We had a lovely wedding in May in San Diego and it was the perfect day for us filled with family and made easy by wonderful vendors. We looked for local, small business owners, and good communication since we were planning the wedding from 1,000 miles away.
Flowers- Sweetpea Floral Company... I have to say this was the best vendor I selected. Michelle met with us a few times to work through a few ideas. I was wishy washy on centerpieces and she helped me through 3 designs till we found something that I liked and fit our budget. She was willing to work with my vases and quotes were reasonable. My bouquet was perfect, the girls bouquets were gorgeous and the flower girl bouquet was the perfect size, and the chapel was decorated exactly how my mom and I wanted. All the flowers were repurposed for the reception and perfectly matched the centerpieces. Can't reccomend her enough. She is worth every penny and she helped me save mine while creating my vision.
Makeup- Lipstick and Lustre- Michelle dealt with the 2 moms, 3 bridesmaids, and me and completed all of our makeup perfectly according to schedule. She was able to convince all of us to try fake eyelashes (which looked wonderful in photos) which is amazing considering 4 of them don't even own makeup beyond lipstick really. I did a couple trials with her to iron out my look and appreciated she suggested the second trial so that I was totally relaxed on my wedding day. We had her onsite at a friends house and I'd reccomend her for sure. The best thing I can say is we all looked and felt gorgeous and she was able to deal with the requests for the least to the most amount of makeup and everyone was happy as we set off (on time!) for the chapel.
Photographer- En Pointe Photography... I am a photo nut so it was hard to give up my camera. Susan and her assistant did a wonderful job and we have a ton of great photos. Susan has a non-traditional viewpoint and I was very impressed with how many pictures are exactly what I would have tried to take (though even better than I could have done). She captured so many great pictures before and my dress picture is one I will be framing I love how she used the light. She has a great eye for light and framing. There are a couple of things I wished I specified more but the couple things that were missed were things H should have asked for when he was working with the 2nd shooter. We were an out of town wedding and were unable to meet in person onsite due to my schedule. The family photos are stunning and our couples photos truly reflect us in our laid back in love moments. All in all there are hundreds of photos I am in love with and they captured my niece and nephews so amazingly. I would hire them again and reccomend Susan in a heartbeat- she has a great aesthetic.
Ceremony site was at my high school chapel (which is not open to the public) so it was sentimental and enjoyable. Officiant was our local parish priest whom I've known for years so it was very personal and special.
Reception site- Oceanview Room (military base). The site is wonderful. There was a bit of stress due to construction being finished the week leading to the wedding. The cocktail hour started off chilly but when they brought out the heaters everyone warmed up (it was a grey May day in San Diego). The kids even saw dolphins off the deck. The food was good, the staff was lovely to us and had everything set out. It took awhile to work out the details in the days leading up to it- I reccomend going into the office to deal with them they are not as email savy as some of my other vendors but they answered questions and were responsive to all questions. All in all the location was perfect, the kids had room to run, the food was good, the set up was mostly correct (minor things of course happen), the staff was helpful and kept things moving. The only thing I wish they did differently was they needed to cut bigger slices of cake ;-)
Cake- Twiggs Bakery- I love these people. They took my vision and made it happen (purple fondant flowers, pleated buttercream, purple ribbon). They worked with us to give us options (even doing a second edited tasting for me to test a flavor) and to save money. We ended up going with 2 flavors- Lemon cake with lemon custurd and fresh rasberries (to die for wonderful) and a strawberries and cream (very good). Everyone loved the cake- it was pretty, reasonable, local, delivered on time and set up correctly, and tasted amazingly. Plus they win the best communication award from thier clear website to the emails and calls. My mom had tons of extra cake and everyone she gave it to asked where it was from. I vow the next time I go back to San Diego I'm ordering a cake just so I can eat more than a small slice. In the days leading up to the wedding I used thier coffee shop as my meeting place for the wedding and it's always a calming happy place for me.
DJ- B'Entertained- Dennis was very professional and set a good vibe for the evening. He worked well with the staff at the site to keep things moving along. He played all the right songs at the right times. He wasn't chatty (by request) and during cocktail hour played live music (we missed it due to photos but I heard it was great from the guests). A couple of moments the equipment was a little fussy (static for a few seconds) but that realistically might have been the extremely damp air of the ocean and it was just a moment or two. We enjoyed working with Dennis and gave him limited guidance and were very happy with his family friendly choices and switching it up to more lively as the evening went on. I was very pleased with him and would reccomend him to anyone who wants a low key professional DJ who makes the couple the center of attention during the appropriate moments and guides the evening along according to schedule without being pushy at all (which was exactly what we asked for).
Oh and Rehearsal Dinner- Adams Avenue Grill. I had only been there for brunch before but dinner was great. The prices we were quoted ran true and we worked out a limited menu selection so we could control timing/price a little more. We had a large party and other than items coming out a little too staggered for one course they did a great job adjusting to some last minute changes (we requested the kids get fed first since they were getting squirly and there were a lot of them). The food was great, the service was friendly and they did whatever they could to make us happy. The cakes we ordered were huge and tasty. Definately a relaxed pace (I finally asked them to just serve the cake and stop trying to plate it pretty since the kids needed to go to bed) so budget time- but it was also great because we never felt rushed and were able to enjoy our family and friends. A great group to work with, everyone mentioned how they loved the food, they were willing to do special dietary requests, and they even made us personalized menus. I'd go back for dinner any day- and love thier brunch too.
All in all we had great vendors and our wedding day had no problems- due to the professionals we hired. Good Luck in your planning- I hope this helps.