Venue-Howell Family Farms (Arlington)- A+++ This place….oh man! Tucked away off the main road a little, but SSOO STUNNING!! For $5000 they only provide tables & chairs (no linens, or anything else) BUT we had it to ourselves for 3 days. We were able to setup everything Thursday & Friday. We were able to get there as early as we wanted Saturday, and didn’t have to be out by any specific time. Their only rule is that an officer has to be present to direct traffic because there are railroad tracks that you have to cross that don’t have any arms. The staff was awesome & so quick to fix any issues we found with the property & whatnot. There are longhorns that roam the back fenced-off portion of the property, and there’s a small baseball field where all the kids had a blast playing all night. Our guests really enjoyed themselves. We thought it was well worth the money to have such convenience.
Wedding dress-Lewisville Bridal Boutique (Lewisville)- D Our shopping experience was great. They have a huge selection of gorgeous dresses, in a wide range of prices. My consultant was a sweetheart. My issues started after my dress came in. Turns out, it was ordered in the wrong color. It was supposed to be gold/champagne with an ivory lace overlay. What I got was an ivory dress with an ivory lace overlay that had bits of gold in it. I contacted the owner explaining the situation & sent her pictures of the sample I tried on, and the dress I actually got. I didn’t hear from her for 2 weeks, so I emailed to check status. I got a short email just stating “Ours is gold, yours is ivory. Have a good day.” No apology, no offer to find a solution…nothing. I called her because I was confused at the email. She was extremely rude to me, implying it was my fault. My mother called her (since she paid for the dress) and got the same attitude from this lady. Extremely rude & trying to blame us instead of admitting that her consultant placed the order wrong. DH got involved & she was a sweetheart to him, although still insisting there wasn’t anything she could do! After a lot of back & forth she tells us she found the dress in my size & the color I originally wanted, but it wouldn’t be here until a week before the wedding (& I’d still need to get alterations). I just said forget it, and ended up keeping the ivory dress. It was still beautiful & I didn’t want that added stress the week of the wedding. Plus, my thought “what does it matter what color the dress is as long as I get to marry Chris, right?” My mom ended up getting the full price of my veil ($200) refunded, so that was good. I only rated them a D because their customer service is just horrid. It really falls all on the owner. She just treated my mom & I like total garbage, and was only vaguely willing to help when my DH jumped in.
Bridesmaids dresses-shopjoielle.com- A+ Shop Joielle has a big selection of Dessy dresses (& a few other affiliates). There prices were quite a bit cheaper than if we had ordered at the bridal salon with the 15% discount they offered us. The quality of the dresses are amazing & my girls got so many compliments on them! Their customer service was awesome & quickly answered any questions I had.
Suits-Men’s Wearhouse (Arlington)- A Not much to say about Men’s Wearhouse. They were really easy to deal with, & the suits were REALLY nice. The only thing was that DH wanted a certain suit that they had to order from another store & have shipped. They never called him to say it had come in or anything. DH ended up going with the same suit the GM & dad’s wore (just changed the tie). 2 days AFTER our wedding he got a voicemail from the guy saying he’d been trying to reach him but couldn’t (DH never got any call from him) but was wondering if he still wanted the special suit for his wedding. We were like, uhh dude…do you not see the wedding date in your system? Haha.
Invites-Vistaprint- A+ Vistaprint was really easy to use & extremely cheap (as I’m sure you all know). The quality was great, and we got tons of compliments on them. Highly recommended.
Flowers-The Connection Wholesale Florist (Fort Worth)- A We DIY’d our flowers. It turned out to be really easy, but we had a lot of help & the look we were going for was pretty simple (wildflower/garden like). We ordered a bunch of flowers 2 weeks before the wedding, and picked them up the day before. They were so cheap, and came out gorgeous!! They helped us in figuring out how much to order, and gave us instructions on how to care for them until the wedding.
Food-Babe’s Chicken (Arlington)- A+++ OMG, Babe’s is so awesome!! They are awesome to deal with for catering. So nice & accommodating…and cheap! Their staff arrived right on time, and set up the food. They were sooo nice! The food was awesome, & all of our guests LOVED it. We had tons left over, too, so people got to take some with them.
Cupcakes-Cooper Street Bakery (Arlington)- A We opted for cupcakes instead of an actual wedding cake. We ordered 4 different flavors-chocolate, red velvet, Italian cream, and lemon. They were awesome! This was such a great money-saver.
Photography-Bella Pop Photography (Weatherford)- A+++++ Most definitely my favorite vendor. Brandy & Brandon are just so amazing at what they do. They did our engagement pictures. I also worked with them at a friend’s wedding last summer, and they did some pics of my siblings & I for our parents. They are so fun, but still really professional & have a wonderful eye. They’ve become friends of ours that we will definitely use for future photo needs. They did everything they could to make us as comfortable as possible & really got the style we were going for. I only have these 3 sneak peek pictures for now. It was seriously the best day ever. Nothing went wrong & the weather was so awesome. All of our planning definitely paid off!!
*edited to break up the paragraph...not sure why it ran together like that. oops!