It's about time I share my wonderful experiences with everyone! I did a lot of research before booking my vendors, and wouldn't have changed a single thing!
Venue: Loews Hotel - I'm SO glad we made this choice! Cocktails were on the 33rd floor, with awesome panoramic views of the city. Dinner and dancing was in the Millenium Ballroom on the 2nd floor with awesome windows, an old bank vault, marble walls with an old Cartier clock on it. The service there was impecable. We worked with David Hall, the director of catering (whom I've since found out is sort of hard to get to work with there). If you can work with David, he's seriously the best in the city at what he does. Numerous other vendors, unsolicited, even told me he's their favorite to work with. Every single possible question I had, he had an answer for, reassured me it would all be perfect, and went above and beyond to help make our day special. He had agreed to get several local craft beers for us, including Victory Love Stout, which was not being bottled in April. When he realized that it hadn't come in on the morning of the wedding, he said he called every single beer distributor in the city to try to find it. That's service! Aside from David, the bartenders, servers, and matre'd were all fantastic, and everything ran smoothly --- even transporting 200 guests 30 floors down from cocktails to dinner.
We did our room block at Loews, too, which was a good rate and very easy to do.
Planner - Just be the Bride - I hired Caitlin for a partial planning package (although she does full planning and month-of), so she helped me with vendor meetings and event design, as well as month-of stuff. She had me fill out a few questionnaires that she used to prepare for vendor meetings, so instead of going to a florist and spending the first 30-45 minutes discussing who needs flowers, how many tables, flowers for church, etc, all that info was just handed to them so we could get down to the business of
what the flowers would be. As the wedding got closer, she made an extremely detailed 15 page timeline of every single second of the wedding day, down to what time I intended to wake up so that she could text me to make sure I was up. She contacted each vendor, became the contact person with the vendors, and executed the day of equisitely --- all while being there to calm me down and dress me (she was the only person who knew how to tie me into my dress and bustle it!). Seriously, if you can even remotely squeeze Caitlin into your budget, it will make your wedding day a million times more relaxing. And, if you're spending all of that money on the biggest party of your life, I think it's worth finding the room so to have someone to run the show so that you're not a worried mess all day.
Photographer - LoRusso Studios - I LOVE them. Bob and Lola are a husband/wife team. They're so friendly, organized, efficiently, and most importatly, extremely talented. A few of my friends used them - one in 2009, one in 2010, and I loved their work from first glance, but they've only grown and become more talented since then. They're a pleasure to work with, come up with extremely interesting work, and present it quickly. During the reception, they set up a computer monitor displaying the e-shoot and the photos from earlier in the wedding day. They posted a few pics on FB starting the day after and sent us all of our proofs within 2-3 weeks.
Videographer - BE Films - also loved them! Colleen and Anthony are another husband/wife team. They're a pleasure to be around and are incredibly talented. I can post my highlight film link if any one is interested. I have honestly cried watching the videos of complete strangers, they're that good. I always thought people were full of it when they said they could never even tell the videographer was there...but seriously, I couldn't. They just blended in, never were demanding, and just took it all in. We got our highlight film within 2-3 weeks and our finished product in under 2 months.
Band - Chico's Vibe - Chico's is great at keeping the crowd going. We met with them ahead of time to go over some song selections, they played all of our requested songs, and got the crowd really into it. I find a band or DJ can really make or break the party, and our wedding wound up being one where people from my side were dancing with people from my husband's side, and the dance floor was apparently so packed all night that the band never saw a good opportunity to take their second allotted break! They called my husband and I up on stage to help sing the last song, "Silly Little Love Songs," which was such a memorable way to end the night!
Flowers - Carl Alan - Love love loved them. I'm totally not a flower person, and was sort of dreading that whole process. Carl Alan does a hands on/demo initial consult. So I was there for 4 hours building all of my bouquets and centerpieces. They priced everything per stem, took measurements, photos, etc, so that everything was exactly the way I wanted it on the day of. I worked with Adam, who was so patient and budget-minded. We set a budget when I walked in, and somehow along the lines he mis-calculated something and came up with centerpieces that were pretty out of budget. So even though I'd already been there for 3 hours, he went back and started at step 1 to rebuild centerpieces within budget and that were fairly unique and absolutely perfect for me. I had cascading long-stemmed calla lillies for my tall centerpieces, which we noticed at the consult had to be arranged just perfectly. So my wedding planner requested that Adam himself come to do the set-up (typically someone else would), and he did at no extra cost.
Church - Old St. Mary's - beautiful, historic church. We had a great experience there. Father Paul is an awesome guy, they had no issue with us being non-parishioners or that we wanted to bring in our own celebrant and vocalist. Only downside, you have to pay their organist $250 regardless of whether you want to use him or not (so we did, and he was great).
Hair - Jill Kozar - Jill was great. She was on time, friendly, and quick. She got about 8 girls done ahead of schedule, and we all looked fantastic and our hair stayed in all day (despite the fact that it was windy and a little spritzy).
Makeup - Cindy Singer - also fantastic. My makeup stayed on all day and looked great. She is also just such a pleasure to be around and really helped keep me calm and entertained that morning. I just wish she was closer to where I live, I'd be making up excuses to get my makeup done left and right!
Up-lighting- Eventions - Brian was great to work with as well. We met him at the Loews one night and he showed us all sorts of things he'd done in the ballroom. He's the guy that the Loews uses for all of their events, and he came in comparably priced or less expensive than other quotes we got. It all looked great the day of.
Photobooth - Perfect Day- They were also easy to deal with and fairly priced. I only used the photo booth a few times that night (and always cut the line) so I didn't have too much interaction with the attendant. But from what I understand they were on time, the machine worked all night, and the attendant was nice. They had all the props and made a scrapbook, too.
Favors: We got photo booth frames for favors (there are several websites, and you can call them to get them to match each-other's prices and go with the one with the least expensive shipping). And we got awesome place cards from Etsy that fit in the frames -
http://www.etsy.com/listing/84546224/200-photo-booth-frame-place-card-inserts. Dress - Irmas Bridal - I got a Maggie Sottero from Irma's and did my "alterations" there --- I only needed a bustle, so it was pretty minimal. They were very fairly priced and great to work with. If you can, wait to work with Irma herself, she'll listen to what you like and pick the perfect dress for your body. I wound up buying the first one she pulled out for me!
Tuxes - Jos. A. Bank - pretty straightforward process there. The guys were from all over the country, so they could go to their own stores and get measured and we picked them up right downtown. I also got a baby tux from Tinytuxes.com, which was nice as well.
Bridesmaid Dresses - Priscillas - I really liked the dresses, but since they're out of business now, no real need to review them!
Transportation - Trophy Limo - We just wanted a large shuttle bus, since we only had a mile to go. They were pretty cheap and had a nice "executive coach" with leather seats and such. The driver was friendly and was nice enough to talk to me about really random things while I was nervously waiting to walk into the church.
RD - Bridget Foys - great private party space on their 3rd floor and I think they weren't terribly expensive for an open bar + dinner. Good service and food selections.
Nails - Tierra Mia - the day before, my BMs and I went to Tierra Mia for a private party. It was really lovely, we brought champagne and snacks and had the place to ourselves. They use water based polish that stays on really well, so my nails looked great even after a few days of hiking down cliffs in Hawaii!
Invitations - Christina's Butterfly Boutique- a little place in Ocean City that makes their own invites. My MOH is a graphic designer, so she designed my invitation suite and we wanted to get it printed and put onto a pocketfold. Zoi (the owner....so why it's called Christina's is beyond me) had exactly what I wanted and was willing to let me use my own designs without an extra fee. She was quick and easy to work with. Some of her designs were not really for me, but others were really cute. If you're at the shore over the summer, it's worth looking at. She was a lot less expensive than other places that I looked (as in, about half as much as the Papery and Paper Source in Philly).
I also did Vistaprint for menus and thank you cards --- if you get the highest quality paper, they're still cheap and look really nice. And I designed my own programs and had them printed at the Kinkos on 9th and Chestnut downtown. There's one guy there who was really helpful, and another guy who was a total jerk. So it's really hit or miss.
We also did linen, chair and lounge furniture rentals, but my planner / contact at the Loews handled that stuff, so I can get info about who they used (all seemed to be good).
Let me know if you have any questions or if you can think of vendors I likely had but forgot to review here!!