I know, I’m way behind!
I really lucked out…there isn’t a single vendor that I wouldn’t recommend, and the whole weekend was an incredible experience. I tried to give you thorough reviews, and I'll attempt to post pictures below to help. Feel free to ask me any questions!
Nature’s Point: A+ What a beautiful, unique place to get married! The hubs and I have always known we wanted to get married outside and have as much of the wedding outside as possible, so this place was perfect. The garden arbor is so lovely, but one thing I liked is that the rain plan allowed us to still hold the ceremony outside, covered with a great view of the lake behind the couple. Fortunately though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! The decks are a beautiful wood, the landscaping is perfect for the setting, and the indoor areas are just as pretty as the outside ones. We got so many complements from guests on the location. Lindsay is the coordinator/property manager and she is fantastic. She really knows what she’s doing, is professional and super friendly, and answered my hundreds of questions throughout the year before our wedding. I was able to just enjoy the big day knowing she could handle everything. I could go on forever about how wonderful this venue is but I’ll just say that I’m so glad we found it.
Sterling Affairs Catering: A+ If I could add more plusses without seeming 12 yrs old, I would! This was probably the one aspect of the wedding that achieved complete perfection, and I’m a very picky person. Shea was a dream to work with, answering so many of my questions and offering her suggestions, and always with a smile on her face. The food was outstanding! I’d always heard that you don’t eat much at your own wedding, but boy did I nearly clean my plate. A lot of guests said that was by far the best food they’d ever had at a wedding, and I’d have to agree. I was really surprised that they were NOT the most expensive option at our venue. They are flexible too and can fill requests that aren’t on their base menu. If you have the option of going with SA, you’d be insane not to!
Matt Montalvo Photography: A Matt is super friendly and great at what he does. We’ve gotten so many complements on the photos and I’d have to say that ours are the best of any friends’ or family members’ I’ve seen. If you love candid shots Matt is your guy. He’s really good at working with different lighting scenarios and one thing I noticed about his pictures versus other photographers is that he gets up close for the dance floor shots…so you get great expressions and action in the photos, rather than just a group shot from the edge of the dance floor. And he did all this without us noticing him at all. We only had a few minor hiccups with getting our albums, but they were minor and don’t make us regret our choice. And boy did he do a wonderful job of designing our album…it really tells a wonderful story.
Joel Giorgio - Greenbelt DJ: A+ Joel is awesome on so many levels. First of all, he has taste. No cheesy annoying DJ here! Second, he is friendly and is happy to explain in detail his methods. Third, he really helped to coordinate things and move the evening along, MC-ing the event. Between him and Lindsay I didn’t have to worry about what came next that evening. Also, he has good ideas and can work with any you have. In the end, I would definitely trust his opinion because he knows what he’s doing. We had so much fun dancing at our wedding, and so did our guests. Even my mom, who was skeptical for a year about our choice to go with a DJ over a band, said that the music was great and was on the dance floor most of the night herself! One tip for brides, ask your DJ to pepper in more than just a couple slow dances. That didn’t occur to me, and we only had 3 total including the anniversary dance…I would have liked 1 or 2 more, but that’s just me.
Bouquets of Austin: A Stephanie did an amazing job of helping me plan the flowers and décor and implemented the plans beautifully. She really understood my vision and helped me fine-tune my ideas. The flowers were gorgeous! She also helped me with other color-related decisions I asked her advice on, like the groomsmen ties and the linens. The end result was a color scheme that fit us and the venue perfectly. It was very important to me that we had little yellow butterflies added to the décor, in subtle ways here and there. She looked high and low for the right kind and when she could only find white ones that fit, she dyed them the proper shade of yellow. Talk about going the extra mile! My only complaint was that the candles on the reception tables were the fake kind, and I definitely wanted only real ones. I know there must have been some reason though that she had to go with these.
Party Booth Pix: A We are so glad that we chose to get a photo booth. The guests had fun with it, some more than others and you can tell from the pictures! They provided a scrapbook that served as our guestbook: guests cut out their picture and placed it in the book along with any cool cutouts, and wrote us a message. We just looked through it again the other day and it’s so much more fun than an ordinary sign-your-name guestbook. The booth was attractive, and Jennifer was great to work with and helped me design the perfect center strip for the photo sheet that reflected our theme. We just wish the guy running the booth – who was friendly – had solicited more guests to “sign” it…there were about 25 guests that didn’t wind up in the book. We probably should have asked the DJ to make an announcement of some kind.
Rochelle Rae (makeup): A+ Wow, wow, wow. My makeup looked perfect, and I’ve never felt more beautiful. Her products are great…they stayed on all day but I never felt thick or “made-up”. I still looked like me, just a very pretty me. She has a calming presence, works fast, and is great at following directions and picking up on what look you’d like. Cost wise I think she’s priced reasonably for her talent. I’ve paid the same amount for less-than-stellar makeup application before.
Necole Marlow (hair): A Necole did a great job with my hair as well as my bridal party’s. She met with me ahead of our trial date so that we could just discuss some ideas and determine if extensions were necessary. During the trial she was good at listening to what I had to say and making changes with the style to find something we thought was perfect. She has a very calming presence and didn’t mind answering my many questions and concerns. She’s not super-fast though, so don’t plan a very small window of time. But who wants to rush through that anyways? My style took just over an hour, and that included clipping in the extensions.
Melissa Villamizar (stationery): B+ I went to Melissa because I found some invitations online that I thought suited our theme, but I couldn’t make it work right with the information we needed to include. She used that design as a jumping off point to create something lovely and simple that set the right tone. It’s really cool to know that we have original stationery, that no one else has it. The only problem with going with an out of town vendor is getting the colors right. It took us a couple weeks of mailing different samples to get the right shade of yellow.
Transportation Consultants: B+ We rented a 55 passenger bus to take our guests to and from the venue, and it was a great idea that everyone appreciated. TC was easy to work with and flexible, making last minute changes for us, and the bus was clean and on time. I can’t give them an A only because our getaway car did not start. Fortunately we were going the same place the bus was so we just hopped on “the party bus” and we laughed about it. I’ve heard from friends who are car people that the old Bentleys often have problems starting, so I definitely recommend going with TC, just don’t get a Bentley!
Barton Strings: A+ Not only did they sound excellent and were professional, they went above and beyond for us. My hubby really wanted Star Wars music played during our recessional, and he wanted really specific parts played, not just the theme that everyone knows. We provided them with sheet music we found for free online, with only a week to spare, and they learned it and played it perfectly.
Michelle’s Patisserie: A Our cakes tasted fantastic and the designs were spot-on. Don’t let the tasting you have at her bakery fool you…those are thawed slices from frozen cakes and don’t taste nearly as moist and yummy as the real thing you get on your wedding day. She has a great variety of flavors, and let us come in for a second free tasting when we hadn’t found exactly what we wanted for the groom’s cake. Only problem is that when I emailed it took a while for someone to get back to me, but hey this wasn’t an urgently-needed vendor and I’m sure if I just called I would have spoken to someone right away.
Z Tejas on West 6th (rehearsal dinner): A+ Wow this was a fabulous choice. The food was outstanding, the service beforehand and the day-of was prompt and friendly, and the venue itself is casual but classy. They have a private room that can seat up to 70 (although we had 40 and think it works best for around that amount, or more if you have a plated dinner instead of a buffet like we did). Wood floors, private bar, private entrance (which is really a plus…your guests don’t have to wander through a restaurant to find the party), and valet parking. They were also flexible with the menu: they provide a few plated dinner options, but they were mostly steak/chicken/fish dishes with potatoes and salad. Since we were serving something similar at the wedding itself, we wanted a more “Southwesterney” menu, so we had a yummy buffet of chips & salso/guac/gueso, beans & rice, stuffed chile relleno (which was out of this world), and enchiladas. We had a table to set up framed family wedding photos, and they do offer AV setup though we didn’t need it.
Serendipity Bridal: A They have a great selection and patient not-pushy salespersons, and in the end that’s what you really want. I needed to be able to try on several dresses and shop around and really give it some thought. Large fitting rooms and comfortable seating area for guests were a plus, and the AC always worked well. Also, after I purchased my gown, they allowed me to return several times to try on the sample gown, just to see if I found the right shoes for the dress, try it on for my sister, etc. That was a big help! Rosie did my alterations and she was wonderful…kind and patient and she really knows her stuff. BEFORE you shop for undergarments, be sure you have Rosie see your dress and advise you on what to buy. The salesperson had told me I’d only need cups, but at the first fitting Rosie said the weight of the gown required I have a boustier to sew it to, so I wasted a little money there on the cups.
Alfred Angelo: B+ Bridesmaid dresses were bought here and our service was just fine when we went, and the couple times I had gone by myself beforehand. Dresses seem so expensive but then again it seems all BM dresses everywhere are too expensive! Only real problem was that my MOH was not measured properly and her dress came in a couple sizes too big…alterations fixed that though. It did create a bit of drama.
Men’s Wearhouse: A+ We can’t say enough good things about Fabian at the MW in La Frontera (Round Rock). He’s very knowledgeable and has good taste, answered my many questions, and made this one of the easiest parts of the entire wedding planning process. The hubs and his GM looked really sharp in their suits, and thanks to the fantastic sales MW frequently have, we were able to save 50% on just about everything. Really helpful to get a nice $700 suit for just $350! They also send you a $50 gift certificate for every $500 you spend, so in purchasing all the suits we were able to use the certificates for shirts and ties.
Miscellaneous: I bought lovely little crystal hairpins from Hair Comes the Bride.com and they were perfect. I bought a Spiderman-themed garter from Garters by Ginger on Etsy…also perfect. Both places had great selection and great service. We blocked off rooms at the Four Seasons and at the Radisson: they’re right next door to each other and both offered us large discounts. You can’t beat the Four Seasons service!