My wedding was on 5/15/10 and here are the vendor reviews. Yes, I'm quick...but it's late at night, I'm not tired, and I don't go back to work for a few more days so I thought I'd post these now before time goes on and I forget : )
We had our mass at St. Luke’s Church and the reception at St. Luke’s Reception Hall which was great so that guests didn’t have to go from one place and drive to another. Although I would’ve loved to have had the reception at a fancier place, it just wasn’t in our budget to do that. Hence the reason I had to do it up with flowers, lighting, and linens ; )
Day of Coordinator: Stephanie McNeely with Your Wedding in SA (A+) Stephanie is new to the wedding planning business but she definitely had great advice and suggestions to offer during the couple of times I met with her before the wedding. I was pretty organized leading up to the wedding so I didn’t need her to do much of the planning work for me, it was more of the execution of things on the wedding day that I was looking for and she was great for the job. She made sure that everything and everyone one was one time, and knew what they were supposed to do. Our timeline the day of the wedding shifted up about 30-45 minutes but she had no problem adjusting and letting all the vendors know what was going on. And of course, she was great in making sure all the details were covered from the lighting of votives, putting out favor boxes, etc…Stephanie was a pleasure to work with her rate was very affordable.
Caterer: SA Catering (A+) I can’t say enough great things about Marci and her husband. From the beginning they were great to work with. They prepared us a very nice first tasting and the food was delicious. For our wedding’s cocktail hour, they served spinach and chicken quesadillas & beef seared alambres for our guests. I never had the chance to taste them but I heard rave reviews about the hors d oeuvres. For the dinner, they served a chicken breast (which was a very hefty portion) stuffed with herbed cream cheese and was baked in Japanese bread crumbs alongside rosemary mashed potatoes and sautéed green beans w/ rolls. Everything tasted so good, was warm, and fresh. All my guests complimented on how great all the food was. Their staff was also very courteous and did a great job!
Florist: Eden’s Echo (A+) I don’t think I have to say much to convince you how great Erin is to work with since everyone on this board knows it : ) But, I will say it again. Erin was amazing and did a great job on all our centerpieces (yes, all 25 of them)! She also did all the bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and church floral arrangements. We provided her with vases that I wanted used for the centerpieces which she did such an amazing job with. And of course my mom (queen of bling) brought her some crystal bracelets to use for the wrist corsages which also came out amazing and some jewelry to be used for the bouquets. I don’t have professional pics yet, but you can check out her blog for some pictures if interested. One last time, Erin’s work and customer service is Awesome!!
Linens: Affordable Elegance Linen Co. (A+) I was very pleased with this company. They have a huge selection of linens and I was very pleased with their customer service. They came the day before the set up the linens, chair covers, and saches. Which was great since it gave us some extra time to set up a few things on the tables. Overall, their quality and price was just right!
Photographer: Jason Speros (A+) (Pro-Pics still pending) Jason is a photographer based out of Austin, TX (where I currently reside) but he does travel and did not charge an extra fee. My professional pics are still pending but there is no doubt in my mind that I will love them. He was our photographer for our engagement photos which came out amazing! Then, at the last minute when I decided not to do a bridal portrait session, he gladly gave me a credit. As for the wedding day, he was there all day from start to very end. He is such a great, easy going type of person that I almost forgot he was our photographer. He actually feels more like a good ole friend : ) One of the great things I love is that he will provide you the pictures on a CD and you also can purchase through him as well.
Videographer: Johnny Ramirez with Aquifer Productions (A+)Johnny is actually a personal friend of ours here in Austin. He has shot weddings before but most of his work consists of music and film production. Although we haven’t gotten the video yet, I know he will do a great job. And one of the perks of him being a close friend of ours is that we are able to participate in the editing process to ensure we get all the highlights we’d like included in the video. I can’t wait to see the final product!!
Cake/Baker: Lynda Stansberry with Sweet Traditions (A+) Lynda was awesome and her cakes are even better. From the beginning, I was very impressed with Lynda’s customer service. She set up a great first tasting with a variety of cakes to choose from which were all very yummy! We used her to bake our cake & cupcakes for our wedding shower. The cake was to die for and our guests were very impressed. The decorations she used for the wedding shower cake/cupcakes was very pretty too. As for our wedding cake, it was everything I had imagined and more! It was just beautiful! She did a classic round cake with alternating layers of Italian cream and Almond cake. She used fresh flowers for the top and around the cake pedestal. Then she used black satin ribbon on the cake with some crystal brooches that I gave to her to use as well. Again, it was very classic, beautiful, and tasted great! At the last minute, we decided to add in a simple grooms cake which was red velvet (my hubby’s fav) and Lynda was very accommodating even though it was requested on short notice. I can’t say enough great things about Lynda and I would recommend her to anyone.
Hair/Makeup: The Makeup Maven & Co. (A+) Wow, I’m starting to realize I’ve given all my vendors the same rating, haha! Moving on, I booked Johanna & Bess based on other reviews from girls on the knot. And of course they delivered! I went ahead and paid a little extra for them to do on-site makeup & hair for myself and my bridal party, which was totally worth it. I will start with Bess. Bess is such a professional and innovative when it comes to her work! Everyone’s hair came out amazing…I’m talking red carpet amazing! All my girls were so impressed on what a fantastic job she did and the hair held up all through the night. She used extensions in my hair which I never would’ve thought to do but so glad I did. It added amazing volume to my up-do which I loved!! She is awesome and totally affordable!
Johanna- Johanna was also really great to work with. She was really quick and did a fantastic job with everyone’s makeup…and trust me, my friends are very picky when it comes to their makeup. All of us had the airbrush makeup done and it lasted all day and night! To give you an idea, we started makeup around 9:30am, our mass was not until 3pm, and the reception ended around 10:30-11pm. Not once did I have to touch up my makeup, definitely worth the extra bit of money. She also did tattoo cover-up and false eyelashes. Everyone looked so gorgeous!
Mariachis: Mariachi Alma Del Sol (A+) So, initially I was a bit worried about if the mariachi’s would show up since I had booked them at a bridal fair over a year before my wedding and had little to no contact with them up until a couple of weeks before the wedding. But luckily, they showed up right on the dot at 5:30pm. These guys were really great and when we booked them back in February 2009 they were also very affordable ($450 for an hour). They sang beautifully and all the guests loved the mariachi music. My hubby’s grandfather was a mariachi and got the chance to sing with them for a couple of songs which was really cool. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for mariachis at their wedding.
DJ/Uplighting: Alusstra Entertainment (B) So, initially I was really impressed with Edward (and his wife Alma) when I met with them for the first time. They had a good sales pitch and seemed to be great at what they do. I never had a hard time trying to reach them and they always responded back in a prompt and timely manner. I had heard some very mixed reviews about them so after signing the contract, I will admit that I had some reservations afterward. There are two reasons why I’m giving them a B and not an A. Reason #1: A couple of days before the wedding, my mom gets a call from Edward (she was the one paying) saying that we needed to give him the balance due and that it was supposed to be due 2 weeks before the wedding. My mom initially thought that the contract had said the balance was due in cash on the wedding day, or if paying by check it would be due the day before. But since we didn’t have the contract on us, we thought maybe we had read the contract wrong so we rushed over to his office to give him the check for the balance. Later that day, we got home and reviewed the contract only to find out that we were right the whole time. So, we were not very happy with the fact that he made it seem like we were late paying the balance. Not to mention, he did not waste any time cashing the check the same day we gave it to him. So after that happened, I was a little put off with them. Reason #2: He had a lack of personality/Emcee ability. He was kind of dull on the mic, but sort of picked up the pace as we got more into the night.
Other than those two things, everything else was great. The pink uplighting looked great, the monogram on the dance floor was so pretty, and he kept a good flow of music to keep the dance floor moving. I will admit, we did a dollar dance (even though I didn’t want to but my mom practically forced us to, lol), anyways he definitely got the crowd coming up to participate and we had a great response!
Dress: Alfred Angelo at the Domain in Austin,TX- A++ I absolutely loved my dress and it was the third one I had tried on. It complimented my body type and looked great! The customer service with AA was great and the dress arrived sooner than expected. I also got my veil and corset from AA. Very pleased!
Alterations/Pressing: Five Star Wedding Gown Specialist on Huebner Rd (C) Although I had seen rave reviews about this place, I will admit that I did not have the same great experience. First, I will admit that their alterations were good, but it was their lack of attention to detail and customer service that I was unhappy with. To begin, I had my appointment for a 2nd fitting with them and the day I show up in San Antonio (I live in Austin) for my appointment, they call me the same morning to try and reschedule because they were behind on their work. I refused to reschedule and so they just pushed my appointment time back. When I showed up for the 2nd fitting everything was perfect. The straps fit perfect and the length was just right. So, then they had to keep it to work on the bustle. When I came back to check out the bustle (which came out good), there was a small black stain on the train of my dress. I pointed it out to the lady and she said that it would be no problem and they would take the stain out. I also requested that it be pressed. The morning of the wedding when we picked up the dress, they had not removed the stain and the pressing job was not that great. Of course there was not enough time to take the stain out and my mom had to go over the dress with steamer to take out some of the wrinkles that they had not gotten out. Last but not least, they double charged my credit card for the bustle work and pressing. Overall, I was not satisfied with my experience with Five Star.
Honeymoon: Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica I think I found a 2nd home when we went on our honeymoon to CSA. Everything was perfect! From the food, the beach, the drinks, the entertainment, customer service…literally everything was perfect. I can’t wait to go back again! It’s an all inclusive resort and has tons of activities you can participate in, both during the day and the night. If you’ve ever considered Jamaica, this is the place to go! I promise you won’t regret it!