The wedding was 11/11/10 - and it was the 3rd 11/11 it's rained in Seattle in the past 20 years. It really ended up putting a damper on 1 biggish thing - the first look pictures. We didn't get a secluded moment - there were other people around us and honey wasn't waiting for me, he was helping decorate the joint! That was a bummer but the rest of the day was pretty lovely. So here it goes... Oh, and here's a little warning. I've seen a lot of vendor reviews that have super fluffy A++++++ stuff and giving people super grades with little complaints in the text of the evaluation. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to try to give an honest grade. So - a B is above average, not perfect, but not something to run from, either. I'm just not the overhyping type of girl.
Venue - Ray's Boathouse Northwest Room - Shilshole Marina, Seattle
www.rays.com/catering Grade A-
The location is beautiful, Amy Stevens, the catering manager is super helpful and always answers every question and generally is on top of communication but every once in awhile slips and takes more time than I'd expect in answering. To be fair, the week or so before the wedding she was especially on top of things.
The wedding was on a Thursday and we were allowed to have our rehearsal walk through on the Sunday before. That was wonderfully helpful. Amy let us bring in all of our decorations and our wine then which was a relief.
The day of the wedding, Ray's staff decorated (with the decorations I brought in) the tables but not anything that had to hang. I was responsible for that . I thought that was fair. They provided table arrangements that were very tasteful and lovely. The room looked amazing. It was perfect.
Our ceremony and cocktail hour took place on the dock outside (yes in November). They have it nicely sheltered from the rain/wind and it was beautiful. They really have their catering area set up nicely for small to mid-sized weddings (probably under 75 people or so).
The wait staff was super attentive. We got many compliments from our guests about how happy with their service they were. We had 55 guests and were assigned 4 servers. They were fast to make sure people's wine and water stayed filled which is a biggie with me. They got the cake cut and back out to our guests tables (not the cake table until everyone was served a slice) quickly after we did our first slice into it. They checked with me and my husband separately several times throughout the evening to make sure everything was running the way we wanted which I thought was wonderful.
At the end of the night they boxed our cake for us and made sure the dinners for our no-shows were put in our belongings since we were being charged for them. Awesome!
So why the minus and not a straight up A grade? After the wedding when Ray's accounting went to charge our debit card it was declined. We found out later it was because the amount was too large and BOA thought it was fraudulent (and BOA didn't try to contact me about it,either). Long story short, I ended up writing a check instead of sitting through hold hell with BOA to get clearance for the large transaction to be cleared. Amy told me she'd let me know when they received the check. 5 days after I sent the check I got a message saying they hadn't received it yet. I emailed back and let her know I had sent it and asked if she wanted to give it another day before we stopped payment on the check. I got no response. I checked my bank account 2 days later to see that the check cleared the next day. That sort of lack of communication makes me a little unhappy but overall I would recommend this venue to anyone! My guests had a great time and it looks great in the photos.
Alterations - Sue Williams, Edmonds Wa stitch.knit@gmail.com or 425 412 3682
Grade A
I found Sue on Craig's list and I am sooooo thankful. She is perfect. She knows what she is doing and she has such reasonable rates. She charged less than $100 to bustle my dress, add an inner corset (essentially 2 ribbons inside the bodice), and to take in the bodice. She charged $25 to let out a seam on a bride's maid's dress. She's so sweet, works out of her house, and had the dresses ready in a week. She is amazing! If Edmonds is at all convenient for you I'd recommend her!
Dress - David's Bridal, Lynnwood. Grade C-
I so didn't want to find my dress at DB but there it was. It's a beauty, too. The store was too busy, we received minimal help even with an appointment. I stood around in the dress I loved for about 30 minutes while our associate stepped away for "just a minute". When she came back she wrote down an arbitrary size on a guestimate of how the dress fit and that I'd need a tall (I'm 5'9"). The associate was told that I wanted to change the zipper back to a corset so the dress would have to be a bit too small. I slept on it for a day, went back and wanted to order the dress. A clerk at the front started to process the order when I mentioned that no one had taken any measurements. Clerk called back the associate from the day before who measured me, wrote everything down, and processed the order. On the way home I realized she didn't look at any charts when she entered the order. I called the store and sure enough she had just ordered the size that she had guessed the day before and I had measured a size smaller. Did I want them to order the size smaller? Ummm duh! I realized a couple hours later that I'd better ask if they ordered the long - they hadn't!!!!
My dress ended up coming in 2 weeks early (yay!) but they didn't even mention alterations when I picked it up. It was so odd! But I scored on that end having Sue do the alterations. One great thing - they still honored the free steam and clean before the ceremony, since Sue just does the alterations out of her house she doesn't have the equipment for that.
Men's Wearhouse Northgate B Alderwood A
Honey was fitted and ordered his tux at Northgate. It was fine and dandy until we left and he checked his receipt and saw the names "honey and J" under customer but Gina as the name of the bride. You'd think they would cross check that sort of thing. He's clearly not the 1st groom to have a second bride and use Men's Wearhouse. The staff at Alderwood, where we picked up his tux and had my dad and nephew fitted for theirs were on top of things and excellent. I was thrilled with them.
Cake!!! Decadence Custom Cakes Seattle
www.decadencecustomcakes.com 206 909 3789 Grade A-
Beautiful, Beautiful cake. Absolutely delicious. I am in complete awe of what Toby can do with sugar for decorations. We had sugar gerbera daisies on our cake and they looked exactly like the real thing. I cannot say enough good things about Dan and his crew. I have never had such delicious cake - and I love cake!!! The only thing I'd have to mark down is some slow communication but we are dealing with artists here! Seriously, call these guys if you're looking for your cake, Ahhhhmazing!
Boudoir Photography - Cheryl Jones at Belle Boudoir www.boudoirphotographyseattle.com Grade A+++
OK, So Cheryl gets my 1 fluffy grade. She is amazing. I am not a stick figure of a girl. I have curves and she made them look fantastic and she made me feel confident while doing it. My pictures turned out so beautiful. I am so proud of them and my husband loves them. She has the most wonderful studio in Wallingford. She has such a fun, calm demeanor. She is awesome. If I would have found her before I found my wedding photographer I probably would have used her for our wedding pics, too. If you look at her blog, under October she has a little write up about Ms G -that is me and she has some pics of our session. They're so great I am thrilled to have her share! I would recommend her to anyone and everyone!
Photographer - Brian Stern, Brian Stern Photography, www.briansternphotography.com Grade B
I found Brian on Craig's list. He's not been professional for too long but he's pretty talented. The price was reasonable, we get a cd with all the proofs, and the rights to them. I loved my engagement photos and have loved what I have seen of my wedding pictures.
What I did not love was how hard it was to get ahold of him sometimes. I tried to email him twice in the week and a half before the wedding (that had been the easiest way for us to communicate) and my husband tried calling him 4 days before to nail down some details with no response. I finally got him on facebook but we didn't talk about the big details that I forgot on my wedding day. What I wanted to tell him was we didn't need any extended family photos but we wanted to get a few with my husband and I and our kids (we have 3 between us). Well, none we taken with all 5 of us together and Brian must have thought Honey's daughter was mine because he didn't get any photos of them together, either. Kind of sad - I try not to think about it. But... they pics we do have are beautiful.. If you'd like to see check his website, client viewing, then Gina and Burr wedding. I'd recommend him, but be sure to make an appointment to talk with him a couple weeks before the wedding at your consultation with him.
******Edit***** We finally got our cd's back from Brian. The pictures are fantastic. My one complaint - The reason we finally got our discs - I posted on my FB that I wished I had my wedding photo disc so I could work on photobooks during my weekend since I had a Snapfish coupon. He saw that and sent me an email that he had the discs ready for me and could bring them by. Well Honey loaded em on to the computer and looked at the date they were burned - yesterday 2 hrs before he brought them over. I am not pleased. He had the editing done 2 weeks ago - all of the edited pics were on his website on Nov 21. So, the pictures are really lovely but you have to nag him to get your proofs. The upside - you do get the rights to all of your images. So there's an upside and a downside.
I think that's it for now - I'll add more if I remember but those are the main ones!
65 asked to watch us make it happen
51 helping us party