I got married on June 30th and it was a perfect day! Here are my reviews of our vendors:
Venue: The Butler MansionThis place was perfect for our 50-guest wedding. They can accomodate 88 people for dining, so we were very comfortable. We had the ceremony outside and the cocktail hour by the fountain. If you are having a small wedding definitely look into this! Here are some pictures:
Ceremony location: altar
Ceremony location: better view
Fountain near cocktail hour
Catering: Three Pillars CateringThis was the required catering. It is owned by UB (the venue is, too).The minimum $ amount you need to spend is $3500, which isn't hard to meet. We customized our menu into a buffet and it was $56 per person. Every package comes with 4 hours of open bar ($3 PP for an extra hour). Kim was our contact and DOC, and while she was a bit hard to reach by e-mail from April -mid June, after the 16th she was very responsive and she did an amazing job at the rehearsal and wedding. She was always within sight and got us anything we needed. We were very happy with her.
Florist: Lipinoga FloristI can't say enough good things about them. We went for our consultation and I had no idea what I wanted for my bouquet. They gave me suggestions and it came out gorgeous! See above pictures and below. For a bridal bouquet, 3 BM bouquets, 11 boutineerers, 7 corsages, a toss bouquet, and 7 centerpieces, it was about $675. We went in many times to change things and they were very accomodating. Everything turned out perfectly!
BM and Bridal bouquets:
Hair and Makeup: SalonagogoI was very happy with Jenny. She was very responsive and professional, and she let us get our hair and makeup done at her house for trial prices. She did an excellent job and all our hair and makeup stayed in place all night! Here are some pictures of mine:
DJ: Moving MusicWe had Dan Dobson for our DJ and he was great. We used the portal to provide info and songs, and he called a couple weeks before to go over everything. He even found some obscure Italian songs we requested! He did forget to announce the guestbook, but most people found it anyways. He played all the songs we wanted and kept the dance floor alive.We'd definitely recommend him.
String Musicians: Presto String QuartetWe went with a string trio (violin, viola, cello). Peter, the owner, was very responsive and professional, and I was very happy with them. I never stopped to listen to them, but my mom said they were beautiful.
Photographer: Elegant ImagingEsther is fairly new to the profession, but she is a wonderful woman and I was happy to help her build her portfolio. You won't get the dramatic photojournalistic pictures, but they're still beautiful. Her rate was $1,000 all day for two photographers, with set packages or you could make your own. We haven't gotten our pro pics back yet, but I'm looking forward to them! She took all the pictures on my must-have list, and they were very efficient with family portraits.
Officiant: Two HeartsWe were very happy with Rev Sue. She has a great personality and she has several ministers who do both religious and non religious ceremonies. She also has little special ceremonies. We did handfasting and a rose exchange with our mothers. She also added in a few fun things at the rehearsal (the guys do a secret handshake with H, the girls pull a tissue out of their dress when they reach H- he didn't know). With the rehearsal and special ceremonies, she was $275. We would definitely recommend her!
Cake: Muscoreil'sAMAZING is about all I have to say. It was delicious, and it was exactly what we wanted. At the consultation we got 4 whole slices of cake to taste. We went with white almond with strawberry mousse filling, marble with white chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate with bavarian cream filling. Here's a picture of our cake; can you believe that, with the exception of the black stripes, it is fondant-free??
Chairs: Bravo 71ILs paid for the chairs and we just saw pictures, but we got lovely chairs (see first two pictures) for very resonable prices. That's about all I know haha.
Chair covers: Touch of El DoradoMy mom took care of this so I don't know much about this, either, but we got very nice chair covers for a good price from here. I don't have any pictures, but they were criss cross covers.
Again, it was a perfect day and it couldn't have gone better. All vendors showed up on time and everything was correct. My advice to new brides is to get as much done as early as possible! This will save you tons of stress.