Here they are girls! Everything went really well and I'm happy with all of my vendors. I wouldn't do anything differently except for staying in the night before instead of going out. I was sick from 6am-noon the day of and got literally 2 hours of sleep. Somehow I still felt great that night and really enjoyed everything.
I'll type up my honeymoon review soon!
Trinity River Audubon Center: A
I really enjoyed having my wedding here. It looks beautiful even before adding decorations. The Great Hall has beautiful bamboo floors and 2 walls of full windows. When I was walking around during cocktail hour I felt like I was at a fancy dinner party. There was also planty of space to set everything up. The only problem we had was that trying to figure things out the week before was tough because the only coordinator was very busy with the other center that has recently opened and they aren’t very experienced with weddings. I knew that going in though, and I actually liked that it wasn’t your typical wedding venue. Hopefully they can get more staff for the events. We also had an issue with the rehearsal the day before but it was my fault. We had agreed verbally that the rehearsal would be around 5 or 530. She wrote down 5, and I told everyone 530 so when I showed up late at 6 she wasn’t happy. They close to the public at 4, so they don’t like to have to keep the security guard and the coordinator there too long past that. I ended up having to pay $50 for the 1/2 hour we were over, but I was fine with that since I was the one that showed up late.
Glory House Catering: B+
Jo Ann was very helpful to me during my planning stage, and the food was delicious. I got a ton of compliments on the food and all of the chicken was gone by the end of the night. We had salad, roasted veggies, cheese tortellini, spinach & mozzarella stuffed chicken, and brisket with au jus. The only negative was that she was a little difficult for my coordinator to work with the day of. She had attitude about pre setting the tables even though we had agreed on everyone’s duties at the walk through the week before. I also realized the next day that there was no sauce provided for the tortellini, even though we had agreed on having alfredo and marinara sauce available. She did end up refunding me $200 for a verbal agreement that we had that I forgot to get in writing, which I didn’t expect.
Florist & DOC- Meagan Bechtel of MegBDesigns- A++
Meagan did an AMAZING job. The flowers were gorgeous, and I only had to pay for the wholesale price of them, which was very affordable. The decorations were set up perfectly and everything looked beautiful. It was great to not have to worry about anything that day, she took care of every thing and I didn’t know about any of the problems she had. She coordinated everything perfectly that day and at the rehearsal, which was hard since I was late to both. She is very professional and very knowledgeable about weddings. I wish everyone could use her for their DOC, but she is not accepting anymore weddings until next Spring when she finishes her Master thesis.
Photographer- McGowan Images- A++
Everyone knows how much I love Chelsea & Mack, but they really impressed me the day of the wedding. They handled me being an hour late to our First Look like pros and coordinated all of the posed pictures wonderfully. I never noticed them during the ceremony. And they have already blogged our wedding, just one week after the wedding! All of the pictures are beautiful too!
Here are our pics, part one:
http://www.mcgowanimages.com/blog/?p=10098part two:
http://www.mcgowanimages.com/blog/?p=10150Videographer: JChristopher Films: A
I love Jeff & Amanda. Our highlights video speaks for itself! They captured everything exactly like I remember it, and they already have my final video ready! Jeff is just getting into the wedding scene even though he’s been working with film for quite awhile, so his rates are still very reasonable. I don’t think I would have gotten video if he wasn’t so affordable, and I’m really happy that I ended up getting it so I can relive the night. Some of the former & current Knotties made it into the highlights!
http://vimeo.com/30834121(I hope it’s ok that I post the link)
DJ/Emcee- Glenn Roush: A
Everyone knows how awesome Glenn is, and he was actually pretty affordable for my Friday night wedding. The dance floor wasn’t as packed as I would have liked, but it was mostly my fault. I requested salsa music for Daniel’s grandparents and they ended up not even getting up to dance when it came on. It kinda killed the flow, and I don’t think our crowd is very big on dancing anyways. He did awesome with coordinating everything with Meagan, and he is very personable. He also threw up some purple uplighting which I didn’t even request because I thought it was out of my budget, and it completely transformed the room. I’m really glad I switched to him at the last minute.
Cake- Candy Haven- A+++
They did amazing as well. There was a car accident on the way to my wedding that completely destroyed my cake. They were somehow able to remake it right away (I heard they make extra cake layers in your flavors just in case?) and I never even realized there was a problem until the very end of the night when Daniel told me about it. It all looked great and exactly like I ordered even though it was rushed. In fact I think it might look better than I expected, they made the swirls on the cake look exactly like my dress instead of the generic swirls I ordered. The cake tasted awesome as well, even Daniel liked it and he does not like cake. The strawberry layer was gone before I even had a chance to try it. They even threw in a certificate for a free 1 year anniversary cake and 2 boxes of chocolate covered strawberries for the inconvenience of my cake being late, which I didn’t even notice! Even though they aren’t very personal during the planning since they do so many cakes, I’m glad they are so experienced and were able to handle the hiccup.
Dress- Lasting Bridal Couture: A
I got my Sottero & Midgley gown here after only trying on 3 gowns. My consultant Sarah was very helpful and not pushy at all. She’s actually the one who picked out my dress, me & my mom didn’t like it on the hanger but she made me try it anyways and once it was laced up we were done looking. They even honored the trunk show discount that was on their website even though the show was over.
BM dresses- Alfred Angelo: A
We had absolutely no problems with our dresses. The ladies at the Frisco store were extremely helpful.
Alterations- Becky Fowler: A+
Nothing else needs to be said about her, everyone knows she great. She even gave me another appointment less than a month out from the wedding to re-hem my dress since I ended up not being able to wear the heels I originally planned to wear. She was able to do it a certain way to where she wouldn’t have to completely cut up the lace layer of my dress and I wouldn’t have to pay $200 extra, and you couldn’t even notice it was different.
Photo Booth- Premiere Booth: A+
The main owner actually came the day of to make sure everything was ok, and I didn’t have to worry about anything with them. They set it up and ran everything on their own without distracting from my wedding. Everyone LOVED the booth, and I love the scrapbook that was included. They have already sent me the disc with everyone’s picture too. They included lots of fun props too which I didn’t expect.
String Quartet- Forte Strings: A
What I heard was great, and they did really well with my processional song that wasn’t in their repertoire. I didn’t have any issues with them and Sharon was really helpful and helped me pick out the music.
MUA- Amanda Hugdahl with AH Makeup Artistry: A
She did a great job with my makeup, you couldn’t even tell I was throwing up 4 hours earlier. (It’s a very bad idea to go out the night before your wedding kids!) She was very flexible when I asked her to come to the hotel instead of the TRAC as planned so I could rest a little longer. The airbrush makeup lasted all night too.
Ceremony programs, RD invites, brunch invites- VistaPrint: A
I had no problems with VP and everything usually came in a lot faster than the ordered shipping rate. The programs were a last minute order since I was tired of DIYing things, and they looked great.
Wedding Band: MyDiamondZone on eBay and
www.titanium-buzz.com: A
Fast shipping, high quality, and very affordable.
I hope I’m not forgetting anything! Let me know if you need more info on a vendor mentioned!