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North Carolina-Outer Banks

Vendor Reviews

Wow, this is going to be long, but here goes....

Weather:  Absolutely perfect!  The week had been high 80s all week, cooled down to a perfect 76 for our wedding and remained nice and breezy for the entire night!  Couldn't ask for anything better!  (good thing I didn't waste any time planning a Plan B - oops!)

Venue:  Grande Bahamian Event Home - this house looked absulutely phenomenal online.  Maybe its because of the huge rental price ($10,500 for the week + $2,500 event fee) or maybe because it is up for sale, but this place did not meet my expectations.  Of the 4 commercial icemakers in the ad, only one was in place when we were there.  There were cobwebs everywhere... just lots of little things that I didn't expect to be wrong when we were paying so much.

Wedding Planner - Marie with Bordeaux Events:  Highly recommend!  It wasn't until we were down there that I realized her true worth.  Mid week I was sick of getting tons of questions asked to me by both my mom and FMIL so I called Marie to see if she could come over and answer their questions for me.  She was there that evening and answered all for them.  On the day of the wedding I was unaware of all mishaps (including getting in trouble for noise) because Marie handled all of it.  The event went off without a hitch (as far as I was concerned) all because of her!  Also, when we were in the planning stages and went to OBX last October, she arranged us to meet ALL of our vendors in a five hour window - it was priceless!

Photographer - Kristi Midgette:  Kristi was a lot of fun!  I haven't seen any of my photos yet since it has only been a few days, but she really set us up in a lot of fun poses, everyone loved her and she worked well with all!  She came over early to set everything up how she wanted and was very helpful the day of.

Officiant - Jay Bowman:  I read many times on here and on Jay's website that Jay personalized the ceremony like none other.  Not to be cliche, but he did just that for us!  We had only met him in the initial meeting, emailed a few times and then talked for five minutes the day of and he absolutely nailed it!  We had people coming up to us after to ask if he was a family friend - he did absolutely incredible!

Ceremony Musicians - Roy Murray:  This was an understated detail that I had overlooked, but everyone had absolutely great things to say about him!  It was a great tocuh to have live music on the beach (Roy played the trumpet and had a friend play the guitar) and they learned two new songs just for us.  We had him play our first dance song on our processional and he nailed it - definitely something worth paying for!

Florist - Bells and Whistles:  Not extrememly satified with this.  We had given Dorothy our initial budget and the proposal she came back with was almost four times what we said we wanted to spend!  It was then up to us to cut things back from her proposal, even though she said that it would be so gorgeous with everything included.  This was very hard for us to do, even with the help of Marie, and I wish I wouldn't have been put in this position.  The decorations were beautiful (and simple) but it was a hassle to get it to the point.  We didn't even see Dorothy on the day of the wedding - she sent her assistant instead.

Food and Catering - Argyles:  They did both cake and catering.  Apparently the cake was late and we didn't get an extra tier that we had paid for, but it was still delicious.  We did heavy appetizers instead of a sit down meal and the attendants passing around the food were great!  I think everyone was able to get as much food as they wanted and were quite satisfied.  The food that we acutally had wasn't what we had tried when we sampled it, but everyone seemed to like it.

I know I am forgetting some, so let me know if anyone has any other questions!  It was absolutely perfect - I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do it all over again!!  My husband (so weird saying that) is not one to usually get into this kind of stuff, but he is going through some serious wedding/vacation withdrawal.  We are so sad for it to be over, but had the best week of our lives!!!

Please let me know if I can help anyone else and I will let you know when professional pictures are available... here's a few until then! :) 




Re: Vendor Reviews

  • HStaffordHStafford member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Oops... one more

    Rehearsal Dinner - Aqua S:  Can't say enough great things about this place!!  My FMIL and FFIL surprised us by renting out the entire place for the night!  Everyone who was in town was invited and it was such a fabulous way to kick off the wedding events and get us all ready to have a great time at the wedding!  The food was phenomenal, Lynette (owner) was absolutely great the entire time, the sunset was perfect...everything about it was great!!
  • edited December 2011
    I'm so glad that you had everything you wanted, for the most part, go your way.  We're hoping for similar weather because I'd hate to use our rain backup.  I can't wait to see your pictures!
    image
    06.24.11 OBX, NC
    Planning Bio
    Married Bio
  • sarahebrownsarahebrown member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011

    Congrats Mrs! Sounds like it went wonderfully and thank you so much for sharing the reviews. And your pictures are GORGEOUS! Love your hair- did you do it yourself? Your dress is so pretty with the beading on top and your veil blowing in the breeze is perfection. (I've been going back and forth about whether I should wear a veil, but you helped me decide now!)

    I hope we have great weather too! What time was your ceremony??

    We are having a ceremony musician too, a splurge that is not in our budget, but your review makes me confident it will be very much worth it! :)

    We also met with Bells & Whistles but I never had a good gut feeling about Dorothy doing our flowers, and she also over-quoted us. Glad I listened to my gut on this.I hope she can give you some type of credit or refund maybe.

    I have been looking for a good rehearsal dinner locale so thanks for your review of Aqua S too!

    I hope you're enjoying married bliss and I would love to see more pics when you get them. Congrats again!

    Trying to Conceive Ticker
  • hibiscus118hibiscus118 member
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Comments Combo Breaker
    edited December 2011
    Congrats!  Sounds like just about everything was perfect.  Pictures are beautiful!
    Laura & Dusty - September 7th, 2010!
    Hatteras, North Carolina
    Image and video hosting by TinyPic
    UPDATED 11/05/10 Lots of Wedding PICS!
    UPDATED 07/28/10 My Planning Bio Anniversary
  • mparwulskimparwulski member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Sounds very nice.  Thanks for the reviews.
  • llilleyllilley member
    100 Comments Second Anniversary
    edited December 2011
    Sounds wonderful!  Congrats!  I was wondering what time you guys had your ceremony?  Also, did you guys have a DJ/dancing at your reception?
  • HStaffordHStafford member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    @Sarah - I had both my hair and makeup done at the Sanderling by Monique.  She was a bit quiet, but once she opened up a bit she was great and did a fabulous job!  
    Also, it was a bit windy that day, so Jay pulled a gametime decision and had Matt (FI) and I switch sides at the altar so my veil wasn't hitting him in the face, but nobody seemed to notice and it looked great in pictures!
    Ceremony was at 530 PM.

    @llilley - Thanks - I knew I forgot one vendor!!  We had Matt Cooper as our DJ and he did a really fantastic job of feeling out what music was working and what wasn't.  There was one point in time when every single person at the wedding was up and dancing and it made us sssooo happy!  From our grandparents to our nieces and nephews, everyone was on the dance floor having a great time.  Matt did great!! 
    Also, our ceremony time was at 530 PM with cocktail hour from 6-7 and reception starting at 7.
  • OBX2011OBX2011 member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 25 Love Its First Answer
    edited December 2011
    Awwww you look so puurrddddyyyy!  I love the veil and like Sarah, wasn't sure if I was going to wear one either, but I think you helped decide this for me now.

    Congratulations again and thanks for sharing the pics and vendor reviews.  I haven't finalized my florist but between you and Sarah, I think I will stay away from Bells & Whistles though :)

    Can't wait to see more pics

     

  • edited December 2011
    Congrats!  So glad everything was perfect! 
  • lindsy310lindsy310 member
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Congratulations!! your pictures are beautiful and it sounds like it was an amazing wedding!! - Thanks for the reviews
  • careyannetcareyannet member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011

    We had our wedding at the Sanderling Inn at May 21, 2011.  We absolutely loved it and had a wonderful day.

    As far as vendor reviews:
    Wedding Planner: The Proper Setting (Nannette Kallestad)- She was wonderful and helped us plan our wedding.  She worked with us for the 12 months leading up to the wedding and also was critical to the actual day/weekend. Highly recommend her.

    Hair: Stacey Sheetz from Hair Desginers- She was amazing!  She did my hair as well as the bridesmaids. I was so happy with the way my hair turned out (an up-do), and my bridesmaids were also very happy. I have been in many weddings as a bridesmaid and have had my hair done many times, and this was by far my favorite style.  I live in NYC and the way my hair looked was comparable to something a top NYC salon would do (and something you would see in US Weekly Magazine).

    Makeup: Liza Yowell- She was also amazing!  She worked with me to do a trial a few days before my wedding and we worked together to get the right look/colors.  She came to our house the day of the wedding and did my makeup as well as some of the bridesmaids.  She was very easy to work with and helped keep a calm atmoshpere in the house on that morning. She applied fake eyelashes too which was a fun addition.  I highly recommend Liza as well. 

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