California-San Diego

Vendor Reviews! (long...)

Hi ladies!  Sorry this has taken me so very long...we got married on August 1st at The Crossings at Carlsbad.  I didn't post much here before the wedding, but you ladies were so helpful to me during the planning process, I hope this helps some other brides!I also have actually created a married bio (since I have so much more time on my hands post-wedding :) out of our shutterfly wedding photo sharing site, and the link should be working in my siggy!  There are tons of guest-uploaded pictures of the wedding, as well as waaay too many pictures of our Fiji Honeymoon!And in case anyone wants to look, our Pro Wedding Pics can be found at collages.net Login: Rover, Password: 14138.  I hope you all enjoy!Ok, so here goes on my reviews:The Crossings at Carlsbad:  This place is so great, its beautiful and in a great location!  Meredith (the coordinator there) is amazing.  You don't have to use her, but for a $500 fee, she takes care of everything day-of, and will answer any questions you may have in preparation.  She is super responsive by email (a requirement for me) and really knows what she is doing there.  The food was amazing, everyone loved it!  Don't let their everyday golf course food fool you, they have a separate caterer for weddings, and it was outstanding!Everything is in packages there, so you can start with one, and then add/subtract depending on what you would like to do.  In my research, I thought their prices are reasonable.  Also, the cake was included in our package, so I just had to go the baker they suggested.  I also just had to pick out the linens (among lots of other things) with Meredith, no need to contact anyone else!  She also did a candy buffet for me (but no one got a picture of it :()Ok, so all in all, I loved the Crossings, and would give it an: A+Briarmist Cakes:  I didn't get to choose this vendor, as they work with the Crossings and the cake was included in our package.  I went and saw Misty (cake lady) about 7 months ago, and brought her a picture of basically exactly what I wanted.  I thought I had "the cake" in the bag, but I was very much mistaken.  If I had it all over to do again, this is the first thing I would do: make sure cake lady still has picture of cake I want, to make sure we are still on the same page.  I wish I could say my cake was everything I hoped it would be, but it was far from it :(I had an email from her waiting when we returned from our honeymoon, asking me to vote for her for some local thing.  I responded and told her I wouldn't be able to give her a positive review, and I emailed her the picture of what the cake was supposed to look like, and a picture of how it turned out.  She called me right away, and said she felt really bad about it, but then made me feel like it was my fault she didn't have a picture of what I wanted, and then wanted to blame my florist.  In the end, she offered to refund me my "upgrade" cost (I upgraded to fondant), for a total of $175.  I am pleased with this, but nothing will replace the pictures of a cake I hate...and I will never be able to say I thought my wedding cake was beautiful :(  And I'm not proud of it.Just to add, if the ability to communicate via email is a requirement for you like it was for me, you won't have much luck with this vendor.  She doesn't email much.The cake itself tasted amazing, so I can't give this vendor an F, but I want to! :)Rating: D  (for final product)Rating: B  (for willingness to refund me some $$)Maha Calderon Photography:  Maha and her husband Gus are outstanding!  We booked them over a year ago, and were super excited when our engagement pics turned out so good!  Their packages are great, basically a pay by the hour.  And all packages include: Engagement shoot, you own all the photos (after they are uploaded to collages.net for 60 days), an ablum, and then it includes a TTD shoot (haven't done this yet!).  I also did a boudoir shoot for free.  Maha also came to my bridal shower and took pictures there, so we have some amazing pics from that!Maha is ultra responsive by email, usually within the hour.There are only a couple of pictures that were missed on the wedding day, but I can't be upset because the rest are so great!  And I am looking forward to doing our TTD!I would highly recommend Maha to anyone, and she will end up being our family photog forever!Rating: A++Suzan M Florals:  I am sooo super pleased with how my flowers turned out.  I never had any doubt with Sue, though.  Prior to the wedding, I met with only 2 florists.  Sue was my first, and her quote scared the crap out of me.  I then went to Adina, and her quote wasn't much less, but I lacked the same feelings I had with Sue.  Sue works out of her home, but all you need to do is look at her website, or look through her books of pictures, and you know she cannot mess it up!  She has done a ton of weddings all over San Diego, and all are super impressive!The only negative is realted to my cake fiasco...she was supposed to put a ton more flowers on my cake, but didn't. She told me the fondant was too hard to put any flowers in it.  Anyway, a few missing flowers on the cake will never change how I feel about the great job that Sue did!She is also full of a ton of great ideas, and she made me think of things I would never had all on my own!  Oh ya, she is also very responsive to emails!Rating: ABill Calhoun Mobile Music:  Bill was fantastic!  He was recommended by my ILs (they have a new years eve party every year and they use him).  We met with him at the Crossings months ago, and he quoted us an amazing price.  ($750 for 7 hours!)  I do think this is a "friend" price though.  He is super cool, not at all cheesy, and he really knows what he is doing.  He humored me too...I hand picked every song that was played (I wanted "our" music to be played :) and I put everything on CDs for him.  All it took was a phone call a few days before, and we went through everything.  He handled everything like a champ, and made the evening fun for everyone.Rating: A+The Sheraton Carlsbad: We stayed here the night before and the night of.  This is a very nice new resort, and it served its purpose just right.  The only thing I would have changed would to have booked a bigger room for all the girls to get ready in, just so we could have had more space.  (My ILs booked themselves the Presidential Suite for the weekend, so it wasn't available for us :()Rating: AVigilucci's: My ILs hosted the RD at the main restaurant in Encinitas.  We closed down the whole inside restaurant for the early evening, and the food and drink was outstanding!  While my ILs insisted on this pretty extravagent affair (pretty is an understatement), we would have been happy with pizza on the beach.  We are very thankful for this fun party they gave us (especially since they didn't get us a wedding gift :).  Wow, sorry, thats a whole other can of worms!Rating: ATasha Dubreuil:  Tasha did my makeup, and the makeup for all my girls.  She uses airbrush, and she did an amazing job!  I loved it!  I am going to use her again for my TTD shoot, and she will come to me!I was not as happy with my hair (Tasha DID NOT do our hair).  I think I made a mistake a long time ago committing to have a friend of mine (who also owns her own salon and does this kind of thing) do our hair.  I started feeling nervous about it months ago when we couldn't get on the same page about what I wanted.  When I tried to back out, she would assure me everything was ok.  Then I felt bad because she was my friend, and I knew our friendship would be over if I told her I didn't want her to do our hair....anyway.  I was not at all happy with my hair, she only used hair spray AFTER she did my updo (not before to keep the curls).  So my hair was not at all curly, and it started falling out after our golf cart ride.  There was also this ugly "bump" right on top of my head that, to me, sticks out like a soar thumb in all the pictures.  Maybe its just me.  I am not going to bash her here, because she is still my friend.  My girls weren't happy with their hair either, but EVERYONE LOVED THEIR MAKEUP.Tasha does both hair and makeup, so I wish I would have just used her for all of it!  Oh the list of things I would change just keeps growing...:)Rating: AGosh, I think thats it.  I may have left out a few here and there, so let me know if you have any questions! :)Thanks again for all your help, and enjoy the pictures!!

Re: Vendor Reviews! (long...)

  • edited December 2011
    Thanks for the reviews and CONGRATS!!!
  • winoweddingwinowedding member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    Congrats and thanks for the reviews! Do you have contact information for your florist and makeup person?
  • edited December 2011
    Thanks! Sue's phone number is 858.414.7252, and her website is suzanmflorals.com Tasha's phone number is 760.390.0638, website is weddingairbrushmakeup.comGood luck!
  • earollinsearollins member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Yay--great VR! I'm another very happy Crossings bride and I agree--Meredith was so nice to work with. We have kept in touch and she still does the most thoughtful things.  They are offering us a lunch or dinner on them to celebrate our anniversary. We were very happy with the venue--the views are fantastic and it is a lovely room. We did not do Briarmist--we used San Diego Desserts and they were fantastic. I could not believe how big our cake was and it was exactly like the photo I showed them for inspiration so if other brides still have that option, I recommend it. The details you included will be very helpful for other brides. I head Bill Calhoun is fabulous. Congratulations!!
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