Vendor Reviews

nightmare_of_beauty

My wedding was....interesting....

Flowers: Ebay: A    They were handmade by someone for their daughters wedding and she decided to sell them. They were very beautiful, but I don't think this review will help anyone.

Hair: Salon Professional Academy: A   My girl was named Olivia and she was so sweet! She did take her time since she didn't have a lot of experience with updos, but she did a great job! I got compliments all night long!

Makeup: Salon Professional Academy: B    The girls at the SPA do not get a lot of experience doing someone else's make up, so rather than tell them to just do something pretty, give them direction. She asked me a few questions and I was way too passive. Once I saw it and didn't like it, she did change it for me no problem. Once it was done it was an A. It was my fault for not giving her more direction.

Ceremony music: Mr. Finnigan: A    The mother's didn't get to walk into their song, but that was because the boys moved too fast getting them out there. He played beautifully and had no problem with my Disney Songs

Ceremony: Lutheran Church of Our Savior: A    Toni and the Pastor are amazing people! Once I told them what I wanted, they made it happen. They were very understanding and so sweet. They were fully there for us and made sure we were stress free.

Reception music: Scott (ask me for his contact information, he's an indie):  A-   The only reason he gets a minus is because my sister requested him to play the chicken dance a second time and he didn't. Only reason she asked was he made it a kids only song and she actually wanted to do it. Other than that he was talkative, funny, and such a great guy. Everyone at the wedding loved him.

Reception: Cambridge Place: C     Up until the week of the wedding they were AWESOME. Then everything went down hill. We had paper lanterns we wanted to hang that they said no problem, the owners wife even offered to hang them. But when she tried, she got scared of the ladder, I said no problem we can take care of it. We got there on Thursday thinking the lanterns would be popped up and ready for us to just climb up the ladder and hang (the wife said she would do it), but they weren't. Again, we had no problem doing this ourselves, we had plan to until she offered. While we're decorating, the guy there says that he's leaving. We call the owner and he gets VERY upset about us hanging lanterns because they had BINGO the day after our wedding, he needed them down, he wasn't going to pay people extra to take those down, or pay someone extra to stay while we decorated. I had to hand the phone to my mom because I was starting to cry. She calmed him down and he let us stay there with the doors lock till he was able to come and close the place down. We had planned on cleaning the hall after the wedding because the centerpieces were ours and not the halls, I had also been telling them this for months.

Day of the wedding, the ceremony ended pretty early and the hall was only a mile away from the church. My mom went to the hall right after the ceremony to light the centerpieces (they had to be lit, then covered so my mom wanted to make sure it was being done right). The coordinator let my mom and sisters in to light them. After seeing my mom go in, guest started to go in. According to my guest, the coordinator started yelling about it. I understand people were early, but lock the doors! I'm also told she didn't want to let my DJ in till 5:30 (when the doors open) and gave my cake decorator (and friend) problems because the coordinator said she was in charge of cutting the cake, when I have said from the beginning the person making the cake is going to be there to cut it (she does it for ANYONE she makes a cake for). And towards the end of my reception, she came to me saying that the bartenders needed to be paid. I thought it was in the contract, but she said it wasn't. We took our dollar dance money to pay for it because no one else had money on them. The coordinator got an attitude about us paying for it and not my IL, but they didn't have any money on them. Around me, she was as sweet as could be, but I've had a LOT of people tell me she was giving them attitude most of the night. The waiters couldn't have been cuter though, they were dancing to the music and really friendly.
Bridesmaid dresses: Weddingbee.com A     I love that websiteAtlas Bridal: F     We thought we were going to have to order 2 dresses from them. They measured my one BM and said she was the size we already had. I told them to order the first one and I would call if I needed the second one. I didn't need the second one, so I never called till August when the dress was suppose to be in. They informed me that they charged MY credit card, but never ordered the dress because I didn't call to confirm. How are you doing to charge my card and not order?

Alterations: Seams Perfect by Kathy Dixion: A     Kathy is such a sweet and wonderful woman! She was great with my dress, my mom's dress, and my girl's dresses. After the Atlas bridal problem, I had to call her to alter a girls dress and cried to her about what happened and she just sat there listening to me and promising me she would get the dress ready and everything would be ok. She kept her promise to me too. She is such an awesome woman!

Tux: Men's Wearhouse: A    H wasn't too picky on the tuxes, but he did decide to go with tails. He also picked hats that he wanted the guys to wear. I think the sample hat had been tried on quiet a bit and the sides were bent down, because the ones we got were bent up. H wasn't happy and didn't like them. Men's Wearhouse returned the money no problem. There's also someone working there with the same first and last name as H, so they both got a huge kick out of each other.

Invites: Rachel Morris: A    She is such a creative woman! She did an amazing job on our invites and even did menus for me in 2 days after I forgot to contact her about them earlier. She does amazing work and if you like to see pictures of my invites or menus and would like her contact information, please let me know.

Photos: Jess Koop: A    She is a friend of mine, but she was very on top of things and directed everyone where to go. I haven't gotten to see pictures yet, but she did know what she was doing and was very professional.


Cake: Sue Kidd: A    She is one of my BMs mom's, works at Anderson's in the bakery, and makes wedding cakes out of his house (she is listed on craigslist). She does an amazing job! She doesn't usually work with fondant, which was fine with me because I hate that stuff. We got so many compliments on how beautiful and delicious our cake was. She hand painted every single flower on the cake! She also didn't make the cake till that morning so that it was fresh. It was wonderful and almost the whole thing was eaten.


And the reason my wedding was interesting....My Mother in Law.
She for some reason decides the day of that we don't have enough alcohol even though she agreed to a beer and wine reception before. She sends H to the store to buy other stuff. He finds everything, but the whiskey she wanted at Krogers. He goes to another store after buying everything else at Krogers and has just enough money to buy a small bottle. He gets back to MIL and they have a HUGE cussing fight over it. MIL gets mad and screams at him "F you! I'm not coming to your wedding!" SIL is texting me in the middle of my hair appointment about this fight. I finally talk to him when I leave my appointment and he's crying because she's not coming and she won't answer his phone calls. My goodness! What was the point of that?! She did end up coming to the wedding....and almost no one drank at the wedding, she now has a ton of alcohol leftover she has nothing to do with.

I have a few pictures of my wedding, but my photographer is suppose to be editing a pic of me and H and have it done by the end of this week, so I will post pics after I get that pic. I feel really bad giving Cambridge a bad review, it's a beautiful hall and the food was amazing, but it almost seems like none of them actually talk to each other...and two of them are married!

rak123

Congrats! Your MIL does sound very interesting... I am glad it didn't spoli your day for you!

One question: Who is Mr. Finnigan and what does he play?

Can't wait to see pictures!

nightmare_of_beauty

He plays the piano, he goes to different churches too actually.

rak123

Ohhh, ok.  That makes sense, lol.  My wedding ceremony is outside so that won't quite work. 

leesaborsos

It's sound like it all worked out! I am sure your mother in law just wanted to make sure everything was in line but in the end she went a little over the top and acted inappropriately...mix that with your husbands wedding day jitters and everyones stress and BANG it all exploded, but as long as you had a good time and you are happy that is all that matters ...can't wait to see pics!!!!

Angelmc8

Don't feel about being upset with your reception vendor....you paid good money to use them, and deserve a good product!  Looks like we had similar experiences, but it didn't ruin my day and it looks like it didn't ruin yours either. 

nightmare_of_beauty

Angel reading your review I almost thought we had the same venue lol