Hey Everyone! Its been forever since my wedding but I figured better late than never.
I would like to first say that the everyone I worked with were extremely nice and personable. Any negative comments I might make are only from my personal experience and I only state them as helpful hints for your own vendors and weddings.
VENUE:
Westone Centre: LOVE LOVE LOVE. Kat Parrish was our contact there. If you are not familiar with the Weston Centre, it is the Bank Of America building downtown off of Pecan St. Basically, your wedding takes place in the lobby of the building and there is a gorgeous patio type area in the back that has a huge step waterfall and arches and a quiet portion of the RIverwalk is in the back. You pay ONE FLAT fee. That's it! And it includes, tables, satin linens in a multitude of colors and chivarri chairs. So that's great, one less vendor you have to deal with. Kat was great at guiding me at what needs to do next, especially since I live in Florida. They do allow for alcohol to be brought in as long as you have the proper insurnace and certified bartenters, or one of the approved caterers takes care of being the bartender. The experience was awesome in general. My husband and I just wanted to have something different than a hotel ball room or hall. Not that anyting is wrong with that, but this place did not need decorating. Its structure and skylights took care of everything. I used some lighting, but there are pictures on ther website that show people really putting up some dramatic lighting and it looks GORGEOUS! My husband thought the money was well worth spent.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Gary Gibson Photography
Gary is one of the sweetest men you would ever meet and we were so happy with his pictures. We had two photographers for the ceremony and just one for the receptions (Gary). We received almost well over 2000 pics in 8 hours. Gary is a guy who is in the background and you don't even know you are getting your picture taken. He was very open to the essential pictures I wanted and made them happen. I feel he is a great, great pick for what he does and for the price. That being said....not only is he sweet but he is soft spoken. If you have a rambunctious family, I would suggest that you might make sure to let him know that and that it is OK to be as vocal as possible to get the pics you want or his assistant can help wrangle them in. We only had 5 people in the wedidng party and I do think maybe if he were able to be more vocal about to a few things, maybe a couple of details would not have been missed. Beautiful photos none the less, and I am in the process of plastering them everywhere with great joy and pride; and I don't know if maybe some details were lost because we were rushed (it was Lent and people were coming in for confesion and getting ready for 5 pm mass AND WOULD NOT MOVE FOR THE PICS! Gary was great at making sure the pictures did not show church goers HUGE, HIUGE PLUS) or I am noticing these details due to me looking at the pics twenty thousand times. I loved Gary and his work and I would recommend him to anyone. His packages include THE BEST BEST BEST wedding albums that I saw out of 4 different photograhers we saw. Other phtographers wanted to charge the same price Gary charged, but without the album. We also received the rights to the photos too.
Flowers:
Eden's Echo
Loved them...Erin at Eden's Echo was very helpful and kind to me. Worked with me on price and ideas. I didn't want much and didn't need much and needed to work on a budget and Erin had no issue with it, which I appreciated considering the level of work she does. My family was also very happy with the flowers as well. All you have todo is look on her website/blog and you will see the extent of the work she does. You will also fnd plenty of people in this community that have nothing but wonderful things to say about her.
Makeup
Mary Coop
Mary was very sweet and helpful and she came to the house did what I asked for. The make up looked great in pics. I would definitely recommend her to anyone. 3 things I learned: 1. buy your own eyelashes. I bought mine from Mary, which is fine, but they were starting to come off before I got to the church and we didn't have time to stop at the drug store for more glue. If I had gotten my own lashes, I would have had my own glue to stick those puppies back on and it would have probably saved a few bucks too. 2. make sure that if anything is not forgotten its the spray that is supposed to seal your make up. I cried my eyes out at the reception and my make up smeared everywhere. And Mary and I forgot to ake sure that was done....oh and 3. If you love a mascara, make sure that one is used.
Catering:
Columbia Culinary Team and Absolutely Delicious Catering
So big drama happened and long story short CCT stopped catering for foraml parties. I did not know this fact or the fact that they contracted out my event to Absolutely Delicous. My main contact for 11 months was no longer with the company and had apparently never provided me with a properly priced contract. A week to two weeks before the wedding we are making final adjustments and head count and the price increases. After much deliberation the remaining staff at CCT, which had to work with Absolutely Delicious, honored my original contract, which was not done correctly. Had they had realized the contract was incorrect 6 months before the wedding, I would have made the decision to stay with CCT or gone somewhere, however, changing the price for the evening within 10 days of the wedding was unacceptable. We all handled the situation professionally and here's where it gets good. Basically I thought that because I received catering at a much lower price that what I was supposed to, I was not going to get good service. I WAS WRONG. Absolutely Delicious made everything perfect! Things that my very first contact stated would not be possible (like putting candles on the table) Absolutely Delicious did...and gladly. I can not tell you the detail with which they handled everything and they had the best instinct on when to come to me, when to make the call or to talk to my mother. And they waited on me and my husband hand and foot. Oh yeah....AND THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. Absolutely Delicious went above and beyond what I expected and I love then for it.
Cake:
LUCY'S Bakery
LOVED IT! All I got to say. I can't wait to come back into SA and purchase a small cake for our anniversary.
I think that is it. Enjoy your day. Be professional with the businesses and I think any problems would get solved much sooner than if your or family did not keep a cool head. Smile, laugh, eat, drink, sing, dance and take a second to look at the family and friends that are around you and just know you will have your best friend with you forever. Who cares about anything else
Best of luck everyone!!