Hello all! Well my husband and I were married on Saturday 8/28 and everything went fabulous! It was truly the best day of my life and I'm so happy! Thought I'd share some vendor reviews!
Dress-Davids Bridal - A+: I was very, very, very skeptical about purchasing my wedding gown here. I had heard many horror stories about this stores lousy customer services, gown mixups, etc. I went in on a Sunday with my MOH and we just browsed around. I made an appointment to try on dresses on a Wednesday evening. My consultant was very sweet and patient. I tried on 4 dresses, and picked my first dress I tried on. I had to go back a few other times for alterations and each and everytime I was treated excellent and there were no screw ups, thank heavens!
JC Penneys - Men's suits - A: My husband purchased his suit over a year ago for another wedding we were in and he wore this to our wedding. Our BM also purchased his suit here. The gentleman were very helpful and knowledgable, they even showed DH how to tie a tie several different ways. The only thing that annoyed me was one of the cashiers liked to make jokes that I didn't appreciate.
UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel, Ceremony venue - A+ This was definitely the smoothest process of the entire wedding. I made my reservation exactly one year prior. They are kind of strict on the time alloted for your wedding and rehearsal, but since there were no other events scheduled, we were actually able to decorate the chapel during our rehearsal and we had gone over our time limit for both the ceremony and rehearsal. Worked out perfect because we were running behind on the wedding day. The chapel is simple, but beautiful. I loved that they had the rooms there for us to get ready.
UNM Student Union Ballrooms - Reception Venue - B: I would definitely work with the manager for this. I kept getting conflicting information from whom I assume were receptionsts. They do charge for every little thing, which was irritating, however it will still relatively cheaper than any other venue I had looked at while planning. The ballroom is beautiful in itself, the smallest dance floor was 18'x18' ft and it was plenty of room. Food was delicious, we didn't do a tasting before, but I had been to plenty of events at the sub, so I knew what I would be getting.
Hair - Deborah McLaughlin @ Sara's - A+: Deborah is my regular stylist so I told her and brought a pic of what I wanted. AT first I was a little worried because on my trial, she did a weird poofy bump on my head that looked like a beehive thingie. I did a second trial which was better and by the wedding day hair, it was beautiful. My curls held up awesome and she also did a cute bun for my MOH.
Flowers - Melba's Flowers - A+: I would highly recommend Melba's for the flowers. Not only does she offer the best prices in town, they come out beautifully, AND they delivered to the chapel which was totally awesome. I told her the colors I wanted but wasn't totally picky on the type of flowers. I was slightly worried how they would look, but when I walked to the chapel and saw the flowers in there, I was stunned. They were gorgeous!
The cake and dj were done by some close friends, but I'll review them too.
DJ - C+: So my dj is a friend of mine, he plays good music, but seemed like he was usure on how to mc a wedding. Lots of our guests were leaving early and it was kind of annoying, later I found out it was because he wasn't playing the song as things were happening. For example, I wanted the song to play WHILE I was throwing my bouquet. Also at the ceremony, he waited too long to play our exit song so we were halfway back down the aisle by the time it played. I wouldn't recommend him to dj a wedding, but at a party, he'd be great.
Baker - A+: My childhood friend is a pastry chef so he offered to make my cake. I told him exactly what I wanted and he delivered. The cake was so tasty and I know it will preserve well for our one year anniversary.
Hope everyones planning is going smoothly!