We just got back from our honeymoon, after our 6/12/10 wedding! Everything was beautiful and we had an amazing time.
Our DOC blogged it if anyone is interested,
http://dreamdayproductions.blogspot.com/2010/06/midsummer-nights-dream-june-12-2010.html and I will hopefully also be making a for sale bio this week. We were REALLY lucky with our vendors, as you'll see below!
Day-of Coordinator: Meghan Campbell of Dream Day Productions: A+++++
Meghan was simply amazing. We hired her just over a year ago to be our DOC, and even though I didn't really want a "wedding planner" she told me I could always ask her questions throughout the planning process. I definitely took full advantage of that and she was incredibly helpful, especially with DIY centerpiece advice since she has florist experience. We ended up friending her on facebook and as the date got closer, any time I was posting about being crazed with planning she would write to me and offer to help and be really supportive and encouraging. We ended up hiring her to help DH's mom with the rehearsal dinner since we were holding it at The Pier Aquarium and that put a lot of the work on us, so she and her assistant really took care of everything for us and helped make it a smooth, successful event. The day of the wedding, she showed up early, and did everything from cart things from our hotel to the venue to put our slightly complicated centerpieces together to securing our DIY aisle runner to fixing my bustle when my bridesmaid and mom couldn't figure it out. She kept me relaxed because I knew she was on top of everything and knew my wedding inside and out. And she was sweet and friendly and a joy to work with. She also was a lot cheaper than a lot of the other DOCs we considered, and was worth everything we paid and more! I can't recommend her enough.
Wedding dress boutique: CC's in St Petersburg: A+
I had a wonderful shopping experience here with Natalie as the wedding consultant. She let me pick out as many dresses as I wanted to try on and then she added a few to the mix. The 4th one I tried on was one of her picks. I had told her I wanted a lot of beading or lace and no strapless dresses. She picked a dress with no lace, very little beading, and strapless. I was arguing with her about it until she laced up the corset back...and then I said "ooooo" and wouldn't take it off for an hour and a half...needless to say that was the one, I didn't try on any more dresses, and never regretted it.
She also helped me pick out the perfect tiara and veil. When it turned out the veil I tried on at the shop had been discontinued, and their sample had a small snag in it, they sold me the sample for $20 (I don't know the original price but it had a lot of beading and crystals in it so I'd imagine it was at least over $100) and they fixed the snag for free by adding some more beading, I couldn't even tell where the snag was after they did that. Also the dress was almost half of the budget I had told them, so I was impressed that they really sold the right dress for me when they could have steered me toward a more expensive dress. The alterations, I will say, were expensive - all I needed was hemming and a French bustle put in, and that plus pressing were $350, but they did do a beautiful job and we were very fortunate in that my dad paid for most of the wedding and said not to worry about it, so we just had CC's do it - otherwise, I probably would have gone to Daisy. And they were not very flexible about the times they make available for you to come in for alterations, which made it pretty difficult for me to juggle with work. They did hold on to my dress and veil for me until the day before the wedding so I didn't have to worry about where to store them and keeping them safe from my cats. The bustling and corset were complicated, and I do wish I had asked them to go over that more with my bridesmaid because she definitely had trouble with those on my wedding day and we had to have my DOC help us! Overall the shop is lovely and the whole treatment and ambience you get there really does make it a wonderful experience.
Ceremony/cocktail hour music: Harpist Bonnie Whitehurst: A+++++
Bonnie was recommended to us by our venue, Mirror Lake Lyceum, as she is frequently hired to play harp and/or piano there. She also plays a number of other instruments, including classical guitar and dulcimer. We hired her based on the Lyceum's recommendation and recordings on her website last summer,
http://bonniewhitehurst.com/ but then she told us she is the music director at a UU church. I was raised UU and since moving here in December 2008 had been wanting to find a church, so last fall we went to hear her at her church, and ended up enjoying both her music and the church so much that we are now active members there and have had the joy of getting to know Bonnie as a friend as well. She is an amazing musician and is able to learn songs just by listening to them, as she did with a song I really wanted played as I walked down the aisle, but it is obscure so I was only able to get her a CD with the music and not the sheet music. She did a beautiful job with it. We went for a Shakespearean theme, so she dressed in lovely clothes that reflected the time period and played instruments from that time before the ceremony, and then played the harp for our ceremony and the cocktail hour. Everyone commented to us on how lovely her music and voice were.
Flowers: Delmas the Flower Booth: A
http://www.delmastheflowerbooth.com/ Stephanie was really patient with us, as I made several changes to our flowers throughout the planning process. She absolutely nailed it with our bouquets and bouts, they were EXACTLY what I wanted, absolutely gorgeous, and the flower arrangements she made for the pillars were exquisite, beyond what I'd imagined. Her prices were also fantastic, probably close to half of what we would have paid with some other florists. My only issue is with the flowers we ordered for decorating the cake. I do remember specifically telling her I don't really like roses, and giving her a picture of another wedding cake, that I wanted mine to look like as exactly as possible. There is a picture of my cake on Meghan's blog and while it was lovely, it was very rose-heavy and really didn't look like the picture I gave her (and that really was the only thing throughout the flower planning process that I never wavered on). But because it was really lovely I'm still giving her an A...it just really wasn't what I envisioned. But everything else was so perfect I can't really be upset with her work.
DJ: RJ Vida: A+++++
http://www.advancingentertainment.com/ We originally were supposed to go with another DJ who ended up double-booking himself and we got bumped...which was very stressful and upsetting, but ended up being the best thing that could have happened because this guy is AMAZING!!!
We ended up hiring him to work the ceremony as well because there was one choral song I wanted played, he has amazing quality equipment (he also does sound and lighting for music acts who come to the Tampa area, like the Jonas Brothers - NMS but I'm impressed that he can get gigs like that) and he has a really good and unique setup that he uses for ceremony and receptions at Mirror Lake Lyceum, so while I'd recommend him to anyone, I'd particularly recommend him to anyone using that venue since as far as I know he's the only one who does his equipment that way and it worked REALLY well with the acoustics there. He is young but incredibly experienced and professional. He was really on top of everything we needed for the ceremony - one of our readers is in a wheelchair and he made sure everything was accessible for her, and he was dynamic and fun for the reception. He was on top of everything with timing, he and Meghan really kept everything flowing for everyone, and the dance floor was packed the entire evening, he mixes his own music and it was great! We got so many compliments on the music.
Ceremony and reception venue: Mirror Lake Lyceum: A+++++
DH had to talk me into going to this venue, since I really wasn't crazy about it based on their website. As soon as I walked in, though, we knew that was it, it was perfect for what we wanted. Brian Wilder, the GM, is quite possibly one of the most organized people (besides our DOC) I have ever met. He and his staff helped us to figure out the best floor plan and kept everything running like clockwork all night. It was amazing how fast they flipped the ceremony room into our reception room, everything was seamless. The venue itself is absolutely beautiful, you can tell it's really Brian's baby and he takes incredibly good care of it and their clients. Everyone commented on how beautiful the building was, and we have some beautiful pictures of it from our guests (pro pics pending but I'm sure they'll be gorgeous as well). The Lyceum has their own in-house Bar Service, Lundy's, and they did a great job as well.
Wedding Catering: Amici's: A+++++
Amici's pretty much had us at "hello," lol. Our tasting was such a wonderful experience. We had gone to meet with one caterer that just did a group tasting and then sat down with us for a few minutes after to talk about our specifics, another caterer who wouldn't let us do a tasting until we booked them (we had tasted their food at a bridal expo, but wasn't enough for me to feel comfortable), another that did a group tasting and didn't even take any time to sit down with us while we were there...and then we got to Amici's, we were the only couple booked for that time, they brought us into a lovely decorated room, brought us the items we had requested to try, left us alone to eat and talk with no pressure, and then sat down with us afterwards to discuss our vision. Throughout the whole process they really treated us in such a way that showed us how important it is to them that their clients are completely happy. We told them our theme and colors and the way they decorated the buffet tables was absolutely lovely and totally fitting. And their prices were amazing - we got 4 butler-passed appetizers, a buffet with chicken cordon bleu, filet mignon, a pasta bar with shrimp and sausage and a variety of sauces (they also made sure to accommodate for friends of mine who were vegan and had gluten allergies), salad, rolls, a coffee bar, basic linens (we ended up upgrading for a reasonable price), and our wedding cake for $34.95 pp. They also did plated kids' meals for us for just $12.95 and I don't remember how much vendor meals were, but it was very reasonable. Their wait staff was very attentive and made sure we had everything we needed, and since they had everything ready and plated for DH and I, we were able to sit down and enjoy our food while our guests were served. I have a big Italian family and good food was absolutely a priority, and Amici's definitely made everyone happy!
Cake: A Better Cheesecake A
Our cake with A Better Cheesecake was included with our Amici's package. We were impressed at our tasting and opted to upgrade the filling of one layer, which was really cheap. The cake was lovely (we just had a very simple dot design on it since our florist decorated it, cheaper than sugar flowers and just as pretty), and it tasted great, the only reason why I'm not giving them an A+ is because a few months before the wedding, since we had booked all our vendors SO far an advance (over a year out) I got back in touch with them to check in about the filling, and they had lost our order somehow. We were still able to get everything we wanted, but they did give me a slight heart attack a few months before the wedding!
Hair/makeup: Darla Stafford: A+++++
Darla is incredibly sweet and amazing at what she does. I had my normally telephone-cord curls shoulder-length, and told her I wanted them down in loose curls with extensions, and she made me look and feel like a princess! She works quickly, we were done with time to spare, and everyone loved how she made them look. She also stuck around for touch-ups afterwards and ended up doing the hair for one of my bridesmaids who couldn't afford it as well as one of our flower girls, which was really sweet and generous of her. Her assistant, Julie, did the makeup for everyone except me, and they all looked lovely. They came to our location so we didn't have to run around to get things done. I really am so glad I booked her, I felt so relaxed about how I would look because after my trial, I knew she would do an amazing job!
Reviews pending final products:
Photography: Jason Angelini
I fully expect this will be another A+++++ vendor, we loved our engagement photos, and on the day of the wedding Jason was everywhere! We've gotten three "teaser" photos so far and they came out amazing, so we are really excited to see the rest. He also was really fun to work with - he hung out with us in the bridal suite as we were getting ready, got some really fun shots of our rings on cookies from the homemade cookie buffet, and ended up running around at one point in fairy wings from one of our "flower fairies"! He worked incredibly hard all night long and came up with some really unique ideas for shots, I can't wait to see how they turn out! His wife also does much of the photo editing, and we've gotten to know them both well via facebook and have much respect and love for them!
Videographer: Cara from Hearts Video
We hired Cara based on Jason's recommendation - we wanted a reasonably priced video from someone who does nice work and wouldn't get in our photographer's way. We haven't seen any previews yet, but Cara was all over the place and had some great ideas for shots, so I bet her work will be absolutely lovely. She negotiated with us on pricing, and was so SWEET - I absolutely adored her and felt really good about putting our wedding video in our hands. I will post her and Jason's reviews once we get the products back, but I have absolutely no worries about the quality based on their work ethic!
Wholesale flowers for centerpieces:
http://www.wholeblossoms.com - A+
I decided to go the DIY route for centerpieces to save money. We did silk flower petals I got from another knottie, satin cloths (material cheap from fabric.com and MIL hemmed it), votives from Michael's (get the 40% coupons online or in email), slender cylinder vases my mom found at a dollar store, a whole pile of branches I got from a florist going out of business for $3 and then spray painted silver, sparkly butterflies from Michael's on clearance, marbles from dollar stores to steady the vases, and ranunculas from wholeblossoms. I was a little nervous about ordering flowers online, but read good reviews about this place so decided to go for it. I had to order more flowers than I needed, but we ended up losing a little under 10% of the order due to the condition they arrived in (but we were picky, since we got 200, needed less than 100 for centerpieces, so we were liberal in tossing what didn't look amazing) and the extras we just popped the heads off the day of the wedding and had our DOC scatter them throughout the venue. We ordered them to be delivered the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding, by Thursday they were completely revived and perky, and by Saturday they'd really opened up to their fullest point and were absolutely lovely. Very good experience! Customer service was also excellent, anytime I had questions they answered very quickly. I would definitely order again from them in the future.
Etsy vendors
EmbroiderybyLinda: A
I had her do 4 personalized hankies for our parents. She did a lovely job with 3, but when they arrived, my dad's really looked like something had gone wrong with the embroidery. I contacted her and told her parts were illegible (didn't even send pictures) and she immediately said she would do it over and send out a replacement...I was glad not to have a hassle over it, but it kinda made me wonder if she knew how bad it looked and sent it out anyway in hopes I wouldn't say anything. But the replacement was perfect and everyone loved them, and since I ordered 4, along with decorative boxes, she did make me a deal on the price.
TZTUDIO: A+
These are the earrings my mom got me for my wedding day. They were perfect for my dress and absolutely lovely!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/48853761/elizabeth-romantic-crystal-and-pearlDH will be adding a post later with reviews from the rehearsal dinner (The Pier Aquarium, Orange Blossom Catering), horse and carriage rental for our wedding exit that he surprised me with, and tuxedo rental place. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about my experience with any of our vendors.