Hi Gals, I did not post much, but I always thought that the wedding reviews were extremely helpful. We had some awesome vendors, so I wanted to share our experience. Some of my vendors were out of Boston and some were out of Rhode Island, so I will post to both boards. Please feel free to contact me with any questions: ABAHwedding@gmail.com.
Snap! Photography [Photographer Extraordinaire]: A+/Highly Recommend!!http://snapweddings.blogspot.com/ The photographer was the most important vendor for me, and Snap! DID NOT disappoint. They are absolutely fantastic, and I also just really like them as people. They rock. The morning of my wedding was a bit stressful, and as soon as Mariah showed up I felt better (like an old trusted friend just arrived). Mariah helped me create a detailed timeline for all of the pictures for the day, which was extremely helpful. She also gave advice on vendors and all things Rhode Island throughout the planning process. We love all of their photographs! (including our engagement pics and the highlights from our wedding). We are currently up on their blog under: “Alison + Alex at Blithewold Mansion”
Fade and Focus [Videographer]: A/Highly Recommend based on everything leading up to the wedding and day-of , BUT I’m awaiting the final producthttp://www.fadeandfocus.com/ I knew I wanted a videographer, and I liked Fade and Focus’s style. Matt is such a genuinely nice guy, and it was just really great to have him around the day of the wedding. He had an assistant too, so someone was able to be with us throughout the day, as well as film all the ‘details’ shots.
Madeline’s Daughter [Bridal Gown Store]: A/Highly Recommend Portsmouth, NH ~
http://www.madeleinesdaughter.com/ I loved my consultant, Juhree. I went into the store after trying on lots of dresses. I knew exactly what I wanted but hadn’t found it yet (I wanted: modified A-line, all lace, sweetheart neckline). She quickly found a dress that had all the components that I wanted, but didn’t have lace on the top of the dress. With her guidance, I ordered the dress with a yard of extra lace, and had a seamstress add the lace later. I love my dress.
Sabella Couture [Bridal Gown Alterations]: A+/Highly Recommendhttp://www.sabellacouture.com/ These ladies were a godsend. They meticulously added the lace to the top of my dress, created a custom veil with lace from my mother’s gown, as well as a million other details. The only downside was that I had to go in for lots and lots of fittings and appointments, but it was all worth it.
Blithewold Mansion, Gardens, and Arboretum [Ceremony & Reception Venue]: A/Highly Recommend Bristol, Rhode Island~
http://www.blithewold.org/ Blithewold is breathtaking, especially with beautiful weather and if you can appreciate all of their gardens, grounds, and water views. We luckily had phenomenal weather, so we were able to appreciate our venue to the fullest. Blithewold only allows one wedding at a time, so we had the whole mansion and grounds to ourselves. Blithewold recently started a strict new policy about when the bridal party is allowed to arrive at Blithewold before the ceremony (now only one hour prior). Luckily we signed our contract before this new policy, and we were able to arrive an hour and a half before the ceremony to roam the gardens and grounds for pictures. It would have been impossible for us to take all the pics we wanted before the wedding if we were only allowed to arrive an hour before the wedding. Our contact person was Karen at Blithewold (who is known as not being the friendliest), but this did not really impact us. Plus, on the wedding day, there were other Blithewold staffers that were there for the entirety of the event, and they were great (it might have made me feel a bit better to get to meet these ‘day-of-Blithewold-staffers’ before the wedding, but was not necessary). Overall, I feel very fortunate to have had our wedding ceremony and reception in such a picturesque location with gorgeous gardens and water views.
Russell Morin Fine Catering [Food & Cake/Dessert Buffet]: A/Highly Recommend The food was excellent and the service was great. We chose to have a buffet to cut costs, and they efficiently moved everyone through the buffet line. We worked for months with Allie, and then they switched our coordinator 2 weeks before the wedding, which was a bit stressful. Luckily I had met the new coordinator during a previous meeting. Allie and Alicia (the 2 coordinators that I worked with) are both really nice and were great resources for advice throughout the planning process. Everything went very smoothly on the day-of. We are currently being charged a little more than we had anticipated, which has been annoying, since we had been told that we had zeroed out our balance. BUT overall-you never regret going with Russell Morin.
Golden Gate Florist [Flowers & Tent Decorations]: B+/Recommend with ReservationsBouquets: This was a tough one for me and the one major thing that did not go as planned. Golden Gate did a beautiful job at my friend’s wedding, so I booked them without even meeting with other florists. My original meeting was not with Jay, although I met with him before the wedding. At the original meeting, I told the woman explicitly (including showing her a drawing) that I did not want a tiered bouquet (just was not my thing). At all my meetings, I showed picture examples of bouquets that I wanted for both me and my bridesmaids. Fast forward to the wedding day-- they were late to the Bed & Breakfast, and then when they showed up, the bouquets were tiered and not really what I had described. To make the bouquets less tiered, they ended up cutting all the roses down in height on the bridesmaids’ bouquets. All in all---the flowers were pretty, but not what I had asked for.
Centerpieces and tent decorations: I bought and put together the hurricane vases, sand, shells, and candles for the centerpieces. Golden Gate created the wreath around the vase. They were great and what I had asked for. The tent decorations were over a hundred LED-lit paper lanterns. They were a fun touch, and Golden Gate’s pricing was much more reasonable than other tent decorators that I had contacted.
Night Rhythm [Band]: A+/Highly Recommend They kept the dance floor packed the whole night—everyone including my aunt and uncle who NEVER dance at weddings were up and shaking their thing! They also accomodated a special request for my husband to get on stage and sing with the band to his favorite song. They are very professional- their manager, Daniel, is a very serious guy and makes sure the band sticks with their contract’s rules and requests.
Silver Fox Charter Bus [Guest Transportation]: A+/Highly Recommend We used the charter buses for transportation for most of our guests, as well as to bring family early to the venue. There were multiple trips at different times, and everyone arrived on time! They were very good with communication and very flexible, especially during the weeks leading up to the wedding when we had to change times around. Their prices were also I believe the best we found.
Rockstar Limo [Bridal Party Transportation-Trolley and Town Car]: A- /Recommend Leading up to the wedding, they were not always the best with communication/being flexible, especially when we had to change around times in the weeks leading up to the wedding. When my husband called, they just seemed annoyed with our requests (not the best customer service). However, on the actual wedding day, the drivers were awesome and everything went smoothly and on schedule.
Jaime Nelson/Eventfully Planned [Day-of-Coordinator]: A+/Highly Recommendhttp://www.eventfullyplanned.com/ I decided to hire a day-of-coordinator for peace of mind, and that is exactly what Jaime did. My mom passed away when I was younger, so I felt like if something went wrong or if there was a question that had to be answered, it was all on me on the wedding day---Jaime took on this role for me. She went with me to my final meeting with my caterer, and took ALL my do-it-yourself projects/decorations off my hands the week of the wedding. She also created a ridiculously detailed timeline, got my bridal party organized for the day, made sure that everything was running on track, and put all the little details/decorations in place. She did all these things seamlessly. It just worked. I know that I will never truly know how valuable she was, because things JUST WENT smoothly with her there, but I know that I would have felt a real strain without her. There are so many little details and logistics to plan and coordinate for a wedding, and I am so glad that I hired someone to make sure that everything was executed according to my vision.
Marriott Downtown Providence [Hotel Room Block/Brunch the Day After]: A/Highly Recommend http://www.marriottprovidence.com/ They gave us a great rate, the guests were impressed with the quality of the hotel, everyone received their welcome baskets, and it ended up being just a fun place to hang out. [Our guests had booked about 70 rooms for that weekend]. After the rehearsal dinner, we all hung out in the cool outdoor poolside patio/bar area. We had a brunch there the day after the wedding, and gave our guests vouchers. The vouchers/brunch was a little more complicated than it needed to be, and the restaurant would not allow us to reserve an area of the restaurant for us to congregate (so we were all scattered sitting throughout the restaurant). But, having the brunch at the hotel made it very convenient for everyone, so we were able to see just about everyone that stayed at the hotel the next morning, which was such a nice treat.
Waterman Grille, Providence [Rehearsal Dinner]: A+/Highly Recommend It was a beautiful setting (we had the downstairs room/bar to ourselves) with great food. The room is surrounded on 3 sides with windows with water views of the river. They were flexible about pricing, and they were easy to communicate with. Great ambiance, too. Perfect for our rehearsal dinner.
JB Ink. Invitations: A/Highly Recommendhttp://www.jbink.com/ Joan is a graphic designer that helps you customize your invitations (and then they get sent off for printing). She works with a few different invitation companies. I talked to Joan A LOT on the phone as we customized my invitations, and she let me change all the details endless times. She was very responsive and prompt with all of my suggestions/changes. I also really loved the computer calligraphy she did for addressing the envelopes (she was able to match the font from our invitations perfectly). She really was able to personalize our invitations. Good quality and decent price.
Tracey Castrichini [Hair]: A+/Highly Recommend Tracey was absolutely amazing on the day-of. I’m so thankful that I hired her. She fit right in with all the girls, and made us all look fabulous. She had extra time to do touch-ups with everyone before we left, too. She really went above and beyond. We nicknamed her “the 6th bridesmaid” because she helped with little random tasks. She even stayed until we left the B&B, even though everyone’s hair was done, she had been paid and could have already left. During the very stressful moments with our bouquet error, she actually stepped in to help talk to the florist and give me my options. And she even helped us carry all our stuff into the trolley as we left for the day. She is the best. My hair also looked fabulous ALL day (my curls loosened a bit, but I really loved the look from the first hours to the last)
Robin Mcaloon [Makeup]: A/Highly Recommend Robin was very soothing on the day-of the wedding. She made all the girls and I look great, and she had extra time to do touch-ups before we left. My makeup kind of wore off by the end of the night, but I also did not do any touch-ups once the party started….
Victorian Ladies Inn [Bed & Breakfast-Night before and Wedding night]: A+/Highly Recommend A beautiful setting to get ready—it was also perfect weather, so we sat outside in the back patio while we were getting ready, eating, having makeup applied, etc. It was overall clean and relaxing—I would love to go back for a weekend away in Newport.
Matrix Productions [Microphone rental for ceremony]: A/Recommend Matrix did a great job—everyone heard us perfectly and really loved getting to crisply hear our vows, giggles, etc. during our ceremony. They had also worked at Blithewold before, so they were familiar with the set-up layout.
Bill Levkoff [Bridesmaid Dresses]: A/Recommend The chiffon really photographed well. In fact, they might have looked better in photographs than they did in person! These were not too expensive, and I hope that the bridesmaids will wear them again to other functions.
Russo Tux [Tuxes]: A/Recommendhttp://www.russotux.com/ My husband went to the Russo’s in Stoneham. The customer service was not always ideal (they seemed a bit annoyed/impatient). BUT everyone’s tuxes were the right sizes, and looked fabulous on the day-of, which I think can be incredibly rare. I liked their color choice selection for ties and vests, too.