I read a lot of others' vendor review posts to help me plan my wedding, so I hope this will help some lucky brides. My husband and I were planning our wedding from Pennsylvania, and made 3 trips to Seattle during the planning. We did not have a wedding planner. Our wedding was wonderful, so the vendors all have pretty much good reviews.
Venue: The Space Needle (A). We had the entire Skyline level for our ceremony, reception, and dinner. (Level that is 100 ft. up). All of our guests' tickets allowed them to visit the observation deck until midnight, when the Needle closed. We had such an easy time working with Aaron Davis from the Space Needle. He was extremely knowledgeable about weddings that have occurred at the Needle, and was really nice about letting us visit the space everytime we were in town and needed to measure or check something. He wasn't actually present at our wedding, but the whole team at the Needle is extremely easy to work with. We were assured that we wouldn't need a day of coordinator, and they were completely right. Our wedding went smoothly, and all of our guests loved being in the Needle. Our wedding was somewhat a destination wedding since so many of our guests were coming in from out of town. We chose the Space Needle because it's an icon, there's a great 360 view of Seattle, the food is good, and theres no venue fee (just meet the minimum in food & drink which for us was no problem). We were concerned about food, so were quite relieved that the quality was very good. They were also very accommodating about providing special meals for our guests with allergies, or tweaking menu items as necessary. This is not a good venue if you want to have a large wedding. We had 94 guests, which seems to be a perfect size. I think anything over 100 guests would probably not be as good for the space. The ceilings are low (8') but apparantly they're high enough for the bride and groom to get lifted in chair and not hit their heads
We needed a seclusion room after our ceremony for 15 minutes, and the Space Needle whisked us away in the service elevator to a storage/conference room on the main floor. They provided a tray of our hors d'oeuvres in the room as well. It waasn't the loveliest of rooms, but it was exactly what we needed for 15 minutes, so I'm very glad that we could use it and that there was food waiting for us when we arrived. I did notice that towards the end of the night when things were quieter, we had 2 wedding crashers. I don't really know how to stop that, the same elevator is used to go to the observation deck and the skyline level. Our guests would come back from the observation deck and get off at the skyline level (for our wedding), and the elevator operator wouldn't know who are guests are. I don't think it was a big issues, and I think we only have the 2. Because we had such an intimate wedding where we knew all of our guests, the wedding crashers didn't stay long -- so we didn't actually have to do anything about them. I could imagine if you had a larger wedding, then this may be more of a problem. Overall, we were completely satisfied with the Space Needle, and we think they did an excellent job!
Photographer: Azzura Photography (A+) We worked with Ken and his daughter. They are absolutely fabulous! Food and photography were the most important things to us, and we were willing to spend most of our budget on these two things. Azzura is expensive, but man are they worth it. I can't remember what package we got with them, but it included a main photographer (Ken for us) as well as an assistant photographer, an engagement photo session + frame, a wedding album, and DVDs of all the hi-res digital prints (unretouched). This last item was what we cared about the most. The unretouched photos are amazing. A lot of photographers have great portfolios but then you realize how much retouching they do, meaning the original photo (and what you would get the rights to print) wouldn't be that great. You'd want the re-touched photo and that would cost you. Azzura's un-retouched photos look great, and better yet, we got them a week after our wedding (after coming back from our honeymoon). They knew we weren't from Seattle, so they made sure that we could get our photos when we got back from our honeymoon and that we could pick pictures for our album. Azzura is completely professional, and I can't tell you how much Ken helped us day of our wedding. He has a very good idea of what the schedule day of should be, and what's realistic. He gave us the suggestion to get a shuttle while taking photos around the city so that we didn't have to worry about parking and the time that would take (great suggestion)! He taught me how to hold my dress when walking around the city (and helped me gather it up and fluffed it out). It is totally clear he has been doing this a long time. The way he was able to simply, easily and efficiently pose us just by talking to us while shooting was astounding. We are not models -- we've never posed for pictures before. You'd never know. During dinner he refilled our special drinks. There are so many other things that he did for us, I can't list them all, but he and his daughter were absolutely wonderful to work with. They're photos are amazing! Just take a look at their website, and you'll see it for yourself. We chose them for their skill, and they did not disappoint. Their wedding albums are so much nicer than other photographer's I think. Each one is custom made, so they aren't just throwing your photos into templates, and I think the customization really shows. Overall, Ken and his daughter were so much fun to work with, made our wedding planning/day easier, and we couldn't have been happier with the photos and how quickly we got them!
DJ: Your Sound Entertainment (A). We worked with Shawn James. He was easy to work with and was friendly. We met with him in person, and we emailed him. We wanted a DJ who wouldn't take over our wedding and would essentially just play music. Our best man acted as MC, so we didn't our DJ to do that. We took advantage of the spring sale. We met Shawn when we were in Seattle and got along with him well. He was true to his word, and didn't act as MC. He played songs we wanted, and none off of our do-not-play list. He setup before our ceremony, went elsewhere during the ceremony (we didn't need him to play music for our ceremony), and then came back when we needed him, and took care of moving all his equipment. He also setup some cool lights for us on the dance floor. If you want a club feeling, then I don't know if this is the right DJ. He pretty much plays through the whole song, although he does mix songs to transition. At most clubs I've been too, they don't play the whole song there's a lot more mixing. Overall, Shawn was a good fit for us, he didn't do anything wrong, and we didn't need to worry about him or his equipment at all.
Bakery: Bakery Nouveau (A+). The best wedding cake I've had. Ok, technically we didn't get a wedding cake, because we were too late to order one, and we didn't really care about the look of the cake. To save some money we got a full sheet cake and a 10" round. We got the chocolate cake with raspberry cremeaux and chocolate ganache. They were so moist and rich, and not too sweet. I don't like buttercream or fondant, so this was perfect for me. I also don't like most American cakes because I find them too sweet and dry. I like Asian cake, but the bakeries in Seattle that we tried weren't so good. Bakery Nouveau was a stroke of luck. We sent my brother-in-law and father-in-law to go try the cakes, and they loved it. The bakery does make wedding cakes, but we only ordered ours a month in advance. The pictures online of the wedding cakes look gorgeous, so if you want to go that route I still suggest this bakery. More importantly to me, the cake tasted great and was so moist! Even though we didn't get a tiered wedding cake, I still think our cake looked good. It was decorated with pieces. Simple, elegant, and delicious!
Makeup: Salon Maison (A-). I worked with Heidi. My original makeup plans didn't work out, so ~3 weeks before the wedding I contacted Salon Maison. They were very helpful, and luckily they had an opening on my wedding date for the time I needed. I only had the few days before my wedding to do my trial. We ended up fitting in my trial at the last minute, right before my rehearsal dinner. I found Salon Maison because I noticed a lot of the other brides my photographer has worked with has used them and they looked great. I don't usually wear makeup, so I wanted a natural look, but I still wanted my features to be defined in photographs. Unfortunately, Heidi was late to my trial, which was a bit stressful because it was right before the rehearsal dinner. She was running late because she was doing makeup at a wedding right before my trial, and a bunch of the bridesmaids wanted their makeup done. She said it was because their company puts more emphasis on actual weddings over trials that she was late. Personally, I think that when you have appointments you should keep them, and not push them back by 45 min. She didn't charge me for shaping my eyebrows, which I think was her way of making up the fact that she late. She did do a good job with the makeup though. I showed her some pictures and told her what I wanted, and I loved the look she came up with after the first application. We only changed the lip color. I opted to get false eye lashes, but they were coming off by the end of dinner (only a few hours) and the eye liner had smudged a lot. I told Heidi the next day (wedding day) and she lined my eyes with shadow instead of a pencil and then sealed it in. She also trimmed the lashes to make sure they stayed on. By the end of the night, the eye liner had stayed put, but the lashes again were starting to life (right before the ceremony). Luckily they didn't budge too much and I could sort of stick them back in place without too much trouble. I was very thankful that Salon Maison could fit me in last minute, and I think they communicated well. I wasn't happy about the late trial, especially because I couldn't reschedule the trial for any other time. I also wasn't happy about the eyelashes lifting. I do think that Heidi did a beautiful job, and she was right on time for my appointment on my wedding day. The makeup stayed put, and it looked great both up close and in the photographs. I love the fact that Salon Maison goes on location, both for the trial and for day of.
Hair: Bianka Phair (A-). Bianka works at the University Village Gene Juarez salon. She's awesome. She knows hair, and she knows what looks good and won't be afraid to tell you. She took into account my dress, my face shape, the texture of my hair, the length, etc. to help me get the best hairstyle for my wedding. My hair is silky straight and doesn't hold a curl well. I hate the crunchy curl or perfect ringlet look, but I do like curls. She was able to get my hair to have movement, volume, softness, and curl! Even after jumping around on the dance floor, my hair still looked great. The next morning, my hair was still curly -- never has that happened before. She was also nice enough to fit in one of bridesmaids at the last minute, and also put some product in my husband's and his brother's hair. I think she did a great job, but I'll admit she wasn't the easiest to get a hold of and she's not very good with time. My hair took longer than we planned, and she arrived a bit late because she was looking for parking.
Transportation for photos: Shuttle Express (A-). Driver was Dan. He was on-time and wasn't mad at us when we weren't. I guess he shouldn't be since we're paying him regardless. He was friendly and got us to where we needed to go. Our photographer also helped out with telling him the best places to park, etc. Honestly, I wasn't paying too much attention. The shuttle itself was spacious (I think it seats 16, and we had 11). The seats are like a limo in that they aren't in rows, but around the perimeter of the vehicle. There were fridges with complimentary water. The A/C didn't seem to work too well in the back of the shuttle, thus the minus for the grade I gave.
Chair covers: Seattle's Best Chair Covers (A+). Super easy to work with and well priced. I took advantage of some sale (sometime in January around the Bridal Show). I did it all through email. They sent me swatches for chair cover sashes, and when they didn't have the exactly color I wanted, they sent me a second packet of swatches when they got in their new sashes. A few days before the wedding, I changed my mind about returning the chair covers myself and they had no problems scheduling to pick up the chair covers. I never saw then set-up or tear-down, but it all got done. When we arrived at the Space Needle to setup, they were all ready and looked great. The Space Needle has worked with them a lot which is one of the reasons we went with this company, that, and the Space Needle has some odd shaped chairs that we know Seattle's Best Chair Covers can deal with.
Paper: Anchor Paper -- online (A+), Paper Zone -- in store (A). Prices at Anchor Paper were good, and shipping was fast. We made all of our invitations, programs, signs, escort cards, etc. I had some samples of paper from the store Paper Zone in Seattle, but I didn't have enough time to go back and actually purchase what I wanted. I had my mother-in-law go to Paper Zone to pick up some silver cardstock and purple paper. They send coupons through email. Later, I ordered from Anchor Paper envelopes and a different cardstock that Paper Zone carried but not in the size I needed. Between both stores, I got everything I needed, and at reasonable prices.
Ketubah (Jewish Marriage Contract): Jerise (B+). We used Etsy to find a Ketubah that we liked. We wanted our Ketubah to be a piece of art. Jerise is a papercut artist, and we found that she has made some Ketubah's that were multi-cultural. We had her make one for us that incorporated the Chinese characters for double-happiness. We provided her with the English text we wanted, and the Hebrew translation. We love the paper cut and watercolor. They look amazing, and it definitely represents us. My husband got nervous several times because we didn't know the status of our Ketubah. We never received sketches of what it would look like which we were supposed to get a week after signing the contract. Jerise wasn't the best communicator, but she's been doing this long enough and has enough clients, that in the end, she got us our Ketubah just like she said she would. The pen she recommended we get to write on the Ketubah was no good (Sharpie, Paint Pen in white). For some reason the paper kept sucking up the pen. I would sign my name and then it would disappear. Not exactly, what you want to happen when you're signing it in front of your closest friends and family. Luckily we had another pen around. I think our Ketubah is wonderful and that Jerise did a great job with it. I marked her down because her communication wasn't great and it caused us some stress wondering if she would actually come through with it. We wouldn't have been able to get married without it.
Flowers: LaVassar Florist (A). We worked with Judy. We met with her once in the store, and the rest of the time we communicated over the phone. Honestly, we didn't care too much about flowers, and we didn't want to spend that much money. We wanted small, low centerpieces and bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party. I gave Judy swatches for our color scheme, and told her what flowers I liked. She also made flower suggestions, and told us what would be in season and how much they would cost. She was very good about trying to keep the price down for us. I wasn't too thrilled with the bouquet styles I saw in their multitude of photo albums, so I brought it some pictures I had found online of styles I liked. I was happily surprised with our flowers day of. The bouquets were beautiful as were the centerpieces. They turned out better than I expected them too, and I think Judy understood very well our aesthetic, and did a great job matching our colors. They don't get a plus from me because we did have to call them a few times to fix our order details. That being said, they are quite organized and make sure to send you a written copy of the order everytime there's a change, so it's quite easy to fix. They delivered our centerpieces to the Space Needle, and I assume there were no problems. We picked up our bouquets and boutonnieres because we needed them earlier, and they were on-time. Overall, they were very easy to work with, helped us with our budget, organized, and created some beautiful floral pieces for us.