I've been mostly absent for the last few weeks, but I wanted to post my vendor reviews because I found them very helpful when planning. To note, we tried to do a lot of things on a budget. While our total wedding cost wouldn't be considered "budget," we did a lot to try to minimize costs wherever we could.
Crystal City Marriott (room block and reception): A The CCM was really great to work with. We got a lot for our money (free suite upgrades for the parents for their entire stay, free suite for two nights for us, etc.). We definitely negotiated a lot from the initial contract. We ended up with a cocktail hour with passed hors'd'ouvres, 3 hours open bar during the reception, dinner, planning services, and our room all for $90/person. It was a real value compared to other locations. The food was AWESOME. We've received so many compliments on all of the dishes. Wedding food is so often not done well, that this was a real treat. The hotel is beautiful and in a great location. My one complaint is that we experienced a lot of staff turnover in terms of our event planner. We were on our third by the time of the event and we got a note after we got back from the wedding that he had left as well.
Wegman's Florist (Fair Oaks): A+ I stumbled onto Wegman's florist through a friend. I'd never thought of going through a grocery store to do flowers, but they did an absolutely wonderful job and were HALF of what other florists were. They were easy to work with, provided beautiful flowers, and were completely on time. HIGHLY recommended!
DuHon Photography (Cassidy DuHon): A+ I'm submitting this review without having seen my pictures yet. However, Cassidy was wonderful to work with, extremely responsive during the planning process, and reasonably priced for the quality of his work. He also worked with an assistant, so I really felt like I got two photographers for the price of one.
Monogram Wedding (Invitations): B I found Monogram Wedding online. They had the option to really personalize the invitations from their standard templates and were very reasonably priced. I ordered a sample pack and then got a discount on the invitation order. Invitations turned out to be just over $3 each (I think... it's been a while). I was really happy with them overall, and we received a lot of compliments on them. Some of them though, had a bit of a defect in terms of the printing. You could see a pink fringe around the navy script. I'm probably the only one who ever noticed it though.
Five Star Coachways (guest shuttle): C They were by far the cheapest for a mini bus shuttle which we only needed for a couple of hours to get guests between the hotel and church and back. My husband dealt with them exclusively, so I'm only going by his stories. They were a little elusive in communication, and at one point wouldn't cooperate with our coordinators. They also ignored explicit directions to leave the hotel at a certain time. They left early and as such, caused several of our guests to take cabs to the ceremony.
Graceful Weddings (planning and coordination): A+ Anne and Anna were SO helpful throughout the process. I got the extended package which allowed me a few months of planning assistance. I bounced lots of ideas off of them, and they helped me a lot with the last details. They were invaluable when it came to day-of. They took care of all the details and helped me and all my guests just enjoy the day. They even took all of our gifts and wedding reception decor back to our condo the night of the wedding. Both sets of parents were really happy to just go to bed after the night was over!
Cakes by Linda: B- I will say to start off, our cake was delicious (the little bit I had during the cutting). Linda wasn't the friendliest, but she makes a good tasting cake. I was, however, a little disappointed in the way the cake looked. We had a 3-tier, simple cake with butter cream frosting. She was going to do a fondant ribbon around the base of each layer to create interest. The ribbon was going to have a navy layer and a yellow layer for our colors. The result was pretty messy though. The colors bled onto each other and the white buttercream. It just wasn't that pretty.