Hi all,
I haven't posted much on this board, but I found everyone else's vendor reviews helpful and interesting as I was planning, so I'd like to share my own with you in case you find it useful, too
Ask away if you'd like more specific info or have questions about anything below--I would wholeheartedly recommend all of them.
~Sarah
REHEARSAL LUNCHEON: Casona, A
Delicious Cuban BYOB in Collingswood. We had the entire second floor and third floor loft (a small lounge with pool table, darts, etc.) to ourselves for the afternoon. Plenty of space for our party of 21. Owner was super flexible and let us bring our own cake which the wait staff sliced and served, and knocked a few bucks off the per-person cost since we opted out of the dessert included in their banquet menu. All courses served family-style, vegetarian and vegan options included. Staff was awesome. Only reason I'm not giving them an A+ is because one of the entrees we had selected wasn't served--they served a very similar one in its place which was still awesome--probably just a simple miscommunication somewhere along the line.
CEREMONY & RECEPTION VENUE: Auletto Caterers, A+
Simply put, Auletto's is perfection. Entire staff was the picture of professionalism and so friendly and thoughtful through the entire planning process, rehearsal, and day-of. Ballroom was arranged more beautifully than I could have imagined, and I am a total perfectionist, so that's really saying something. Food was delicious, and they are all about making sure that guests with ANY special dietary requirements all have tasty dinners that meet their needs. Offer so many options to customize to your liking and budget. Grounds are beautiful if you want an outdoor ceremony. I could go on and on and on! One slight bummer is that it was windy on Sunday afternoon during our ceremony, so the chandeliers in the tent outside blew around creakily, but I don't blame them for that, because I don't know how they could have anticipated that to remedy it in advance.
CAKE: Termini Brothers, A+
Yummy and elegant! Included in Auletto's package.
DJ: Center Stage Entertainment, A
Sean was our DJ. Super classy, no hogging the mic, the perfect MC and kept the dance floor filled all night with young and old guests without awkwardly trying to drag people out of their seats. Great at communicating timeframe for special dances, etc. with us as the night went on. I'm not giving them an A+ because we did have kind of a tricky time getting in touch with Sean leading up the the day to confirm a few details, but he apologized profusely when we did get ahold of him--apparently they were inundated with a surge of schedule craziness. But stuff like that happens to everyone, so ultimately I understand.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Anthony Photography, A
Marc is a total pro at making everyone feel completely at ease, and at producing wicked awesome shots. Plus, he had a good 60+ photos of us on Facebook the very next day! He and his assistant (Matt) were both really nice, talented guys that kept the portrait shots moving and were completely unobtrusive throughout the reception. I'm holding back on the A+ here only because we were hoping to get a few more shots of us in different places around the venue and we figured he'd grab us at some point for that (like a sunset pic outside when it got later) but that didn't really happen. But in all fairness, we probably should have just spoken up about that more directly--he probably didn't want to pull us away from the action.
FLORIST: Cook's Florist, A
Cook's provides the floral centerpieces included in the package at Auletto's, but we loved them so much when we met that we also hired them to do our ceremony flowers. They were all so beautiful., both ceremony and reception I went in with specific ideas about colors but not types of flowers, and Michael was superb at figuring out with me what types I gravitated toward. I wanted the girls to carry bold colors in their bouquets, and I wanted to carry the same colors in muted tones, and Cook's made it all work perfectly, and blended the two schemes flawlessly in a splash for our ceremony arch. Only reason I'm holding back on the A+ is because I was under the impression one of the accent colors would also be used in the reception flowers, but it wasn't, but even so I didn't really mind because they looked so darn good!
TUXES: Rudi's Formalwear, A+
Offer a TON of styles and colors of tuxes, ties, vests, and a few shoe styles. Good group discount for large parties, friendly and helpful staff. Wish I needed to arrange more tux rentals because they were just that great! Plus, they have a location in both South Jersey and Philly, and one of the groomsmen who lives in Philly really appreciated being able to pick up and return his tux closer to home.
BRIDESMAID DRESSES, WEDDING GOWN, VEIL: Irma's Bridal, B+
Irma's is a nice, comfortable store with a great dress selection for both wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. This is the only B I'm giving though, for a few reasons. One is that they don't take appointments, which means you potentially have to wait around for a while, especially if you can only go on a Saturday and can't show up right when they open. But I worked around it so as to avoid long waits with some advance planning. Another issue is that when I went with the bridesmaids to pick out their dresses, one of the staff who was measuring one of my girls commented that she should order a larger size than she wanted to because she was built so "broad." I think this was kind of an insensitive way to put it, and it made this maid feel unnececessarily self-conscious. But hey, sometimes things you say just come out not quite right. However, what pushed me over into B territory was that they didn't correctly specify the embellishments on the veil I selected when they ordered it, so while the right veil style and color came in, it lacked the pearl embellishments it was supposed to have. When I picked up the veil and pointed this out to them, they didn't apologize at all--they just told me that they thought it looked better that way! They did admit that the mixup was their mistake and reluctantly offered to reorder it, but at that point I was annoyed and decided it would be easier and less stressful to just keep the one that came in. Ultimately, though, everything worked out fine for my dress/veil and the bridesmaids' dresses, so I wouldn't dissuade anyone from going there.
WEDDING GOWN ALTERATIONS: Fashion Stitch, A
Yeon was super sweet and talented. Great work on some complicated alterations around heavy beading. Hem was trimmed slightly differently than I had planned so I'm holding back on the A+, but I still plan to take any of my other clothes needing alterations to her and trust her completely.
SHOES (BRIDE): South Philly Shoe Style, A
Ridiculously huge selection of dyeable shoes! A must for the picky shoe-buyer!
HAIRCLIP (BRIDE): GlitzySecrets.com, A+
Awesome selection of vintage-inspired jewelry. The company is in the UK, so it's a little pricier than if you bought something in the US, but in my opinion, totally worth it. I am in love with their stuff.
GIRLS' HAIR: Hello Gorgeous (Turnersville), A
Friendly staff, nice hair. Kim did my trial, and the style didn't hold well in my hair the first time, so I went in again and she gave me the works to make sure it would be able to hold on the big day, and she didn't charge me as much the second time as a courtesy.