Rehearsal dinner: Southend brewery A+
The food was delicious! We did a southern barbque and beer casual lunch (because our rehearsal was early afternoon) The view was great, and I belive it was reasonable (I did not deal with the rehearsal lunch planning at all)
Ceremony: St. Luke's Chappel A+
Barbara the wedding organizer is the sweetest, and very accomodating. She was responsive which was great considering we were looking at St. Michael's because we were attending church there and could not get a response from anyone. The church is beautiful and even though it was still expensive $1250.00 for non-student/non-employees, it was still the cheapest church downtown. They have roughly 3 weddings a day during wedding season, but they keep things running smoothly. That also means no flowers on the aisle, and no candles besides the two candelabras they provide. It really does not need much decoration though. It is gorgous inside on it's own. Also Barbara suggested having the wedding during daylight hours to highlight the gorgous stain glass windows, and she was right!
Reception: Wickliffe House A++
Jeri is the coordinator and was the most helpful person during my planning process! She had the perfect suggestion for everything and really knows what would work best in the house. She worked with my budget (even though my dad kept increasing it to have the perfect day for me, we still were on the small end for a Charleston wedding). The house was so stunning lit up by candelight at night! We had roughly 130 guests and it was perfect. This is another stunningly detailed place that needs little decoration, We did candles and mint julep cups filled with hdrandeas and roses on the tables. There are 3 gorgous fireplaces, A great southern veranda for outside seating and mingeling and a lawn area under oaks that is also great for outside seating and mingling. I have seen tents also put on the lawn. I could not have been happier with this choich for the venue. Everyone loved it so much, plus it was so convenient for our guests to walk across the street from St. Luke's to the coctail hour. Every detail was taken care of and ran so smoothly from set up to clean up. My parents said clean was so fast they could not believe it. Everything was coordinated well with my vendors and ran smoothly for set up.
Catering: Mediterra (The Wickliffe's caterer that you have to use) A++
The food was delicious and pleniful! We did a cocktail hour with specialty drink (Sweet tea vodka coctail were out of this world) We did 3 passed hor dourvs also for the cocktail hour. For dinner we had stations with a meat, shrimp and grits, etc. and Everyone thought it was delicious. The best parts for me as the bride were the fact that I gor to pick a specialty drink for the evening (I choose the sweet tea cocktail) and the staff made sure that if I wanted one I had one all evening (I know I will never be treated like that again in my life
They also sent us home with a so much food, we could not finish it all! They had many options for any budget. The staff was so professional.
Cake: Publix in Mt. Pleasant Queensboro shopping center: A+
The cake was delicious! We made so many changes to the cake I was surprised when it came out just the was I wanted
We did three layers of red velvet, carrot cake, and yellow cake, with an ivory butter cream frosting. They give you three small cakes to take home and taste which is awesome. I brought them to work and had my coworkers eat away and that helped me decide which flavors to choose. They have a book of designs to choose from. I wanted a very elegant simple cake so I choose my favorite and made changes to it and it came out exactly a I had envisioned, by adding ribbon and taking the acrylic risers out. Noone could believe it came from publix. It was roughly $340 for 130 guests.
Flowers: Carolyn Anderson. Palmetto Petals A++
WOW is the best word to describe what she created! She completely created everything I could have dreamed of when I really didn't know. She met with me and I gave her little to go on and she just got it! She completely works with a budget to. She did my friends wedding for $500.00 and it was gorgous too. She went over what I could spend, and when I said that the price needed to be reduced she gave me great suggestions and it still looked just as gorgous as if I would have spent more money. She created to wreaths for the doors of the church and when I came around the corner I literally started crying they looked that amazing. Then they brought me my bouqet and that made me even happier. She gets high recommendations from me! She walked into both venues and knew what would look best. To top it off she is so sweet!
Photography: Ben Williams weddings A+++
He is one of our friends so we already knew how great he was. It was a no brainer. We have only got a sneak peak so far but they were so good. One in particular caught such raw emotion between my husband and I! Everyone has loved them so far! The great thing for me was I am so awkward when I have my picture taken, and Ben just snaps away and really catches great moments, you wonder how he made you look like that
He is very fun too. You will not be dissapointed!
My dress came from Alfred Angelo in Ohio, It was an Alfred Angelo Sapphire and was lace with embroidered lace on top It was absolutely gorgous. It was huge so I took it to Condon's bridal to be altered in West Ashley. This was the most negative experience I had unfortunately. They did alter my dress which I thought was very nice since I did not order my dress from their store. The lady who runs the office is very, very sweet but extremely disorganized. Since they were so kind to me I decided to order my bridesmaids dresses from them, after being ordered in the wrong color and some other glitches they came in very close to the wedding date. Not entirely their fault on that, but it did take quite a bit of time for her to actually place the order. They have a seemstress Nellie, who did a great job on my dress but I only had 1 fitting and she really wanted to be done with my dress. It still was falling down when I tried it on after the alterations so she took it in on the corset only which kept the dress up but it needed taken it at the waist more, and created strange bunching. I was so excited to have my dress on that I took it, but eventually had to take it to the Rose Knot where they fixed it up perfectly. The biggest problem with the altrations were: I was told that they would be finished in Novemeber, I never heard anything so I called the second week in December to see the status, They seemed surprised and like I was rushing them but I really just wanted to see the status. I found out that the seemstress never even had the dress it was still at the shop in the back room. One of my bridesmaids had a similar problem with her bridesmaids alterations that she got done there. They were finished almost a week after they were promised, just days before the wedding. Thankfully it fit her on the first try. The biggest fiasco happened with the 5 sashes i had ordered and paid for. I thought that 2 of my maids were given their sashes when they picked up their dresses, but they hadn't I was given three. So when it was realized on the day of the wedding that we were short 2, we just decided to not wear them. My roommate tried to deal with the situation for me after the wedding and Conon's would not help out at all, they will not even refund the money for the two we never recieved. My roommate, who is not very emotional, cried after the conversation. So I am out a lot of money for a mistake they made (which I definetly should have caught before the wedding day). I at least wish they would have offered me the $120.00 for the sashes never recieved.