Ceremony - We held our ceremony in the chapel at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church. It was incredible. The set-up is "church in the round" so very non traditional. I am not catholic, but my fiance is. The entire process was very warm and flexible. I was able to have my own singer and a unity candle song. While they have some rules as does any church, I found they were the most flexible and also had a later afternoon wedding time (3pm) whereas other catholic churches in Austin requre a morning or 1pm wedding unless you go for late evening. Everyone at St. Louis was a pleasure to work with. Father Larry was a magnificent officient. We were very happy.
Reception - Westwood Country Club was the perfect place for our wedding reception. We were right on Lake Austin accross the street from Laguna Gloria and held our cocktail hour by the pool. The inside dining room has windows all around for views of the lake at sunset. Barbara Shorts is Westwood's manager and essentially our weding planner for all intents and purposes. She was INCREDIBLE. We did not need a planner with all of her experience (25 years) and guidance. She made the process VERY VERY easy.
Band - My husband and I had quite the drama with our band. We started out contracting with the band Haywire, but 8 months in, the band director (Troy Farnham) was arrested for felony grand theft, the band broke up and he made off with our deposit, which we are still trying to get back. They left a poor bride high and dry on her wedding night (my parents luckily were there to see the band and watched all of this go down). Needless to say, if you have contracted with Haywaire, they are no longer together (though they will not reach out to you to tell you this and may leave you without a band on your wedding night). We ebded up with the band London Calling. They were incdredible and miore than made uo for all the drama, stress and heartache that we experienced with Haywire.
Flowers - We did our flowers through Central Market with Donna Foster. At first I was a bit wary because she does not use e-mail (proved to be a tad difficult since I was planning my wedding from afar). However, Donna was a dream to work with, meeting with my mother multiple times each month to go through our changing vision. the day of the wedding the flowers were INCREDIBLE. Perfect color, perfect look. I would highly reccomend Donna and her team. You get alot for your money with them.
Dress - While I absolutely LOVED my dress, I was not at all happy with Serendipity Bridal where I bought it. The customer service was lackluster and the alterations were so bad the first time i went i ended up taking my dress around the corner to Royal Tuxedo, where Denia did an incredible job on my dress. I was hesitant at first to take it there, but she did an incredible job altering my mother's MOB dress and she worked herself silly to get my dress done. I would not reccomend getting your dress at serendipity if you can help it solely based on the customer service. They lost my original order when they had a computer malfunction which delayed the delivery of my dress and affected when I could get alterations. Go elsewhere if you can.
Cake - Our cake was done at Sweetish Hill. In terms of ease and flavor it was awesome. 3 flavors and on your one year anniversary they freshly bake you the top layer, no charge. The cake itself did not look exactly how I had envisioned, but I am not super picky and it was very very pretty. If you want to have your cake look exactly like a picture, I would just tell Leila in great detail what you want. She too is very friendly and easy.
Transportation - We used Austin Trolley Company and took a trolley from the salon where we got ready (Bella) to the church. teh trolley itself was lovely, but they were afew minutes late to pick us up and the day of your wedding this causes much unneded stress. Ultimately they were only 10 minutes late or so, but it was enough for me to have a slight panic before they showed up. Otherwise, it was a great ride. For our getaway car we used Transportation Consultants. The white Rolls Royce Corniche Convertible was expensive but absolutely amazing and worth it.
Photography - We used Innovative Photography. Chris and Darcie Siiterii were amazing to work with. Our photos are incredible. Darcie also worked with me to do a Boudoir shoot and photo book for my hubby. They are an incrediible couple and worth every penny.
Videographer - Dianne and her partner at Crescent video were great to work with. Our video will not be ready for another two months so I will let you all know then if it turns out as beautifully as I hope it will.
Hair and Makeup - Bella salon did hair and make-up for me and all of my bridesmaids. My grandmother even got a black eye the week of the wedding from a fall and they were able to make her look as good as new with spray makeup. Gracie Silvas is the one to ask for here. She did an incredible job. I was less impressed with the work some of the other makeup artists did on my girls. They are very expensive overall, but Gracie was worth it.
I am sure there is more I am not thinking of, but if you have any questions let me know.
Victoria