Follow up to my earlier post. Thanks everyone!
Invitations – Paperfling, B. Ruth at Paperfling did a great job with our invitations. She helped use some pocketfolds and envelopes I had already purchased, and combine them with some other decorative papers and printing to create our final invitations, which I think turned out beautifully. I didn’t give her an “A” for a few reasons – 1) I had to go back and forth with her about 5 times proofing the invite (inappropriate capitalization, extra spaces, spacing, ect), which was kind of annoying seeing as she should be the invite expert. 2) we had based our quote on 100 invites, but she never confirmed with me the amount before she went ahead and printed, so I paid for probably 10 to 15 more invites than I needed. 3) She didn’t tell me that she was planning on putting stamps on the RSVP envelopes as part of the assembly, so I had already purchased all the stamps and ended up with a bunch of extras. However, all things considered, I would work with her again as I think her options and the end result were just great.
Dress – Cynderellies Closet, B, and La Belle Reve, B. I bought two dresses, the first at Cynderellies Closet in Edmonds. I give them a B because I wish they had been honest with me about how the dress was going to look before I purchased it, but they could sense it was my favorite, so probably didn’t want to disappoint me. Everything else was flawless – very nice service, on time delivery, very good prices. I bought my second dress at La Belle Reve because I didn’t like my first dress once it came in. They were very understanding, didn’t push me into a new dress and tried to make my original one work, even though that’s not what happened. They kept me updated on the order process, and were generally responsive. In general, I just don’t trust the way bridal salons do business, so I won’t give either an “A.” I had a lot of trouble finding a dress, and I wish sales associates at every place I went were more helpful and actually suggested some dresses based on your shape and desired look.
DJ – Wavelink, A. We worked with Brian from Wavelink and thought he was great. He has a ton of experience and has a great online planning tool. He really listened to us regarding what type of music we wanted, and worked in almost all of our requests. He did a pretty good job reading the crowd, but played a few songs I felt were a little off. Our reception seemed to come to a natural end around 10:20 or so. In fact, our “last dance” was the last song of the night, but I thought he might have tried to play it a little earlier when there were still a few more people there. But he’s not a mind reader! Brian also did our ceremony music and it was flawless.
Makeup – Sequoia Leopold with My Flawless Makeup, A. Sequoia did makeup for my two bridesmaids, the moms and myself. She does airbrushed makeup, and it went out so smoothly and covered well. I had a eyebrow waxing incident a few days before the wedding that left a red rough patch above my eyebrow, but she covered it well. I also felt her fee was reasonable and included a trial run, which she kept great notes on.
Hair - Vu Montgomery with Obadiah Salon, Bellevue. B+. Vu is very good at what he does, and did a beautiful job with my hair. He does runway hair for fashion shows and very cutting edge/artsy stuff. So, if you don’t have a pretty good vision of what you want, he’ll push you towards something more edgy or a little out there. He also has a pretty sarcastic/dry sense of humor, but is a nice guy.
Veil - Elegantgowns.com, A+. I identified the specific veil I wanted in a book at my local bridal store (make, item #). The veil was selling for over $100 at the store. I found it on this website for less than $50. It shipped directly from the manufacturer, so I know it was exactly what I wanted, and it was one time. I was very pleased.
Alterations - Darcy Martin , B. I had a mixed experience with Darcy. She didn’t write down my 1st appointment, so wasn’t there after I drove all the way up to Lynwood to see her. She was very apologetic about it, and even comp’d me some of the cost of my alterations as a result. She is a very very sweet lady and is fun to work with. When I went in for my second appointment, she noticed that she hadn’t sewn on of the loops for the bustle, but promised it would be done when we pick the dress up. Well, it wasn’t, and my bridesmaid had to frantically sew a loop onto my dress right before the ceremony. So that was a little disappointing. On a personal note- I would recommend an underbustle rather than an overbustle. Overbustles turn out with flaps of the dress waving around next to your butt all night like wings. So I would have done that differently! I also bought my jewelry from Darcy, which was awesome and very reasonably priced.
Tuxes - Men’s Wearhouse, A. They do tuxes, are reasonably priced, are national, and didn’t screw anything up. I was happy and it all seemed to work out well.
Transportation - Seattle VIP, C. The car was late, the driver took what felt like the longest possible way to get to our destination, and was kind of a jerk. But what can you say, he got us from point A to point B.
Rehearsal Dinner – McCormick & Schmicks Bellevue, B. Our food and service the day of was great and I was really pleased with everything during the evening. The only reason I gave them a B was that it was difficult to get straight information from them and they weren’t terribly responsive heading up to the event. They took my credit card information months in advance when we scheduled the date and said they would charge a deposit, and never did. The communications just weren’t very clear or easy.
Fitness - Healthy Bride bootcamp, Bellevue, A+. I started the 8-week fitness class in March, with classes 2x a week. The instructor, Stacie Chavez, was great and super supportive. I know I am a lot stronger now and I lost at least a percentage in body fat, which was great. It did help my confidence in the dress and on the wedding night.