Here are my reviews from our 9/6/09 wedding. Hope this is helpful. Feel free to email me with questions at spamela000 at yahoo dot com. Venue: National Press Club: A+: We were extremely pleased with the National Press Club. The venue is beautiful, our guests enjoyed the location, and everyone was impressed with how perfect the day was. As veteran wedding goers, it was the best food we've had at a wedding (and most restaurants) and dinner was for 170 people, not a small feat! The Press Club is so experienced in planning detailed, top-notch events, that we had 100% confidence in them and every detail that we asked for (and even some we didn't know to ask for) was handled perfectly. We dealt with George in catering, who had great advice on how to schedule the reception, how much and what to serve, and anticipated anything that might come up that day. George's efforts and the care and concern he expressed not only in planning this event but on the day of the wedding were amazing! They turned the room over quickly between our ceremony and reception and the staff was professional and courteous. George was great at coordinating with all of our other vendors on set up and scheduling, without any additional involvment from us. We were pleasantly surprised when we received our final bill as it was very reasonable given the quality of the food, service, and location. Rehearsal Dinner: Clyde's of Gallery Place: A. We used Clyde's for our rehearsal dinner. The venue was very nice for around 100 people and the staff wascourteous and accomodating. The amenities included were good: the AV and private room. They were helpful in putting out our centerpieces and placecards as well. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced for level of service, number of staff, and quality. The cocktail hour, in particular was excellent. We didn't have to provide food choices in advance, which also was very helpful. We would definitely recommend this as a rehearsal dinner location. Our only issue was that our vegetarian option differed from the banquet order. Flowers: Shelly Bagdasian Floral and Event Design: A+.I highly recommend Shelly! She was great to work with and had fabulous ideas. Her communication was exceptional! After our initial proposal, I emailed her lots of tweaks and ideas (including from an email sent while I was at another wedding and pictures of flowers I sent when I saw some on a lawn that I liked). She made note of each change and took care of it with no need for follow-up on my part-- which was a tremendous help to me. Her prices were very reasonable given the quality of the work. Her set up crew was amazing! We had a limited amount of time to get a huge drape, lighting, and a chupah up and they did it with time to spare. The room turnover was equally smooth. Most importantly the flowers were gorgeous. Our flowers even held up beautifully for pictures 2 days after the wedding. I really appreciated that she includes a sample centerpiece which she brought to our tasting so we could see what it would look like on a table and make additional tweaks if we wanted. I would HIGHLY recommend Shelly! Cake: Alexandria Pastry Shop: A. We really enjoyed working with Alexandria Pastry Shop. Their flavor choices were excellent, we had a tiramisu flavored wedding cake and a chocolate raspberry groom's cake. They even accomodated a second tasting after we realized our original groom's cake choice would be too heavy with the wedding menu. We initially dealt with Ana, but when Dani took over at the store she called us to confirm all of our details and was extremely professional. Their prices were reasonable and they offered excellent personalized attention, moreso than the other than the three other bakeries we met with. Our cake was beautiful and was delivered on time-- they worked with our location to handle the delivery logistics with little stress for us. Dress: White Swan Bridal: A. I was very happy with White Swan Bridal! I went to about a dozen stores looking for dresses. I actually tried on my dress at another store, but was unhappy with that store's customer service. White Swan was able to order the dress, even though they didn't stock a sample and matched the lowest price in the area on the dress. Lindsey did a great job of taking my measurements so the only alterations I needed were taking up the straps and the bustle-- this saved a lot of time and money in the long run. They even included shortening my hoop that went under the dress. I went for several fittings and thought they were attentive and I didn't feel pressured. It was definitely worth the drive out there. I also like Katherine's in Alexandria, Kitty was great, they just didn't have the dress I wanted to go with. Tuxes: Men's Warehouse, Alexandria, VA (Potomac Yard): A. This Men's Warehouse was great to deal with! We had dads, groomsmen & ushers from all over the country. They applied my husband's "perfect fit" discount to everyone so they didn't have to sign up individually. They were also great at communicating with me so we could easily make sure that all tuxes were ordered and that they were set for the proper pick up locations on the right days. When my father in law's vest and jacket were a bit tight, we just picked another one up from the store with just a phone call ahead. It worked out really well and took a lot of stress of of me, since I could check in on the orders easily. Music: Jan Davis/ The Jangling Reinharts Band: A+. We worked with Juleen of Jan Davis. She was wonderful to work with. We were looking for a truly unique wedding band and she found us the Jangling Reinharts from Jan's sister agency, Sam Hill. Juleen was great at listening to what we wanted and finding a great band. She also booked us a string trio that was lovely and advised us on the schedule for the wedding day. As for the band, The Jangling Reinharts... They are the most awesome wedding band ever! We wanted a band that played cool cover songs, classic rock and got the crowd moving and they more than exceeded our expectations. They played everything from The Beatles to Journey to Guns N'Roses. Everyone was up on the dance floor the whole night and I would say the band (along with our excellent venue) was the key to our completely awesome wedding. I can't recommend them enough-- and their prices were much more reasonable than most of the stuffy, "wedding bands" in DC. We haven't stopped getting complements on the band. Invtitations: Paper Talk: A. We enjoyed working with Arlene. She was very helpful in selecting invitations and advising us on wording and design. She offered practical advice in selecting invitations and was good at communicating back and forth regarding our decisions, changes to proofs, etc. She gave us lots of choices in selecting invitations and stationery. Arlene also handled addressing out invitations, which looked great and her prices were reasonable for the quality of the paper and services. Transportation: ING Limo: A. We had a very good experience with ING Transportation. They ran a 32 person shuttle for us between our wedding hotel and wedding location the day of the wedding, which was in downtown DC. The prices were the best we found and included tip, which was nice. The shuttle ran smoothly even after the wedding party had been dropped off and ING handled the transportation without someone directing them during the duration of the day. Day of Coordination: Graceful Weddings: A. Anna and Anne did an excellent job for day of coordination. I would say that I am a highly organized, detail-oriented bride and they were just as detailed and organized. I really appreciated that I never had to say anything more than once and any notes or details that I emailed them were immediately made note of and handled on the day of our wedding. They kept our wedding on schedule (in fact we ran 15 minutes early) and were they visible and helpful to us and our wedding party. In addition, they did a great job setting up and making sure everything was in order the day of our wedding, accounting for all of the vendors, readers, etc. All of our wedding items were returned to us the night of the wedding. They are definitely well worth their very reasonable prices. Their presence truly allowed us to enjoy the day! Hotel: Hamilton Crown Plaza: C. We used the Crowne Plaza to reserve a hotel block, a hospitality suite, and did a family dinner at 14K restaurant. The upside of the experience was that in the end, we got almost everything we wanted, the prices were reasonable, we were able to bring in and provide our own snacks for guests in our hospitality suite, and the location is nice. The dinner at 14K was pleasant and they did an excellent job in the restaurant. The downside is that the experience with the banquet staff was generally frustrating. We were initially given a block rate at the hotel, which seemed reasonable, but soon found out that they were offering a lower rate to the general public. When we discussed this with them, the solution was to eliminate all rates lower than ours. This solution, however didn't last when we found out the hotel had dropped the rates again several weeks before the wedding. In the end, the hotel offered a concession of upgrading out block to club level and giving us the lower, publicly available rate. This would have been great except that the hotel could not upgrade our entire block as we had more rooms booked that then number of club level rooms in the hotel. Given that they had promised something physically impossible, they upgraded our wedding party. Unfortunately, upon our arrival, we discovered that most of the advertised club level amenities had closed. They again made an additional concesssion, giving our club level guests discounts in the restaurant, etc. In all, this was a generally frustrating experience: we had to to repeat the negotiations multiple times, confirm details multiple times, and in the end had no confidence in what would happen during the weekend of our wedding. We do have to give them credit for continually trying to rectify problems once we pointed them out, but based on our other vendor experiences, their level of service did not meet our expectations. More reviews to follow, once we see the final products:Photography: Daniel McGarrity Photography: Daniel was great the day of the wedding. Stayed on top of things, so helpful, like the "Wedding Singer" but as a photographer. The pics so far are great, waiting to get the albums, etc. squared away. HIs prices were very reasonable. Video: AE Productions: Eric was great to work with and reasonably priced, can't wait to see the video.Waterford Past-Thymes: I'm currently working with them on flower preservation. They've been so nice to deal with and were very reasonable. Wedding Dress Specialists/RAM: I dropped my dress of for cleaning, they seemed to know what they are doing, waiting to pick it up.