Update- found our venue!!

molliemguerra

Hey everyone!

I posted about a month back asking for recommendations on cheap venues in the area, and thanks to all your feedback we finally picked one! We are going to do The Village Country Club in Dallas, it is an AWESOME venue and way within our budget. I am so excited! Thanks again ladies!

Now, just to find a budget-friendly photographer, DJ, and cake baker! I'm still always open for suggestions

Stef&Bobby0612

Congrats!! I looked there too. I totally recommend our cake baker, Colleen's cakes, she's super sweet, cakes are yummy, and budget friendly.

For the photographer, I (along with several other ladies on this board) recommend McGowan Images.

DJ I'd recommend Melody and Memories. Also, be sure to check the vendor sticky, there are tons of other great suggestions on there! I've used it a ton and it's really helpful.

MLandCJ

Yay! I believe another knottie is using that venue too! The name escapes me though

Photography- I love:

SixFourteen Photography ( mine and LOVE!)
McGowan Images
Jessica Mooney

I'm using Jabel Productions for DJ and lighting. I booked him a while back and unsure of his current prices. He was very affordable.

For cakes I'm using a new bakery out of Highland Village called "The Flour Shop". It will officially open in about a month. She has been the pastry chef at Bread Winners for about 10 years and I've had her cakes on several occasions. They are AMAZING! She has been great to work with 

HTH!

winechic25

I'm also using Melodies and Memories for my DJ and am so excited about her!! For my baker, I am using Ruth Robbins of Tastefully Yours. she's out of Southlake and VERY well priced!!

KendallandAlbert

Photographer:  For a budget, I would definitely recommend Kristina Fanelli from Koi Images.  If you have a little extra to spend, I loved meeting with McGowan Images tonight.  They are such a sweet couple.  Also, Colton with Six Fourteen and Lynn Michelle are wonderful.  I got a BUNCH of quotes recently from photogs.  PM me your email and I can forward it all to you.

For DJ, I have heard wonderful things about Glenn Roush and Randy Ro entertainment. I have also had a ton of folks (including vendors) recommend Melody and Memories.

Cakes are tricky.  I found that for $575 I could get a grooms cake and a 4 tier cake with fake tiers.  For $675, I could just get a wedding cake, but it was all real.  I think it really depends on your preference.  While there is nothing wrong with false layers, I personally don't like anything non-edible in my cake (other than a structural support.  So for me, the value was in the fact that we have 4 real layers.  For general purposes though, Frosted Art & the Cake Guys had the best tasting cake I tried :P

NathanandJordan

Congrats on the venue!

If you don't mind me asking, what is your budget for photography and cakes?  It may help us with who we recommend.

molliemguerra

First of all, thanks so much for all of the responses so far! We are on about a $10,000 budget for the entire wedding, minus rings, dress, tux, and all flowers. The venue along with food and drink as about $5700, so we have about $4500 give or take for photography, DJ, invites, cake (just mine, we're doing a cookie tower for the grooms cake!) and other decorations. I'm DIYing alot, but the photography so far seems to be a huge amount of what we have left. I'm basically looking for as inexpensive as possible while still being reliable.

MLandCJ

Kara Nicole Photography has done a former knotties wedding. She has recently started shooting weddings too!

juliebug1997

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_update-found-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:102Discussion:156ceec4-8ac1-46b2-95c2-95e383c312a4Post:1030c6dd-1120-44b5-a141-5e618822a4ef">Update- found our venue!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Hey everyone! I posted about a month back asking for recommendations on cheap venues in the area, and thanks to all your feedback we finally picked one! We are going to do The Village Country Club in Dallas, it is an AWESOME venue and way within our budget. I am so excited! Thanks again ladies! Now, just to find a budget-friendly photographer, DJ, and cake baker! I'm still always open for suggestions :)
Posted by molliemguerra[/QUOTE]

They were the other venue I really considered and thought they were really reasonable.  Can't wait to see your wedding!!!!

DFWIndian

My photographer is Monica Salazar @ monicasalazarphotography.com I loved her and she's really reasonable.

I agree with the Melody and Memories for DJ. I'm using DJ Connection, but they are a bigger corporate company.

Cake, I'm using a friend name Lana Woodall. I can give you her contact information if you need.

bsn1752

My photographer was very reasonable and would fit great in your budget.  MaddiePie Creations (Brooke Lowther)

Also, I 100th the recommendation for Melody & Memories... you won't be disappointed.

Jen6862

Love the cookie tower--my fiance is a cookie lover too, but since we also wanted choclate cake I'm suprising him with a Cookie Monster Cake... the baker is going to put mini oreos around the base instead of your basic choclate covered strawberries!

Ditto Brooke Lowther with MaddiePie Creations--very reasonably priced, mostly because she is new to weddings. I'm using her too and I find what she does really well is portraits--so you'll have some very beutiful shots of the two of you. Check out pictures from Brianna's wedding. My budget is $15,000 (not including the $3,500 my mom is putting in for flowers & linens) and the money goes fast, so I didn't splurge as much on photography as some others. Saving our money for beer and wine and some other items. You have to decide where you want to splurge.

*MLandCJ*
I heart Breadwinners! I almost had them cater the wedding!

NathanandJordan

my photographer is under $1000.  It is Frisco Photography if you are interested. They are very nice!

fallbride1109

My DJ (Glenn Roush) has a great new company LeForce Entertainment.  You don't get Glenn for the price, but anything he is involved with I would recommend.  This company is priced comparably with M&M, who also comes highly recommended.  I love Colton with Six Fourteen for budget photography and for cakes, The Cake Guys (who I used) has a budget package called Sweet Inspirations, and also Texas Star Bakery and Tabitha Ballard are supposed to be very budget friendly.  HTH!
http://www.sixfourteenphotography.com/
http://www.leforcedfw.com/weddings/home.html
http://www.thecakeguys.com/sweetinspiration.html

K and C

I'm going to second LeForce for the DJ. We are working with Cratin and he's been so great so far.

We are meeting with June Bug Company soon for photography. Her prices are very reasonable.

Good luck and congrats!!

MBS0310

I thought I would save you some trouble on photographers. I also am on a $10000 budget and have done tons of photographer research.  I have been looking for 2 photographers for 6 hours and here are the ones that fit in that price range:

Pitt photography, Parker Photography, Photos by Catherine, Kelly Jones, Eternal Stories, 2Be Photography

Hope this helps!!

lauram3177

Kara Nicole is MY photographer and we LOVE her. She is very well priced. She has done my daughters 3 month pictures and her 9 month. I am having bridals and she is doing the wedding. She is also a friend, so I am biased!!! But look her up.. she is great!! She gives you the disk and you print them where you want.

bsn1752

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_update-found-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:156ceec4-8ac1-46b2-95c2-95e383c312a4Post:a5c6aa8b-7fd9-4e49-8d3b-86a484f0a622">Re: Update- found our venue!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Kara Nicole is MY photographer and we LOVE her. She is very well priced. She has done my daughters 3 month pictures and her 9 month. I am having bridals and she is doing the wedding. She is also a friend, so I am biased!!! But look her up.. she is great!! She gives you the disk and you print them where you want.
Posted by lauram3177[/QUOTE]

Please be careful when recommending a vendor that is a friend... there's a fine line between what's considering okay to do regarding vendor recommendations on these boards.  If you're using her as a wedding vendor, just leave off that she is a friend.  :)

Thanks!

professorscience

Here's a third for LeForce Light and Sound.  Cratin and Glenn went to college together and used to DJ as a duo, then Cratin stopped for a while.  When he wanted to get back in, he started working for Glenn.  They have very similar personalities so I think we're really lucky to have Cratin. 

PS: I really liked Melody and Memories, too.  Melody even called me a few weeks ago "just to check on us" because I guess I never let her know we'd gone with someone else (thought I did, whatevs).  We ended up not going with them because we couldn't actually have Melody and she was the one I would want.

1fwdarlin

Congrats on finding the venue! I'd suggest looking at The Cake Guys- their cakes are delicious and they have a sweet inspiration package that is priced well. I'm sure it's been mentioned but you can check out McGowan Images for photography and JaBel productions for a dj (Both are fantastic). Hope this helps.

FebDallasBride

Ditto Melody & Memories for DJ and the Cake Guys packages, both of which I'm using.

My photog is Stephanie Brazzle, and last I checked her prices started at $1300ish. She doesn't do as many weddings, etc as some of the more popular ones, but she's still fairly new to the business and still getting her name out there. She's a ton of fun to work with. 

btweety04

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_update-found-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:156ceec4-8ac1-46b2-95c2-95e383c312a4Post:63d35990-161e-4993-92ba-69fc7eaaf5ad">Re: Update- found our venue!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Yay! I believe another knottie is using that venue too! The name escapes me though :( Posted by MLandCJ[/QUOTE]

ME! :)

And I would also highly recommend Colton with SixFourteen Photography. He just posted our e-pics a couple days ago on his blog and I looove his work. Go check him out.

Btw, we are also on about the same budget as you.

bwasek

Do you know how many people the village can hold?
Thanks!

molliemguerra

We're having about 125 people, which is right around the max.

HTH!

KendallandAlbert

I agree with LeForce.  Glenn was booked on our date but we are using Jeff from LeForce and LOVE him.  He is such a sweetheart!

They also have the best pricing for DJ + Lighting that I found.  Compared to 8 other DJs, having Jeff for 5 hours + 25 uplights indoors and lighting outdoors was $800 cheaper than the next quote.

afortunada818

Yey we are budget/ venue twins lol...
I just had my 1st food tasting this week and the food was delicious...we are tasting another plate in a couple of weeks.... For my photos i went with backroad photography. The package was 900 plus tax. Included 2hr engagement session, 6 hr wedding coverage... cd with edited photos and printing release. Amanda (photographer) is such a sweet girl, we had a great time during our e-session...
 Congrats on the venue

molliemguerra

You're getting married there too? Yay! What foods did you taste? I'm trying to figure out which options right now, we just put the deposit down yesterday. And thanks for the photography info! I will definately check them out!

We should definately talk more since we are both at the VCC

afortunada818

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_update-found-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:156ceec4-8ac1-46b2-95c2-95e383c312a4Post:76f0cc02-2171-4970-ba13-6bff9d72dc3a">Re: Update- found our venue!!</a>:
[QUOTE]You're getting married there too? Yay! What foods did you taste? I'm trying to figure out which options right now, we just put the deposit down yesterday. And thanks for the photography info! I will definately check them out! We should definately talk more since we are both at the VCC :)
Posted by molliemguerra[/QUOTE]

Yes... Im excited ....
We tried the italian dinner... Loved the chicken alfredo!   We are trying the dinner next.. Chante is so sweet and offered to change the menu, like if we wanted something from the italian, and something from the dinner, we could totally order it. We'll see, We are also trying out some hor's de ouvres. My wedding is until April but i definately want to know the final $$ since im on a tight budget.

When is your wedding?  omg we totally need to keep in touch!  

KendallandAlbert

Afortunada, I never realized you were in DFW!  Man am I observant or what!?  Yay for 3 of us April girls being here too

afortunada818

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_update-found-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:156ceec4-8ac1-46b2-95c2-95e383c312a4Post:afdcaa83-88f3-4104-8720-adf6e2618bc4">Re: Update- found our venue!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Afortunada, I never realized you were in DFW!  Man am I observant or what!?  Yay for 3 of us April girls being here too :)
Posted by KendallandAlbert[/QUOTE]

Yes im in the area too :) !

molliemguerra

Our wedding is March 10, and I can't wait! Are y'all having a cocktail hour? That's the thing I'm struggling with the most, like how that would work out with budget/space ect.