Hey!

yjakel

Hi Everyone! I'm getting married next September and spend a lot of time on the board for Sept 2010 brides, but I'd love to see who's here on the local board. I live in Walnut Creek and am getting married at the Brazilian Room in Tilden Park. Where is everyone else from and where are you guys getting married? P.S. Happy Friday!

Lindze75

Hi and Congrats!  Unfortunately this board is sooo slow   I was looking forward to having a board more local to my area since most of the brides on the NorCal board are in the Sacramento area - we just need to wake our local brides up!!! I'm getting maried in May 2010 and we're getting married at the Santa Clara University Mission Church.  We also live in Santa Clara.  I just bought my dress and am working on florist, dj, videographer and linen vendors so if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them!  (I'm desparately looking for someone to do ceiling swags for a good price besides elle & co.) Have a great week!

yjakel

Hey Lindze! I guess it's just the two of us in the Bay Area. What a beautiful church to get married at. How exciting!! You're so lucky to live in the south bay where there are a bazillion bridal shops. Are you going to the bridal fair at the Fairmont in SJ on November 15th? There might be some really good ideas for ceiling swags and other vendors.

Lindze75

Yup it is just the two of us! ha!Have you bought your dress yet?  I went to sooo many shops looking for the dress and even with so many shops in the south bay I ended up buying my dress in Pleasanton.  (I went from Capitola to Concord looking for the dress.) I don't think I'm going to make it to the bridal fair at the Fairmont.  Are you?  I went to one there when I first got engaged and it was pretty good.  I recently went to one at another hotel..I can't remember which one now - maybe the double tree??  anyway it was not as good at all!  I have one more place to try for swags.  She said I need to come in though so I have no idea on pricing or anything.  She does chairs/sashes and stuff too so maybe if I get more stuff from her it will be a good deal :-)

mandy0505

Hey Ladies, I posted on this board a couple times while planning my wedding, just married 10-2-09. I know I should be nesting happily but I miss having local people on the boards, there isn't a Bay Area board on the nest. How are you two gals doing?

yjakel

Congratulations on your wedding Mandy!! Where did you get married? Any good advice for us BA gals? I'm so amazed at how much the whole wedding planning has taken over my life and I LOVE it! Even though I'm still a year away, I can't get enough research done. Lindze-this will be the first fair I'm going to, so I have no idea what I'm in for. It should be exciting! The day before my MOH and I are going dress shopping. Did you go to Gesinee's? In your opinion what was the best and worst shops?

Lindze75

Hi Mandy - Congrats on your wedding!  Ditto yjakel - any vendor reviews are always welcome :)Yjakel I did go to Gesinees and I had a great experience there.  I think my consultant's name was Eleanor and she was great.  They have so many dresses, let you look, pull stuff for you too and your area is nice and private. I found my runner up dress there.I also 100% recommend J'aime Bridal in Pleasanton where I found my dress.  Bay Area Bridal in Cupertino and Elegant Lace in San Jose were also really good with great customer service and lots of dresses.  Gabrielle's in Campbell was also really good but they have a higher price point.Rin's Bridal in San Carlos, Nouvelle in Palo Alto, Dana's Bridal in Livermore and Bella Mia Bridal in San Jose were all ok too.  I liked the first two best out of the four.  They are a little smaller with less selection but great customer service.  David's Bridal was ok too - there were only two dresses I liked enough to try on but the consultant was really sweet.  I also went to Blossoms in Valley Fair Mall.  Customer service is non existent since it's kind of a self serve shop but they have nice dresses for much less than other places.  I just worry about how long they will be around.  Group USA in the Great Mall was also kind of self serve.  There was only one dress I liked but they were nice.I wouldn't recommend Trudy's in Campbell or Unique Bride in Burlingame.  Trudy's scoffed at my budget and Unique Bride was just plain rude when I didn't buy.  I also wouldn't recommend the shop I went to in Capitola - cant remember the name - they were over opinionated and a bit pushy.  The daughter is much better than the mom though.I checked and the fair I didn't like was at the Marriot in Santa Clara.  I called Details by Linda about the swag and left a message so hopefully I'll hear back soon.  I also finally set a meeting date with our priest today so I feel good about that.  And we had our Epics last weekend.  I need to really get on the Florist, BM dresses, DJ and videographer next - recommendations welcome

yjakel

Lindze, Thanks for the info on the bridal salons, I was planning on going to Unique Bridal (since they've been sending all of these promotional things to me) but I think I'll stay away. I've heard good things about Gesinee's but have never been, it looks kinda shoddy from the outside so I wasn't so sure. I'll cross my fingers for you on the call back on the swag. Where did you take your e-pics? FI and I were thinking it would be fun to take some on BART since we're both from the east bay. I'm really tempted to get my BM dresses from Aria (ww.araidress.com), except the only store near by is in LA. : ( For flowers and DJ I'm using my friends and family. One of my high school friends has a DJ company and my mom used to arrange flowers. Before I deciced on the DJ I looked into Denon and Doyle. They've been really good on follow up and have excellent reviews.

MustangSally67

Hi Ladies, I'm bay area too but post mostly on the NorCal board since this one is so quiet! I'm getting married in Hayward at the church FI grew up in, and our reception is at the Sunol Valley Golf Course. It was not my ideal location, but it fits much better with our budget and so far the coordinator there has been very nice and helpful. I havn't really gotten much else checked off my list yet, still looking for the dress, and have penciled in my photographer and DJ but not pulled the trigger yet. Anyway, Hi, and I hope this board gets more active!

yjakel

Hey Mustang! I totally agree with you. I spend a lot of time on the 09/10 board and the costs of getting married in the Bay Area are $$$$. The sunol valley golf course is really nice. I've gone there a couple of times with our friends that golf there. I think you've picked a great venue! Good luck with everything else! Who are you thinking of using for photography? I really was torn between the AMAZING $7000 photographers and actually having food at my wedding. I'm working with Julie Cheshire and she's really great, great price, great pictures and wonderful personality.

Lindze75

Mustang - I was in the same boat as you when picking a reception venue.  My dream venue was the cost of my entire wedding budget.  So I guess you could say we settled but I am really happy with the choice - it's a good runner up   And it was important to me that my guests wouldn't drive too far between the ceremony and reception.Yjakel - One of my BMs is in a wedding a month after mine and she found her dress at Unique Bridal with the same consultant that was so rude to me.  They do have really pretty dresses.  I went for a sample sale because thier dresses range from $3000-$6000 so I knew it would be out of my budget otherwise.  Once she knew I wasn't going to purchase the gown I liked (it wasn't flattering in the photo my MOH took to send to my mom who couldn't be there) she ignored me and didn't help me out of my dress or even say goodbye.  I know what you mean about Gesinees from the front.  It seems like a lot of stores that have tons of dresses aren't the cutest probably since they need bigger places to house all of the dresses so it's not cute and boutique like.If you come to the south bay I totally recommend Bella Bridesmaid in Los Gatos.  The owner Debra is sooo nice and when she has trunk shows she serves mimosas - yum!  I'm deciding between a Jenny Yoo or Simple Silhouettes BM style there or a Jim Hjelm at J'aime Bridal.I looked at my budget and I'm thinking I'm going to go over!!!  After the florist, videographer and dj the budget will be gone.  That doesn't include chairs/chair covers or cute accessories like my shoes, veil, guestbook, toasting glasses, serving set, ring bearer pillow, unity candle, wedding bands, and swags for the reception.  Aaaaah!  Where does all the money go???  My BP asked me about shower gifts and what I would ideally like so maybe I'll put some of the stuff like serving set and toasting glasses on it.

Lindze75

Oh and I forgot to answer about our E-pics - we took them up in the Sacramento area because my brother in law is a photographer up there and we wanted someplace that looked a little more "rustic" ish.  He's doing our wedding photography also but of course he'll be traveling for that one!  I can't wait to post them!!

yjakel

I can't wait for your E-pics!! Yay! I hear ya on the whole budget being blown out of the water. We're having a really small wedding of 70 people and it seems like we didn't account very well for all the little things. Though I must say that most of our $$ is going to photography and caterer. Oy! I love Jim Hjelm dresses. I don't think you can go wrong with that. I haven't had a chance to look at too many dresses, but I do know I love Jim Hjelm.

mandy0505

Any information you all need, I'm an open book. Just a little about my wedding, I was married at Freedom Hall and Gardens in Santa Clara. They are more like a package deal which fit best for my schedule. I didn't have as much time as a lot of people do (super hectic work schedule). The Freedom Hall uses Elite Entertainment for the DJ which I highly recommend. Also the bakery they use is "A Piece of Cake" in San Jose which was okay not bad but not above and beyond. I purchased my PINK dress from Bay Area Bridal. I was set on having a pink dress and nobody had any in stock to look at. I went everywhere but found Bay Area Bridal to be the best. Jessica was the girl that helped me and she was absolutely fabulous! My photographer was great too so if you need a recommendation I'll get it to you.