Thought I would provide some reviews of our vendors for those in Central PA... I had an amazingly perfect wedding day and all of my vendors contributed to that, so I wanted to give them a little shout out on here.
Venue - Historic Rockford Plantation
http://www.rockfordplantation.org/weddings.htmThis venue was PERFECT for what I wanted to do. It's a historic plantation home and barn in Lancaster County park and makes for a beautiful setting. Off-season saves you a lot on this venue (November-April) but even in-season it would be worth it! We used only the barn for our reception in November (90 people pretty much maxed it out even though the official max is 110) but there is a nice area outside of the barn to accommodate a tent if desired. Ceremony was held on the lawn in front of the house. Great thing about this venue is if you are doing a lot yourself you have access for the whole weekend! You can set up Friday and come back to finish cleaning up on Sunday! Was perfect for us so we just enjoyed our day completely!
Photography - Double H Photography (Howie Hartman)
http://doublehmedia.com/Howie takes AMAZING photos! He is so fun and easy to work with and when left to his own devices will capture amazing and unique photos. I didn't worry at all about whether any photo op would be missed on my wedding day... he truly captures and chronicles all the "moments", funny and heartfelt. He also posts some preview photos super fast, so you can get a glimpse of what's to come... I can't wait to see all of our wedding photos!!! We will have our disc in about a month after our wedding which I also think it super fast compared to others I've heard from.
Catering - Hess's Barbeque Catering
www.hessbbq.comBased in Willow Street, Hess's has award winning barbeque, it's really delicious and we get it often which is why we chose them for our wedding! Don't let Barbeque fool you... we had delicious carved brisket and a fantastic crab stuffed flounder on a beautiful buffet! Ralph was great to work with and took care of all the details! Their service and presentation was wonderful and it was a great value! We got so many compliments on our food!
Flowers - Florals by Heather Ann
http://www.floralsbyheatherann.com/Based in Lititz, Heather is an artist with flowers! My flowers were beautiful and just what I had imagined (but better!) I really just gave her our colors and chose some flowers I liked from her portfolio of work and off she went. She captured beautifully what I wanted and was super great at working with budget! We even had a few bonuses that she came with when she did our set up!
Cake - Lancaster Cupcake (Emily Mitchell)
http://www.lancastercupcake.com/Based in Lancaster, Emily bakes DELICIOUS cupcakes!!! She is super creative and great to work with! She made a custom cupcake tower display based on the vision I had and it looked perfect!! Our flavors were amazing (caramel apple, pumpkin spice, chocolate caramel, chocolate vanilla) and if you are a frosting lover, Emily is your girl! Great value, tasty treats and beautiful presentation!! My only regret is that I didn't order more!! We had 0 leftovers and had more than 1 cupcake per person.... they were popular!!
Officiant - Pamela Brehm
http://www.reverendpamela.com/Pam is super! She is caring and wonderful to work with. She will put together a very personal and perfect ceremony no matter what your preference! Very reasonable cost for her services.
DJ - Shindig DJs (Corban HItz)
http://shindigdjs.com/We hired Corban based on recommendation we received from another vendor. He was by far the most cost efficient DJ that I found and that's really what we were looking for. I didn't want someone who was there to be the "star" of the day (that was my job!!
) and I didn't want someone to be spinning like we were at a club. When I met him, he seemed rather quiet and shy to be a DJ, but I gave him a shot and he did a great job! He really turned it on for our reception and was lively and entertaining, teaching group dances, had some fun reception tricks up his sleeve and really kept everyone dancing and entertained the whole time. He also provided a second set up and the music for our ceremony (same venue as reception).
Dress - The Bridal Emporium
http://www.thebridale.com/In Elzabethtown, small bridal boutique with very personalized service. Not high pressure at all. Mary Anne and Alyssa are great! I purchased my dress more than a year before my wedding (since what I fell in love with was discontinued!!) and they went above and beyond (purchasing the discontinued dress in my size from the designer eventhough I wasn't sure I was ready to make a decision... and not pressuring me at all to have to buy it! Mary Anne just wanted to make sure I didn't lose out on the opportunity to get it if I did decide I wanted it... which I did!) I visited my dress often to try it on throughout the year and they were always great! I purchased my bridesmaids dresses through them also and they were perfect. Alterations by Nancy were great too... eventhough my dress had to be taken in a lot after losing 50 pounds through the year!
Hair - Shear Sensations
http://shearsensations.com/staff.htmlIn Lititz, it's my salon that I always go to, so it just made sense for me. All my bridesmaids had their hair done here also and myself and matron of honor got makeup too. Fay did an AMAZING job on my hair! I loved it and it stayed in all day long through cold and wind and dancing and hugging
. I have A LOT of hair, so it's very hard to corral and it never looks like the pictures that I find, but Fay made it perfect! Loved my makeup too!