Hi everyone! My wedding was Oct 18, and I wanted to post a few reviews of my vendors in case it helps other central PA brides out there. I definitely appreciated the advice and recommendations I received on this board!
Flowers - Weddings and Blooms: Leah owns the business in downtown Mechanicsburg, and she was so nice. Our flowers looked great, and it was easy to make payments online (I'm a long-distance bride, so that was a huge help). Our final cost for flowers was quite a bit over our initial budget (total budget went from $1800 to $2500) due to some miscommunication. But in the end, they were gorgeous. I dried my bouquet to put in a shadow box. :-)
Cake - Couture Cakery: Jasmine is awesome. I really think you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to get your wedding cake. Her cakes and fillings are delicious and not overly sweet. My husband is not a big fan of cake, and he really liked hers. We had an issue with our cake design about 5 days before the wedding, and she had to scrap it completely. We picked a new design (a hybrid of one in her shop on display and one we saw online), and it was beautiful! Everyone raved about our cake. Definitely set up a tasting early because she books really far in advance!
Reception Venue - West Shore Country Club: We had a rough start with our venue. We booked them in the summer of 2013 based on some recommendations from family friends, and the manager had been there for ages. My parents are not members, but the club can provide a list of members to sponsor your event. Well, in January 2014 the catering manager abruptly left and didn't notify us. It took about a month of constant e-mails to find out what happened, and finally his replacement sent me an e-mail. Then the replacement decided that her commute was too long and didn't want to work weekends (really?) and abruptly left. Finally they promoted Jenna from within, and she was wonderful (and has no plans to go anywhere!). She had great ideas, provided other vendor recommendations, and worked with us to completely customize our menu. We had a great time with her! I'd definitely recommend the club for an upscale, yet surprisingly reasonably priced, reception.
Transportation - Unique Limousine: My husband did most of the coordination with them, but they were so straight-forward and easy to work with. We had a stretch limo for pictures with the bridal party, town car at the end of the night just for us to leave to go to the hotel (that was later upgraded to a limo for free), and shuttle buses to transport our guests from the hotel to the church, then from the church to the reception, and from the reception back to the hotel. We sent them our final schedule of events about a week out before the wedding, and everything was right on time. All the drivers were so polite and professional! We got a lot of quotes from limo companies, and Unique's prices were very competitive. They were worth every cent for peace of mind.
Music - Uptown Band: Erich from the Uptown Band is awesome! We actually had to beat out another couple to book them (they had a block on our date 16 months out!), and it was so worth it. It seemed like a ton of money initially, and I was second-guessing my decision right up to the end. However, they totally kept the party going! People stayed until the very end, dancing and having fun. We received so many compliments from our guests. Even my aunt and uncle from NJ were asking where we found them because they loved the group. They learned 2 songs for us (La Vie En Rose for our first dance, and Fathers & Daughters for the dance with my dad), and they were awesome. I even arranged to play my sax with the band as a surprise for my husband, and they totally pulled it off with me! I wouldn't hesitate to hire them again for a future event!
Photographer - Genevieve Leiper: Genevieve is based in Leesburg VA, so she was our only "local" vendor to where I actually live. She probably is too far away for most brides here to consider, but she was amazing. She's so relaxed in her approach, and I absolutely love our engagement pictures. She kept me sane on my wedding day (especially when some of the groomsmen were a little tipsy during photos and didn't want to listen to directions....), and I can't wait to see our wedding pictures!
I think that's it! If I think of any other vendors, I'll add them. I hope this helps some other brides!