I haven't really posted much on this message board but the vender reviews were so helpful to me, I'm hoping I can help another bride. We did a lot of stuff ourselves so I only included my major venders, not the ones I only got 1 or 2 things from.
Venue: Chandlers Gardens A+
There was a storm that came through the night before the wedding and our tent halfway fell on us while we were decorating. The next morning when we arrived the tent was already back up and all of the debris from the storm had been cleaned up. Deborah was so nice and so helpful on the day of the wedding. She helped us with our decorations even though that’s not part of what they do. She also refunded some of my money for the golf cart rental because she felt bad that some of our vases broke due to the high winds while we were setting up. This a great affordable venue for the do it yourself bride.
Gown & Bridesmaid Dresses: Circle Park Bridal B
The shop is really cute! They have a good selection of gowns and pretty reasonable prices. I had good service every time I went there. They helped me find the perfect dress. Even though I hadn’t seen it yet I knew what I wanted it to look like. The size they recommend that I get was at least 2 sizes bigger than I needed but thanks to Becky Fowler it was a non-issue. I gave them a B due to the sizing thing, but I’m sure most salons have you buy dresses too large. Also, the dressing area was really hot…
Groomswear: Mens Wearhouse A
No complaints here, also nothing exciting.
Flowers: AmoreBride (etsy) A
I did all silk flowers and they looked fantastic in the pictures. I used some submerged in water for my centerpieces and Michele even did a water test for me to see if they would bleed, which I would have never thought to do. Kind of expensive for silk but they looked great.
Rentals: A-1 Wedding and Party Rentals A
I only rented a margarita machine and chairs. These guys were nice. They didn’t charge me extra when they initially said they would because the chairs weren’t back on the racks when they came to pick them up. No complaints here!
Hair & Make up: Kristie Luv Style A
I started breaking out about 6 months before the wedding and I was worried that she wouldn’t be able to cover it up, but my make up looked awesome! You couldn’t even see my break outs! Also, I was sweating all night and my make up still looked flawless at the end of the night. She drove out to my venue and did my bridesmaids and my mom’s hair and makeup too. They all looked fab.
Alterations: Becky Fowler A+++++++
I had to have my dress taken in almost 4 sizes due to a combination of things and she did it NO PROBLEM! It looked FABULOUS!!! She was so sweet too, her and my mom cried during my fitting. She was also super reasonably priced. All these things you girls already know, I found her by searching these forums and she was very happy to come highly recommended by you!
Linens: tableclothsfactory.com A
I bought tablecloths and chair sashes. You never quite know what you’ll get when you order linens online but mine looked great for the price.
Music: Serenata Strings: A++++++
We didn’t even have a rehearsal with these guys and everything was PERFECT! I couldn’t believe how smoothly everything went considering that. They sounded great and were very professional. Highly recommended!
Photography: Jordan Fisher Photography A+
Pictures turned out great! Jordan was really good about blending in to the background. Half of the time I forgot she was even around. She captured some really good moments that I didn’t even think would be worth viewing. She’s based out of Cibolo now but still comes up to DFW sometimes.
Cake: Elizabeth Cakes A
So delicious! Definitely one of the more affordable places I’ve seen but delivery was a huge extra fee for us because it was really far from the baker. It tasted exactly as I wanted it to. The colors were a little off but I should have left them with swatches instead of just telling them the color. The colors looked better and closer to what we wanted in the photographs than they did in person. They gave my husband a hard time about the flowers he brought because they didn’t have any stems but he told them to deal with it and they worked it out 