Vendor Review- Sorry so long!

ellynanddan

Sorry so long and thanks to everyone who gave me such great advice for our wedding! Here are the vendors we used, helpful websites, and my ratings. The Scene: Our wedding was held June 13th. We had a modern black & ivory wedding with black and white polka dots as a continuing theme. In addition we had our own monogram which read 'WED' but also happened to be our initials. Church- Holy Cross Immaculata Catholic Church- C Wow. Both my husband and I have been Catholic all of our lives, but, man we had to go through MANY hoops to establish the church. At the end of the day, it was worth it for the beautiful pictures and the view my guests had of the city. Reception- The Madison- A++ I haven't seen one bad review on them yet. They know what they are doing and are great at it from start to finish. Flowers- Sprouts- A+ Beautiful flowers and they did a great job of working with us in coordinating a few silk arrangements at the church (that we used to save LOTS of money) Invites- Poeme of Hyde Park- A+++ Just wonderful. I truly can not say enough good things. As a person with a degree in art, the owner was great at what she did. As I described above together we hand designed our invites and monogram & stickers used throughout the wedding weekend. Of course we did PAY a bit more for this, but, I truly think the invites set up the course of the event. I used lots of DIY things to save on other areas of printing. (They are great for baby announcements too!) Photo- RocketTree Photography- B Beautiful photos very well edited, taken, and presented. Although we were married in the prime of wedding season, we did get our photos back 4 weeks after our contract stated we would. Still worth it in my opinion, but, it did set back my photo thank you cards. (I hope my guests will still remember coming to our wedding!) Bridal Dress- Bridal and Formal- B Very professional and good to work with, but, I still couldn't get over the traffic in the store every time I went. I felt a bit like a 'wedding cow' being moved about from area to area. But the dress!?-stunning! We also had shoes for the bridesmaids dyed to match here, but, I would avoid that all together. They messed up the order and the shoes didn't turn out very well. Bridesmaid Dresses- Cincinnati Bride- B Again, the dresses were great but they really manage to get you in and out. Favors- Cheryl and Company Cookies Individually wrapped at less than $1 a piece paired with polka dotted ribbon and our monogram sticker-just darling! Cake- Marylins Cakes, Ludlow, KY- A+ Tasted great and VERY affordable. The only downside is that she doesn't do things that are super detailed. I wanted simple and modern, which, she did without hesitation! Wine & Labels- Tino Vino Vinters in Hyde Park- A+++ Love those girls! Double Sided Satin- Banash's Fabrics, Rookwood Helpful Websites: Photo Stamps- www.zazzle.com Welcome Bag stuff- www.orientaltrading.com Bridal Gifts & Waterbottle labels- www.exclusivelyweddings.com Magnet Save the Dates- www.magnetstreet.com Will you be in my wedding party? cards- www.vistaprint.com Thank you cards- www.shutterfly.com Cocktail Napkins, Place Card frames- www.theknot.com Votives- www.cudge.com Labels for everything under the sun- www.myownlabels.com Wedding Planning- Me! I've planned quite a few weddings for my girlfriends, but, this time I was able to do things MY way for once! I did hire a day-of coordinator (which I would ALWAYS recommend), because I couldn't do that for myself. If you are not a planned person, I would recommend hiring someone to help at least partially plan. It makes all the difference in the world. Many of my guests were so impressed with the details and extras I put in and it really makes an impact! Phew! Ok, I'm done. Let me know if I can give you any contact info for the above vendors or if you have any questions!

jroflow

Thanks for posting; reviews are always so helpful! I am having Rocket Tree shoot my wedding in September as well! Very excited :-). Your wedding slideshow pictures (on youtube)  are awesome! I was wondering, who were the shooters for your wedding? I was just wondering because Kerri is supposed to shoot my wedding and I noticed that her name no longer appears on the staff list. Just curious if she is still shooting weddings :-) and wanting to know who did yours because they are gorgeous. Congrats!

jerobe4

I am glad I am not the only one who is getting my photos late. My wedding was June 27th and still no photos. I did however get my Thank You photo a while ago because I requested it. As for the note on Kerri. She was suppose to do mine as well and she actually was fired a long time ago. I would get in contact with Rachel. Rachel contacted me right after it happened and so rachel was suppose to do my wedding and then day of I got Doug because Rachel was in the hospital. It all worked out luckily. Doug did a great job.

ellynanddan

Rachel shot ours and was very professional on the day of. Have you already signed the contract? Or paid in full? If I had to do it over again I would ask...And what happens if you don't hold up to your side of the agreement? I also WOULD NOT pay in full until I get the pictures back. It is odd that she takes all of the money up front and think about it...you wouldn't pay all of your other vendors up front, right? I paid in full and had no recourse. But...glad you liked the pictures!

rschuckman

Who was your day-of wedding planner?

ellynanddan

I actually paid (very little ) one of my good girlfriends. There is a group of us who have all gotten married within the past few years and we've taken turns for each other. I'm actually trying to get into wedding planning, so let me know if I can help!

cdefonso

Rocket Tree Photography did the photos for my wedding in late October, and we did not receive our pictures until 2 months later.  Our proof book came shortly thereafter, and we chose our photos for the albums in early March.  We saw proofs of the album layouts in May, and just received the albums in mid-July.  However, there was a problem with my parents' album, so they sent it back the very next week, and now it will be another few weeks until Rachel can look at the book.  Our photo album was fine.  It's been very frustrating. 

DMNaylor

one of my good friends is going to be my day-of person, too. What do you do to thank her? What kinds of things did she do the day of? Did you put her in the program? Sorry for so many questions!!!

ellynanddan

Hi again! I listed her as a 'Bride's Attendant' in the program. She basically did everything that a Day-Of Coordinator would do. I had a scripted wedding weekend program that she followed. I can email it you ... email me at eventsbyellyn at yahoo. Good luck!