do weddings, but agreed to do mine because of my unique urban/succulent theme. She was very nice and gave me a very good price for the whole thing. I gave her complete creative freedom to do whatever she wanted with the flowers/plants. This I regret, because she had a panic-attack at the wedding while setting up. She yelled at my guests who were trying to help, and she didn't stick to the color scheme I gave her. In the end everything looked very nice, but it wasn't what I envisioned and it was not along the guidelines I gave her. Wish I had been much more specific and asked exactly what she was planning along the way.
Musician: Chris Richter
He is a guitarist we found on iTunes and then ended up finding him on CraigsList and decided to hire him to perform live instead of using his itunes recordings. He was great and learned a new song that I requested to walk down the aisle. He was very nice and easy to work with. Very talented!
Photographer: Rebekah Maynard
She is a friend of a friend of a friend. I didn't personally know her but saw her photography on Facebook. She brought along another photographer to help her, which I was not expecting, but was amazing! I haven't seen the pictures yet but hoping for the best! She was very nice and easy to work with. She did not respond to messages though, so I felt a little stressed about that leading up to the wedding.