Hello! I haven't been around the boards much since last fall - life got busy, etc, etc. However, my wedding was a little over a week ago and I wanted to go ahead and post my vendor reviews for all of you. We had an absolutely perfect day, thanks in part to all of our fantastic vendors. All of them came through with flying colors, so I just wanted to share our experience. If you have questions or would like contact info on any of them, feel free to contact me at dawn.dolobowsky at gmail.
Venue/Catering: Willows Lodge, Woodinville: A+
While this is not the venue for a budget bride, I feel like we got a great value for what we spent on it. Jenn is the director of events and is absolutely fantastic to work with. She's great on e-mail communication, has answers to all your questions, and will be your day-of coordinator during the event. It's an absolutely beautiful setting that gives it an outdoor feel (the ceremony is in an outdoor gazebo, the cocktail hour is held on the patio which is also available through your event) but with an indoor security blanket (in case of rain, the gazebo can be completely tented in and the cocktail hour will be moved indoors, where the reception is held). As part of our package, we had a "ready room" just down the hall from the ballroom for the entire day/night - that was great for having a place for all of the girls to get ready, and it gave me my own private bathroom for the night as well. We also got a suite to stay in overnight at the Lodge which was absolutely wonderful. Not only did we not have to go anywhere that night besides upstairs, the suite was beautiful and we hung out the next morning relaxing in the room until we had to check out.
As far as the food goes? It was absolutely fabulous. Everyone complimented us on it and thoroughly enjoyed it. We went with one of the buffet options, but wound out switching out about half of it for other options (some due to food allergies, some because we discovered at the tasting that we liked other entrees better). Jenn was incredibly flexible about it and let us customize the menu to what we wanted without any problems.
It was a bit spendy, but if you're willing to pay for a beautiful setting and amazing food, then this is the place to go.
Officiant: Annemarie Juhlian: A+
I cannot say enough about how much we loved Annemarie. She was a blast to work with, and I felt like she really "got" my husband and I and, as such, delivered a ceremony that fit our personalities perfectly. She's also a master organizer, and will take care of all of the logistical details of the ceremony and rehearsal for you - you just need to show up. You will have to fill out some pretty lengthy paperwork for her, but it's not horrible and the results are most definitely worth it. Again, she was very flexible and let us add/remove elements of the ceremony to really make it "ours". She also offers pre-marriage coaching, which my husband and I took advantage of. She's not a license counselor or therapist, but she'll work with you to make sure that you've had all of the conversations with each other you need to have before combining your lives and will refer you to a therapist if it's necessary. We took advantage of it just to make sure we'd covered everything, and the added bonus was that she got to know us a bit better before our ceremony.
Wedding Dress: Brides By Demetrios (Michigan): A-
A caveat here: I bought my wedding dress in Michigan, when I was home visiting my family. We walked into Demetrios on a whim after appointments at two other places and they happily showed us around (it was a Wednesday afternoon, so they weren't busy). I wound up finding the dress and we decided to go ahead and buy it. They shipped the dress out to their Bellevue store for me at no extra charge once it came in. My only complaint is that my dress came in about a month later than promised - it wasn't a big deal, since I'd ordered it almost a year in advance, but it was still sort of annoying, especially since there was no communication from them at all until the dress arrived at their Michigan store.
I've heard less-than-stellar things about the customer service at the Bellevue store, but I can't really confirm or deny any of that. When I picked up my dress from them, they made absolutely no effort to schedule appointments for alterations (despite the fact that there was a note in with the dress clearly stating that it still needed to be altered), so I just took the dress and had my alterations done elsewhere. I wasn't willing to take the chance if they weren't going to make an effort to help me.
Bridesmaid/Flower Girl Dresses: House of Brides Online: A+
With all of my wedding party in different parts of the country, ordering the dresses online seemed a far easier task than trying to get measurements and shipping coordinated through a local store. We went with House of Brides because they do have a physical store in Chicago, and they are an authorized vendor of the dress designer we needed (Bill Levkoff). The dresses were incredibly affordable - the pricing beat out any of the stores in the Seattle area - and everything shipped on time or earlier than promised. We had absolutely no problems with the dresses once they arrived and the web site was easy to navigate and order from.
Honorable Mention: Cynderellie's Closet
We never purchased anything from here, but one of my bridesmaids and I went here to try on BM dresses last fall. We came in on a Saturday afternoon without and appointment, and they were happy to let us dig around and try things on. Once their bridal appointments cleared out and they had some time, they were incredibly helpful in suggesting color combinations, etc. I also ordered fabric swatches from them which they didn't charge me for, despite the fact that I was not a paying customer. Their service struck me as top notch, and if my bridal party had been local I would have most definitely ordered my BM dresses through them.
Alterations: Debra Hedeen: A+
Deb works out of her home in Ballard, and one of my BMs and I used her for alterations. She is incredibly easy to work with and very affordable. She was willing to measure my BM for a dress size at no charge and she did some major work on my dress for about half of what I was expecting to pay. Her work is absolutely fantastic and I never had any trouble getting an appointment with her (I was able to go during weekdays - I'm not sure what her schedule is usually like on evenings or weekends).
Hair/Makeup:Salon Maison: A+
Since we had the room at Willows for the whole day, I decided to go with Salon Maison for on-site hair and makeup. The pricing was comparable (if not a bit cheaper) than going to a salon, and since most of my bridal party was from out of town, it made things much easier since we just had to get all the girls to one place. Our consultant was wonderful to work with and asked for feedback at both the trial and the wedding. I don't normally wear a ton of makeup, and she was able to give me a natural look that was a bit "pumped up". As an added bonus, I didn't feel like I had a ton of makeup caked onto my face - in fact, I barely felt like I was wearing any at all.
Florist: Elements in Bloom: A
Tanya Davis was a dream to work with. She works out of her home, and after our initial meeting most of our contact was over e-mail. For the most part, she was great about responding, although occasionally it would take her a few days to get back to me. I went to her with some very vague ideas about what I wanted - some colors, some flower types that I liked, and a few pictures - and she delivered absolutely perfect arrangements. Her pricing was also very reasonable, coming in right at what our floral budget was. In our initial discussion, she also floated several ideas for things we could do in order to bring the cost down if we needed to. I made several changes to the order in between the initial quote and the wedding, and she handled all of it wonderfully.
DJ: PJ Parsons Presents: A+
PJ was amazing. She served as both DJ, MC and coordinator, so I didn't have to worry about a thing all night long. She made sure that my husband and I had everything we needed throughout the evening and also made sure that we had time to sit down and eat. She checked in when she first arrived at Willows, after the reception, and throughout the evening. She was incredibly personable and everyone at the wedding loved her. She was also one of the less expensive DJs that we looked at, which was a bonus. I felt like we got an incredible value for what we paid.
Ceremony Music: Seattle String Quartet: A-
We actually hired the Harp Trio, but they're managed by the same people. It was a little on the pricy side, but it was one of those things that was important enough to me to pay for it. The quality of the music was fantastic, and it was easy to coordinate with Susan to get the music selected for the event. There were a few minor communications hiccups with Elaine, who handles the booking for the ensembles, but nothing that created any serious problems.
Photographer: Rathbone Images: A+
We LOVED our photographers. This is a husband and wife team and we just had a blast working with them. We haven't seen the proofs from our event yet, but between our engagement photos that they did and our friends' wedding that they shot a couple of years ago, we have no doubt that we'll be incredibly pleased. They have a style that my husband and I love and are able to get great shots without getting in the way. (One of the deciding factors in our decision to hire them was that we were at the wedding that they shot for our friends, and I couldn't remember seeing a photographer all night long.) However, when we wanted specific shots, we could easily find them to grab those photos.
They definitely run on the more expensive end of things, but this was one of the things that we were willing to spend on in order to get what we wanted. If they fit in your budget, I highly recommend them.
Cake: Mike's Amazing Cakes: A+
The cake is delicious and you almost can't beat their pricing for a "standard" wedding cake. They also do the crazy sculpted cakes, which we got as a groom's cake since we had all sorts of cake budget left over. Everyone LOVED how the cakes looked and tasted. I sampled several different cakes at the Seattle Wedding Show and these guys were one of the standouts. I was honestly shocked at how affordable their pricing was, given how good their cake was. They also have a ton of flavors available.
My only caveat is this: if you make an appointment for a tasting, you will only be able to try the two flavors of the week, which you'll have no control over. However, they offer cake buffets about once a month where they'll have several (8-10) flavors available for tasting. They're also happy to box up their current weekly flavors for you to take "to-go", if you're able to come pick them up (their located in Redmond, just off 520).
They were also very easy to work with, despite us changing our order two weeks before the wedding (our guest count wound up lower than expected, so we needed a smaller cake).
I would highly recommend any of these vendors. My goal for the day was to be able to just show up and enjoy myself, and all of these people made it possible. Again, feel free to contact me at dawn.dolobowsky at gmail if you have questions or would like more information on any of the above vendors.
Good luck to all of you in your planning!